Teacha Bailey's Dinner Party

Bailey's cute 4th grader, Anna, texted him the other day inviting us to dinner with her and her family.  When they picked us up tonight, Anna told us (in her amazing English!) that we were actually going to a restaurant and would be meeting up with four of his other students!  It was a party!

They didn't just take us to any restaurant... they took us to Summer's, one of our favorite western restaurants here in Changzhou.  They didn't know it was one of our favorites though!

Bailey and I ordered a hamburger meal to split, but ended up eating WAY too much food because Anna's mom ordered a whole chicken, a whole bunch of wings, pizza, cheese fries, yogurt, and fried shrimp for all of the table to share.  Then she disappeared outside with the other parents, so it was up to Bailey's five students, two little sisters, Bailey, and me to eat it all!  I think we did pretty well.  The food was so good and it was so fun to meet and visit Anna, her little sister Cincia, Birdie, her little sister with a Chinese name that I can't remember, Parker, Jerry, and Francis.  They all just LOVE Bailey!  The girls were so excited to take lots of selfies with him.  With all of the normal Asian filters, of course.

This is Birdie's little sister who was just adorable!  She wanted to hold my hand all evening!

The girls, when they saw my phone, helped me download these apps so that I could join in on the fun, haha.  This whole time, I was munching on the bayberries that Anna and Cincia picked earlier today.  I love bayberries!

After a while, the kids grew weary of sitting hanging around a table, and asked their parents if we could walk around the mall.  The parents loaded their kids up with money (Qing Ying is an expensive private school, and ILP kids pay double tuition, so you can imagine what kind of families these kids come from) and sent us on our way!

Bailey and I were just following the kids, and for some reason Anna wanted to go to Starbucks.  She had remembered that Bailey said he doesn't drink coffee, so she ordered us some hot chocolate which was really thoughtful!  Then the kids bought ice cream and we were on our way to the fourth floor!

Malls are so weird here.  The fourth floor of this mall was just for kids, and was like a mystical maze to walk through.  It was really fun to see!

Our destination was this little arcade with only claw machines.

I took this picture of Birdie's little sister's hair so you can see what typical little girl hairdos are like here!

Anna won a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal which she gave to Bailey and a little Totoro which she tried to give to me.  But how could I keep it when I saw little Cincia shriek and hug it the moment it fell out of the machine?!  Cincia is insanely adorable.  She balanced the little Totoro on her head for the rest of the night!

That was pretty much all we did tonight, but we had so much fun!  Anna's mom drove us back home and gave us a tea set that Anna's art teacher had painted.  It is gorgeous!  And already packed away, otherwise I'd show you a picture.  They were so generous with us tonight, we feel very loved and appreciated!  And very sad, thinking about leaving and never seeing our students again.

 Jerry, Parker, Anna, Cincia, Birdie's little sister, Birdie, and Francis

Their "silly faces"