Honduras and Hazel's 2nd Birthday

It's been a whirlwind month full of travel and activities.

We traveled to Nebaj, in the highlands, to visit a partner and two of our workers. It's about a 7 hour drive.

A few days later we traveled 9 hours by bus to Honduras for a week of meetings with our bosses and reps from Nicaragua and Honduras. It was a good week to connect, and the girls always have a blast with the kids of the reps from Nicaragua. We are very sad that this was our last meeting with them before them move back to the States. I don't know what Ellie will do without them in future meetings.
During our trip, the girls had their first sleepover. Michael was "dad of the year," and facilitated the sleepover with 4 girls. They had a blast, and now Ellie wants to have all her friends over for sleepovers.

After Honduras we celebrated Hazel's 2nd birthday with a little party at our house.

The kids decorated sugar cookies. I think it was a first for many of her friends.

There may have been licking involved.

We played "cake walk," unintentionally introducing it to our Guatemalan friends. 

It's practically unheard of to have a birthday part without a piñata. In fact, birthday parties are often just called, "piñatas."
This was Hazel's first time willing to hit the piñata alone, or at all. Normally she has a lot of fear. Actually, when it came around to her turn again, she changed her mind and preferred to watch.

The scramble for the candy!

Hazel's amiga wanted to help her blow out her candles.

My happy birthday girl.

Two days later, a quick 3-day trip to El Salvador to pick up one of our one-year workers who ended her time with us. Then Michael went to Lake Atitlan to pick up our other one-year worker. Let's just say Michael has put a lot of hours behind the wheel over the last month.

A few days later, we went on a team retreat to Livingstone, on the Caribbean Sea, near Belize (next blog will be pictures of our awesome trip). We are happy to be home and back into somewhat of a routine for the next few weeks. Deep breath.