An event-ful weekend

We were busy this past weekend with two memorable events. Friday evening we attended a 20th anniversary celebration of an amazing organization called Samaritana. They are "committed to sharing and living out the Gospel among Filipino women caught in prostitution" (check them out here). It was a joy to celebrate their work with them and make more connections with various people. We also got to hear our friend Bryan's band play, which was a huge highlight. The boys received a ton of attention, as usual, and even though we left way past bedtime (10pm, home at 11:30!), the boys were great- Cody played with some sweet young girls and Makai just enjoyed mommy cuddles. The only downer was Cody throwing up on the way home.... it happens way too often in this crazy driving! Here's a couple photos from the evening...

Saturday afternoon we headed to a 1st birthday party for Gabby, the son of some good friends of ours who are part of Peace Church. We had a great time. The party was at McDonalds in a big event room with over 100 people! Crazy, I know.... but completely normal here to have such a big bash. They also had a dedication service for Gabby at the beginning of the party and then we were each served a double cheeseburger, spaghetti (a popular snack, very sweet here), fries and a sundae. 

In the middle of the craziness when the McDonalds characters were seriously breaking it down to Gangnam style and everyone was laughing and cheering, I said to Darnell, "this would so not happen at home!" While I very much enjoyed Cody's first birthday party (and others'), I'm not sure if anything compares to a Filipino party... they seriously know how to have fun. The MC, a McDonald's employee, had everyone in stitches.... at home it would have been awkward and people would definitely not be laughing like we were! As the saying goes, "It's more fun in the Philippines!" Here's some photos from the party....

cake! each kid said Happy Birthday in the microphone one at
a time.... Cody was very pumped to do that:) 

the birthday boy and his family posing with the characters

enjoying the dance show.

photo booth time. Makai wasn't really into it.

best friends.

Bryan, Rei, John (birthday boy's dad) and Darnell