Success

We bought a wooden construction puzzle in Beijing, a model of the Temple of Heaven. Both Yasent and Lucas spent time on it. This past week Lucas finally completed the project which was fairly frustrating in that the pieces would not stay together. He dubbed it the "Leaning Temple of Hell" but he did finally see it to completion.

Another Chinese creation that we found was a cake topper shaped like a flower that opens with lighted candles on each petal, turns slowly, and plays Happy Birthday. However initially one must get the whole thing going with a fireworks-type flash. As you can see, it was a bit of a surprise.

After the excitement we settled down to chocolate raspberry mousse birthday cake.

Just too Cute

One highlight of the trip was a visit to the Panda Breeding Research Center. Pandas are every bit as cute in "person" as they are in the photographs. And they appear to be not in the least bit aggressive. They spend all of their time either eating their favorite bamboo or sleeping.

The panda below may appear to be doing some exercise but he is actually just reaching for more bamboo.

They are very adept at climbing - and at relaxing.

The center also had red pandas which do not look in the least like pandas. They reminded us of raccoons.

While I'm posting too cute things I had to include Maya dressed in all the finery that we brought back for her.