Day 105-Joslyn's birthday sleepover, part 2

   April 18-According to the old Norse calendar, today is the last day of spring.  Since tomorrow, the first day of summer, is a national holiday, school will not be in session.  So, Shan taught English at Hraunborg today.  Also, since the girls will not have school tomorrow, we were able to have two more of Joslyn's friends over tonight for a second birthday party.  Both girls are in Scouts and had to attend a meeting in Borgarnes after school, but they headed straight over to our apartment once they were free.  We had also invited their parents, but only Águsta's parents, Gaui and Magga, could make it.  They all arrived at our apartment around 7 pm and serenaded Joslyn with a rousing rendition of
"happy birthday" in Icelandic.

   Since chili dogs had been such a hit the night before, we decided to try them again.  Our guests were surprised by the combination but found it to their liking.  Sally had run to Borgarnes earlier in the day and bought one of the fantastic cakes from Geira Bakarí for dessert.  Joslyn opened her presents and the kids played for a spell, while the adults sat around and had coffee and talked.  Gaui and Magga originally came to Bifröst so Magga could study law, but now she is at the point where she could do her studies anywhere.  However, Gaui now has a steady job as the maintenance man on campus, they live in one of the houses on campus, and they like it here, so they have no intention to leave soon.  It was great to finally have them over, because they have always been very nice to us.  We had a great time just sitting and talking to them.

Jóhanna, Alex, Shan, Joslyn, Spencer, Gaui, Águsta,
and Magga celebrate Joslyn's tenth birthday.

   After a while, we pulled out some of the party favors that various family members have sent us from the States.  We
"snapped" the glow sticks to activate them and people turned them into necklaces, bracelets, and mock earrings.  We inflated
some self-inflating balloons by
"smacking" them on the table.  Finally, we pulled out confetti eggs, which we took outside and broke on the ground and on each other.  The Icelanders had never seen any of  these and thought that they were quite fun to play with.  By this time, it was after 10 pm, so Gaui and Magga took Águsta home with them, but Jóhanna spent the night here with us.