Chinese New Year

The kids were pointing out red everywhere, excitedly thinking that it was all decorations for Chinese New Year.  The ropes at the park were red, the car driving past was red, they saw a red flag...it was all in celebration.  I let them go ahead and think that.

We learned about the sound C and H make when put together.  Now whenever Ethan is an 'H' he yells out "for China!"  

I did this activity more for the older kids to practice their number writing. We were talking about Chinese New Year and what a Year was.   I had a calendar we weren't using, so I used a highlighter to write the numbers in each of the boxes and had the kids trace them.  I was surprised by how this captured Ethan's attention.  He loved tracing the numbers.  Gavin also stayed at the table to finish every number, even though everyone else was done.

We made this Dragon Snack (in honor of it being the year of the dragon).  The kids were so excited about eating their dragons they could barely sit down and wait for them to come to the table!

We worked on some fine motor skills using chopsticks.  I had the kids pick up beads and sort them by kind.

We used this idea and used stamps to make fingerprints, and turn them into chinese lanterns.

Our friend Shing (aka Shirley) came to teach the kids more about China.  She taught them about the importance of the colors Red (for Luck and Happiness) and Gold (for Power and Fortune).  She also explained that fish is always served for Chinese New Year because the Chinese word for 'fish' is pronounced the same as their word for 'left over'.  So, if you have fish, you will have more than enough for your needs for the coming year.  She gave the kids each a bag of goldfish and some chinese treats.

We had a big Chinese Dinner to celebrate with family.  Brielle helped me make the fortune cookies.  She wanted to write the 'jokes' that go inside them.  It was taking her a long time to do individual fortunes (she was trying to come up with something different for each of the 20 people that would be at the party), and we ran out of time.  I scanned one of her fortunes and copied it for everyone. 

Our friend made these cute dragons out of rice krispy treats and fruit roll ups.  They were a big hit at the party.

Brielle ended the week by going to see the Shanghai Acrobatics performance at the community college.    She loved seeing the amazing tricks that were done and told us all about it.

Ethan took this picture.  You can't tell by Brielle's face, but she was actually having fun.  She got out the atlas and asked about China.  She then kept me there asking questions about every single page.  She wouldn't let me skip pages either, we had to go one at a time.  

We also found a documentary called Wild China that was quite fascinating.  We only watched the 1st episode, so we'll have to catch up on the others (make next year for Chinese New Year again!) 

We made paper fans after watching a clip of Chinese Umbrella Dancers.

We took a tour of the Great Wall of China on google earth, and decided we'd all like to visit China someday.

Manners

Last week we focused on Manners.  The kids were all just getting over being sick, so were a bit more ornery and less behaved than usual for the first day.  I was thinking it was a mistake for me to think about manners, as it just made me realize how much the kids needed to work on!  But then, they started feeling better and we had a good week.

I have a few file folder games about manners that I pulled out.  I don't know where they came from, as I've had them for a long time.

One is about the land of the bad-mannered dinosaurs. "Where the Dinosaurs Roam"
We kept the dinosaurs up on the window and Brielle keeps pointing out which dinosaur you are if you are not using your manners.

it includes this matching game with the dinosaur bones.  Each bone has a nice thing you can say to someone.

We also focused on the proper way to set the table.  

We played a manners game at lunch.  I put 3 m&m's for each child on the table and told them that if I saw any bad manners during lunch I would take one candy away.  I don't know if it was that they were using glass dishes, or that they had the incentive of candy, but that was the best behavior I've ever seen out of these kids!

Practice writing letter 'M' (and then B, which then went to playing tic, tac, toe)  

We are focusing on writing this year (for the older kids), and letter recognition (for the younger kids).   Since we did 'A for Airplane' last week, I had thought about going through in alphabetical order, but since I already had my themes set for the year I was having a hard time rearranging them to still fit with holidays, etc.  So, we are just focusing on the first letter of the word we are learning each week.

Airplanes

Gavin requested another week to learn about airplanes.  All during December as we were learning about Christmas-related things, he kept asking for airplane week again.  So, here is some of what we did.

You can see Brielle and Elise in their dress up clothes here.  They dressed up and packed their bags to go on the pretend airplane.

Don't you wish real airplanes had enough room that you could camp out on the ground below your seat? :)

We learned about airports and who works there.

