More bracelets!!

(Emilija writing...I wrote this on a Word document Thursday night when we couldn't connect to the internet...we're only getting a chance to post it now.)

We woke up and made ourselves a delicious breakfast of eggs, which filled us up enough to skip oiur usual school lunch. We decided to just eat with the kids at the center.

After a chaotic day with the kids at the center, we decided that we needed a more structured and oragnized afternoon. We had the entire afternoon planned, even with backup activities if needed. We thought it would be smooth sailing from there...guess not.

We decided to go to the center early, to prepare examples of a craft we were going to do with the kids today. Instead of going to the center at one (like we usually do), we got there at about 12. The kids usually arrive at one, which is when all of the activities start. We were only in the center alone for a good 10 minutes, when we heard footsteps pounding up the stairs. What was going on?? In the next few seconds, we saw a bunch of kids happily running at us. We were confused as to why the kids were here so early. After we finally calmed them down, we got the kids to sit down and help us prepare anything we needed for the upcoming hours.

Because there were many new kids today, we introduced them to the art of friendship bracelet making. They worked on those bracelets for about 5 hours!! Some kids didn't even do any other projects today, even though we had other activities lined up for them. Because some got bored of making bracelets, we had the opportunity to start another one of our projects. We showed the kids how to make frames out of colorful popsicle sticks - it turned out to be a success!

Some of our 10th grade friends came, and invited us to join in on one of their Ateitininku meetings. We talked a little about our organization in Chicago, and they discussed their previous and upcoming year. After that, they joined us and helped out with the kids. (Actually, they sat there and made bracelets with them.)

After we finally put the bracelets away and ate, the kids, once again, wanted to go outside and play with us. We went to the basketball court and played dodgeball until it started raining. After the local kids walked us home, we made a delicious "spaghetti" dinner (noodles, sauteed tomatos and onions, and LOTS of garlic.) We're finally starting to get the hang of making nutritious and tasty meals.

We have to go pack now because we're going to the beach tomorrow with some of our relatives. We're really excited, and we hope to get some good weather for the trip!