A Birthday and a Farewell

Yesterday we said goodbye to our Irish home stay. Her eight week work placement had ended and she was flying home to Ireland. C was quite sad when we dropped her off, and as we drove away C kept telling me that we had to get her back...she had become attached to her big "sister" that filled her purse with pennies.

During her stay, our Irish guest turned 19...so last Monday we had a little birthday party for her. C and I spent the day decorating the house with balloons, streamers and a sign as well as decorating a cake. Hubby lent us a basket full of a different sprinkle containers from his class room and C had to sprinkle the cake with each of them. Most of the sprinkles landed in the centre of the cake so I wasn't too surprised when C requested a piece from the centre of the cake.

C wanted to give a special birthday gift to our Irish guest, so we decided to pick out a couple of Christmas tree ornaments. It was a tough decision for her...one that required us to put all the ornament options on a display tree. I had to steer her away from the fragile glass ornaments that may not have survived the suitecase trip to Ireland, as well as the overly large ones meant for a over sized, extra tall tree. She really liked a white bird ornament with feathers that fanned in a half circle. The ornament was larger than a dinner plate and would have been hard to pack in a suitcase where I knew space was limited. After much deliberation, she finally chose a sparkly snowflake and purple stars.

We enjoyed this hosting experience and could not have asked for a better house guest. She was considerate, kind and gentle and did not mind the antics of an excitable talkative five year old that wanted to be with her all the time. We'll miss you L. God bless you on your future endeavours.