It’s Chinese Labor Day Holiday which means a nice long 4-day weekend for the family. We stayed in Shanghai to fill the days with friends. Friday night started with Eleri’s friend, Allison, sleeping over at our house. Emersyn was at Avery’s house for a sleepover. After everyone found their way home on Saturday afternoon, we decided to walk/rollerblade down the river to Paulaner’s by the bridge. The forecast is for rain beginning on Sunday so we thought we should take advantage of the beautiful sunshine day. The girls strapped on their blades and Roxi was more than thrilled that she was going somewhere with the family.
Eleri loves to pose with the statues as she finds them fun and funny.
Then, she posed as the statue.
We continued down the riverwalk until we ran out of river front walk.
When we ran out of the river front walk, we moved to the street sidewalk. Our Yanlord friends told us it wasn’t far to this Paulaner’s, BUT it was further than we expected. Once we finally arrived at Paulaner’s, a refreshing drink and pretzels were needed. The courtyard had a kids house Eleri enjoyed. Jim looked up the distance on his iphone – 5km (3 miles). After finishing our expensive drinks, we decided we needed a taxi to get home as no one wanted to walk/roll back. We couldn’t get a taxi to stop so I took about 5 steps back with Roxi. When a taxi finally stopped for Jim and the girls, I came forward with Roxi. He kept saying no, but we just got in and Jim explained we were not going far. He was ok when we told him just down the road 10 minutes. We enjoyed a nice quiet night with dinner, movie and popcorn, of course.
Sunday was a full day starting with Chinese and piano lessons. After lessons, we went to the underground to get necklaces for upcoming birthday parties. From there, we enjoyed a nice lunch in Jinqiao before dropping Eleri at a class birthday party. Jim took a taxi home as Lili and family (Bindi, Morgan and her older sister, Isabella) were coming to dinner tonight. After a few texts back and forth, it worked in the schedule for dinner tonight. Jim was more than happy to head to home and skip out on the shopping. Emersyn and I went to look for a birthday present for her. She has been wanting a hanging chair all year. We tested them all out in girl fashion taking longer than Jim would have care to spend. We purchased the chair with a big smile on the birthday girl’s face. She didn’t like the cushion color, but this is China and they are making her one in green to be done in two weeks. The deliver man lives near our home and he would deliver it tonight – a bigger smile!
After gathering Eleri from her party, we had to stop at the underground to pick up a few necklaces they were making. By the time we got home, it was after 5pm. Lili and family were right behind us. Good thing Jim went home to prep food for our last minute dinner party. Jim fixed a lovely dinner of steak, sausages and salmon. The night slipped away quickly with the family departing after 10:30pm. They left Lili behind for a sleepover. The two girls went in the bedroom to play with the American girl dolls before going to bed. Emersyn went directly to her chair to read before going to bed. I think we are going to lose her to the chair. Her normal space to read is in the living room, but now we will have to look for her in her room in THE CHAIR. She is loving her new room!
Monday morning didn’t keep Eleri in bed despite the fact she went to bed way past her bedtime. Lili is a sleeper and we didn’t see her until close to 11:00am – which was killing Eleri! But, Lili was spending the day playing. The two headed out in to the gardens to rollerblade all morning. After a late lunch, they continued their play with the American girl dolls. These two entertain themselves very easily and they enjoyed a full day of play. Mr. Nie took them to tennis at 3:30pm while Emersyn had tennis from 5:00-7:00. We had another quiet evening at home eating leftovers for dinner followed by a movie with popcorn, of course.
Tuesday, the last day of holiday. The girls had more friends over. Eleri had So Jeong and So Yeong, Korean twins, over to play. Avery came to “hang out” with Emersyn. As middle school girls, they don’t play, they hang out. After the twins left around 2:00pm, Eleri went out rollerblading with Sophie for a couple hours. Everyone went home around 6pm to have dinner and baths for tomorrow is back to school. They had a fun four days filled with friends.