Chinese New Year Lantern Festival

Three beautiful Chinese Princesses, Kayla, Emily, and Kira

We had a fabulous night last night to cap off our wonderful two weeks of Chinese New Year! We went with our very good friends, Michele Black and her two beautiful girls Kira and Kayla. We all met at PF Chang's restaurant in downtown Portland to begin our night. All three girls looked absolutely stunning in their Chinese dresses, and as always grabbed the attention of everyone in the place. What three Chinese angels they are! So sweet!

After dinner we headed to Lan Su Chinese Gardens in Portland to see the Lantern Festival and the dragon dance. It was lovely in the gardens with hundreds of multi-colored lanterns all in the water and throughout the gardens. Many hanging red lanterns were hung throughout as well. The girls loved looking at the pretty floating lanterns, but they really came alive and paid close attention when the show began on stage. The Chinese dancers came out first and did a beautiful performance, followed by the dragon dance! The dragon was introduced by some quick fireworks and then made his way up on the stage to the beat of the gongs, cymbals, and drums. The dragon dance lasted about 20 minutes and was enjoyed by all of us! As Emily said when it was done, "Not done, want to see more dragon."

After the dance we, of course, visited the gift shop where Kira and Emily each picked out a new stuffed dragon! The girls also had the opportunity to see the dragon up close and waited very patiently in line for their turn!

What a great night with friends and a joyous time to celebrate our girls' heritage and background. Can't wait till next year!

Enjoy the photos!
Kathy

All ready to go for the evening

Waiting for the show to begin

Such beautiful gardens

At the Gardens, SO COLD with the coat off, just for one photo

Wonderful Chinese dancers

Just lovely

GREAT Dragon dance

Very fun to watch

Getting to meet the dragon

Yes...another photo of the three darlings

Awesome dragon!

Great view of dragon up close

Three little beauties

Baby Lily at the Zoo



Mommy and Emily at the Oregon Zoo



Today after church we headed over to the Oregon Zoo to see baby Lily, the new baby elephant. We have really been looking forward to seeing her, but especially Miss Emily. Baby Lily is only out during certain hours so, of course, there were a lot of people who all wanted a turn to see the new little Miss. Can I just say...she is SO STINKIN' CUTE at just about three months old. We really enjoyed watching her, and it was so beautiful to see how attached she is to her mommy Rose Tu. Anyone watching could see how close they are. Always together. We also enjoyed seeing all of the other animals at the zoo as well. A few of Emily's favorites from today include the Polar Bear, the very fast swimming Otter, the very vocal Sea Lions, and of course Lily! We brought our own lunch but enjoyed a nice hot drink as well. Emily did great for close to four hours of walking around the zoo. She would walk some of the time and then ride in her stroller the other part. My girl is getting so big, almost too big for her stroller!  She is just growing like a weed, almost on a daily basis is seems like.

Emily got a new stuffed baby Lily and a baby Lily key chain for her back pack on the way home at the very fun zoo store.

It was a great day at the zoo, and if any of you have the chance to go see Lily, you will not regret the visit! Just precious!

Enjoy the pictures!
Kathy

The newest edition...baby Lily, SO CUTE

Walking with her mommy

Lily and her mommy couldn't be any closer

Having fun

Such a beauty!

Lily having some fun!

Lily and her Mommy

Couldn't get enough of the little cutie

Enjoying his snack

Mommy's little cutie!

Check out the size of those paws...HUGE!

Happy Valentine's Day 2013

Mommy's sweet Valentine

Today was a very special day for Mommy and Emily! We started our day with our first words to each other being, "Happy heart day" and "I love you Sunshine." We had breakfast and Emily got to have a card and one small candy after getting ready for school before we headed off for the day.

She had goody bags for her class and gifts for all of her teachers and, most of all, her Valentine cards to pass out at her party. Of course, Mommy got her to pose for a couple shots before we got in the car, CUTE as ever I must say, but looking older with each new photo I take! Oh my baby is growing up so fast!

After school, and hearing that she had a very good day overall except for one minor incident. Oh how my girl LOVES water and anything to do with it, so she poured water on her head at the sink and float table. Wouldn't be such a big deal except for the hearing aids are not supposed to get wet. So she had a stern talking to from her teacher, and had to sit on the "white carpet" until her hair dried. Other than that her teachers all said, for a party day, she was very well behaved!!! Yeah Emily!!! Like I said growing up!

Upon arriving at home we put the pizza in the oven to cook while we looked at and read all of her Valentines from her friends at school. After dinner Emily got to open her gifts from Mommy and JuJu. It was priceless!!! JuJu got her the Ariel bathtub doll that changes color in the water! Mommy got her the dress she has been wanting from Target for over a month as well as a Rapunzel dress-up dress and Rapunzel wig! Now she won't have to pretend she has long Rapunzel hair with her jump ropes! Boy oh boy, does blond hair TOTALLY change her look, as you will be able to see in the pictures!

Also, the other pictures are of Emily and the shoe tying practice board JuJu made after seeing the idea on Pinterest. After two days Emily has actually tied her shoes by herself!!!!!!! Such a proud day and oh so exciting!!! She actually did her left shoe after I did her right shoe yesterday getting ready for school. Way to go Baby!

We hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's Day!

Love,

Kathy

New Ariel doll

Thank you mommy for the dress

My little Rapunzel

Emily tied her own shoe

My big girl!

Chinese New Year at School

My sweet Chinese angel

Hello All,

Today Miss Emily dressed up in her Chinese dress and took the red bags she had helped prepare on Saturday for all of her friends and teachers at school.

Even though she is not feeling up to par, she wanted to go today, and ended up having a good day with all smiles on her note from teacher.

She had fun with mommy this past Saturday filling the bags and getting them all ready. She gave each friend in her class a red bag filled with fortune cookies, chocolate filled panda cookies, gold Chinese coins, chopsticks, and a lucky Red Envelope with six cents in it.

By the time I picked her up today, she was not feeling that great at all and didn't want to go to ballet!!! That means she REALLY didn't feel well. She just wanted to come home, and is now in bed sleeping with two pillows to help her not cough. Mommy and Emily are staying home tomorrow for a pajama day and LOTS of sleep to help her get past this in time for her Valentine party at school on Thursday. Fingers crossed!

Enjoy the photos! More to come after Valentine's Day!

Love,

Kathy

P.S. Auntie JuJu made Emily a new fun thing to practice tying her shoes. Emily gave it a few good tries, but doesn't really have too much energy! Thank you JuJu!!!

Helping mommy get bags ready for her friends

More goodies

It's fun to help mommy

Red Envelope for her friends

Practicing shoe tying

Gung Hey Fat Choy 2013

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone,

Lucky Red Envelope

We have had a fun, busy, yet relaxing day! Although we are all trying to get well and get over our various stages of pretty bad colds, it was still a great family day to welcome in Chinese New Year! It is the year of the snake this year, and we have lots of activities planned for the wee one!

Today after church we got out our Chinese New Year decorations, and Emily had some great ideas where to put everything and had fun helping mommy and Auntie JuJu. Emily worked on her class Valentine cards and goodies for her class, as well as for her teachers. We watched a movie, ran some errands, played, and then mommy made a yummy Chinese New Year dinner, and of course Emily got her Red Envelope with $3 in quarters and her New Year's gifts!. We had all of Emily's favorites: pot stickers, egg rolls, crab puffs, fried rice, and some grape tomatoes.

We hope you all had a wonderful day, and look for more to come of our February activities.

Love,

Kathy and Emily

Reading her card from mommy

Present time

New markers and princess paper

Sweet girl

Gung Hey Fat Choy 2013!!