The Year of the Dragon ~ Jan. 21st

Saturday morning we attended our first Chinese New Year's event hosted by the Vancouver chapter of FCC ~ Families with Children from China. A large portion of the Floata restaurant in Chinatown was partitioned off for 200 plus families. There were cute little girls everywhere! A highlight was meeting a sweet little 14 month old who was recently adopted from the same orphanage as Nora. Her hair was just growing in...

We started off by getting our photo with this frightful looking man... the "God of Fortune". Nora was shaking in her boots, clinging so tightly to us. Not the best kind of fortune to be bestowed upon us! We were privileged to have Grandma attend with us also. :)

After a scrumptious "lunch", entertainment started with a traditional lion dance. Again, Nora was clutching tightly to me. I think the clanging cymbals sent her over the top... So now we know a couple of things that Nora is scared about. Previously I had believed she never experienced fear! :)

Apparently the lion is appeased by offerings of lettuce...

The older children were gathered about the stage taking it all in.

A traditional sword dance was performed next...

Thomas was most unimpressed with this performer's plastic sword, and whispered to me that he could do better than him anytime. I whispered back that it was not a weapons competition!

Watching further back was not so scary. Nora did respond more to the dancers.

Standing on a table to watch, she was starting to imitate some of the girls' hand movements.

The dancing troupe from Strathcona did a wonderful performance in their beautiful costumes.

Somehow though, I have a feeling that Nora will be introduced to martial arts before dancing lessons come up...

Graceful gazelles

The way this girl is bending her head back is a natural motion for Nora... perhaps I shouldn't be discouraging the head flinging?

Love this photo... check out the hand on the hip!

It was a most delightful afternoon, reconnecting with adoptive families we'd met before as well as meeting new ones. Thomas and Lewis were good sports to go to an event so overtaken with girls... letting them buy little gifts from the vendors present added to their enjoyment. Happy New Year from our little dragon to you!

Chinese New Year, early ~ Jan. 20th

Even though the official holiday wasn't until Monday, we joined friends Darlene and Edward and their two boys to celebrate Chinese New Year over a delicious meal at a local restaurant... it was still pretty packed.

All the boys joined us which was nice...

...even if we didn't get the best photos of them! Darlene took more pictures which maybe I can post later.

Nora thought the chopsticks were quite fun but we had to take them away when she started getting dangerously close to taking out someone's eye.

Special cookies for dessert...

Nora at home in her dragon dress... roaring like one!

Definitely a nice evening out.

Scott and his fiery daughter...

This is more at Nora's level, and ours!

Getting back to routine ~ Jan.9-14th

Monday morning I awoke with a deep sigh of contentment, mixed in with yawns as well, because I was done all the birthdays and event planning until May. :) Not that I don't enjoy it all but it is a lot of work on my end. Now I could at least imagine that I might soon find time to do some of my favourite things, with having some down time from "work", at least until someone calls in sick. Eventually my reality of how I am with a 2 year old most of the time descended upon my sleepy brain, but that's okay. (Definitely easier than having 5 kids home every day, although Nora almost makes as much mess as the boys altogether.) The new year looks bright with a lot of fun times ahead for Nora and me, as there is so much to teach her and experience together. I'm hoping that her temper will become a little easier to work with, too. So with all that deep thinking done by 9 am, we headed off to "Stay & Play" to meet up with our friends.

 

It's becoming increasingly clear that Nora's favourite time of the morning at the recreation centre is having a snack, especially when they're better snacks than what I have! :)  I think I can relate...

Meanwhile, Scott made a detour from work when he learned that the Grey Cup was on tour at Lewis' school.    BC Lions player J.R. Larose had it for the day, and wanted to share it with the children. Lewis is squished in with his friends, enjoying the excitement.

This made Scott's week, for sure!

The day got even better for him when a last-minute Taekwondo demonstration was planned for later that afternoon with a group of children from Korea. Scott made another detour from work to watch that at school... he insists that he did actually get some work done that day! :)

Scott will never miss out on a photo-op with a demo team...

On Friday night, we finally got our first snowfall of the season. 

Nora's dog "Snowy" checks out the weather...

Saturday, Nora finally got to wear her boots and snowsuit outside for the first time. She was so excited to go and join Lewis, even if the snow was melting already and slushy. Her word of the day was "snow", of course.

Uh-oh... now what, Mom?

 Lewis was happy to be out, too.

 Brotherly love, sisterly joy.

Besides the excitement of snow, Nora tried on a Halloween costume that I repaired. It's a little big, but she enjoyed talking about the "bones". She has been sick with a cold since Wednesday, so it was nice to have her happy with various diversions. Hopefully she'll be on the mend soon.

Bringing in the New Year ~Jan. 8th

Sunday night felt like a belated Christmas gathering, as we still had all our decorations up. Helped me to feel like I hadn't missed out on family time with working so much over the past few weeks.  We celebrated December and January birthdays together with extended family and friends, and had much to be thankful for. 

Nora's second cousin was looking forward to her birthday on Wednesday...

Our traditional family photo... at least with the tripod and timer we can all be in it now, with Scott making it to the front just in time!

Lewis at the "kid table" with his second cousin.

The two Grandpas... happy to visit together.

Kelly and Dave

Cousins Luke and Tricia

Mom opens her late Christmas gift from Ann... a solar-powered queen that continually waves! She really did like it as she enjoys following the Royal Family.

Birthday Boys ~ Jan. 6th & 7th

As happens every year, the celebrations go on, and on... :) Scott started his birthday off at work with wearing this lovely hat, compliments of the preschool... 

We enjoyed a family dinner out at the Olive Garden, where our teenagers were able to eat those huge portions of pasta that we usually take home...

 Always three decades apart...

Looks like Scott has two bodyguards!

Trying to coax a smile out of Nora...

Lewis has more success!

We're just happy we get to enjoy the benefits of someone else's birthday... delicious!

 Scott opened his gifts after we got home... like we had room for cake. :)

Nora was very excited to give Daddy her very own card.

So excited that she climbed onto the table...

Lewis continued his recent trend of creating original gifts. This one is basically Lewis' version of a Magic 8 Ball, which he has no prior knowledge of. It is a "B.O.A.M"... "Balloon Operated Answering Machine". By inflating the balloon and releasing it, the air will turn the labeled fan of words, which will then give the answer to whatever question you asked by where it stops at the arrow. The BOAM was quite technical in how to set it up, so Lewis was happy to explain it. James finds it all quite amusing and doesn't seem to appreciate Lewis' genius. He can't see that he and Lewis are more alike than they are different in how their minds work. Lewis is a good sport though... and he has his revenge prepared for James the next day. :)

Better patent that one soon...

Happy Birthday, Scott! Hope you felt especially loved today.

Saturday morning, James turned 18. Before he headed off to work, he opened a few gifts. Lewis and Grandpa had been hard at working creating a "mousetrap" car, as the ongoing taunt from James is that Lewis and his best friend entertain themselves by playing with mousetraps. So now James can play with his own!

Can't you see the excitement on his face?

A quick demonstration is again required... well worth the effort for the laughs we all had. :)

Nora gives James an Italian phrase book for that upcoming trip to Europe. James fails to see why he would need that to visit Italy, but you never know!

Charles is not awake yet, or very enthused. I'll let you decide.

After work James treated his friends out for dinner at Red Robin's. They all came over later to hang out and eat more food. :)

It would seem that they had a fun time... we tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Happy Birthday, James!