Alfredo's Birthday and Last Night With Carrasco's

To breakfast.  Carrasco's walked in and Cameron immediately said "happy birthday" to Alfredo.  He turned 12.  After breakfast Alfredo and Alejandro went to our room with us.  Fredy and Ileana had to check out of their apartment with the landlord so the boys wanted to stay with us.  The boys played while I worked on the blog.

Great kids.

Around 11:45 Cameron and I ran to the Isetan Mall so we could pick up a pie from Anna Miller Pie Company.  I quizzed Alfredo the day before on what kinds of pie he liked.  He said pumpkin.  I asked about chocolate and he said he had only had it at the Parrot and it wasn't very good.  Of course it wasn't because it was Chinese pie.

We tried to get a whole pumpkin pie but they didn't have one.  They said I could buy the one with a piece out of it.  Ummm, no.  That would look weird singing happy birthday with a piece missing. They had a whole chocolate pie but we had never tasted it.  We decided to buy one piece and share it so we could see if it was good or not.  It was.  We ended up buying a whole chocolate pie and a piece of pumpkin as a back up for Alfredo.  He is lucky we love him because the whole chocolate pie cost 207 rmb ($34).  We bought a whole pie in Hawaii at the Anna Miller shop there and it was $10.93. Same shop but way different prices.  Oh well, it was worth it and yummy.

We went to the apartment to drop the pie off.  We decided to stay there until 12:30 then walked over to Ashanti for a lunch date with some girls.  There were 16 of us including kids.    We had a nice time.  The last chance for us to say goodbye...again.

Anthony had two Lava Cakes with a candle in one on a plate.  He brought it out and everyone started singing to Alfredo.  The problem was he sat it in front of Alejandro.  We thought he was just joking but then Alejandro blew out the candle.  Anthony told him happy birthday and took the candle. Ileana finally told him that he had the wrong kid.  Anthony was so embarrassed.  Later Anthony told us he asked Alejandro if it was his birthday and he answered yes.  Silly boy.  He finally put the cakes in front of the right kid and we sang again.  Too funny.  I was pretty sure in the text I sent him I said it was Alfredo's 12th birthday.  We were teasing him about Alejandro not looking like he was 12. Never a dull moment.

Under the birthday sign.

Big smiles.

Putting the cakes in front of Ale.

Finally in front of Alfredo.

The girls having lunch.

I will miss Anthony, Ileana, and Jessica tons.

After lunch we walked back to the apartment.  Todd met us there.  We were having Carrasco's over for their last meal in TEDA.  We hung out for awhile and Todd and I may have fallen asleep for a bit while Cameron was on his kindle.

Fredy first said he would get of work at 4.  I received a text at 4:30 that said he thought 5:15.  No problem.  I cut all the meat and veggies up and made the kabobs.  Todd started grilling some lamb chops and chicken strips for appetizers.  No Carrasco's yet. He had to get the kabobs on before the heat left the grill and luckily that is when the doorbell rang...6:30.  The Carrasco family had arrived.

Best buddies.

Todd and Fredy hanging on the porch.

The kids immediately started making up games to play.  They tried hide and seek for awhile but in a basically empty apartment it made it a little difficult to find a good hiding spot.  Next thing we saw them sitting in a circle with a bottle spinning in the middle.  Todd said "I think they are playing spin the bottle".  We all jumped up (we were on the patio) to look at them.  They got off the table and went to the floor for more room.  We walked in and asked what they were playing.  Their answer? Truth or Dare.  Too funny.  They were having a blast.

A lamb chop appetizer.

Truth or dare.

Jahmy Hindman came up too.  His family was still gone for the summer so he was bored and needed some food. We got everybody fed.  Kabobs were good.  I grabbed the pie and we sang to Alfredo.  He said the chocolate pie was ok but he ate the whole piece.  He then ate the pumpkin pie piece too.

Happy Birthday to you...

Ileana served the pie.

We had a half piece of pie left and Todd said he should shove it in Marcela's face...jokingly.  She started begging for Ileana to let him.  She finally grabbed the camera and said it was ok.  She had on a new dress so Todd told her to hang a paper towel on the top so pie wouldn't get on it.  Todd attempted a couple times but Marcela kept backing up.  Todd finally put his hand on the back of her head but not tight enough.  When he went to smash her face in it she ducked. The pie flew to the ground but bounced off her dress in several places and she got a big wad in her hair.  She was cracking up.  It ended up being way more of a mess but it was funny.

Marcela was ready.

It made way more of a mess than it was suppose to.

We cleaned up and then gathered stuff for Jahmy to take home that we couldn't use anymore.  We then showed him how to make 3,2,1 cake in the microwave.  Ileana had the mix.  He used too small of a coffee cup and it made a mess in the microwave.  It still tasted good though.  Ileana decided to try one too.  Jahmy ended up taking the mix home so he could make himself some treats.  He said that is his kind of baking.

Watching a little tv.

Jahmy left and we were dreading the next goodbyes.  Ileana then said she had something for us.  I already had tears starting to flow and Marcela handed me a book.  BEST BOOK EVER!!!!  She put together pages of activities we had done together or that the boys had done over the last two years.  It was so cool.  There were a ton more tears.

I told them we weren't leaving the apartment at the same time as them.  I didn't want us to all walk back to the hotel together and then have to say goodbye again there.  We gave big hugs to everyone and said our final goodbyes.  Well, not goodbyes.  More like see ya later because we will see them again.

They walked out and we shut the door.  I felt empty and felt like something was already missing. I was so sad.  I was shocked at how well Cameron held it together.  He had been so upset thinking about this day but when it came to it he was very strong.

We walked back to the hotel and got ready for bed.  Todd and Cameron were out cold and I couldn't sleep.  I missed the Carrasco's already even though they were only 10 floors below us.  I kept thinking about all the fun times we had and how thankful I was that our families were brought together.  I finally just sent Ileana an email and then I finally could fall asleep.

Cameron could sleep.