Carey's Sixth Birthday

On the 23rd of January, Carey became six years old. She was very excited about her birthday. It has been amazing to see how fast she has grown. Our family had a small part on the Friday before her birthday. It was great to eat food and fellowship with our neighbors and co-labourers the Aaron family. Carey loved her cake! Patty baked a Strawberry Short-Cake cake. Though it was covered in red frosting, and shaped like a strawberry, the cake was Chocolate and Mint. (This is Carey's favorite flavour for cake). So this played a little trick on the mind, but the cake was great!

On Tuesday after Carey's birthday, she made a trip with me to the capital. This was her first 'date' with dad to such a far away location. Andrew's family was newly percussed a vehicle, so their whole family made trip and Carey and I where allowed to accompany them, since there is paperwork to be done in the capital.

The car was loaded and ready to go at 3:00am in the morning. Carey was half awake but really enjoyed the trip. After setting out at 4:00, the tripped ended at about 9:00 in the morning. Arriving early, I was able to finish all the government paperwork that needed to be done, and Andrew and his family where on time for their doctor appointment that they had scheduled.

After about 2 hours of great patience, and sitting quietly in about three government offices, Carey got to enjoy herself. The next place that we visited was Max-mart. It is one of the large grocery store slash department stores in the capital. They even have carts that have cars on the front of them. Carey loves these! So off the two of us went, looking for a few raw food items that are not available in Kumasi.

After about 30 minutes of Carey honking the little horn around the store, and buying our things, the next stop was the Accra Mall. The hardest thing about going to the Accra Mall, is that Carey wants to buy everything for Ella and Mommy. But it was a great time together. (They even had British pickles for a low price. The British must like strong tasting pickles, but Patty said they are great. Pickles are a rare delicious here!).

After shopping, Carey received the best surprise last. In the food court of the mall, a Ghanaian lady has start a new business. It is a giant play land. It has trampolines, slides, jumping castles, merry-go-rounds, swings, and even a car that moves around a track. After our friends arrived from their doctor's appointment, all the kids played together.

After two small medium pizza, and an hour of playing, everyone packed their shopping bags in the car, and everyone had back to Kumasi. (Here are a few pictures from the birthday and trip).

The Birthday Girl!
The Cake

The adults playing gmae while the kids play

Daddy get killed in chess!
Carey on the merry-go-round
Carey loves to slide

The electric race car on tracks

Carey at six year old:

What is Carey like at six years old? The first thing that comes to mind is a local saying; "Panin asem", which means someone that likes to do adult things when they are young. This is Carey in many ways, but she is still a kid in many other ways.

Carey loves to tell stories. The longer the better, thanks Aunt Betsy, not sure how your genes got in there. Carey loves to draw different pictures. She loves princess, stories, reading books until she falls asleep. She likes to dance and twirl, pick out her own clothes, and telling her sister what to do. She is a first child through and trough. She is a perfectionist and also very analytical in thinking. She will think about things until she understands them, and wants to understand something very well before she tries most new things.

Carey likes to laugh, sing, play house and mimic mommy. She is very good in math, and is coming to like reading. She likes to write her own books. She is always asking her mom, to write out the little stories that she tells her, and puts them together in stapled books. Carey has her father's strange ability to remember useless facts and other strange bits of information. She also loves Ranch dressing, green pepper (raw) and pickles.

Carey does not like: people follower here around all the time, this happens at times with Ella and new kids at church. She does not like to be left out of any conversation or activity. She does not like all her things to be a mess, unless of course this was her idea, and then she loves chaos!

Overall she is a tall, bubbly, blond, active, girl, with a capital G. Patty and I love here, and are exciting to see what the future holds.