Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year...the year of the Monkey! Next year will be Kayli's big year as a Rooster, so we'll have to do something extra special when the next Chinese New Year rolls around. This year, we bought tickets to a venue that we have loved the last few years. The organization called "Families Blessed with the World's Children" hosted a Chinese New Year Celebration that included lots of fun activities for the kids, a full Chinese dinner, entertainment, and a silent auction. The people that belong to this group are such wonderful people, so welcoming and kind and fun! Here are some pictures I took throughout the night...

in one room there was a Chinese artist instructing people on how to paint a panda picture like the ones above. Kayli and I discovered that it was WAAAAY harder than it looked, as it required very precise management of the water to ink/paint ratio...

moving on to some colored pencil/marker art...

Kayli brought her money for purchasing raffle tickets...

the dinner was delicious...

then came the entertainment, there was dancing...

there was singing...

the group above was a volunteer group of young children adopted from China, who learned some very cute songs in Chinese to sing for the audience. This is the same choir that Kayli sang with when she was younger. 

Next, all the kids in the audience were invited to come up on stage, participate in a traditional Chinese act of bowing before receiving the traditional red envelopes which contained Chinese money.

Next, came the part that Kayli told me was her ALL TIME FAVORITE part of the night...the Traditional Chinese Lion Dance...

this performance is incredibly dynamic! The characters are so lifelike as they duck and bow at people while they march and dance around the room to the drum beats!

Finally, to top off the evening, everyone received a sheet of bubble wrap. Then, following a count down, everyone would stomp on this bubble wrap at the same time, making popping sounds to simulate firecrackers!

the bonus of the evening for me was that I earned the top bid on an auction basket that was Asian themed, containing things like wall hangings, a small scrapbook with a Chinese silk on the front cover, a special painting donated by "Miss Lily" who is a talented artist and dance teacher, and an assortment of other Asian themed nick nacks.

What a great time we had tonight, ushering in another Chinese New Year!