Mother's Day and Misc.

On Saturday the 12th of May I had another girl's night out. Only this time we went downtown to The Bund. We had a really fun time and I enjoyed getting to know some of these women better.

We started the night out by going to a restaurant called Char. (#1 on trip advisor!! My friend, Liz, is obsessed with trip advisor. :) Anywho, we were early for dinner so we decided to go to their bar and have a drink before dinner. They had the most amazing outdoor patio that overlooked The Bund.

The Bund is an old part of Shanghai that is on the main river that splits Shanghai in 2. Pudong is on the east side of the river, and Puxi (where we live) is on the west side of the river. Puxi is older and many many years ago the British came here and built up this area with amazing buildings that became known as The Bund. They light it up at night and it really is just beautiful. Over on the Pudong side it was just farmland 25 years ago when Ben's grandma visited here. Now it's this huge modern part of the city that has these amazing buildings and they light those up at night as well. It makes for quite a view. Very much like downtown New York, all lit up and bustling.

Liz (UK), Sally (Aus), me, Laura (US), and Edmee (Holland)

After a drink with the amazing view, we headed downstairs to the restaurant. It was crazy expensive and the food was alright. I swear it must be number 1 on trip advisor simply bc of the views. They had glass walls so while you ate you could just look over the city.

After that we went to a place called Bar Rouge and had a few drinks and did some dancing! This place also had a huge patio that overlooked the river and The Bund. It was really fun and be had a really nice night!

Liz and I ready to head home to bed!

The next day was Mother's Day and I was awakened to a homemade card from Soph and breakfast in bed from Ben. He had made french breakfast puffs but had failed to read all the instructions and therefore hadn't added the milk to the recipe before baking. They came out a bit like nuggets but they still tasted quite good. :) "A" for effort...

For lunch a big group of us decided to head to a local Hilton for their Mother's Day brunch. It was absolutely wonderful, mostly bc Ben completely handled all issues so I could just do whatever I wanted. There was delicious food but then there was also this big kid's section. Here, there was the Wii for them to play, a magician, a clown with balloons, a movie playing, coloring, a sundae bar, a man making clay birds and animals, cotton candy, etc etc etc... So while the adults sat and chatted, the kids would go between the activities and us. We were there for over 3 hours grazing and chatting and playing. I'd go play with Soph and then come back and eat and chat. Ben hung out with Coop bc he decided to take a nap in his stroller. :) Such a good boy. :)
It was a very low-key relaxing day hanging out with friends and family. Good stuff.

My only pic of the day- me and Liz...

We've been keeping pretty busy but are also finding time to relax. It's been more rainy the past few weeks so we've had more time to just hang out at home.

We're cruising through our routines- school, work, me volunteering at school, doing Bible study, shopping and cooking (and cleaning some, too), church.

Looking forward to heading home soon for the summer!

All Sports Day

On Friday, May 11, Sophie's school held an All Sports Day for her grade and the one younger than her. Really, it had been an all sports week with differernt grades participating on different days. It was an opportunity for the kids to particiapte in various levels of sport and overall just be active. They did have to cancel one of the days bc the pollution was so bad. *sigh*

Sophia was lukewarm about participating but ended up having a lot of fun. One of the real benefits of being a stay-at-home mom right now is that I get to go to these things. I really have enjoyed helping out in her class, going on trips and getting to see her do sports. It's always been my hope that I'd be able to be involved with her and her school so this has been great. No worrying about switching work days bc things were moved around or organizing someone else to bring her/drop her off bc I can't. So, although I moan about being home and missing work, this part does make up for it!

Anyway, here are some pics of her athletic prowess... :)

Here she is lined up with her class getting instructions on the day's activities...

Lined up with her fellow classmates that are in the same house color. See, it's kinda like Harry Potter where the school has Houses. Here, they are colors- red, blue, yellow, green. Not Grifindor, Slytherin, etc... ;) So, each class will have some kids from each house. The houses gain points by good behavior and then can get prizes and such when they've accumulated enough points. Bad behavior gets points removed. See? Just like Harry Potter... ;) Joseph is to the right, Moritz to the left and then Rachel, her best bud is next to Moritz. 4 seperate countries represented here. :)

In this first event, she had to walk along the beam, jump through 3 hoops, get a large ball off a tee, run with it around a circle, then place it back on a tee balancing it there and run back. She was brilliant until the whole ball balancing thing. That was quite her demise... :)

Going through the hoops...

