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Permalink The charity of the month is Heart to Heart. Heart to Heart Shanghai provides support and financial assistance to needy Chinese children who require heart surgery to repair their congenital heart defects.
Emersyn went on the Heart to Heart hospital tour with school. When she came home, she told us about a 10-year little girl waiting for heart surgery. She was left by her Mom under a bridge as an infant as she has a large growth on her stomach, in addition to the heart problem. An older women found her and adopted her. The village raised money to be able to send the two of them to Shanghai to the Heart to Heart Hospital. She loves Barbie dolls and was given her first Barbie doll at the hospital. Emersyn and Eleri decided to sort through their Barbies and give her more dolls, clothes and some accessories. We also went through some of Emersyn’s old clothes and shoes to give her. Eleri’s clothes would be too small.
After she had surgery, we made a trip to the hospital. Before we left for the hospital, Emersyn told me I wasn’t allow to cry as it would make her feel bad. The little girl, Li Nanna, was all smiles. Emersyn said she looked so much better since the surgery. Emersyn had said her skin was blue from the lack of blood flow. Li Nanna’s grandmother cried when we gave her the bags of toys, clothes and shoes.
She is hoping to go home soon and will return later to remove a portion of her protruding hernia.
 Emersyn with Li Nanna
 Li Nanna with her Grandmother
Living in China, the girls do see the need to help others. The school encourages giving with the charity of the month – starting young to promote a lifetime of giving.
Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 174 user reviews.
Permalink 
Emersyn is turning twelve – how can that be? Thursday night after school, Emersyn decorated her cake with sprinkles.
Then, we decorated the living room. I had looked at the Holiday House in Puxi for streamers, but there were none to find. I sent Mr. Nie to Party Pops in Jinqiao. He found a few at 10rmb ($1.50) for a small roll. Such a simple item to find back home, but a challenge in Shanghai. The girls had fun putting the decorations up for the party.
Uncle Andy hit every Justice store in the Bay Area looking for pajama’s for the birthday parties. One store recognized him when he came back for more – the sleep over Uncle. He found pj’s sets on sale. Justice always has 40% off sales, but these were already marked down with an additional 40% off. Andy was able to get them for about $8 a set from the original price tag of $35 – score! Emersyn and I rolled the pj’s and tagged them for each girl.
Andy also found these fun socks. None of the socks are a match – the new theme in socks which is good if you lose one!
After spending the afternoon at school for Splash Day with Eleri, it was time to pick up the girls for the birthday fun. I did a kid swap with Lisa, Anna’s Mom. Hayden, Anna’s big sister, is one of Emersyn’s friends. Lisa was taking Eleri for a sleepover – everyone was thrilled with this arrangement. Eleri was more than thrilled to go to Anna’s house. Emersyn was more than thrilled to have Eleri gone for her party.
Emersyn is having 12 girls (including herself) for her 12th birthday. Fatih’s driver is helping me with transportation – 6 girls to a van. We piled into the vans to drive around the corner to get slushies. The kids love the slushies. It did take a bit of time to make 12 slushies – we made the line long on a Friday night!
When we got home, the girls were given a necklace to wear. They were playing a game with the necklaces. Emersyn picked 4 words they couldn’t say. If they said the word and someone heard it, they could take one necklace. The kids were having fun and were very creative. They used the Chinese word of “wo” for “I”. They tried using poor grammar by saying “me would like…”. The game ended at 6:30. Emersyn won with the most necklaces. Then, the necklaces were put into a basket for each girl to pick one to take home.
They decided to go out in the gardens for some play. At one point, I could see them rolling down the hills – being little kids. When they came in, they reported Avery rolled in poop! No problem as i can wash her clothes to be ready in the morning. The girls came up to put on their new pajamas!
 Hayden, Emersyn, Annabel, Isabel, Anna, Michelle, Elyssa & Avery
Josie, Taylor, Kaitlin & Ruth
We order 12 pizzas from across the street, our favorite pizza – La Casbah. The pizzas are large individual sizes. The smoked chicken is a house favorite. The girls all seemed to love the pizza, but Elyssa. But, she won’t go hungry as there are plenty chips, crackers and sweets to eat. The girls enjoyed their pizza with a movie.
When the movie finished, it was time for cake!
