Jeri Visit to Shanghai - Visit to Expo

One of the first things we did when Jeri was here was to visit Expo. It was incredibly disappointing. The lines were long, the weather wasn't great, and we just didn't get the whole point of why Expo was supposed to be so great......Big waste of time, but still good to spend the whole day together!

GMI Reunion

Jeri Ward, Kath, John Cronley, and Ty McGinnis partying together at SWFC, great night! Shanghai.....just like college......

Field Day

Romanski's Going Away Party

Our dear friends Mike and Julie Romanski and their girls are moving to Sweden this summer (or actually have already moved since I'm writing this post in Nov :)). These pictures are from their going away party.

We started at the Rockett's house and presented a few gifts to them, one being a large photograph of Shanghai with all of us writing some notes on the back. After, we went to a local Teppanyaki restaurant. Then we vistited our favorite local bar, Carol's Cat Bar (now since closed) and finished with dancing at Malones.

We really miss them but have so many outstanding memories with them that are priceless!

Alex's 5th Birthday Party

Alex started talking about his 5th birthday in oh...must have been January. He was so excited about it. I think the plans changed a few times also.

I think he started talking about a Transformers party but then it quickly turned into a Super Mario Brothers party since he's become a Wii/DS addict.

All of his classmates have been having birthday parties where the whole class in invited. I asked him who he wanted to have come to his birthday party. His response...the whole class. Oh boy. I asked him if he wanted the party at the Lego place in Thumb plaza...you know....mess up someone's elses place. Nope, he wanted it at our house. Oh boy.

So who am I to disappoint a 5 year old? I can remember my 5th or 6th birthday. My mom had my class over in our basement. We sat at a big long table and I remember playing the drop the clothes pin in the jar. How fun was that?

Well, since I had to invite 15 kids plus his other buddies Joey, Matthew, and Gavyn, we decided it would be best to get a bounce house. I love those. Great entertainment and tires them out.

Now for the cake. Kirk and his brother have this unspoken competition on who can make the coolest cake. I'm pretty sure Kevin does the whole thing by himself. I stayed up well past 2am for 3 nights baking cakes and making frosting and fondant. Thank goodness Missy let me use her kitchenaid. So Kirk designed the cake layout and the night before the party we put it all together. And yes, we were up until 2 am.

The afternoon weather turned out okay, it rained just a bit but no big deal. All together, there were about 23 kids. Elizabeth's friends had to come also because they are all Super Mario freaks. Alex had a lot of fun.

Elizabeth's School Trip to the Shanghai Zoo

Elizabeth's class did a field trip to the Shanghai Zoo. I remember coming here when I first visited Shanghai 12 years ago. Not a spectacular zoo, the animals all look a little worse for the wear. We had fun watching a brown bear play in the water. The pandas were a little silly also.

Moganshan

I have to say that this trip was one of my favorite weekends in China. Julie and Denise organized a weekend road trip to Moganshan in the bamboo forest. It's about a 3.5 hour drive from Shanghai just past Hangzhou.

The Rocketts - Dave, Denise, Matthew, Adam and Renee; The Thompsons - Peter, Shirley, Ashley and Nicole; The Romanskis - Mike, Julie, Maddie and Allie along with us went. We rented House 23, and old English style cottage. It has 6 bedrooms and bathrooms to go along with it.

The kids all got along great as well as the adults. The big boys went mountain biking the first afternoon. Kirk fell off the bike (imagine that). We went hiking and exploring later in the day. The next day, more hiking and sitting around just lounging and talking.

There were tea plantations around and Mike, Julie, Shirley and I had lunch at one. Notice the chicken head. Julie also amazed me again with her shopping skills and managed to shop even when nothing was for sale. She convinced a tea farmer to sell her his basket.

Several bouts of laughter, several bottles of wine, lots of hiking, what a great time with great memories :)