AP Plaza & school work

I gave Lily several school assignments to work on today thinking that she must be missing school and the stimulation that it gives her.  I looked up several web sites with pre-k lesson plans and found several that are free.  I just need a printer, which I don't have.  So, after a quick email to the hubby and a bit of help from a co-worker and a Chinese web site our new printer should arrive tomorrow!

We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather today and walked to AP Plaza.  I had visited this underground market back in January and thought it would be fun to show the kids around.  It only took about fifteen minutes to walk to and the weather was so nice that Lily and I both ended up taking our jackets off.  There are several ways to get into the plaza but the one that seemed the closet to us, and what I'm really saying is, the one that I happened to find, was through Century Square.  Century Square is, wait for it, a big square!  Ok, it is more than that.  It has lots of water features that Lily absolutely loved and several ways to get down to the Plaza and Metro. 

The Chinese for all their love of children do NOT think about stroller access.  This particular entrance had about 50 stairs and was not something I was willing to try with Charlie.  I ended up asking some men who turned out to be shop owners and spoke passable English where I could get down with the stroller and they showed me the escalator.  Which, courtesy of the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium, I am now a pro at.  So the kids and I walked around the market for about 45 minutes and I ended up getting Lily 3 pairs of sock and some stickers.

Lily, always willing to pose for a picture, unless it is a government required one, posed for me in front of the stone sign which reads Century Square in Mandarin. 

After we walked home I made Kraft mac n' cheese with applesauce (not together) as a special treat.  As you can tell from the smiles it was a huge hit.  After lunch and a nap we went down to the park and played for an hour.  With the nice weather there were a bunch of other kids out so Lily had some friends to play with. 

Still getting the kitchen stocked up with the necessary things I need to cook dinner.  Not as easy here when I don't like to buy and lug home much more than four small grocery bags worth of stuff.  Plus I usually have to buy milk and juice every few days, they don't sell gallon size here, and that always adds a lot of weight so I buy even less on those trips.  What I need is a big strong man... anyway, we did dinner out at a cafe style place and then Haagen daz as a treat.  I even managed to get lucky and get a great shot of both kids!