Chinese New Year Celebrations

We started off the Chinese New Year celebrations with Carly singing Happy New Year in Chinese.

I also took them to a fancy salon (Catherine de France) for a haircut.

We have tried quite a few new Chinese restaurants. We loved trying Chinese vegetarian pancakes and some other interesting dishes.

I put the girls in an art class and they both decorated a pig for, "Year of the Pig".

They experienced their first Chinese New Year Celebration at school, which included calligraphy, colouring, dragons, and other fun decor.

They saw their first dragon dance.

We went to stay at a friends house to take care of her kitten. The girls have really enjoyed this since they don't have any pets here in China.

Connor came to visit us and he is loving it. He has many questions, such as, "Why is that car parked on the sidewalk?", "Why are the streets so wide?", "Why do so many people smoke cigarettes?", "Why do they block so many sites on the internet?' But, he seems to love the busyness and the new sites that Beijing has to offer.

We went to a temple fair on the busiest temple fair day of the year (New Years Day). Connor got to see how squished you can get when the Chinese push you through areas that you just aren't meant to fit through. We waited in a long line just to get in the park. Then, we had to push our way in to buy a sausage. We saw a few Chinese performances and saw really pretty decor. The kids held on to me tight because it was so easy to get pushed away into a crowd. This is the first picture I got of Connor smiling and it was because he was asked to pose next to some Chinese people. White kids are so rare to them and they treat them like celebrities. I laughed so hard!

That evening, we went to a Kung Fu show. It was called, "The Legend of Kung Fu" and is a mix of martial arts and theatre. The story tells of about a young boy who dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master and attain enlightenment. He takes the path of a monk in which he must face many obstacles both from this world and his own mind to overcome his fears and to become a true master of Kung Fu.