新年快樂

What a day! First of all...our weather is crazy! Today felt like spring....in JANUARY! Spring! Bring on a good snowstorm or two for crying out loud! I mean...I love my kiddos and have way too much to do to miss a day of school...but who doesn't love an unexpected snow day or delay? :) We're supposed to see some flurries tomorrow but the rest of the week is partly sunny! It's so unlike the weather we normally have in Northern Ohio this time of the year. Oh well, at least my friends will get some outdoor recess this week!

Happy Chinese New Year! Today was so much fun! We are definitely a bit more cultured thanks to today! (By the way...have you ever played with Google Translate? How fun! I used this to create the title of my post. I need to remember this for next year!) After reading and talking about our Weekly Reader on the Chinese New Year, we made these fun dragons from Kaye Espinosa @ TLC Lessons. I believe the pattern is in her winter book.

Her directions call for a white body but the more we read today about how important the colors red and gold are, we had to tweak it a bit!

Later in the day we made some simple red paper lanterns with a 12x18-inch piece of red paper. We folded it hotdog style and cut some strips beginning with the folded edge and stopping before we reached the opposite edge of the paper. When we opened them, we just stapled the edges and attached a loop so that we could hang them around the room! (If we had more time, we would have inserted a yellow piece of construction paper so that our lanterns would glow. Next year!)

Then came the time for our taste test. Talk about hilarious! I should have taken a video because to see my kiddos using their chopsticks to eat was so funny! Many of them invented their own way to use their chopsticks...it took them forever to sample all of the goodies but they loved it! They even tried some hot tea (decaffeinated, of course). The chopsticks came with "helpers" that we could attach, but I didn't hand these out until the very end. Here are a few pictures of my firsties doing their very best!

There are more pictures from our day posted on our website! Feel free to take a peek!

More Chinese New Year Pictures

Then came time for our Fortune Cookies! I just love when our fortunes kind of fit my kiddos! My fashionista's fortune was something like "A glamorous life awaits you." My bubbly blonde's fortune was, "You will have a happy life in your old age." Each fortune was somehow appropriate for each of my kiddos. We talked about what each one meant together and it was fun to listen to their understandings of the fortunes and how they applied to their lives.

And then there was mine...

Ummm...yep.

"Miss Long...what's matrimony?", the cuties chorused.

"Well, friends...it's like getting married", I reply.

"Like Prince Charming?" they asked.

"Yep. Like Prince Charming!", I say.

"Well, where the heck is he Miss Long?", my one who struggles with self-editing shouts out. :)

I couldn't help but crack up! They're just too funny!

Hope everyone survived their Monday! (Our first full 5-day week of 2012 is this week! YIKES!)

Take care,

Jenn