Bye, bye, ponytail!

October has come and it is now Breast Cancer Awareness month. During the summer one of my close friends here was diagnosed with breast cancer in the US while having her first mammogram. She stayed back in the US for treatment and just returned to Shanghai in October.

 

We wanted to do something nice for her when she came back, so we left a basket of goodies and a welcome home sign for her. There is an event called, More than Aware, which is a fundraiser for breast cancer with the proceeds going to Shanghai Cancer Recovery Club. Anyways, we bought a table worth of tickets (10) and one for our friend to all go together to the event in support of her. I then took it a step further and now am working with the event in their fundraising efforts and getting donations in honor of my friend to give to the event.

 

One of events for the month was a 'Pledge your Ponytail' in which you had to cut off at least 6 inches of hair to be donated for wigs.

 

I saw that 2 of my friends had signed up for it so I asked Rilynn if she would be interested. I explained it to her in simple terms: how people get sick, that the medicine they take in order to get better may make their hair fall out, and what some people can do to help is to donate their long hair to be made into wigs for them. I told her it was her decision and her hair and she could think about it.

Within a minute she came out and said yes, she would like to donate her pony. She then explained to me that there are kids who probably get teased for not having any hair and she would like to help them!

 

So today was the big day of the cut. She was very excited! It was a lot bigger event that I thought. They had all 15 ladies donating up on the stage for the first cut and then brought back to the salon for the finishing style. Then they came back to the stage and were presented with gifts and a certificate of participation.

 

Before

 

Her new do!

 

There were 15 ladies so they had 3 groups of 5 at a time each with their own stylist

 

 

Not quite sure why Rilynn didn't the ponytail chopped off like everyone else, but he took his sweet time :)

 

 

6 inches in the bag!

 

The lady in charge of the Shanghai Cancer Recovery Club

 

Going to the salon to finish up

 

First time seeing it :) She really liked it!

 

 

 

 All done!

 

Rec'd her certificate of participation

 

The group of ladies showing off their new do's!

 

She is such a sweet girl and I love her so much!! She definitely made me one proud mommy today :)

 

 During my fundraising efforts I came across a lady who makes wedding dresses and scarves. She thought our group of friends were such a great story on 'sisterhood' and asked if we would be willing to get together with her for a photoshoot. So unbelievably, we were able to 9 of us together in 2 days and made it work. Was definitely different being on the other side of the camera for once! LOL

 

It was such an emotional day though. We had so much fun! However, tears were shed, as it was such a powerful day and it also made me realize how much I am going to miss my incredible friends

here :(We have so much love between us and they will always have a special place in my heart!!!

 

Here was one of the pics :)

 

Xiaolongbao Master..

Well, not exactly :) LOL

After being here for 2 years, I am still not a fan of the traditional Chinese food here. There is a huge difference between the good 'ol Leeann Chin and the food here! However, one food I have enjoyed here are soup dumplings, or xiaolongbao. There is a great restaurant, Din Tai Fung, which I love to eat at!

One of my friends organized a cooking class to learn how to make the dumplings like Din Tai Fung. We had 10 ladies come and each ended up making 12 dumplings from scratch in 2 hours.

It was a lot harder that I expected! LOL.. It definitely seemed like a lot of work for what some people charge for them on the streets!

Our chef was funny. She didn't speak any english, but definitely let you know when you weren't doing it right! She'd grab it right from your hand, show you again, and give it back :) Or if really weren't doing good, she'd scrap your dumplings and make you start over!

It was a fun day! And the best part was eating them at the end :)

Bought a bamboo steamer to bring back to the US. We'll see if I can remember how to make them!

Here were my finished dumplings! MMMM

Group shot

 

Brady's New Threads..

This week Brady rec'd his uniforms for baseball and KungFu and wore them proudly!

 

 His KungFu instructor

 

Brady and Brycen- The two most adorable KungFu masters :)

Check out the air they got :)

He's here....

And now he's gone :(

After being apart from each other for 6 1/2 weeks we were finally able to give him a big hug!! Unfortunately, the time went way too fast and he had to go back. He arrived on a Sunday night and was gone Saturday morning.

The kids were in school for the week, but we pulled them out half day to attend the Shanghai Rolex Masters tennis tournament. Rilynn had a performance at school which was great that he was able to see, as well as their swimming and gymnastic lessons. We also enjoyed bowling, playing baseball, eating out with friends, and just hanging out with each other!

I enjoyed my 'visitor' dragging him around town and showing him what I like to do best here... SHOP! LOL

It was a great week, but so sad to see him go! Now we have to wait until Thanksgiving to spend more time with him.. Can't wait!!

The tournament started at 2:00pm. We got there and saw that Roger Federer did not play until 8:00pm. The kids had fun going, but were not having that much fun to make it until 8 :) Plus it was a school night. Thankfully though we were able to see him warm up, which was very cool!

 

2:00pm Match

 

The serve speed, 222km/hr  or 137mph!!!

 

 

They had a center court and then other smaller courts going on. We walked around and sat really close at this match. However, we probably picked the worst seats as we were right next to the CZE's coach and dad!! Thankfully, the kids were dead silent, but it was me who forgot to shut my phone off. It looks could kill!!! Even taking pictures was too much noise. LOL .. Needless to say we didn't stay too long at that match.

 

4:00pm match- Djokovic ended up going on to win the tournament

 

 

While waiting for the 6:00pm match Roger Federer came out to warm up!

 

 

 

6:00pm match

 

 

They made quite the entrance!

 

Andy Murray

 

We miss you already daddy and love you very much!!!!

Mini Vacation - SheShan

After biking, going on a boat ride, running errands, we were ready for a mini vacation. So I booked an overnight stay at the Le Meridien Resort in SheShan an hour away. We were in SheShan last month and it was so nice to escape the city for a bit! The hotel was nice - had an outdoor infinity pool, playground, beach, and indoor pool. We enjoyed all of the above the first day :)

 

 

 

Right next to the hotel was a park called Shanghai Sculpture Park. I've heard great things about it so was looking forward to spend the day there. It's a park all around a man made lake with a bunch of different statues that the kids can climb on. So of course they loved that and wanted their picture taken with them :)

 

 

 

Crazy statues on the beach and some in the water!

 

 Of course they would be naked.. Don't we all let the kids naked on the beach?! LOL, only in China!

 The kids LOVED these things!!

 

 

 

We came prepared with the kids' swimsuits, however most of the kids just lost their pants and went out in their underwear. Or as the little boy in the white shirt, el commando!

 This thing was very cool. It was a gigantic trampoline!!

 



 



 Net crawl

 

 Good night :)

 

 

 

The kids loved this man made cave bathroom with stalactites as the faucets!

 

Was an exhausting 2 days, but definitely fun!! Not we just have to wait 1 more day until Chad comes to visit!!!!