And ice cream sundaes with chocolate sauce, m&m’s and oreos. We always have the good homemade ice cream from the butcher. It is the real stuff – with probably more calories than we want to know. However, after eating this ice cream, any store bought ice cream doesn’t “hold a candle”.
Emersyn opened her presents with excitement. Now that they are pre-teens, she received many gifts from Sephora in bath gels, perfumes and nail polish.
Next, the girls picked their socks from the basket.
 Taylor, Ruth & Emersyn
Now, it was time for Jim and I to disappear into the bedroom. Emersyn had the game “Truth or Dare” in her stocking from Santa. It is from Justice, a pre-teen store. I told Emersyn to use common sense and have fun. The dares were things like screaming the pledge of alliance – which they did on the balcony. Someone had to eat a spoonful of ketchup. Kaitlin had to chew “abc” gum. The next morning when they were telling me, I had to ask what was “abc” gum – already been chewed! We could hear them giggling and laughing in the bedroom. When they finished their game, we set up the sleeping arrangements. We have two blow-up mattresses (one with a slow leak). I borrowed two mattresses from Faith. The mattresses took care of 8 girls. That left a girl on the sofa, two girls on the Thai pillows and Ruth decided to sleep in the chair – 12 girls all on soft surfaces – my job was done! We left the girls to watch movies and talk. They went to bed a various time based on who feel asleep.
Jim took Roxi to the doggy play date at 8:00am. The girls didn’t begin to stir until after 9:00am. Jim made his famous crepes for the girls which they were all very impressed.
It was a very successful party AND we survived the TWEVLE girls. They were really pretty easy. Lisa brought Eleri home when she picked up Hayden which made life easy!
Birthday recap:
Emersyn’s Sleepover Birthday Party
Lasers, Tag and Emersyn’s Birthday Party
Emersyn’s Birthday in Hong Kong
An American Girl Birthday Party
Fairy Gardens and Emersyn’s Birthday Party
Emersyn’s Fairy Dust & Magical Wishes Birthday Party
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 195 user reviews.
Permalink Concordia Run and Splash day was a beautiful day in Shanghai. This is the first Splash Day for the ES Children. In the past, it has been a fun Field Day. Eleri left for school with a big smile in her run gear. She needed a red shirt to match her teammates.
Eleri was wearing these cute Black Dog shorts I picked up for her at the Phoenix Center at school. I don’t know the brand, but I understand it is a popular brand on the East Coast (made in China, of course). Either way, she looks cute in her pink Black Dog shorts.
Eleri ran 8 laps – more than most second graders. I didn’t go to the Run in the morning. I came for the Splash in the afternoon. Eleri had changed into her swimwear and a pink shirt to match her teammates. Eleri’s teammates were Anna and Miranda, both good friends. I was glad the girls had on bright pink shirts. They were racing all over the field. One minute they were there, the next gone.
 Miranda, Anna & Eleri
The first station was “Tug Boat”. They had fun pulling each other in the tube.
A run across the field for a game of “Tug-a-War”.
They were laughing as they worked as a team on “Move the Pipe” game.
The next station was the first one to get them wet. It was “Squash the Shark”. They had to sit on water balloons which represented the shark. Big screams with big smiles for this game.
A run across the field, again, to “Slip-n-Slide”. The high school students were running all the booths. A HS student was watering the slides for the kids to have a run.
The girls enjoyed the “Water Balloon Toss”. A water balloon was placed in the parachute to see if they could toss it and catch it.
Next to “Splash Volleyball”.
The girls are now wet and having fun.
 Anna, Eleri & Miranda
Eleri was fast running through the “Obstacle Relay”.
Water fight at “Get You Back” station.
At “Freckle Frenzy”, the girls were splashing water on their faces to see how many freckles would stick.
 Freckle Faces
The girls still had another hour to have fun at Splash Day. I had some administration errands to take care of at school. I left them racing off to the next station.
It was a nice, hot day in Shanghai for the kids to play in/with/around water. The first ES Splash Day was a huge success.
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 165 user reviews.
Permalink 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.
Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 226 user reviews.
