Happy Birthday Ellie

Happy Birthday Ellie!!
Today Ellie woke up at around 7:00 a.m. WAHOO!!! We actually slept in a little bit. She came in and begged to open her presents. Yesterday I asked the driver to take us to a toy store and he took us to a huge store that was like a 2 story Toys R Us. Ellie looked and looked and had a hard time finding exactly what she wanted. Finally she said she would like this fake nail set. It was only 60 rupees (1.00) so I told her if she was really good I might get it. I had already snook a few gifts to the counter at the front of the store. She saw me buy the nails, but didn't see the others until we got out to the car, and they were already wrapped. I must say I did a pretty good job for having to take her shopping for her own gifts.
Ellie had it all planned out what we would do for her birthday. After breakfast the girls went to the Spa and got Pedicures.
Maddie flaked out by the time it was her turn so it just ended up being Ellie and me. This is the finished product. Unfortunately after the pedicures all of her plans were foiled. She really wanted to go find an elephant to ride, or go bowling, but after the cake expedition, we didn't have enough time.
After the pedicure the driver, Basheer, took me to a bakery so I could get Ellie a cake. I would have just made her one, but we have no oven. I walked into the bakery and asked if they had any cakes. They told me they did and asked what flavor I wanted. Of course I picked out chocolate. They told me it would be about 20 minutes while they frosted it with her name on it so I decided to do a little grocery shopping there. When I finished I went back to the bakery and they told me 10 minutes more. I took the groceries to the car and decided to sit in the bakery to wait. 45 minutes later the cake was done. Apparently, I asked for Chocolate not knowing that they didn't have a chocolate cake so instead of telling me that they didn't have that kind, they made one. Needless to say it was a very fresh yummy cake.

We went tonight to Fun City to celebrate because she had sat in the hotel room all afternoon waiting for me to come back with her cake. When we got down to the car, Basheer had bought her a gift. He handed her a huge box of Cadbury Milk Chocolates. This was a huge gift, the people here do not have much money and to go and get Ellie something was very, very, very generous. Since we have been here we have had 3 different drivers. Basheer is by far my favorite. He is very helpful and speaks very well. He is full of information and tries to help me to get to know where I am. He is also very patient with the kids. 

Tonight we went to dinner at the Leela Palace, a huge hotel that I would compare to the Grand America Hotel, with Alan's boss Mickey. They had a big American Celebration with Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, French Fries, Pizza, and Steaks. It was such good food. Unfortunately I think we've made our kids gun shy about tasting food. Every time we eat we try and compare it to something our kids like so that they will taste it. Now, they wouldn't even eat a hot dog for fear that it wouldn't really taste like a hot dog.

We got back to the hotel about 9:00 tonight! YES We actually stayed awake until 10:00 tonight!!! When we got home we were able to sing to Ellie and have our delicious chocolate cake, then she got the spanking machine as she crawled into her bed.