Chinese New Year - 2010 Year of the Tiger

This afternoon we went to a Chinese New Year party. There is a group of probably 25-30 families from this area who have adopted from China. They meet somewhat regularly and this year we got to go to the party. It was held at a Chinese restaurant and the food was really yummy! Mmmm! No, they didn't have hamburgers, but I ate enough other food that I didn't have any room left for one anyway. Here are some pictures of the event.

After supper, Daddy blew up this balloon. I was fascinated!

How'd you do that, Dad?

There was a table set up where kids could do origami.

I didn't do any this year, but maybe next year I'll try it.

I was having too much fun with my balloon!

I could THROW it up in the air and not have to worry about hitting anything.

Hey, where did it go?

The bigger kids got to take turns being in the head of the lion.

And the littler kids followed along behind. I jumped right in line!

I quickly made my way toward the front of the line!

See me? There I am, right behind the lion's head.

Oh, what fun!

And, yes, I took a moment to embarrass Mama & Daddy.

I decided to take my pants off... right there in the middle of the party!

Oh, what fun!

Here's the group of kids, or at least the part that fit in the picture.

I'm over there under the table.

Am I having a good time? Oh yeah!

Can we do this again soon?

The traditional "red envelope".

I got a red car this year.

The celebration ended with a fireworks display.

It was quite an impressive display and we all enjoyed it.

Here is a movie of some of the fireworks. Enjoy the background sounds!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

新年快樂 (Xīnnián kuàilè)

Cooped up with Croup

Beautiful fresh snowfall

And it was finally a "sticky" snow.

You know, the kind you can make snowmen out of.

But I couldn't go out and play in it because I was

"Cooped up with croup"

But since I had to stay inside, we decided to make the best of it:

We made a tent to play in.

We made ice cream with snow.

We played silly games.

We spent a LOT of TIME in my room.

The humidity in there must have been close to 80%!

You could almost wring the humidity out of the air, but

that's what I needed to help get over my croup.

We played ball,

we built lots of things,

we watched movies, colored,

looked out the window (after we wiped the water off of it),

read books, sang songs,

and played with lots of different toys.

Once I got feeling better,

I put on my boots and told Mama I was ready to go outside!

Hmmm, she still wouldn't let me go out!

FINALLY!

We went outside and "tried" to build a snowman.

As you recall, I LOVE to knock down anything that resembles a tower.

So, the poor snowman didn't have a chance. I knocked his block off several times!

Mama kept picking it up and putting it back on,

at least until we got a picture.

Look out snowman! Here I come (again)!

Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!

Maybe I pushed a little too hard on the poor snowman that time, huh?

"Sleep" little snowman, "sleep".

This shoveling is hard work!

Is a shoveler's work ever done?

This year, I think a lot of people are wondering that!

Enough is enough!

OK, so life in pajamas and building things is quite nice.

Yes, I DID get dressed today, for about 15 minutes. Then I wanted my 'jamas back on.

After my nap, I got dressed again and we drove up to Lake Erie.

Can you believe we're walking on water?!?!?!

Woo-hoo! This walking on a lake is quite fun!

We went over to the other side of the peninsula to see what Lake Erie looked like.

Wow! The "ice dunes" were so impressive! Huge chunks of ice everywhere!

This is the same spot where we have pictures posted from September 1. I thought it was cold then, but today was a bit chillier!

Climbing on one of the ice dunes.

This ice had heaved up and made a huge "cave".

No, we didn't go inside!

Ah, what a fun day at the beach!

(Can't wait to spend a day at the beach when I don't have to wear a coat!)

OK, I guess all good things must come to an end.

Back to the car and the trip home.

I'm glad I got dressed today!

Tomorrow we are going to a Chinese New Year party.

Hopefully we'll get some fun pictures and get them posted before too long.

Thanks for being patient and checking up on me from time to time.

Have a great day.

9 Months, Hamburgers, Kisses & a Carnival

Can you believe it? I've been adopted for 9 months already!

I am so thankful for my family.

Fixin' hamburgers

Momma was trying to get me to say "hamburger" for the movie, but I wasn't too cooperative.

She tricked me, though! So... here's to hamburgers & cars!

I very carefully unwrapped all these kisses so we could make cookies.

And those that weren't needed for the cookies got lined up for snack time!

Mmmm!

Getting my first tattoo

Our church had a Winter carnival for kids with games & goodies.

We had to drive in the snow to get there, but we all had a great time.

There was a jumping house with a slide for the little kids

and a bigger slide for the bigger kids. I was too little to go on the big slide.

(There is a lot of noise in the rest of the movies because there were a lot of people at the carnival. So, you might want to turn down the volume to view the rest of these.)

I love the "plop" at the end of the slide!

I tried some cotton candy. I didn't like it too much...

...But Daddy did!

I like ICE, but oooooooooh, this was toooo cold!

Momma helped me make this marshmallow snowman.

Bowling for Snowmen

It only looks like it was going to be a strike.

Fishing

Learning patience and waiting in line

We were waiting for the coolwhip toss.

Since I'm not quite as tall as some of the kids, I got to get closer...

... maybe a little tooooo close!?!?!

A doggy balloon

What a fun time! Now it's time to go home and go to sleep.

Good night everyone!