Happy Easter 2007!

This year Easter has been the holiday that just keeps going and going and going... it's been great, but it has been more life Easter week instead of Easter day with the numerous celebrations! First we celebrated Easter and school (twice), then we received an Easter basket from Grandma Dotty on Wednesday, then the Links had an Easter egg hunt Friday night, then we colored Easter eggs over the weekend at home for an Easter egg hunt at home and then we went to Sunday Brunch for yet another Easter egg hunt. That's this entry in an "egg"shell so unless you want more details, stop reading now! ;)

We actually boiled the eggs on Saturday but ran out of time for coloring because of the Annie musical. So when we woke up on Sunday, we got the colors and apple cider vinegar out for some serious egg coloring! Daddy wowed us with multiple colors on one egg and we all had our share of multicolored fingers! Maddie just laughed with glee yet took the task very seriously. Anything to do with art, she just plain focuses! After we colored eggs, we dressed in our new Easter dress that Tailor Zhu had made for Maddie and invited Cooper over for an old fashioned hunt.

Cooper being almost three years older than Maddie quickly found most of the two dozen eggs I had hidden in the back yard, but he slowed down a bit and started directing Maddie towards some eggs of her own. It was just a Spring morning with Easter dresses and birds singing... I really do think they came out to watch!

After the Easter egg hunt, we went down to the German Centre for Sunday brunch at Sysery...I'll never be able to pronounce that name! We met two other couples there and sat as a group so the kids were able to play together. Maddie ate A LOT of food and then prepared for the final Easter egg hunt of 2007. As expected all of the older kids found the eggs filled with candy first which left almost nothing for the younger ones. Please know that I'm not complaining here - it's just the way things go - Maddie will do the same when she gets older. But then the coolest thing happened. If you read yesterday's blog then you'll know what I mean. Hannah, the little girl who played Annie in the SAS musical, came up to Maddie and said, "here Maddie let me share my Easter eggs and candy with you." She proceeded to fill Maddie's bag and then skipped off. Maddie turned to me and said, "I like that Annie."

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes!!!

Should a three year old have a tailor? One of the many nice things about Shanghai is the fabric market. When we first arrived in Shanghai, the fabric market was in an outside area with a "roof" of sorts and very dim lighting. The floors were dirt and the whole thing was musky yet very charming. Now, because of the Expo arriving in 2010, the fabric market has been moved to a shiny new building with shiny floors and bright lights. This means the price of fabric has gone up, but it's still downright cheap.

Today we took Jan and Greg to the fabric market so that Greg could get a suit and cashmere coat made and Jan could get a coat and other fabric for Taylor Zhu. Well, we kind of stopped at my favorite brocade silk stall at the market and the guy recognized Madeline immediately. We had a Chinese dress made for her early in August by the same man. I know I mentioned that she has grown out of that dress, so we decided to get a new one made for her. He actually charged us less than last time if you can believe that one. 200 rmb for the silk brocade fabric and tailoring... where else in the world does this happen? Maddie got measured by a man she didn't even know and I was amazed at her bravery. She's SOOOOOO shy with new people and the fact that she put her hands straight out and let him take a bunch of measurements amazed me!

We came home just in time to have Tailor Zhu's arrival. Tailor Zhu comes to our house whenever we want. We have the fabric and either have something to copy or an "idea" about what we want. Then he measures us, makes us and comes back to our house for a fitting before giving us the final product a week later. He does really, really great work and great finishing. Anyway, he is making a few dresses for Maddie this time. Is it normal for a three year old to have her own tailor??!!! ;)