Fiona's birthday

Yesterday, Fiona turned 3! Since we had two parties for her in the US before her birthday, we had been telling her that she'd turn 3 when she went to kindergarten and had a party there. She does have a little cold, and Russ and I mentioned in front of her that maybe she should stay home from school, and she was dismayed. "Then when will I be 3?" Of course we sent her to school. With the requisite baked goods (not baked in my limited kitchen, of course, decorated chocolate covered Oreos, which looked impressive!) and wearing a dress. She bounded in to school and was delighted with the attention she got.

In the afternoon, as part of the birthday gift that keeps on giving, we picked her up in the brand new, bright red Yaris. Good thing we got the car yesterday- it was -15 outside, which is considerably too cold for biking or walking. Fiona was thrilled with the car, but more thrilled with the fact that she is now 3. "I'm really 3? Not 2 anymore!?"

We DROVE to Jena, a big(ger) city about 20 minutes away (just because we could!) and went to some sort of Caribbean restaurant (first one we came to because it was frigid outside!) with a really weird menu. I've seen this type of menu in a few places, mostly "foreign" restaurants. It's a trilingual menu. For example, "Pollo con arroz mit mango salsa, crispy hanchen fingers, schinken mit tortillas." I always feel like the newscaster with the one-word-accent when I'm ordering.