One of the highlights of our trip to the States was a birthday celebration for Charlotte. Charlotte was going to turn 5 the week after we returned to Hong Kong, so we thought we would have an early family celebration for her in St. Louis. We decided to have it the night before we left, which was also a great way to get everyone together and say goodbye.
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| Almost 5! Jan made a cupcake dress for her party. |
We always like to take family pictures at the kids' birthday parties to have a record and watch the family grow up over the years.
We also tried to get a picture of the cousins. Katherine was not excited to get her picture taken. We finally got one with her standing next to everyone.
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| The little cousins |
Emily was much more cooperative.
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| Big cousins |
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| Tom's family |
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| My family |
My grandparents moved to St. Louis while we were living in Hong Kong. My cousin, Marie, also has an internship in St. Louis this summer. It was nice to have a few extra people to help celebrate.
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| Charlotte, Grandma Trudy and Marie |
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| Cousin silliness |
Charlotte received many nice presents. She had a lot of help opening her gifts. She also got some help playing with them.
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| Jan made Anna and Elsa capes for dress up. Lilia was happy to help Charlotte try them on. |
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| Everyone had to check out Charlotte's gifts |
We had a great celebration. Then, it was time to say goodbye. We had a few tears from the kids who had such a great time and didn't want to leave. After being gone for a year, they had forgotten what life was like in St. Louis and thought that if we moved back with would be like the last month of vacation we had just experienced. Their memory of school, homework and chores in Hong Kong paled in comparison to the last month of going fun places, playing with their cousins, and being spoiled by their grandparents. It was hard for all of us to leave, but we were also excited to get back to Hong Kong. There are still many things left we want to do, and this could be our last year here.
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| Charlotte and Tommy at the STL airport |
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