This was her favorite. Each child stood by their cone and then they handed off water balloons from one child to the next. You had to be careful or they might pop! Whomever had the most balloons in the container when the whistle blew was the winner!

Another popular one- here there was a huge pile of different color balls. Each house could only pick up their color ball and then had to throw it into the hanging umbrella. Once all your balls were in, you had to run to your spot and sit down. First one done was the winner! Sophie is there in the pink hat...

Here you had to stand in one ring, toss the bean bag to the next ring, then jump into that ring, and repeat till the end. Soph got bored after ring 3 and just started tossing and jumping without direction. :)

A great game for a hot day. A bucket of water on one end, an empty one on the other. With a large sponge, bring the water from one bucket to another. Soph sat at her bucket for like an hour trying to get every single iota of water out of it. Meanwhile I'm screaming, Soph, just go back and get more! Soph! Sophia!! :) Crazy competetive mothers...

Here's a pic of part of her school. This building houses pre-nursery (3 yr olds) through 8th grade.

The final event- races! Soph had a stellar start only to be distracted by her sunhat flying off (you can see the ref handing it to another adult on the right). Otherwise she would have smoked 'em... ;)

Sophie's class at the end of the fun. The kids did great and had a lot of fun with it! I think the parents were all more tired from cheering the kids on than the kids were from actually participating!

It was so hot that day that after Coop got home from school and we had some lunch, we headed to the pool for a bit of a swim. Oh, he just loooooooves the water!!

Such a handsome boy. :)

Birthdays in China! (prepare yourself- another long one)

Ok, once again, late as usual, getting behind, etc, etc. I would yet again apologize but, let's be honest, I'm just a bit of a slacker when it comes to blogs that will be long and complicated!!

I guess that's what I get for having my kids birthdays so close together. :)
It's so funny when people ask if I intended for my children's birthdays to be 2 days apart. Of course, I say! When you're a nurse in a hospital setting, having a baby is the only way to get a bunch of time off in the summer. :) God knew I needed that so He blessed us twice in that regard. :)

Anywho, birthdays are a difficult thing when you live in China.
We decided to have one combined party for the kids and just invited our 2 families of friends. Many people throw huge elaborate parties, inviting the entire class and spending thousands of RMBs ($1=6.5 rmb). Fortunately, I am comfortable being the odd man out and just did my own thing.
Also, I can't just go to Target for my party hats, streamers and other supplies. In fact, I never did end up finding streamers anywhere but some ribbon actually substituted alright. :)
I was able to find balloons in the local supermarket just fine. But, that was it. And, for any of you who are on Facebook, I'm sure you remember the picture of some of those balloons. VERY oddly shaped...

For birthday-themed plates, napkins and the like I had to trek out to the flower market (I know, makes perfect sense the stuff would be there, right?). There was one tiny little shop that made my day and had plates, napkins, a tablecloth, a banner and candles, but, no streamers. After looking in about 5 different places, I ended up just getting some wide white ribbon that had multi-colored spots on it and I hung that around. It did the job.

We grilled some hamburgs and hot dogs and just hung out. I did bust out a pretty sweet birthday cake and overall just enjoyed each others company.

One hit of the party was the homemade ranch dip for the veggies- JUST LIKE HOME!! So tasty...

Part of the spread...

Aren't we the party animals? Can't even tell it's our house, right? ;)

The cake. I know, I'm amazing... :) I had no 9x13 but I did have a small rectangle and a smaller square. Bake em up, stack em up, slather some frosting on it, bam! So ghetto.... :) Tasted good, tho.

Isaac, Ben L, Liz and Laura chillin' on the terrace. (Patrick is hiding in the chair)

Coop trying to figure out if he could climb over the railing...

Sophia opening her presents from her friends. Why the cape, you ask? Really, you have to ask???

Coop was not as enthusiastic about present opening (he hated it and could have cared less). However, this music-making truck was a hit from the Winkler's! Isaac liked it, too. :)

Sophia receiving her Rapunzel doll (It's what I always wanted!! Thank you, Mommy, thank you!)
That's right, I can pick 'em. :)

Cake time!

Sophia post-wish and ready to blow out the candles. Mia ready to assist. Aubrey waiting patiently. :)

Success! (after about 5 tries)

Cooper just wanted to eat it already.

A little family pic...

Yes, she thought it was that good...

We were also able to Skype with the families and the Oostings so they could watch the kids open the presents they had sent.

