Weekend shopping

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the video game “Plants versus Zombies” is very popular among preadolescent expat boys living in Suzhou.  Earlier this week mom was able to source little cheap plastic figures that apparently immediately make you cool.  I figured anyone named McLain will need all the help they can get in that department, so I told the boys we would go the market and they could blow their allowance on the little cheapo toys. 

Side story:  one of Reid’s friends caught wind of it and invited us to lunch.  We called his parents and they said that they weren’t planning on going out to lunch at all, in fact one of them was at the gym.  Apparently he’s a pretty smart cookie because somehow he ended up at our lunch table and in the car on the way to the mall.  Not bad for an eight year old…

Anyway, we ran some other errands and I noticed the below birthday cake, which is zombie themed.  It was the size of a full sheet cake from Farm Fresh or Kroger, so it was quite large.  All of the little figures were hand formed from whatever that stuff is that they use on Ace of Cakes.  I asked how much and the lady behind the counter quoted 5,000 RMB ($763)!!!  I figured she could be talked down, but not enough for it to be worth it for the upcoming trifecta party…