September birthdays, part 1

Asya's birthday was yesterday, but I'll write about Jaan's first. His special day came at the end of our dacha week. The days leading up to it had been rainy, but the sun came out for his birthday. First there was a...

...special breakfast.

The beginning of the treasure hunt

After breakfast I started them on a treasure hunt. They had to do eight tasks to get to Jaan's present.

One of the tasks

"Climb as high as you can." (See Jaan?)

A treasure hidden in the dark, scary chicken house

Spectators

"Fishing in the swamp"

He finally found his present hanging from a string in "the swamp." (It's really not swampy; tall, pretty grass just grows there, so they call it the swamp.) Jaan had been saying for ages that he wanted a flashlight for his birthday. Then, he happened to see a real Maglight in a store in Zaporozhye, and he kept talking about it. He thought it was an impossible dream, but Papa made a special, secret trip the day before Jaan's birthday.

A birthday s'more, instead of cake

The next day he also took a cake to Sunday school and celebrated there, but I don't have any photos of that. And now he's EIGHT!