Permalink It started with Easter weekend. I baked a double batch of chocolate chip cookies with m&ms to take to Faith’s house for Easter Sunday. I baked 86 cupcakes for Emersyn to take to school on Monday to sell for the charity of the month, Baobei. I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate cupcakes with butter cream frosting. I was in the kitchen from 9am to 5pm. By the time I finished baking all day, I was mentally done baking until next month for birthdays – so I thought.
Emersyn was selling cupcakes for the charity of the month, Baobei. Baobei is an organization that provides surgeries for children with special needs. They work together with the medical staff of Shanghai Children’s Medical Center to give operations to children with physical and developmental disabilities. These surgeries cost between 30, 000rmb and 50, 000rmb. Baobei means “precious childâ€. Baobei places many of these children into “Healing Homes†as they await adoption. Concordia’s goal for the month is 120, 000rmb to provide three surgeries. Plastic water jugs are located throughout campus to collect wu mao (small change) to make a big difference in the lives of the small children who benefit from the program that provides life changing surgery for children with birth defects. Both of Emersyn’s teacher have adopted Baobei babies. Emersyn decided to sell cupcakes on her own to help meet the goal of the month. She had a little cupcake business from her home room, Ms Poppell’s room. Students and teachers would seek her out after lunch for a sweet treat.
She sold her cupcakes for 5rmb ($.80). She made 600rmb ($95) on cupcake sales for the week. Since many people were looking for the sweet treat after lunch, I made cupcakes the following weekend to fill the demand. They sold out in 3 days as it was a short week of school to collect 260rmb. One last weekend of baking to make a double batch of chocolate chip cookies with m&ms. My cookies were even better from the tips I leaned at the cooking class. Her total cupcake/cookie sales was 1, 120rmb ($177). Not bad proving every person can make a difference.
Now, I am done baking for charity. In May, I will be busy making the chocolate birthday cakes. I used up my supply of powder sugar so I’m on the hunt for boxes that are not a solid block of sugar!
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Permalink Eleri’s class had an Animal Zoo Museum to showcase their work on animals. The children picked an animal from the field trip to the zoo to do more research. See Shanghai Zoo Trip. Eleri decided the zebra would be a good animal choice since we saw them in South Africa. She was telling us all week about her project. She was very excited to show her work at the Museum. Now, that Jim office has moved near school, it is easier for him to make these presentations. The animal zoo was from 8:00am to 9:00 am.
While we waited in the hall for the children to set up their museum, we took this photo of Eleri’s art work displayed outside the classroom
Eleri’s presentation included life cycle, basic needs, body structure, designed for survival, fun facts, expert words and glossary. She typed all the paragraphs for the presentation.
Eleri also made clay animals for her zoo museum. Of course, this was her favorite part of the presentation. And, of course, her animals were well made because it was about MAKING!! Eleri made the zebra and a classmate made the lion for her. She put so much detail into her zebra she ran out of time.
Eleri made her presentation to various parents including dad.
Ms Poppell, Emersyn’s teacher, and Mr. Stone, her co-teacher, gave the students the opportunity to come and listen to the presentations. This was fun for Eleri to have her sister and friends in her classroom. This kind of support from the older kids is one of the positive aspects of Concordia’s multi-school campus. The older children are encouraged to help and support the younger students.
We left our little zebra expert with a big smile at the end of the museum presentation.
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 192 user reviews.
Permalink I have always been a label reader. I don’t read the label necessarily for calories, but my main interested is the hidden sugars and salt. Pasta sauce can be full of sugar. I like to glance at the ingredients to see what is in the item I am buying. However, since we moved to Shanghai, it has been a lot harder to read labels. If I am buying something Chinese, I have no idea what is in. Then, all the shops slap this sticker across imported goods. So, after I pay a premium for an item, I still can’t read the label!
 City Shop’s label
 Pine’s label
 Yanlord’s label
Pull tops are common with many drinks here in Shanghai. I have to laugh as Emersyn struggles to open it. I never thought about it as we all used pull tabs as kids. She had no idea to pull back and UP. She was only pulling back and then the tab would break.
Just thought I would share a bit of everyday living in China – life is always an adventure!
