Today we went to a barbecue with a group of families who were hosting children from Chernobyl.  The children are from Belarus.  There are about 50 children who are being hosted in our area.  The grandparents of one of Olia's baseball team members hosted the team party last weekend.  They invited us to the barbecue and swim party with the host families for the Children of Chernobyl so that Dasha would be able to play with kids who spoke her language. The grandfather is a Mason and his Mason group helps the families who host children.  It costs about $1100 to host each child from Belarus. The children are all in the U.S. to get much needed medical care.  They all look very healthy and were just adorable. Most of the children in Ukraine are extremely thin and the orphans are very small for their ages.  These children resembled American children in their height and weight. They ranged in age from six to about fifteen.  They are not orphans.  They come and spend the summer with host families so that they can receive medical help and have a fun summer going to the zoo, swim clubs, beach, etc.  The translator introduced Dasha and Olia to the kids but Olia played with her team member friends. And Dasha ran over to play with Olia and her friends.  Olia and Dasha had a great time at the party; they swam, they ate(and ate and ate), and they played softball!  It was a very hot day so the kids were in the pool most of the time.

  When we got home, Olia and Dasha filled two packages of water balloons for Olia's birthday party tomorrow!  They spent most of the time squirting each other and throwing the filled balloons at each other!  Earlier in the day, I baked a chocolate castle birthday cake for Olia.  I also made two dozen cupcakes in case the kids were really hungry.  It is supposed to be a hot day tomorrow so the kids will probably be in the pool most of the time.  Kids get really hungry when they swim!  Olia chose a Hannah Montana mylar balloon and a High School Musical mylar balloon at the party store. We blew up a package of our own balloons also to deocrate when we got home.  Olia has quite an event planned.  She told me that she never had a birthday party in Ukraine.  Last year was the first time she had a birthday cake.  She had only been in the U.S. for about six weeks when she turned 10.  This will be her first kid party!  She is having a dance contest, bingo games, water balloons, swimming, and painting.  I made stars from Plaster of Paris.  Olia and Dasha and I painted a few of the stars and spread them around our fish pond and they look quite nice so I think the girls will really enjoy painting them!

     Dasha is quite comfortable in our house!  She and Olia act like sisters; they get along most of the time, but they also squabble over little things.