Here Sophie is opening her presents from Nana and Grampy, Auntie Jenn and Uncle Pete. You can see my parents on the computer there. Sophie LOVED her diving rings, sunhat, new shorts and dresses!

Uh oh. Grampy lost the picture and doesn't have his contacts in. This is what we got to see for about 5 minutes while they figured it out. :) It was hilarious!! :)

Cooper opening his new shoes. He also loved his name puzzle, sunhat and China blocks!

On Sophia's birthday, I let her wear her new pink converse shoes (care of Nana- she loves them!) to school instead of her standard black uniform ones.
Here she is on the first day she was 5! (A cute side note- the whole day before she was telling everyone that that day was the last day she would ever be 4. It kinda made me sad!)

I was able to bring in some cupcakes during their snack time that day. I spent a small fortune on these cupcakes and Cooper's cake, but it was the one extravagance I allowed myself for their birthdays. Here is her My Little Pony cupcake-cake. There were vanilla, chocolate and oreo ones.

This is Joanna, Betty, Victoria and Ville. They are from 4 different countries! All were quite excited to see cupcakes and frosting!!

Here is part of Sophia's classroom. In front, from the bottom left going clockwise is Ciana, Timmy, Jumainah and Imogen. 3 other countries represented there. It's been really amazing to see the world come together in her classroom and watch them all play together. The world really is smaller than we think!

Sophie's teacher, Ms. Hafseth, was out with strep throat so the classroom assistant, Ms. Zhang (also their Mandarin teacher) helped me hand out the cupcakes. It's weird how frosting can bring everyone together... :)

Sophie and Ciana having a moment with their cupcakes. :)

That night she wanted to go out to eat for her birthday and get dressed up. We headed out to The Black Sheep (her choice) and then came home and skyped with Ben's parents so they could watch her open the rest of her presents...

The above box contained the below doll. She had picked it out in one of the fake markets several weeks earlier. It's super creepy to me but she loves it. If you squeeze her she sings a super fast and annoying rendition of "I'm a barbie girl, in a barbie world..." SOOO annoying....

Our ayi was very kind and got Soph a present as well. It was this huge teddy bear and Soph really liked it. On the foot of the bear it says "Happy for Lovers". Ummmm, ok.......things that get lost in translation here...  :)

Here's more skyping with Ben's parents.

Soph showing them her new princess stamps for crafting...

Cooper's birthday was, as expected, less of an affair. He doesn't like to open presents, doesn't usually care about the presents... I, however, like to make a thing of it bc I'm happy he's here.
So, on his birthday I brought in a little cake and some goodie bags for the other 4 boys in his class.

His oreo cake with smily face candles...

Cooper was unimpressed with his birthday hat. You have no idea how hard it was to get this pic!!

Coop's school/car buddy, Luca. He's 4 and from Texas! He really liked the little cars Coop gave out.

Didi, the original kiddo here. He was a big fan of the playdough.

Shaveer came about the same time as Coop. He's from India and is 3. Also loved the cars (no one loved the M&Ms- what????)

The boys in one of the playrooms. BingBing is on the left- she's an assistant. Marjolean in the middle- she's doing an internship here from the Netherlands. MyMy is the little boy on the left in the blue. He's the newest addition to their class.

All the boys got to take a turn blowing out the candles. They had been practicing for this for days in class and all did well!

All Didi really wanted to do was cut the cake. He had absolutely no interest in eatting it. Here he is hacking away...

After school I decided to take Coop to do something he would actually enjoy (since the school party was like torture to him). So, we went swimming! He just loves the pool here!! This is just a tiny shallow bit. I'll post more pics of the pool at another time...

That night I made his favorite dinner, banana and blueberry pancakes with scrambled eggs, and he got to open some more presents! Here's his new rocking horse. He loved it for about 5 minutes and really hasn't touched it since... :)

He got in some great "where is your ear?" time with daddy, another favorite...

 The firetruck was another hit for about a minute. He loves big trucks, but apparently not this one. :)

Now, this, by far, is his lasting favorite present. He was so ecstatic to get a bright yellow soccer ball. He LOVES this thing!! He kicks it around, chasing it through the house, laying on it, sitting on it, rolling it on him, etc. He giggles and squeals whenever it's around. Who knew?

Aunt Christy and Uncle Peter sent him a truck and an airplane that have also gone over quite well!

Overall, the birthdays went over quite well. I was nervous about them being happy bc we're not with family and friends from home, but I think they felt the love. :)