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Permalink Faith sent Jennifer and I an email asking if we wanted to attend a cooking class at the Kerry Center. The cooking class was titled, “Life’s Like a Box of Chocolate” – how can we say no to that title. For 300rmb ($47) per person, we attended class from 9am to 1pm, but lasted until almost 2pm. Master chef Francois Pietri was teaching six ladies how to make truffles, cookies, brownies, crunchy krispies, half baked cakes and white chocolate mousse.
All the ingredients were pre-measured for us. We would mix and prepare our chocolate delights for the oven. The most valuable item in the pre-measured boxes were the chocolates. Good baking chocolates are hard to find in Shanghai. The cost of the class of 300rmb did not even cover the ingredients’ cost.
 Ready to make chocolate delights
 Faith & Jennifer rolling out some cookies
 Faith, Brenda & Jennifer
We made 7 different kinds of chocolate delights this day. I should have taken a photo of all my finished chocolates I took home. I had about 12 boxes (the size of the pre-measured boxes of ingredients) of chocolates. I gave Emersyn two brownie boxes, a box of cookies and two boxes of crunchy krispies to take to the sleep over birthday party she was attending. I gave Bindi a box of crunchy krispies and cookies when I picked Lili up for a sleep over at our house. I sent Mr. Nie home with a box of cookies and crunchy krispies. I sent Ayi home with a box of crunchy krispies. I saved all the half baked cakes for us! I had six little cakes which were my favorite – and the most work, of course. It was well worth the 300rmb we paid – the chocolate baked goodies would have cost me double the price. And, it was a fun afternoon with friends.
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 228 user reviews.
Permalink Eleri loves to make. She made this Easter card for us.
I found this for the Easter bunny after I was cleaning up the Easter fun.
Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 231 user reviews.
Permalink The girls woke up to find Easter baskets left by the Easter Bunny. Emersyn was up first – not the normal in this house anymore as she heads into the teen years. She woke up Eleri as they were excited to see what the Easter Bunny left for them this year.
Eleri was the first to notice the plastic eggs the Easter Bunny left around the house. The girls went on a dash throughout the house looking for more eggs. The eggs held candy and coins!
After all the eggs were found, the girls began to explore their baskets. Eleri’s first comment was she didn’t like most of the chocolates in her basket. I told her the Easter Bunny probably forgot she didn’t like chocolate and peanut butter. The baskets were full of Reese’s items. Jim has the job of finding candy while he is in Hong Kong for 7’s. Easter candy is hard to find in Shanghai and we pay a premium for it. When Jim brought the candy home, I stuffed it in the closet without looking at the kind of candy he purchased. As I made up the baskets last night, I knew she wasn’t going to be thrilled with her basket of candy. I am sure the Easter Bunny now knows this important information for next year!
After our usual candy breakfast for Easter, it was after 8:00am – time for the dog play date. Roxi loves this time to play and run. She gets the best exercise as the dogs chase at full speed, roll and play. Roxi was going to need a long morning run since she would be spending Easter in the kitchen. While at the dog play date, Eleri went on an Easter hunt around Yanlord. It was organized by Naddy’s Mom, a friend of Eleri’s from Concordia. She had fun running around the gardens looking for eggs. She found an egg with a piece of paper that said she won something special. Eleri won the grand prize of the large plastic egg full of candy…candy she liked!!
This year, we celebrated Easter at Faith’s house. Faith is from the South and she knows how to entertain. Dinners at Faith are always the best because everything she makes is extra tasty. The Jenkins joined us along with Faith’s neighbor, Carol and family.
Faith served the adults to a proper table in the dinning room. The meal began with a nice summer salad. Faith cooked lemon chicken with risotto for the main course. It was all delicious!
 Avery & Emersyn
 Riley & Eleri
The kids had fun playing together all day. They spent most of the day on the trampling.
We finished the day enjoying wine and chat with dessert outside on the patio. i made cookies for the kids. Faith made a strawberry cake, a lemon pie and a chocolate dish for the adults. She served us a sampler plater – all was good. But, the strawberry cake was my favorite!
It was a nice Easter celebrating with friends. Friends from Scotland were in town and stopped by Faith’s to visit. We brought Anna home with us to spend the night. Anna was Emersyn friend before moving home to Scotland last year. It was a short night for a sleepover on a school night, but the only night that fit in their schedule. Anna went to school with Emersyn to enjoy a day seeing old friends.
Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 179 user reviews.
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