Happy 7th Birthday Nicholas!

Well, today was Nicholas's 7th birthday and boy was he excited. He spent the whole week giving us a count down. Every morning we had to hear how many more days and where he wanted to go to eat and what he wanted to do. This was a difficult day for Mark and I. We spent the morning of his birthday on Skype with everyone. His cousin Henry's 2nd birthday was on Saturday - so it was really great when Nana, Papa Jo, Aunt Kim, Uncle Zach and Henry Skyped on Henry's birthday (Saturday night in Chicago) but Nicholas's birthday here in China (Sunday morning). We also got birthday wishes from Grandmum (her new name - she is English you know) Aunt Margaret, Uncle Dave, Hannah, Jared and Cole and Uncle Andrew(nice suprise). Then we heard from Pop and his best friend in the whole WORLD Patrick! It was so great to hear from everyone, but it also made Mark and I realize how really far away we are and that we have never celebrated a birthday without some family with us. 

Some how Grandmum knew about our new favorite Yankees player and got him a Mark Texiera t-shirt (very exciting thanks Pop and Grandmum). We got him an air hockey table for the big basement that he and Ian have claimed as their domain. And Nana and Papa Jo gave him money to buy a new bicycle.

So we did our best to make it a memorable birthday for him. We took him bowling! In New York near our house there is a fun little bowling alley that is great for kids. They put up bumpers in the gutters so you almost always hit a pin - even Ian usually has a blast. Well the bowling alley here is about half hour from where we live and it is open 24 hours. The inside smells like an ash tray - because did I mention that everyone in China smokes - a lot. There are no bumpers for the gutters and they played Justin Timberlake on the stereo over and over and over. Now I guess I should not complain at least the music was English, but I am pretty sure I heard "sexy back" at least 10 times. Nick tried his best, but I think the high score for the day was 35 and he did actually get 1 strike, which made it all worth it. As I sat there watching (and holding Kyle) I could hardly fight back the tears (partly from being sad and partly from the strong smell of smoke) thinking about celebrating his birthday back home with family and friends. But I think we all tried to do our best to have a great day and on the way home we stopped at the bike shop to pick out new bicycles for both boys (thanks Nana and Papa Jo!)

After a celebration brownie, he thanked us for a great  birthday! I hope we look back years from now and say "Turning 7 in China was so cool!"

(The yellow duck in all the pictures is Pluka Duck - his class pet. It was his turn to take Pluka Duck home for the weekend and write about what we did with the duck- hence the photos.)