Happy Birthday Rilynn!

Happy 5th Birthday to my Rilynn Jean!! Prepare for picture overload of our celebrations :)
Sunday night we had a small birthday party with some of Rilynn's new friends in China. We had her party last year at Little Gym in Woodbury so I was thrilled to find one in China too! There were 4 other girls there to celebrate with us. It was a good time!

Birthday spread that they provided. WAY too much food for 6 kids!!

Birthday Princess Rilynn

Last night for her birthday we surpised her and took her to Barbie Shanghai. It is a huge store, 6 floors with lots of pink! She was able to pick out a Barbie too :)

Brady begged to get in on the action with Barbie :)

Had a playroom with tons of Barbies to play with

What a stud he is! LOL

For dinner we ate at the Barbie Cafe. All the food was named something related to Barbie. Again, a lot of pink!! Rilynn had a burger with pink ketchup, pink lemonade, and a pink cupcake :)

MMMMM, pink lemonade :)

Pink Ketchup!

Birthday Cupcake

In the cafe they had a lighted up runway

Strike a pose!

Barbie Cafe

The wall of Barbies!

Outside of store- 6 floors of pinkness!!

Hopefully we gave her a birthday she will remember for a long time!! We love you Rilynn :)

Chad's away, we play :)

Chad had some dinners this week and then was in Korea for a couple days. So we had the whole week to ourselves. We managed to survive and had some fun too!!

We also found an ayi that started her trial this week. Her name is Sun Xia (Susan) and is able to speak a little English. So far it's been going great. She will be coming M-F 1-6pm. It was nice having her here this week when Chad was gone.. It's fun seeing Brady and her interact, he is teaching her English and she is teaching him Mandarin. It's great!

When you can't find a good pizza, why not make your own? LOL

Brady's first haircut in China- Only cost 38RMB ($5.70) plus no tip :) He did great- as I'm sure the car had something to do with that. Interesting trying to explain how you would like it cut to somehow who does not speak English.

Brady was a good boy so we made a stop at Starbuck's to pick up a kids hot chocolate :)

Today we were invited to a kids Christmas party at a clubhouse by our apt. They rented it out for the kids and we all pitched in. They had lots of food, fun, and a visit by Santa :) 2 days in a row for the kids! Today Rilynn got her Barbie that she asked for and I made sure that Brady got his Thomas the Train today. LOL

My cool Shanghai ornaments I found at a Christmas Bazaar. They are handpainted from the inside. Fun gifts for some of my new friends :) Since we already celebrated Christmas with our families before we left, I had to do some shopping for other people and not just the kids!

Christmas Program- China Style :)

Today Brady and I spent the morning at Rilynn's school for their Christmas program. Unfortunately Chad is in Korea right now, but we got it all on video tape for him :)

This week the kids wrote letters to Santa and put them in a box for him. Well today when they checked their letters they were gone, but there was a letter FROM Santa :) He then make a visit and gave each kid a book, well except for Brady. You'll see below in the video where he thought he called his name, but didn't.. After Santa was all done and Brady didn't get called, he ran across the circle to me and was in tears that he didn't get his Thomas the train that he asked for.. I did feel really bad for him, but used it to my advantage since he was a naughty boy yesterday. He started acting better after that and someone from the school ended up giving him a teddy bear and said Santa left it for him.. He was so happy!!!

They had stations set up for some crafts and to decorate cookies. Then they got together with 2 other classes and sang "The twelve days of Christmas" Australian style (very different!), "Jingle Bells" (English/Chinese), and "We wish you a Merry Christmas" (English).. Rilynn did pretty good for only starting a week ago!

We then had a big ole schmorgasbord potluck. Not your typical potluck! LOL.. It was also just a tad chaotic as they do not seem to believe in lining up here!!!

Ms. Anna- Rilynn's English Teacher

Ms. Stacey- Rilynn's Chinese Teacher

Jingle Bells

Poor Brady :( It was funny at the time, but I'm sure it just killed him not ending up getting a present!

Our first dinner..

Tonight's dinner was definitely not McDonalds! We have been eating very western, thanks to my picky palate, but I was a supportive wife tonight. Chad has been eyeing this Singaporean restaurant by our house, so we all went to give it a try. First thing we noticed was that there was no silverware only chopsticks :) The kids were given some plastic dinnerware to use, lucky!


Chad ordered his black pepper crab that he had wanted, but the kids and I were trying to find something to please us.. We settled on what I thought was chicken fried rice and sweet n sour chicken (safe, right?). Wasn't a big fan of my "chicken fried rice" as the chicken was served cold and the rice was not easy eating with chopsticks! Halfway through the meal they must have seem me struggling as they brought a fork over. lol. I was under way too much pressure as the cook was eyeing me eat the food and the waitress was watching me with the chopsticks. One good thing was that the sweet n sour was actually pretty good!


The owner was very friendly and was enjoying the kids trying to speak Chinese to everyone :) They really do love children here. Brady was a trooper and tried everything, including Chad's crab, and even liked most of it! The owner was very nice and bought us a coconut dessert, which I managed to get down since it was a really nice gesture. I really am the world's pickiest eater!


All in all we survived, and only a tad hungry :) LOL

Our sweet n sour chicken

Rilynn's favorite part- Her OJ :)

Chad with his messy crab!

Here's my chicken fried rice :)


This week was a fun one, especially for me :) Thanks to some message boards I have been able to meet a lot of moms around me.

Tuesday's there is a group that meets every other week for coffee and the restaurant is very nice and caters to the kids. This was our 2nd time meeting up with them. It's fun and great to meet people who are living by you.

Wednesday, Brady and I went to a Christmas Bazaar to do some shopping and that was just a madhouse!! Way too many people there! That night I was invited to a Christmas Bubbles Night hosted by a New Zealand woman. There was about 20 other ladies with the bubbly flowing and we all had a great time! However, when I got home I realized that I had lost my entire wallet!! I figured it was just at her house and would wait until the next day to worry about it. However, the next day after searching her house we found nothing and then I started to freak out! Thankfully, long story short, a VERY honest cab driver gave it back to me yesterday- Cash and all!!! I had no contact info for me in China, so it's a miracle that it made it's way back to me.

Thursdaywe had to get Brady's staple out. Which apparently here needs to be done by a surgeon!! LOL - So after he took it out and it didn't stop bleeding he decided that it hadn't healed.. Genius! Anyways, he now has surgical glue holding it together. Hopefully it will heal up after that..

Friday, we met Sarah and Claire (family from Hudson) at the Children's Market to do more shopping. It was a little overwhelming, but fun. There were tons of stalls with vendors selling anything and everything related to kids. Toddlers can only last so long, but will definitely be going back by myself before Christmas. The best part is you get to bargain (which I'm still learning).

And this morning, we all headed out to Hongqiao Pearl Market. This is another huge market specializing in "fake" products. Was able to get Rilynn some cheap "crocs" for school and also Photoshop for only about $3!! Once again, will be great without the kids in tow :)

Killing time before meeting Sarah- Park that Brady did not want to leave. He loved the dragon boat! Who would've thought watching a man clean up a pond would be so much fun :) Notice the Gap store in the background- Just opened, can't wait to check it out!



Brady loved the dragon boat!

Brady and Claire- The best part of the market was the rides for them :)





Love the cute music :)


One of the very few Christmas decorations around here- Christmas will just not be the same here :(