Yesterday, we attended a celebration for "Yuan Hsiao Jie" (known as the Lantern Festival), which marks the 15th day of the Lunar New Year. The area where our cottage is invited everyone to make little dumplings, sing kareoke, light fireworks, watch a show, drink and eat, and enter a prize draw. We arrived on time at 4pm, which meant the kids and I got to help out with the dumplings, and Richard got to sing before the crowds arrived.
Here are the kids with our neighbor and her daughter (next to Kyle), rolling the dumplings. You are supposed to put the balls into the basket in the front of the picture and roll them in tapioca flour, but as we had so many, that step was finally skipped. As you can see, Kyle saw it as a chance to roll some interesting shapes. I think he was making a robot in this picture.
During the festivities, I think we met half of Kyle's prospective schoolmates. So far, his first grade class has enrolment of 6 kids including him. The parents told me it's fantastic, as the teacher knows each of the kids very well. The children we met yesterday from the school really looked out for each other. Having only 90 kids in the school will at least mean everyone will know all about me within a day or so. It gets old explaining to kids where I am from, day after day, when I pick up Kyle at his current school.
I have a great video of Hannah working to throw the unrolled balls to us for rolling, but I can't figure out how to load it...
On Saturday, I took Hannah to my friend's wedding. Hannah insisted on taking her crown, and waited for the bridal march before putting it on:
Serious case of red-eye, there, and a mouthful of candy. Quite the stylist, she is wearing her Pumpkin Patch floral skirt and a t-shirt that says "Swiss Pretty Miss" and boasts a dancing cow. Guess the last owner was from Switzerland.
It was really good to attend this wedding, as I got to see friends from my SPIN days. I hadn't caught up with them since I had Kyle and really miss them. Now they starting their own families, we might be able to meet up more often in kid-friendly places, who knows?
Today, Kyle was in school and I took Hannah to Ren-Ai Park in Yung-Ho to see the lantern display, and tried to find the Museum of World Religions. Of course with my sense of direction, I failed to find the museum, but we did manage to visit a couple of bookstores and have a chat with a teashop owner and a Filipino nanny working inYung-Ho. With temperature up to the high '20's (celsius), it was a great day for just wandering around.
