The next several hours were a blast! Prudence had brought her scrapbook suitcase with her.  The girls looked at what Prudence had worked on so far in their individual scrapbooks.

“You haven’t gotten too far,” said Bea.

“No, the website keeps me pretty busy,” replied Prudence.

“Maybe if we help you, the job won’t be so big,” said Purity.  They sat on the bed looking at old photos and remembering the good times when they were young.

“This picture of Bea was when she was about two or three,” said Prudy.  “We had all just come back from Purity’s Christmas concert at school.

“Oh, and this is when I was with you in Santa Monica,” said Purity.

“Yes, I remember that day too!  It was your first time seeing the ocean,” said Prudy.

After a few hours, the gals came down to eat lunch with the astronauts.  Before they went into eat they met Tracy Caldwell, a female NASA astronaut who had been in space many times before.

They also met a Russian cosmonaut named Oleg and a Japanese astronaut named Soichi (pronounced Soy shee).

Then they all walked into the dining room together.  It was clear, very quickly, that all the astronauts were in on celebrating Bea’s birthday.  They were all certainly excited to enjoy the colorful treats that Prudence and Commander Hadfield had provided.

“Let’s dig in!” said Oleg

But before we do, we should sing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl,” said a familliar voice. It was the girls’ grandmother. She hugged and kissed the tall, beautiful girls.  The astronauts insisted that they were not very good singers so Prudy and Grandma began the song…

“What are we going to do after this,” asked Bea.

“We have art easels set up in the next room and we are going to get an art lesson off of YouTube and make something special.

“You mean, you can access YouTube up here?” asked Purity.

“I’d be lost without YouTube, said Soichi.  My kids upload videos so I can hear about their day when I’m away for long periods of time.

“I guess we all struggle with missing people we love, said Grandma.   She grabbed the girls’ hands and squeezed.

After a dinner that included chicken nuggets, and french fries with Ranch dressing, the group made their way to the room where all the easels were set up.

Purity dove right in and started painting a peace symbol on her canvas.  She did not want to use the computer to help her paint a picture.  When her picture was finished, everyone admired her simple but powerful design:

Bea, Grandma and the astronauts used YouTube to paint an owl picture.

Oleg sat back once he was finished.  “This has been fun,” he said.  “But I REALLY want to beat you ladies in a paintball war on the Sport’s Deck!”

All the girls were dumb struck.  Was there REALLY a paintball area set up on the Sports deck for Bea’s birthday?  AND… was this Russian seriously challenging them to a paint ball war?

“Let’s go get suited up!” said Prudy.

“Woo- Whooo!” shouted both girls!

Less than a half hour later, the paintball war had begun –