Ahora tengo veinte años!

The sweet cake that Priscilla had made for me!

Last Friday, I turned 20. How exciting that I left my teenage years in such a beautiful and foreign country. 

This entire past weekend was seriously the BEST. It was so beautiful in every way.

When I arrived at School, all of the kids swarmed me in a giant bear hug. We went to Bible, where they sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish and English. They prayed for me.

The last period of the day, I was surprised by NOT having to teach Science (thank goodness)! The kids led me into the cafeteria, where they sang to me AGAIN and presented the beautiful cake above.

Most of the kidlets!

Right when they were done singing, a taxi pulled up to the school, and I watched as my incredible boyfriend stepped out of the passengers side. I excused myself from the cafeteria and tackled him. All of the kids had followed me, and they tackled Kenton right after I was done. We went back, ate cake, I received amazing hand-made cards and a purple t-shirt, and then played with the kids for the next hour before school was dismissed at 12. All of the kids immediately LOVED Kenton. He played football (proper American!) with them, and they wished he would never leave. I, of course, agreed with them wholeheartedly.

I monkeyed around with the ladies, cheering the boys on.

After school was out, Kenton, Krystal and I went into town to purchase food for the next few days. Because it was my birthday, we bought stuff to make another cake (including chocolate frosting! SO HAPPY.), peanut butter (again... SO HAPPY!) bread, jelly, a baguette, popcorn, pasta, sauce, tomatoes, green beans, and these little guava pastries. When we had bought all of the food, we introduced Kenton to even MORE food! We got delicious smoothies from Cosechas, and then bought fresh little pastries at the Panaderia to snack on.

We went to Priscilla's, made popcorn, watched Ocean's 13, baked a cake, laughed more than should be allowed, and had a FANTASTIC afternoon together.

At 6, we went to the church for the last day of their week of prayer. The church family sang me happy birthday, and kissed and hugged me, and welcomed Kenton with open arms. (Kenton is the great-grandson of an Adventist Celebrity here. Everyone is thrilled to talk to him about how much they loved Pastor Arroyo.)

Once that was over, we returned to Priscilla's house and made Grilled PB&J's per my request. It was, truly, delicious. We laughed some more, shared each others company.

The next morning before church, Kenton came over to Priscilla's early so that we could all eat breakfast. We made French Toast with the leftover bread, and ate some of the first mango we've had since coming to Costa Rica (it doesn't grow in MonteVerde!) because Kenton had been so generous as to bring us some.

We went to church, enjoyed a lovely service, and then attempted to walk back to Priscilla's to make Sabbath lunch.

5 seconds in, it started POURING. We were walking down 50 degree declines with enough water to qualify as a water slide. Needless to say, once we actually got to the house, we looked like drowned rats.

I had to literally ring out my skirt.

It sure made for a great laugh, however. Poor Kenton had to wear some of my pajama pants while we dried his only clothes.

After, we made a delicious lunch, and that evening we went to teacher Yolanda's house for dinner. Kenton entertained us all with coin and card tricks.

The next morning before Kenton left, we made pancakes with M&M's because they don't sell chocolate chips. They were delicious.

My birthday weekend was AMAZING and full of joy. I couldn't have asked for anything better.(:

Pura Vida.(: