Happy birthday, Molly!

September was a fun-filled month for us! Molly turned 5 on the 7th, and Hudson turned 3 on the 30th. It felt like we spent the whole month celebrating and opening cards and packages from friends. :) Thank you very much to all of you who made our children's first birthdays in China so special.

Every other week we gather with a few close foreign friends at our friend's home for a specific time to pray for the nations. We started off September by celebrating Molly and our friend Teshuah, who turned 4. Aren't those little cakes cute? They have peaches and cherries on top -- it is quite common for Chinese cakes to have fruit slices and cherry tomatoes on top.

Molly's birthday was on a Friday, and we had a fun day together with pancakes for breakfast (thank you, import aisle!) and bean burritos for lunch (we actually found flour tortillas). The day before at preschool, I taught a birthday-themed English lesson in all the classes and Molly brought Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies to share with her class. We held a small party for six of her friends at our apartment Saturday morning. Hudson was so excited before the guests arrived!

I couldn't resist ordering this panda cake for Molly's first Chinese birthday! There is a small bakery right across the street from us called Bread Garden, and it was so convenient to pick it up Saturday before everyone arrived. (Here's one perk of not having an oven -- no stress over baking a beautiful birthday cake by myself!) It was chocolate inside.

Cakes are very common here, but cupcakes are not. I went to three bakeries in our neighborhood before I found what I was looking for -- cupcake-shaped muffins! The import aisle had Betty Crocker chocolate frosting, and my mother-in-law sent sprinkles. Decorating the "cupcakes" was a hit!

My mother-in-law also sent most of the decorations and the crafts. Party products are available here but hard to find. A country of 1.3 billion people has to conserve on paper products wherever possible, so wrapping paper and coordinated items like Tinkerbell plates, napkins and tablecloths are very rare.

We had a craft table for decorating bookmarks and doorhangers with stickers.

Dance party! We played some of Molly's favorite songs and paused them randomly to watch the kids freeze mid-dance. It was hilarious! (And we completely copied the idea from Abby Carver's 5th birthday party.)

Happy birthday, precious Molly Renee! We are incredibly blessed to be your parents and thankful to see your progress adjusting to life in China. This has been a year of tremendous change, and you are doing so well. 我们祝你生日快乐!