Our birthday boy woke up to a sunny Shanghai Friday with a "Is it my birthday today?  Yes?  Yeeeeeahh!" We proceeded to sing happy birthday in English, Finnish and Chinese and the smile on that little boys face couldn't have been any wider.

Then it was off to presents. First? A toy parking garage, or more like a high tech Japanse car lift slash race track down tunnels and slick curves. We paid an arm and leg for it at the local Toys R Us store but the way it came together and how well everything including the car lift works (!), is a big tumbs up to Japanese quality. The kids (including Raili) kept themselves busy with it for hours, a sign of a good gift I think.

In the evening we had cake with presents from Nana and Papa and we watched the first episode of Star wars as Kai was squeeling from joy with his very first toy gun.

On Saturday, we headed up north to the Shanghai Circus world. David had scored great tickets over the phone and we found ourselves sitting a mere twelve feet away from the performers. The kids were excited to see clowns, horses, dancing poodles, magicians as well as real lions, white tigers and no-so-cuddly bears (oh my). My guess is we won't have a chance to sit that closely to predators anywhere else in the world and I concluded I'm ok with that. The nylon net that separated us from the not-so-friendly looking beasts would have probably been ok for the first five seconds in case of a loose lion. Needless to say, we didn't go backstage for pictures.

Instead, we had ice cream cones at Haagen Daaz and a dip in our pool afterwards.  It was a fun way to celebrate Kai turning four and our two years in Shanghai. We also started the clocks for a countdown to our well needed vacation in Finland.  Ten...