The Easter Bunny found us...

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!

Thanks to Auntie Val for giving the egg dye kits to Chad when he was back home. I did not see any of them here!!

Saturday morning we went to Mama Meya (Brady's favorite indoor playground) for an Easter party. We went with a couple other friends and the kids had a blast. They had a bunch of different stations set up for crafts, coloring eggs, food, face painting, games, and decorating cupcakes.

Rilynn's lovely face paint job!! She did half herself :)

Rilynn, Brady (supposed to be Spiderman) and their friend Leah

Easter morning- The Easter bunny found the kids here in China and hid their baskets and some eggs in the house for them to find when they woke up! Little do they know how hard it was for the bunny to find the basket and eggs here :)

We were invited to join a huge group of expats for an egg hunt followed by lunch at a hotel. There was probably 10-12 families and a TON of young kids. The daddies hid around 400 eggs in the lawn behind our apartment for the kids to find. Between all the kids it took only about 10 minutes to get them all :) It was so much fun and a little taste of back home going hunting..

After the hunt we headed over to the Intercontinental Expo Hotel in Pudong for our Easter lunch buffet. The buffet had a little of everything and even some great ham and awesome desserts. Only thing missing was some yummy mashed potatoes! It's also a nice find to get a good western meal here :)

Bugs Bunny (aka Easter Bunny) with Brady at the hotel

The yummy dessert spread with chocolate fountain.. MMMMMM

They had face painting and crafts in the hotel for the kids. Thankfully this face painter was a little more talented than the one at Mama Meya!! LOL

In the back of the hotel they had a huge open grassy area with soccer nets, a bouncy castle, and a swingset for the kids to burn off their sugar intake. It was like being back home, it felt good :)

Another year older...

Pretty sure I'll always remember where I was for my 31st birthday. The fun started a week before my birthday when we rec'd 3 care packages in the mail from our parents and my sisters. It was loaded with a TON of greatly missed food and Easter presents for the kids. So a big THANK YOU to you all (as we know shipping isn't cheap!)

So Wednesday came along and Susan showed up with a lovely bouquet of lillies for me. I was very shocked and touched how she remembered.

She watched Brady while I enjoyed the rest of the day to myself. I went back to Gillian, my lovely Irish hairdresser, and got my hair done. Then came home and got ready for our evening out while Susan babysat the kiddos. We headed out to a nice restaurant in Puxi (right on the river) called M on the Bund. We were early so had a drink at the Glamour Bar below the restaurant. Chad ordered this drink, but didn't want to say the name :) LOL
Our Milkshake brings all the Boys to the Yard ~ iced strawberries lavished with Baileys & Tia

Maria, blended together... forever...

It was a nice place to eat with an AWESOME view.

We headed back to get a slice of birthday cheesecake by our house and then ended the evening getting a massage. It was a great night and great birthday!!

Taikang Lu

I started taking a photography course here last month to learn how to 'really' use my camera. It's been really fun and helpful. My teacher, Baja Van Hulst, is from Holland and teaches a basic, intermediate, and advanced class here. My goal is to made through all of her classes before I leave. It's also been great meeting a whole new group of people. There are 12 of us in the class and I'm the only one from the US. The rest are from Italy, Sweden, Brazil, and Germany. Like me they are all expats and all speak pretty good English. In 2 weeks we are going on a photohunt in the 'Old Town' of Shanghai. More pictures to come from that :)

Anyways, I obviously love taking pictures so I love getting the chance to wander around here by myself and take some while exploring. The other day I went back to Taikang Lu and the wet market by it. We visited both of these places on our look see trip. I have already been back to Taikang Lu a couple of times since, but not the market. I was shocked on how much I've changed and not freaked out by the sight and smells of the market :) But still will not be doing any shopping there!!!

Taikang Lu was built in 1930 as a residential district and remained a place for the locals to live. In 2006, it was slated for demolition. However, there was a famous artist living there and a group proposed to the government to preserve the area for its traditional architecture. Currently, it has 200 diverse small businesses and has turned into a very popular tourist attraction. I won't say it's a beautiful area, but it is still very cool to roam the alleys going shopping. All while you can look up and see laundry hanging outside or walk down an alley up to someone's house. If anyone comes to visit this is definitely a place where we'll check out!

Here's some pictures from my adventure by myself. Will definitely be going back for more exploring with my camera!

Washing some clothes

There were just random birds in the cages hanging around outside.

Wet Market- Not used to the smells, but being a nurse you learn quickly how to breathe through your mouth :)

Like the meat laying out wasn't' bad enough, let's just 'smoke' it up a bit!

Since Taikang Lu is a very artsy place, it's fitting to put in pictures of Rilynn's art show at school.

Our Artist- They were selling their artwork and donating the money for charity. I paid the artist her 50rmb for this lovely one of a kind art!

Rilynn's class artwork where they held a silent auction for it.

Fuxing Park

The weather has been gorgeous lately (60-70 degrees) so Brady and I decided it was about time to go check out some of the many parks here. After we dropped Rilynn off at school on Tuesday we headed over to Puxi to check out the popular Fuxing (pronounced "fooshing") Park. We got there around 9:00 and I was shocked how busy it was. There were groups of people everywhere. Some groups had their own boombox and were either line dancing, ballroom dancing, or singing. Others were practicing Tai Chi or doing some moves with swords! It was very fascinating to see all the very different activities and the amount of people who gathered on a Tuesday morning.

 Some ballroom dancing

 Thought this was cute. There were a lot of grandparents with their grandchildren at the park.

 The only place where you can play with swords in a park! Ha

 A choir

Some more exercise equipment. This man was doing some crunches!

 Some ladies having fun with fans

Brady was having fun with the other 2 chinese boys in the bouncy castle until a field trip showed up and they let them ALL in!!!

 It was an absolutely beautiful day!!!

 I'll admit, I turned into a Chinese paparazzi here, but at least I asked! These boys were posing for a picture and I walked up to them and pointed to my camera to their mom and she even posed them better and straightened their jackets for me :)

Sarah and Claire met us at the park to play. The kids had fun playing in the dirt :)

Since Rilynn and Chad aren't able to check out the new places with us, but we knew that Rilynn would like this park. So we headed back to the park this morning. And we were right.. She had a blast!! And I'm pretty sure Chad enjoyed the bumper cars too :)