Yi, Er, San (1, 2, 3) Birthday Parties for EBean

It hardly seems possible, but three short years ago we welcomed EBean into our family.  It wasn’t my goal to celebrate her birthday three times this year, but it ended up working out that way, which didn’t seem to bother her a bit.

EBean's first party was a joint party with a classmate.  Those December birthdays can be a bit tricky to plan around Christmas programs and other holiday activities, so we held the party a week before her actual birthday.  I had asked a friend if she might agree to hosting a party together since her daughter’s birthday is the week after Elise’s and we would be inviting the same little girls to both parties.  Thankfully she said "yes"!  I'll be honest, throwing a party in China for the first time really worried me.  Where do I buy favors, decorations, and other things to make the day special?  There is no Hobby Lobby or Factory Card Outlet here to do some one-stop shopping.  It was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when I knew I wouldn't be hosting alone.  The two birthday girls and moms spent one morning decorating my friend’s house for the girly-ballerina party and making cupcakes.  

So happy to be making cupcakes!

I love how EBean's friend is "helping" by holding her wrist.

On party day we had someone come and do hair and nails for the girls before they put on their new fairy wings and took a few ballet “lessons”.  All the girls enjoyed twirling and prancing around to some music.  The girls made their own personal pizzas and while they were baking, I read an Angelina Ballerina book.  We also played “Pin the Tutu on the Ballerina.”  Jamie used his superior crafting skills to construct all of the pieces for me.

She wouldn't let the woman from the salon
do her nails, but she would let me paint them.

Pin the tutu on the ballerina.  Thanks
to Jamie for making the game!

Doing our ballerina stretches.

The two remaining readers for Angelina Ballerina.

We sang “Happy Birthday” to each birthday girl and devoured cupcakes for dessert.  It was a very fun day.

Eating the homemade pizzas.

Getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday"

I couldn’t let the actual day of EBean’s birth go by without a small celebration, so I had everything planned and ready to go the night before.  We were going to have cake for breakfast (who doesn’t love that?) and open presents before LBean left for school since Jamie was going to be gone that night for a work dinner.  The table was set, pretty napkins were out, cupcakes were ready to be eaten, but I didn’t plan for the fact that EBean would be sick when she woke up.  Poor thing!  She felt a little ambushed and didn’t quite know what was going on.

I'm hiding because I don't feel good and I don't know what's going on. 

Oh, presents?  Okay, I'm happy now. :)

Lookie, a Barbie!

EBean’s third and final birthday party was back in the States with family.  My oldest niece Alison was in charge and ordered pizzas, had a banner made, and designed a Pooh birthday cake (per EBean’s request).  If was fun celebrating with friends and family and EBean truly celebrated all month long!

Cousin Alison did a great job planning EBean's third party.

That's a happy three-year-old sporting a fine
outfit of leopard-jammies & a zebra-striped skirt.

What's That? Wednesday: Our Apartment

It dawned on me over Christmas that I haven't posted any pictures of our apartment yet.  I kept telling myself that I would take pictures after all the pictures had been hung and everything looked "Martha Stewart" ready.  Since that still hasn't occurred and probably won't, I'll just show you how it is.

We live on the 27th floor of our apartment building and each floor has two apartments, but they are accessed from separate elevators.  The apartment is about 280 square meters, which is about 3,000 square feet.  I really like the location of our apartment.  The wet market, a bread store, EBean's preschool, one of the international foods stores, the hair salon and a spa are all within a 15 minute walk.

One of two entrances to our apartment compound, complete
with guards that salute the cars that drive in.

LBean pushing the button to open the glass
to get to the elevator. 

Floor 27 please!

One side of the living room.  Our front door is on the right
and behind the wood-panelled archway is storage.
The Christmas tree and about 12 storage tubs fit back there!

Our living room light.  Even though it's a bit "blingy"
for me, I'm starting to like it.

The other half of the living room. 

Everything behind the curtains is glass that looks out
to Jijihu Lake.

Looking from the living room into our dining room.
I like the archway!

The archway and glass doors that open to our kitchen.
The bread machine is still in the box on the floor awaiting
me to decipher the Chinese operating manual.

One side of the kitchen.

The other side of our kitchen with our very small oven.
The Chinese don't bake much and I'm still trying to master
a convection oven.

Even though our oven is small, we do have a
full-size refrigerator.  You can see our water
dispenser peeking out from the left side.

The laundry room with our washer,
dryer (with up to 200 minutes of drying time,
not very efficient) and our mini dishwasher.

Our storage room with a few jars of Jif peanut
butter and other comforts of home.

Looking into the girls room.  It's a dark
picture, but it shows you the view from the window.

Same view with the curtains closed.

The girls' bathroom.

Looking out towards the hallway with a peek
of the guest bathroom and playroom.

The girls' bunk beds.  We let them put up the wall stickers, can you tell?

One of the wardrobes in the girls' room and
another view of the buildings outside.

Guest bathroom.

Another view of the guest bathroom.

The spare bedroom has been turned into
our playroom.  The couch is a fold-out and is
ready for visitors at any time!

Toys, toys and toys! 

Our office:  I love the archway, our double
doors, and the view out our window.

The other side of the office with
Jamie's Caterpillar Lego sets, our crazy
German board games and few crafts for me.

