The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Today we submerged ourselves a little further into the British culture (odd, considering we're in China) by attending a celebration at Sophia's school.
The British International School of Shanghai (BISS) held a party honoring Queen Elizabeth's 60 yrs in reign. It was called the Diamond Jubilee. The school's PTA had been building up this event for months and it really was a fun afternoon.
There were games for the kids, food, bands, a raffle, a silent auction and we even got to sing the national anthem (I did not know it and needed the words they were handing out). :)
We didn't win anything from the raffle or bid on anything for the auction, but we had a fun afternoon!

Here are the ridiculously fancy admission tickets-

Everyone was asked to wear red, white and blue. So, yes, we all matched and that was on purpose. :)

The very first thing Soph wanted to do was get her face painted. She LOVES anything on her head colored! :)

Then it was off to the blow-up climbing thing. As usual, they both loved it!

We could have left Coop in here the whole time and he would have been perfectly happy. :)

It was quite the elaborate thing

Then it was off to the guessing games. Guess how many candies are in the jar (Ben was off by 7 and still lost), how much the banana bread weighs, where the crown jewels are hidden, what the prince bear's name is, etc.

Sophie in the egg-on-a-spoon race. We need to work a bit on it but she had fun with it!

This is Lucas and he is my secret boyfriend. He always has a flirtacious smile for me whenever I see him at church, around the racquet club or anywhere else, really. :) He's from Scotland, however, and will be going back there someday so it would never work out. :)

Sophie won the cake walk and earned herself some cookies! Proud girl. :)

Matt and Sally Stirling helping Ben and I try our first Pimms drink. What is Pimms, you say? See below....

Ok, so this is Pimms. I am told it's a liquor-based drink, kinda like gin, with lemonade in it. Then they add fruit like apples and oranges and cucumber (uh-huh) and mint leaves. Yeah. Well, I've tried it and would much rather have a nice cold beer. :)

Sophie doing the whack-a-mole. The lady drops the mole down the hole and Sophie has to gauge when to whack it. She got 1 1/2 out of 3. :)

The kids got to make crowns of their own to wear around. Sophie's was covered in glitter, obviously. :)

Cooper wasn't interested in any of the games, but did enjoy the holes in the ground...

and running around vocalizing. :)

Ah yes, the British flag.

This is Oliver Sterling, also known as Ollie, and he is such a handsome little man! He's showing off his creation here...

This is Rachel, Sophie's best bud at school. She's from New Zealand and the girls are peas in a pod. They have alot of fun together!

So, my next new British thing was the Ploughman's lunch. I was very confused by it. We were given the option of ham OR cheese. Yes, OR. Ok... So, I got the cheese. This is what came- a plate with a huge hunk of bread, a huge hunk of cheese, some veggies and butter. Ok. You could also get some pickled onions but I opted out of those. :) It was odd to call this a meal- it's so close to a proper sandwich and yet missing that key thing of meat. But if you got the ham you wouldn't have gotten the cheese. So confused!! :) Anyway, it was tasty, even if it was a bit odd. :)

Enjoying our linner (it was, afterall, 430pm so it's not really lunch or dinner at that point)

Waving our British flags along with all other Brits across the world to honor the Queen

In the end, Rachel had correctly guessed the location of the queen's jewels (a bag of sweets)! Great job!

Sophie, Ollie, and Hattie watching the cheeleaders

Sophie playing around with some school friends- Annabelle (who guessed the bear's name- Phillip), Timmy (on the right) and Moritz.

Watch out! Sophie has found herself a stage!

Yeah, she's got it. ;)

Oh wait, here's another one! ;)

Our trusty transportation. :) Yes, we fit both kids, me and the stroller in here. Hey, it gets the job done, ok? ;)

Overall a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The only thing missing were our British friends, the Lawlers, who are currently sun-bathing themselves in Kuta Kenabaloo in Malaysia. (I'm sure I killed the spelling of that city :)
Good thing we were there to represent a bit of America as well. :)