Night at the Ballet

Molly and I were so excited to go see The Nutcracker ballet.  We went 2 years ago in Quito and have been looking forward to going again since then.  The National Ballet of Ecuador performs a beautiful show of this classic story.

Staying warm while waiting in the long line to get inside the theater. 

Sitting on the front 2 rows with dear friends.

Beautiful older girls - Ayano, Maddy, and Mikala

Beautiful younger girls - Molly and Mia

A wonderful night to share the Christmas spirit of the Cascanueces ballet with friends.  Thank you to Ecuador for making so many of your cultural events free for people to enjoy and appreciate culture. We all loved the music, snow falling, and graceful dancing.   I loved sitting next to Molly and watching her eyes light up throughout the show.  The Nutcracker Ballet - a new tradition for this mom with her daughter.

Our first Nutcracker ballet in December of 2009.

Christmas Chiva

Inca Link went out on a chiva to celebrate Christmas.  A chiva is a dance party on wheels to Old Quito.  For various reasons many of the Inca Link staff did not come.  Sadly, Jordan and I had to miss out on all of the fun because Jordan was sick.  Casey started making calls to fill up the chiva and was successful with all of the Casa Gabriel boys joining in on the fun. 

Michaela also called some of her friends to join in on the fun.

Even little Benjamin was on the Inca Link Christmas Chiva.

Awesome Inca Link kids

Dancing on the Chiva

And dancing off the chiva in Plaza Grande in Old Quito.

El Rey y La Reina de la Chiva (the king and queen of the chiva)

Fun night together to celebrate Christmas with our Inca Link family.  Luke and Molly came home so excited to have spent the evening with all of the Casa Gabriel boys.  Jordan and I were super jealous, but we did have fun snuggled up watching Christmas movies together. 

Ganas goes to the park

Casey and Valentin playing at Metropolitano Park.

A team with Visiting Orphans from the United States came to serve at different orphanages in Quito.  They chose to take the kids from Ganas to a beautiful park that overlooks Quito for a hamburger cookout.

Our wonderful chefs for the afternoon - Gustavo, Mabe and Fabian

Enjoying the swings

The kids had a great time in the water fountain. 

Beautiful Paul overlooking beautiful Quito.  This is one of the sweetest kids who loves Jesus and loves others. 

Great day filled with laughter, good food, and Christmas stockings and a new pair of shoes for each kid.

12th Birthday Party

Luke wanted to invite to his birthday party all of the 6th grade boys in his school - that is 21 boys.  To my great surprise 18 of the 21 had permission slips to ride home with our family.  This would not have been a problem because Casey had lots of fun games planned outside in our neighborhood park.  The problem began at 2:50 - rain and lots of it!  At 3:30 we had a game time decision to make, and we chose to go to Laser Tag in the mall and then to our house to eat hot dogs, chips and salsa, watermelon, and cupcakes. 

Hooray for Laser Tag!  Here is team 1.

and Team 2.

As if the rain had not complicated things enough, we have Pico y Placa on Fridays.  We cannot drive our car in Quito during certain hours on Fridays, so we could not drive home from the mall and had to keep our car there.  The party would not have been a success without the help of our wonderful friends, Rich and Elisa Brown.  They took half of these kids from school to the mall and we took the other half.  While the kids were playing Laser Tag, the Brown's went and got our ministry van to pick up all of the kids from the mall.  What amazing friends we have!

The announcer calling out the scores and handing out the score cards after their game.

and discussing who shot who and how many times...

I wish I had taken a picture of the white Inca Link van rocking with a bunch of 6th grade boys.  This party was C.R.A.Z.Y. but overall a great success.  Luke and his friends had a blast together!

Also, did you notice all of the red and blue shirts?  Luke's birthday party was also the same day as the Quito Celebrations at school and everyone had to wear either a red or blue shirt.

What a fun group of boys!  Luke's 12th birthday party was not what it was supposed to be...but hanging out and laughing with all of your friends is really what matters.  The rain could not stop this party.  And I would like to write one more time - thank you to Rich and Elisa for stopping what you were doing to help us with Plan B; it even involved them walking in the rain to pick up the van.  Again, so thankful for great friends who are like family to us.  Here is a lovely picture of their family.

Once the last boy was picked up from our house, our gate buzzed and it was my friend Mari.  As we went to the front door we could hear beautiful singing.  It was a group of our friends who dropped by to spread a little Christmas cheer to our family.  A sweet and wonderful ending to a crazy and busy day.  Happy Birthday Luke!!

Mission Complete

Jordan loves to collect things - marbles, rocks, seashells, and stickers from Supermaxi.  He always gets excited when Supermaxi, our grocery store here in Quito, does one of their promotional events.  This was the first time he has ever completed a full book.   He traded at school the last Cars 2 stickers he needed and that evening we headed to the mall to get his prize.  We passed through about 40 people outside of Jugueton (toy store) trading stickers and Jordan proudly presented his completed book.  What a night!  He instantly put on his Cars 2 t-shirt and talked all about what he would buy if he won the 500 dollar grand prize from the toy store.  Way to go Jordan!!

Quito Day Celebrations

Mika and Luke were the emcees of the Quito Day Celebrations at their school.  They did great!  Here are a couple of short video clips:

Jordan was not as excited about his part in the Quito Day Celebrations.  He was an escort for Karlita who was dancing the Flamenco.

The 4th grade boys were not too thrilled about all of this, but they did a fantastic job.

The kindergarten classes did not participate in the program, but Molly still wore blue to celebrate her beloved Quito.  Molly is a proud Ecuatoriana and does not like it when I correct her and tell her that she was born in the United States.  She recently brought home a picture of her home country - she had colored mountains and the Ecuador flag.  I guess because we moved to Ecuador when she had just turned 3, Ecuador is the only home she knows.  I am thankful that she loves Ecuador and speaks spanish all the time - she may not look Ecuadorian, but I can promise you she is a beautiful Latina on the inside.    Que viva Quito!

Celebrating Jhoana and Ricardo

On the last day of the month we celebrated the November birthdays at Ganas.

Casey shared a special letter he had written specifically for each cumpleañero.  Then other kids wanted to share.  Here is Jhonatan loving his sister through his kind words of encouragement.

Waiting for birthday cake...

Feliz Cumpleaños Jhoana!  We love you.

Feliz Cumpleaños Ricardo!  We love you.

Showing off her new hoodie.  It was a fun day to celebrate two very special kids.  We look forward to celebrating each child at Ganas this next year.