Still celebrating...

Our local FCC group had their Chinese New Year celebration on saturday and Kerry and I decided to check it out. Up until now we've only dressed up, done crafts, ordered dumplings and put a few decorations around the house, so this was her first "real" CNY bash. She's got a book and a couple of DVD's so she's been learning all about it and is she has been so excited about all things CNY this year. I guess it's just her age, last year she was not quite three so she just wasn't that into it, and this year she understands so much more about it so it's that much more for her to be excited about.




The "Dragon and Phoenix" print dress finally came in on Friday...just in time. I love her in red.




They had some pre-dinner crafts and games set up. Oh, and was she ever excited to get her first "Hong Bao" (lucky red envelope). She carried it with her all night.





Making a little cardboard dragon flyer. Afterwards she got to try to fly it into its cave (toss it into a basket on the floor) for a little prize.



Here all of the kids were lining up for the "Dragon Parade". This was what she was really waiting for. I can't even express how proud I was of her. Even 6 months ago she struggled with going to the Sunday School class with people she was familiar with because it meant neither I or her Daddy would be there. On Saturday night she happily joined up with a large group of mostly older kids, in a room full of strangers, in a place she'd never been before, and let me out her sight to join the Dragon Parade. Something just clicked late last summer and her separation anxiety issues have been mostly a thing of the past since.



They snaked around the large gymnasium several times. I managed to catch her in action as they passed.

She's in there somewhere. She's so little I kept losing sight of her.



As the evening wrapped up Kerry and a couple of new friends decided to take advantage of the open space to blow off some energy by chasing each other around in circles while giggling wildly.





They had banners representing each Province so I had to get a shot of Kerry with the Jiangxi banner. After all of the running around, her buns were starting to reach the end of their life span... despite the bobby pins and hairspray.




And of course there was a booth set up for shopping. Kerry chose this Chinese drum and has been happily demonstrating her drum skills for everyone who will listen.

Year of the Dragon

2012 is the Year of the Dragon. In China the Dragon is considered to be a symbol of prosperity and good luck. I found this cute and easy Dragon puppet on-line for Kerry to make. She actually made two...one to keep and one she gave to friends at our favorite nearby Chinese restaurant. All she had to do was color the face and then we attached a "body" made of crepe paper streamers with scales drawn on them. So simple, and she had the best time running around the house making her Chinese dragon dance and fly.

I ordered a new red "Dragon and Phoeonix" cheongsam for Kerry to wear this year but it still hasn't arrived, so she wore her blue silks to church yesterday..the same ones she wore last year. They still fit! This was the last of the dresses that we bought in China (sniff, sniff). She's gotten taller but has gained only a couple of pounds this year. Everyone was complementing her on her beautiful dress and her pony-tails and she was positively beaming! She was so proud and was telling everyone, "It's Chinese New Year!".

It is now officially COLD. And after a mid-day bubble bath Kerry was excited to see that it had started to snow.

I think its easy to see that she could not wait to get out and play in the first snow of the season.

Right about here is when I told her we were not going outside until her hair was dry.

But she got over her disappointment pretty quickly.

I love this girl.

And all of the expressions she makes when she's talking about something exciting....like playing in the snow.

Her hair eventually dried and she got to got out and play in the little bit of snow that fell.

And catch a few snowflakes on her cute little tongue.

Hmm..I always thought Princesses were supposed to possess poise, grace, restraint...




Ah, now that's a little better.

Kerry got a cute little trunk full of fancy dresses, tiaras, jewelry, white gloves and sparkly sandals for Christmas from Uncle Dale and Aunt Stephanie. I was a little concerned that it would be completely ignored but she surprised me earlier this week by digging into it for a little dress-up session. Don't get me wrong, Kerry likes tea-parties, and lets me do cute things to her hair (while she's distracted by something "fun") but so far, that's about as "girlie-girl" as she's gotten. So I grabbed the camera and managed to snap a few photos to document this. She piled it all on, jewelry, gloves, fancy dress and shoes and , of course, tiara. It lasted long enough to parade up and down the hall a few times and admire herself in the long mirror at the end of the hall then the jewelry, shoes, and tiara were deposited back in the trunk. The dress lasted for a while, though, but does that really count when she's playing Chuck-E-Cheese's Super Collection on the Wii while wearing it ? Not sure. Anyway, it seems my girl is just going to be more of a "practical" type who just likes to dabble in the "girlie-girl" stuff now and then but just can't seem to maintain it for long periods of time (a little like myself, come to think of it). Maybe she'll prove me wrong as she get's older, but for now it seems that she just finds other things way more interesting.