FCC Chinese New Year

We attended the FCC's (Families With Children From China) annual Chinese New Year in Baltimore on Feb 7th. This is always a fun event.

The Chinese Opera was there for another performance. It was hilarious to see all of the little girls (and some boys) cover their ears immediately once they started singing.

Tru thought the Monkey King was funny. He kept asking, "Where Monkey King?" the rest of the day.

After the Opera performances the kids visited several different rooms to make arts and crafts projects including a panda bear, cherry tree blossom, New Year's cards, dragon masks, fortune cookies, etc.

Then is was music time.

"Cheese!"

Lin-Ley took a seat right beside the music instructor as if she were the assistant.

Finally! The children were given a chance to play the instruments.












While some children and parents played the bells the older children performed a small dragon dance.










There is a little boy stowing away under neath the dragon! If he stands very still maybe no one will notice.









Lin-Ley was a proud big sister to Tru. This was his first FCC Chinese New Year event so she had to show him the ropes.














The little assistant was chosen to play the triangle as the smaller children had their turn at a dragon dance.









After a nice lunch of Chinese Food it was time for the much anticipated finale. The Dragon Parade.

"Hey! There's a Dragon up there!"

"A Dragon!"

"A Dragon!"

"A Dragon!"

The Dragon started up on stage but soon jumped down right into the crowd of screaming little girls (and some boys!). The girls crowding around him to feed her their red envelopes. All of the money (in the red envelopes) that is collected by the Dragon is given to a charity sponsored by the FCC.

One of the older girls holds up the green vegetable for the Dragon.


The Dragon takes the vegetables, chews them up and then spits them back out. If the vegetable hits you that means you will have luck all year long.

I caught a piece of the lettuce and gave it to Tru. He immediately began reaching toward the Dragon trying to feed him.

(Lin-Ley is on the far right in the white skirt and red jacket.)

Try as he might Tru could not get the Dragon's attention. Soon the Dragon was back on stage to finish their show.

























Afterward all of the children had the opportunity to take photos with the Dragon and the drum crew.










Tru was still trying to feed the Dragon!











Finally! After standing patiently in front of the then empty Dragon costume for about 5 minutes and holding out the lettuce one of the performers came over, put on the Dragon mask, and accepted Tru's offering!!















Fun time!
On the way home Tru had his nap so it was time to play outside once we arrived home. It was around 60 degrees out. The yard was super muddy due to all of the melting ice and snow. That did not deter Dallas or the kids.

However, about 2 minutes after Tru joined Dallas and Lin-Ley outside I heard Dallas calling me. Somebody fell down into the mud almost immediately. And he did not like it!!












After a quick change it was back outside.






On the other side of the yard Lin-Ley was determined to stomp through as much of the remaining snow as possible.











Quote Of The Day:
True friends are those who really know you but love you anyway.
Edna Buchanan

Celebrating The Lunar New Year

We began celebrating the Lunar New Year last Sunday. I guess that would have been New Year's Eve.


Many of our church members gathered together to make Chinese dumplings. Yum!
Lin-Ley quickly got in on the action. The elders there showed her what to do and she got to work.






This was one of her first dumplings. She was so proud!

Dallas wasted no time. He grabbed a rolling pin and started rolling out the dumpling dough. He rolled out one dumpling for every three or four the ladies around him finished. Of course they are pros.

After running around for a while and sampling the already cooked dumpling Tru decided he wanted in on the action. The rolling pins looked especially tempting. The "play dough" (as he called it) looked fun.

First he gets a lesson on how to roll the dough.




Then... like father - like son.











In the end it was best to leave it to the pros.

It was a fun time! Of course in the end we got to eat as many dumplings as we wanted!!

YUMMY!

The next day I took a vacation day and took Lin-Ley to a Lunar New Year celebration.

First stop - photo op.

The first performance was by the Chinese Opera of Washington DC.

Here is the Monkey King.















The Monkey King was full of mischief. He was so funny.

Here is the Monkey King's enemy. They fought for a while and then in the end discovered that they could get into mischief together.













This is a Chinese Princess waiting in the courtyard for her love.

Their costume were just beautiful. So ornate and detailed.

When this Princess began singing Lin-Ley leaned over to me and said, "Mom, that lady is making some weird noises. What is that?" I told her that was the lady singing and she gave me a look. It made me laugh out loud.

Members of a Korean dance school performed a fan dance. It was beautiful.

Many of my photos came out dark and I had to lighten them. Unfortunately many of my photos do not do justice to the beautiful costumes the performers were wearing.

A martial arts school performed a traditional dragon dance.

Here the dragon tries to wake Buddha.

Another professional troupe from Washington DC perform a dragon dance.

After the many, beautiful performance there were boothes throughout the community center with activities for the kids. They could make a kite, have their names written in Chinese by a master calligrapher, make necklaces and wall hangings, sample Chinese food, as well as many other activities. And don't forget the face painting....

While waiting to have her face painted Lin-Ley found another Chinese Princess.

Finally!

She was beautiful - even if she did say so herself!

All smiles!!

After a long day of celebrating it was time to move the party to Tru's school. Lin-Ley and I had a mini Lunar New Year celebration with the kids in Tru's class. They had colored pictures of dragons the week prior and over the weekend we had made them all dragon masks. Lin-Ley read them a book, we acted out all of the activities of the New Year celebration and then led the kids in a Dragon Parade. Over all I think the kids enjoyed it but they are only three years old!

After that it was time for dinner. There was really only one choice - Chinese Food!

Unfortunately Dallas could not join us. Because he was at Disney World! Yes - Disney World! He insists that it was all business... The kids missed him for a week but he brought them presents so they did not mind so much.

