Taipei was a quick two-night stay, but it was fun to see the City. We arrived back from Taipei Thursday night and Jim left Friday morning for California. Jim was spending Chinese New Year in California while the girls and I stayed in Shanghai. We didn’t pull out our Chinese decorations this year…Eleri must have forgotten because she is the one that likes to decorate!
Now that Emersyn is our teen, her favorite place is her room…her “girl cave”. Therefore, this staycation is going to be about me and Eleri hanging together. Emersyn’s three other friends (Kaitlin, Bella and Hayden) are all in town this CNY so she will be on skype with them laughing and being a teen. The downtime is much needed as the Twinderella musical had taken ALL our spare time and energy…we were ready to rest!
First order of business, I pulled out the suitcase table for Eleri’s craft corner. I love having a place to pile her crafts.
Here are a few random high lights. I didn’t take many photos to share of our staycation.
Ellie, Eleri’s friend that lives near at Thomson Rivera, was over for a couple sleepovers and afternoon plays. This was perfect because Eleri needs a break from hanging with her Mom. When Ellie comes over, Eleri and Ellie like to bake. Emersyn likes when Ellie comes over! They made cupcakes one afternoon. I let them make the cupcakes on their own and only helped at the end for oven and clean up needs. I have made this chocolate cake recipe many times over the years. As I was helping the girls pour the batter into the cupcake tins, I could tell something wasn’t right. After checking with the girls, they put in too little flour – 1 1/3 cup instead of 1 3/4 cup, but the cupcakes still tasted great! The next time Ellie came over, they baked a cake. They double checked to get all the ingredients correct.
Saturday was a fun night out to see the Lantern Festival at YuYuan Gardens. See Lantern Festival – The year of the Horse
Sunday Emersyn had her first and last sleepover of the Holiday. Emersyn and her friends had planned many sleepovers…but…the girls stayed up all night to create grumpy girls…a couple of the Moms said no more sleepovers! I am lucky as Emersyn isn’t grumpy after a no-sleep sleepover. I would do the same if I had a nasty girl the next day. We have an understanding that this is her choice and the family should not pay the price.
Monday was a very fun Chinese New Year Party at Linda and Bill’s home, Ellie’s parents. See Chinese New Year Party
On Wednesday, we went shopping at Forever 21 in Puxi with Emersyn’s friends, Kaitlin and Bella, along with their Moms, Meggan and Lisa. The girls have a Valentine’s dance at school. Eleri had to come along since she could’t stay home alone. Bella and Kaitlin bought new dresses for the Valentine dance. Kaitlin purchased this adorable Marvel comic book character dress only she could wear. Kaitlin is very skinny, but eats all the time! Emersyn was fine wearing an old dress she had at home. That evening we had a delicious dinner downstairs at Jennifer’s house.
On Thursday, it was adult night out. I joined Lisa & Mark Gandy, Jennifer & Scott Jenkins and Paul & Kath Taylor for a night out. The Gandy children came to our house to hang. Kaitlin is Emersyn’s good friend and Will is in class with Eleri. They had fun, but we had more fun. We enjoyed Indian food at Saffron and a drink at the Constellation Bar.
Friday was back to shopping for Emersyn. We realized that old dress wasn’t going to fit her properly anymore. The three of us, Emersyn, Eleri and I, had a girls day out. We started with lunch at our favorite spot, Whisk. Then, back to Forever 21 and H&M to find the perfect dress. Emersyn found a cute black dress at H&M – one I would have picked out! Of course, she had no shoes to wear with her new dress, but we found a cute pair of black boots at H&K. H&M had fun bags for the Year of the horse – the seventh sign in Chinese Zodiac calendar. We were also given a red envelope with the purchases of the black dress and boots. See Valentine’s Dance to see our adorable teen her in new dress.
We had one day of bad pollution over 250 AQI. This is Eleri ready to take Roxi out for her quick walk around the compound…
We all enjoyed the sleeping in late and going to bed late schedule. Emersyn enjoyed her girl cave (her room). She came out for food and water! Eleri and I watched a few movies together and many Brady Brunch episodes…always fun.
Eleri always keeps herself entertained…as long as I am part of the entertainment…and Roxi…
She was busy making origami…
She pulled at this Olivia theater Mimi gave the girls. She took photos and video. She was very cleaver to make up a play for 10 minutes.
Our deck view of the red Pearl Tower…
On Sunday, the last day of the holiday, we had snow…big heavy, wet snow flakes. Roxi and I walked Eleri over to Ellie’s house for an afternoon of play. I decided we needed to be Chinese and use umbrellas. I was glad we had grabbed them as Roxi was soaked by the time we got home. With those curls, water generally sits on top of the hair to keep her warm. She wasn’t sure what the big, white flakes on her nose were! I gave her a hot shower when we got home.
It was a nice staycation. Now, the girls can go back to school so I can get something done!! Jim made many decisions on our home. The week in California was much needed as some decisions are very hard to make by a photo over the internet. Jim picked out the floor color for our new wood floors which look great…from the photo.