We made LOTS of different kinds of paper airplanes.

And measured how far they could fly.

New Year's Eve

Our friend Larry has an amazing outdoor pizza oven.  When you pair that with another good friend Lisa, who is an amazing cook, you get a fantastic combination for a yummy dinner.  We had 2 pizza parties last week at Larry's house, one of them was on New Year's Eve.

Here is a sampling of the pizzas made.  I loved the red potato pizza with rosemary.  That is something I would never have thought of trying before.

The kids love hanging out with Larry as much as we do.  He is so great for all of us.

After the pizza party we had a movie night at Grandma's house.  We then pulled up a countdown video (last year's) so the kids could watch the ball drop, celebrate and say Happy New Year.  None of them noticed that it wasn't actually midnight.

My family has a tradition of smashing our gingerbread houses on New Years Eve.  The kids were more than happy to grab a hammer and smash their houses.  They did of course sneak a couple pieces of candy off the houses before we tossed them.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Week-A Trip to the Zoo

We have a season pass to the LA Zoo, but James rarely gets to go with us.  It was nice that during the week after Christmas he was able to take a couple days off of work and have time to play with the whole family.  All of James' siblings were in town, and we were celebrating the 'family honeymoon' with the newlyweds.

The petting area is always a hit.

Some new animals arrived to the Zoo! I'm not sure what kind they are, but they sure are cute. :)

The giraffes at this zoo always seem more active than any other zoo I've been to.  They don't have a very big space, but we almost always get to see them running around and playing.

And, one of the favorites of the day...the new tiger cubs.  There is something about baby animals that is irresistible.

Christmas Week-Rose Parade

Most of the family scheduled to donate blood at the Rose Bowl.  After donating blood we were able to get in to see the floats being worked on.  It is always amazing to see the transformation that happens in just a few days as the structure of the float gets covered with flowers last minute.

And it is incredible to get up close and see the detail work of beans or rice being placed with tweezers piece by piece.  

Every part of the float that shows has to be covered in some kind of living material.  There are so many different kinds of plants and flowers that I didn't know existed!

Hanging out on the parade route, eating breakfast as we wait for the parade to start. 

The kids got very excited about the traditional silly string spraying this year.

It was a hot day, but we all enjoyed it.  Brielle especially liked the purple marching band (her favorite color).  Ethan liked all the music and dancing, and specifically asked if he could play the drums when he gets bigger.  I loved seeing the floats.

Christmas Week-Santa Anita Race Track

Ethan told me his favorite animals are horses and dogs.  He was very excited to see the horses running 'very fast!'

We had breakfast a clockers corner

Went and played at the playground that is in the center of the race track.  This was the first time we had done this.  It is a really fun playground!

And stayed to watch our friend, Beth sing...

while behind her there were parachuters dropping from the sky to land on the race track.

A great start to opening day at the race track.  

A bit more Pre-Christmas Fun

Playing outside the Temple at Aunt Alana's Wedding

Gingerbread House Decorating

Driving to see the Christmas Lights

Decorating Christmas Cookies (aka eating as much frosting and sprinkles as you can before your mom stops you.)

Setting up the Christmas Train with Uncle Evan

Kids Christmas Presents

The kids are fun ages this Christmas.  Excited about everything, easy to please, so full of happiness.  Thank you to all our family and friends that gave the kids presents.  They are having so much fun with new toys, projects, dress ups, etc. to play with.

Ethan asked for a Wallet and Money from Santa.  This has been by far his favorite present.  He carries his wallet around, stuffing it in his pocket, pulling money in and out.  When asked what he wants to do with his money he responds "pay tithing, or "give it to the Bishop."  He set aside his tithing, put money in his piggy bank, and kept the rest to play with (or lose around the house and then excitedly find again.)

I'll be honest.  James and I had some other things to give to Ethan, but because he got so many nice things from other people that he was so excited about, I put the other things in the closet to give to him for his birthday.  Birthday shopping complete 3 months early.  Sweet.

Brielle asked for a bike from Santa for Christmas.  Since it didn't fit in the stocking. Santa left a note with a scavenger hunt throughout the house to find the bike hidden in the closet under the stairs.  

She has been riding it everyday since.