The last two unpacked boxes.  Pictures and artwork that
still need to be put up.  Maybe by the end of our first year here
I can get them unpacked!

The master bath and yes that's a
bidet...it remains unused.  Although,
LBean thought we could use it as a foot bath
like we see at all of the stores around here.

The large bathtub that pretty much remains
unused by me.  The girls take over the tub
almost every night.

The shower and my towel on the left
is hanging on the wall heater because
the bathrooms can be a bit chilly.  Please
disregard the Laura Ingalls bathrobe hanging
next to the shower.  That shall remain our little secret.

Looking down the hallway into the master suite.
My niece's artwork is hanging on the right.
Jamie's closet is to the left of the dresser.

Looking towards my closet and the master
bath.

Jamie's closet...I'd like to point out that it is much
larger than mine.  If Jamie were not traveling, I'm
sure that he would like for me to point out that just
before he left he moved some of his clothes so that
I could have just a bit more room. 

Looking into the master bedroom.

Can you see a few bright lights of the buildings outside our window?

This little control panel is in a six of our rooms and controls
the lights to the living room, kitchen, guest bath and all 3 bedrooms.
It's handy for a few reasons.  When I walk in the front door I'm
able to turn on the lights in most of the apartment and if the girls
need a light on in another room I can push a button in the room that
I am in and not walk down to where they are.  But, it's also a bit
confusing and can lead to some unnecessary "disco" lights if someone
starts pushing buttons.

Okay, now that I've showed you my house, it's time for you to post pictures of your house on the internet.  Ready, set, go!

Thanksgiving: Chinese Style

We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving in our own special "Chinese" way.  As you might guess, Thanksgiving is not a recognized Chinese holiday, so Jamie had to work and LBean had school.  But, in some ways that was okay with me.  It felt like a normal, routine day for our family and I wasn't so homesick for family (plus it helped knowing that we would be flying back to the US in 3 weeks).

LBean's school had a food drive, so we were able to make connections between what LBean was doing at school and the American Thanksgiving holiday.  Also as a family, we created a "thankful" tree that we hung on our wall and added new "leaves" after dinner for things that we were thankful for.  And thanks to some really thoughtful friends, we had plenty of Thanksgiving crafts to keep us busy during the weeks leading up to the holiday.

My girls LOVE to craft!

Although Thanksgiving is not a Chinese holiday, the local restaurants and hotels know who their target audience is and there were many options for Thanksgiving dinner.  Thanksgiving night we got together with several expat families from Jamie's company at a local German restaurant for a traditional meal of turkey, cranberry salad (mmm, I had seconds) and even green bean casserole (although it was obvious that the green beans were fresh and not from a can, which meant a slightly different texture).  I have to say that it was the first time we've ever been within walking distance of where our Thanksgiving meal was going to be.  One of the wives brought Jumer's rolls and I brought our family's traditional sugar cookies...in the shape of turkeys of course.  Before we moved, I purchased a Tupperware container for all our cutters just like my Aunt Dorothy's (our family's official sugar cookie baker) because I knew it was my responsibility to bring the tradition to China.

Mark had the official duty of carving the turkey, which was so good!

EBean with Cathy, whom I affectionately call "China Grandma".
Cathy really isn't old enough to be a grandma, but in the summer when I
was telling the girls about how they were going to like Cathy and she was
going "love on them",  LBean said "like a grandma?"  LBean got it right,
Cathy loves on them like a grandma and has mothered me a
when I needed it!

Those bright orange turkey sugar cookies!

We ended the night lighting a few Chinese lanterns, watching some fireworks and enjoying the laser-light show at RainboWalk.  It was a nice evening and it was really fun to get together with other company families.  Although the employees see each other at work, the spouses run errands together, and the kids go to the same schools, it's rare to have an opportunity for whole families to get together.

Lighting the lantern

...and up it goes.  There's actually a bit of a trick to it.
You have to hold it just long enough to allow a sufficient
amount of warm air to build up and carry the lantern away.

EBean and I were in for a treat on Friday morning.  We were able to Skype with Jamie's family who were all together at Jamie's sister's house ending their Thanksgiving dinner (it was Thursday evening there).  We literally could have made a Skype commercial...it was so cute.  The computer got passed around Jamie's family (who were all sitting around the kitchen table) and EBean and I were able to spend close to an hour talking to everyone.

Our family has so many things to be thankful for and our time in China is one of them.

Papa Joe's Visit

Looking at the fish in the pond by our apartment.

Papa Joe was able to come for a quick visit in October before flying back to the US.  Because he'd been in Asia for around two-and-a-half weeks, we tried to have lots of things that reminded him of home.  We had chili with cornbread, pork chops, cheesecake, grapefruit, but I was unsuccessful in finding diet caffeine-free Mt. Dew.

Sorry LBean, this is the best photo
you & Papa Joe!

Papa Joe & EBean

After we picked up Papa Joe from the airport we went back to the Shanghai Fabric Market to pick up the girls Halloween costumes.  On Sunday we took Papa Joe and a co-worker of Jamie's from the States to Walking Street.

Unfortunately the end of Papa Joe's visit over-lapped with the start of the stomach flu being passed around  our family.  EBean and I did manage to take Papa Joe back the airport and we can't wait for him to come back soon!