Ella turns 5!

We had a great birthday week for Ella. On Wednesday (her actual birthday) we took cupcakes to school and had a family dinner of "pea pie" and a molten chocolate cake creation. Then on Saturday we went with one of Ella's friends and one of Ava's friends to the Shanghai Barbie Flagship store. It is 6 stories with a spa, boutique, Barbie design center, runway, and restaurant. The girls got to go thru and find out about fashion design. Then use the computer to create their own Barbie. Afterwards, we went to the restaurant and had an ice cream and pink lemonade while we waited for the Barbies to be put together. Finally, we had all the parents and kids back to the house for hamburgers, potato salad and more birthday cake. Ella finally fell asleep on the couch and I think she was quite satisfied with her birthday. Now I may need a vacation just to recover.

Easter In Shanghai

Well, Easter was a little different this year. Good and bad. We did not attend church all though we did talk about the meaning of Easter. We pulled together enough overly priced items from various stores to decorate cookies and a neighbors husband was coming back from the US (Bedford, TX none the less) and brought us some Easter grass and plastic eggs. So I think the girls were pretty pleased with the Easter bunny's visit. He also brought me a Southern Living magazine!! Oh was I in heaven. We went to an egg hunt at the German Center and they hid colored hard boiled eggs. So, we really just enjoyed them for the moment and then quietly got rid of them so as not to have a salmonella outbreak. Finally we ended up at a little restaurant with a group of friends and ate dinner while the kids played some more. If fun is measured by how dirty you can get then I believe the girls came home having had as much fun as they possibly could. I will enjoy spending time in the US where they might be able to play and stay relatively clean. Anyway, hope your Easter's where good.