Dragonboat Festival

What a busy, fun, hot day on the plaza, participating in the "Dragonboat Festival!"

Kayli and I had really been looking forward to this day. Not only did we have a lot of fun at this festival last year, but this year, we had the additional excitement of Kayli performing on stage! Miss Lily, Kayli's Chinese dance teacher, had all the girls and their parents meet in the Plaza garage to have a snack and prepare to perform. I was in charge of the red ribbons that needed to be tied in all the girls' pigtails. "Smile, girls..."

Ok, it's time to head to the stage."Dance your hearts out girls..."

Way to go girls! Now, Kayli is scheduled to sing with the Children's Choir from "Families Blessed with the World's Children" towards the end of the program, so we decided this would be a good time to check out the dragonboat races taking place right behind us, on the creek. Marion, Jake, Suzanne, Kayli, and I headed over there to check them out...

well, there we were, standing with the crowd, watching the boats, when all of a sudden, one of them  capsized...yikes! They had to postpone the race while they got everyone out of the water, then bailed out the boat!

we walked around, checking out the vendors, ducked into a department store to shop/cool off a bit, then headed back to the stage area for Kayli's second debut. We had all the kids lined up, ready to go on stage, when the chairperson of the festival entertainment decided to insert a "magic act" before our number. I heard that it was quite good, but the problem for us was that it was already 12:30, we had a bunch of sweaty, hot, hungry kids, ranging in age from 3-7, who had already been waiting a long time, and the littlest ones were starting to show their impatience (if you know what I mean?!) Now, take a look at this line up below and NOTE the little boy sitting next to Kayli and the wall behind him...

 ...so, right before we were to go on stage, we were all standing in a bunch, by this wall, (right stage entrance) next to a small tent, intermixed with a crowd of adults. Well, all of a sudden, I see an older lady lose her footing on the uneven surface, and start to fall backwards and a few people scrambled to catch her. They managed to break her fall, but in the process, they knocked little 4-yr-old-Tai off the edge of the wall, and he went tumbling down the hill toward the creek, brushing the edge of the tree, which slowed him down but added a few scrapes. Then, with the help of his guardian angel, he managed to roll straight into a small family picnic, which stopped his descent, thank goodness! He was quite scared and upset, and after refusing to go up on stage, he eventually pulled it together, and joined in on the part of the program where the kids used Chinese words to tell the audience their names and ages...

one of the songs they sang was about tigers, which is why you see the tiger ears and tails...

we had a leisurely lunch on the plaza, then Kayli and I walked over to Halls to buy some special candy, from their candy counter, that I had promised her we would get before going home. She and I stayed with the theme of the day, stopping at the International Mkt on the way home and getting some Chinese food for dinner, and a box of their yummiest fortune cookies! Once, we got home, of course I had to take a few more pictures of Kayli in her costume, which was already losing it's feathers, the hem was coming out, the decal was coming loose, but my sweet pea still looked like a shining star!