Happy Year of the Snake!

To welcome the year of the snake we did our annual trip to the Chinese cultural center. The day before I went to Isaac preschool class and we talked about Chinese New Year which included reading a book about a little boy who performs the lion dance. We watched a brief video of it and Isaac was captivated by the martial arts aspect of it. Of course when the drums started beating and the gongs began ringing, he knew just what to look for. Here's a shot of him next to the lion head.


Keila was facinated with all the dances and particularly their beautiful dresses. She had me chuckling for the first while since every older Chinese man she saw she'd exclaim, "look Ma, it's grandpa!" My only explanation is either she hasn't seen her grandpa enough or she hasn't seen enough Asians to differentiate between them!


Of course shared our traditions and culture with our preschool classes. Isaac had his classmates so hyped up for it they were chanting about it and wishing everyone a happy Chinese New Year the day before. It was a lot of fun teaching it to the older kids. They really worked hard at their Chinese characters and I was rather impressed. Mrs Crabb said that she was a little worried (of the class of fifteen, thirteen were active boys) how engaged they would be but apparently they were happily occupied for over a half hour!


This was Keila's first time having me in her class and she was thrilled. Her classmate Samuel is originally from Taiwan and Mrs chin made potstickers for them. The younger class was much more adventurous when it came to the traditional candies. The three girls in her class nearly polished it all off. Here's a shot of Keila and Sammy in their traditional outfits doing what kids traditionally love - digging!

Sunday night we had hot pot with the Ellis'. Their children are nearly the exact same ages as ours and the kids had so much fun. Given the chance I think Keila would gladly trade Isaac for a older sister in Noelle!

Good food, good friends, good fun!!!