The Lord of the Double Daddy Dates

Today the older two kids (Miriam 11 and Asa 8) dubbed "The Lord of the Double Daddy Dates as I (Joab) spent nearly the entire day with them going to special places and connecting with dear friends.  After serving at Miriam's Sunday School class we headed for our favorite restaurant for Shanghai food - Jesse Restaurant in Xintiandi.

The kids enjoyed some of the favorite dishes including - Shanghai Style Braised Pork Belly and Dates Stuffed with Sticky Rice.  We also had a blast reading our favorite sections of "The Hobbit" - a preview for our afternoon activity.

Later in the afternoon we went to see "The Desolation of Smaug" in 3D with some of their favorite friends - Anna and Elijah Bowman.  It is hard to believe it, but we have been friends with the Bowman family nearly the entire time we have lived in Shanghai, which began in the fall of 2007.

Saturday Food and Fun

Today was not only beautiful weather wise, but a day filled with family fun and delicious food!

Our morning started with Danish Pancake Balls (Aebleskiver), which is a family Christmas tradition that Emily was so kind to make as a treat.  Miriam accidentally called them apple cider!  LOL!

Next Salome and I (Joab) went with one of her preschool classmates, Tong Tong, to a performance of Cinderella.  The girls had a blast!

It was pretty funny to see the "VIP" kids who got to go on stage before the performance.  Talk about organized chaos!

Later in the day we continued the Danish theme by going to "Andersen's Ice Cream after dinner.  It was fun to eat at a place that almost shares one of our family names - my mom's maiden name is Anderson.

Silas got into the ice cream action too.

On the way home we FINALLY found Miriam's favorite Chinese Sweet - Bing Tang Hu Lu.  It is traditionally a Beijing treat, so finding here in Shanghai is a challenge.  It is even harder to find when it is always sold by hawkers who travel throughout town trying to avoid the police.  Now that we found a seller I made sure to get his phone number so that next time we can call him and just go directly to him to get the treat!

As you can see from this "Wanted" Sign Miriam has been desperately looking for this candy for a long time!

What was most fun for me about finding the Bing Tan Hu Lu was the fact that I did it with all three of the big kids on our electric bike! What a fun Shanghai memory!

On a related note, here is a great video summarizing some of the most famous Shanghai Snacks.

ICS 5th Anniversary Celebration

For the second year in a row we were a part of the anniversary celebration for our church - International Church of Shanghai (ICS).  Like last year we continued the with the carnival and talent contest theme.

However, this year our family participated in the talent contest with a puppet show to the Journey song "Faithfully".  Here is the video of our family's puppet show.

Before the performance we took a family picture.

The kids enjoyed the games and candy from the carnival area of the celebration.

Miriam and Asa enjoyed the Angry Bird themed game

Asa loved the cotton candy

Silas had a blast on the bouncy castle

The girls loved getting their faces painted

We were also excited to see local charity organizations had booths at the fair - including a group selling cookies made by children from Huge Grace Orphanages, which cares for about 20 disabled orphans in suburban Shanghai.

Here is a copy of the brochure they handed out.  For those who live in China you can
order cookies and other goods to benefit the children at the orphanage through this website.