And that was our Lunar New Year celebration. Of course the celebration traditionally lasts 15 days so I'm sure we can find a reason to continue the celebration for another week.

新年快乐

Xīnnián kuàilè

Happy New Year

Disney Magic

While we were at Disney there were several incidents that were a result of Disney Magic. I have been thinking about them and decided to share them.

* On the first day in the Magic Kingdom, as we were sitting down to lunch, I noticed that my watch was missing. I knew that I had it on less that 30 minutes earlier so Dallas took off to retrace our steps. Nothing. I was so sad because Dallas gave me that watch the first Christmas we were married and I had worn it almost everyday since then. But, there was nothing we could do. One of the Cast Members told us to check the lost-and-found at City Hall on our way out of the park. So... just for kicks Dallas went in to see if anyone had turned in my watch. He walked out with a grim expression and told me that there were so many people in there that they took his description and told him to come back tomorrow. Before I could say anything he smiled and pulled my gold watch out of his pocket.
DISNEY MAGIC!

* On our second day we visited EPCOT. We were nearing the end of our day and someone just walked up to Gabby (my sister) and handed her a "No Strings Attached" ticket. This is a ticket that allows you to not only ride absolutely any ride in the park but you go to the front of the line. The ticket was for four people so Gabby was kind enough to give it to us. We were a little cautious because this ticket seemed a little too good to be true. So we chose a ride, asked a Cast Member how we were to go about using this ticket, and he immediately told us to "follow me". Off we went. He took us behind the scenes where only employees go to walk us around to the very front of the ride. Handicapped people even had to wait so we could get on the ride first. I do not know how you obtain a "No Strings Attached" ticket but I want about 50 more of them please.
DISNEY MAGIC!

* What was Tru's favorite ride at Disney World? Well it's a toss up between the "Choo-Choo" (which includes the train in the park as well as the Monorail) and the elevator in our hotel. Everyone asks, "Was it a glass elevator?" Nope - just a plain old ordinary elevator.
Once we rode the Monorail "Choo-Choo" and were asked if the kids would like to be honorary conductors. Ummm... yes! So we were all able to sit up front with the Monorail conductor.
We had no intention of trying to use Tru's prosthesis as a means to any special attention or advantages while at Disney. However, both times we were going to ride the train (Tru's favorite ride) the Cast Members just happened to see Tru's red leg and offered him (and his family) special accommodations on the train.
DISNEY MAGIC!

* When we took Lin-Ley and Tori to the Princess Dinner they were both complimented on their princess attire. The girls took it is stride and enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Their excitement was almost tangible!
DISNEY MAGIC!

* While at Disney Donna and Tom discovered that they could not find their car keys. Of course they would need those once they landed back in NC. Luckily a friend was able to pick them up at the airport. And... about five days after returning from Disney Donna received a call that their keys were found at the airport and were being returned.
DISNEY MAGIC!

* And finally... after spending over 20 hours together in a small car traveling between Louisiana and Florida, Gabby and Mike were still on speaking terms.
DISNEY MAGIC!

But the Disney Magic is slowly wearing off...
Lin-Ley and I attended a Chinese New Year performance last weekend. Door prizes were given out. We did not win a prize - but the lady sitting directly next to me did.
Lin-Ley was beside herself!!

DISNEY - Days 4 & 5 - Hollywood Studios & The Magic Kingdom (Again)

We arrived home on January 1, 2009 before noon. Happy New Year!

What a trip! Here a few more photos.


Here we are at Hollywood Studios on the San Francisco street set.











Lin-Ley posed beside the Chinese Laundry.

From time to time one of the characters or cast members would ask where we were from. Lin-Ley would always speak up and say, "I'm from China."














Our stay at Hollywood Studios was rather short. We saw many things and the adults rode the big rides but it got very crowded. So we headed back to our room to rest up for the following morning which would be our last day at Disney.


We were hanging out near the front of the Magic Kingdom on Main Street because we had seen Snow White there before. While we waited Pinocchio showed up.
















We continued to wait but no Snow White. Finally a cast member asked who we were waiting for. She went into the nearest building and just a few minutes later there she was.
















Tori was not fond of the furry characters but she loved all of the princesses! Snow white was the last one on her list.















One last ride on Dumbo.













And the carousel.











Pooh and Tigger!













Tru showed Tigger some of his bouncy moves. Tigger eventually joined in.















After five days at Disney we finally tracked down Mickey and Minnie.

Kisses all around.
















































"I like your shoes Mickey."
















Fairy Godmother. This was a treat because we did not see her last time.
















Captain Hook and Mr. Smee.













Peter Pan.




















At this point, around 11:30AM, the park was super crowded. We learned from a cast member that New Year's Eve was the busiest day of the year for Disney. They expected the park to be at full capacity (80,000 people) by 1PM. There was to be a huge fireworks display at midnight. So if we were going to see the fireworks we would not be able to leave the park. Once we left we would no be able to reenter the park.
Obviously that was not an option. It was so crowed that it was very difficult for us maneuver through the park back to Main Street. It was time to call it a day.
Luckily we were able to see everything/everyone except Ariel, Mulan and Mary Poppins. We saw Ariel and Mulan last time but had never been able to find Mary Poppins.
So, we started (very slowly) to make our way through the crowd to exit the park.



We may as well make a trip into the stores on Main Street on our way out.

Tru does not do hats. This is the closest we could get him to wear Mickey Mouse ears.











As we were approaching the exit there she was! Mary Poppins!
Hooray!

First thing first - kisses for Mr. Penguin.











Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!













Love this photo!

Mary Poppins - practically perfect in every way!












And that wraps up our fun trip to Disney World!





















Quote Of The Day
"This was a great trip. Now I need a vacation!"
Jody