Ashley's birthday!

Ashley's birthday is tomorrow - she'll be SIX years old! She is growing up so fast. We had a party for her on Friday, after school. We'd invited her whole class (24 kids!) at her request. Luckily, the clubhouse here is able to cater kids birthday parties, including bouncy castles, so I didn't have a ton of work to do. I got her a cake from a wonderful bakery here called Exquisite. The price was HIGH - but the cake was GORGEOUS. A pink and purple castle. She loved it and it tasted wonderful. Reminded me of the cakes my mom made when I was growing up. The cake was strawberry flavor with buttercream icing. Yummy. We had the party in a small park across the street from our clubhouse - next to a little pond. It was a beautiful sunny day and just perfect for a party. Anthony did some games such as "Simon Says" and "Hot Potato" and "Musical Chairs". I think Musical Chairs was the favorite. The kids really seemed to enjoy that one. It was pretty overwhelming to have 20 kids (I think that's how many showed up) at the party but it turned out well and Ashley was thrilled with her party. We started a new tradition of not opening up gifts at the party - from what I've seen, only Americans do this at parties - it worked out really well. We were able to slow the process down and have Ashley open up a few at a time over the weekend so she could really enjoy them.

I've had a cold, so that hasn't been too fun. Luckly, Anthony was home this weekend for the party and for letting me get some much needed rest. He just left this evening to go back to Shanghai. It sucks when he leaves and we are definitely getting tired of this back and forth thing. I will be so relieved when we are all together in Shanghai.