Chinese New Year 2012

The week before the Chinese New Year we read about and discussed China. We also did several activities before and on Monday, January 23, to celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. While Jackson was taking a nap one afternoon we made Chinese lanterns. I was really impressed with how well the girls cut their lanterns.I gave them glitter glue and stickers to decorate and Reagan did a fabulous job!She was so meticulous with these tiny circle stickers creating patterns (and one smiley face)This is one of those times when I thought this will be a great activity and so much fun. Or not... If I thought anything would be frustrating, I would have guessed it would be cutting the lanterns. Instead Kennedy went beserk (at least 3 times) over the glitter glue. She wanted to write long complicated messages but didn't want my assistance. Even if she had let me help, I couldn't have written what she wanted to write with glue... I'm always puzzled when we have meltdowns over things like this. I made no requirements and they didn't have to use it all (either the glitter glue or write any type of message). I thought they would have a great time being creative and doing anything they wanted with glitter glue and stickers. We finally came to an agreement on a shorter message to the effect of "Happy New Year! You are nice! I love you!" (I know the message doesn't even make any sense, bless her little heart!) and she did agree to let me help her write it. Dear Lord, please help my exceedingly intense children find a way to relax and have fun! :)Once we were finished decorating we glued the lanterns together and added string to hang them up as decorationsOur finished products hanging from the light above our kitchen tableWe had a fresh bowl of oranges on our kitchen table to "Welcome a sweet New Year!"All three kids decided to dig right into the oranges and have them for breakfast. A couple of other traditions we followed were when the girls woke up in the morning they had red envelopes with $1 bills in them under their pillows so we will have a prosperous New Year as well as a sweet one! :) As you'll notice, we wore red which is a color that brings Good Luck - and we can use all of that we can get!We also tried to do a dragon craft activity since it is the year of the dragon. I had seen some cute ideas on how to do it with handprints. I knew the girls wouldn't be able to cut out enough handprints on their own so I thought we would try painting instead.Missy K punched out a bunch of circles for her dragon's taleHere are our finished dragon's. Upon seeing Kennedy's, Reagan promptly informed us it looked nothing like a dragon. I kind of have to agree. lol :) Kennedy was such a sport for this project though! We kept trying to add to our poor dragon to help it become a dragon... In the meantime Reagan determined she could do a better job making a dragon on her own and so she did. :)This has nothing to do with any Chinese traditions, but we decided to make red and yellow playdough to celebrate the holiday. We also decided to use a Kool-aid recipe I've been wanting to check out. The texture was great and the red is by far the best red I've ever made. It's truly red vs pink (sorry I didn't manage to get a picture of the final finished products). We have green/lime and purple/grape to make sometime soon too. I'll make sure I get a picture of the great colors this recipe produces then.Again, this is not a particular Chinese tradition but we thought it would be fun to make some red Kool-aid to drink with lunch. Surely it's even better luck to have red both in and outside of you?!?!?For lunch we fixed noodles so we may have long lives. :) I also pulled out some chopsticks Tim and I got while we were in China for the girls to use. They've used chopsticks before but it's pretty random. They wouldn't let me show them how so we had some interesting attempts to begin with. :) This first attempt didn't quite work out...Or maybe it works after all?Getting a bit closer to using them properlyIf all else fails, use a hand to help shovel the noodles in lol :)Reagan enjoyed trying to figure out the process as wellReagan discovered you can use the chopsticks a bit like a shovel if you put your face close enough to the plate. We seriously need some chopstick lessons around here! lol :) Since Jackson is still trying to master a fork we let him stick with that for the dayWhen you come to think of it forks are pretty useless eating tools as well. It makes much more sense to dig in with both hands!We made a Chinese dinner of which I can't remember the names of anything at the moment. It's not really that important since I didn't make anything from scratch except for the Fried Rice. My friend Kalina Kwok taught me how to make that when we lived in DC. It's so good and I'm glad I learned how from a pro! We did have long noodles for supper as well and saved them for last, per tradition, so we may have long lives. Since we ate noodles twice that day maybe we'll have super long lives!?!? :) I also purchased Fortune Cookies to enjoy for dessert.Missy K decided she needed to eat 3 Fortune Cookies. Her first one said something to the effect of her financial worries being over and prosperity being on her way. The second one said something regarding new financial opportunites being on the horizon. The third one said something about a loved one coming to visit soon. After some thought we concluded this might mean Grammy and Kennedy are supposed to go and play the lottery together.We had a wonderful time learning about China and celebrating such a fun holiday! May the Year of the Dragon bring you all much happiness and prosperity! :)