Lunar New Year, Part 2

Jia and some classmates gave a great presentation about Lunar New Year at school. 

That night, we attended a gathering at our Chinese tutor's home to celebrate the new year. The girls made lots of dumplings there! 

 

 

Jia said the night was, "Absolutely, positively wonderful."

The drum set in the basement was also a big hit!

 

Xin nian kuai le!

More cold weather = More science experiments

We have been doing many cold weather experiments, and today was another chilly one. So we played with frozen bubbles! I didn't catch it on the video, but this bubble blew away in little shards that glittered in the sunlight. Quite pretty.

Lunar New Year, Part 1

This year's festivities started by wearing new dresses:

Jia and Joe also watched our friends perform in a Chinese dance show, and later that night we attended a Taiwanese event.

The girls received some beautiful stamps, DVDs about Hakka in Taiwan (Willa is Hakka), and other fun stuff. Willa also met a man who was born in Taichung, just like she was!

There were lots of awesome crafts!

All the kids received red envelopes with money inside. The girls were thrilled!  

 

We also saw a Chinese yo yo performance, watched a man do a Rubik's cube in the dark behind his back while juggling glowing balls, and, of course, a lion dance!

 

Orchids

The weather got colder again, and school was cancelled. But we stayed toasty by hanging out with the orchids at the Arboretum.

The cousins have so much fun together! I LOVE this series of pictures:

 

 

 

We love everything about the Arb library: the books, the chairs, the tables, the view...

We just love the Arb!

Spa Day

Willa and I enjoyed a little spa day together. It included crustless cucumber sandwiches, a home manicure, pedicure and face masks! I warned her that she might not enjoy the face mask, but she insisted.

After a few seconds, she wanted it off! But not before eating the cucumbers first!

Even warmer winter fun!

We spent the entire weekend outside. It ended up being such a warm weekend that Willa went sledding with bare arms!

She also found a new way to ride to the sledding hill:

We made potions in the snow:

We went skiing:

 

We went skating:

We made a snow lady:

We played in the park:

 

 

And ate a little snow too.

 

 

A great weekend!

Movement in Art

We took the girls to Family Day at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts where they learned all about movement in art. They splattered paint like Pollock, crafted mobiles like Calder, and created zoetropes!

Little Pollocks.

Mini Calder 1.

Mini Calder 2.

 

Willa's zoetrope of a bucking donkey. Jia drew her own featuring a ballerina (a lengthy process which she'll need to finish at home).

Exploring the Art Cart!

Holding their prizes: wind-up robots! They received them after they completed the movement-themed art scavenger hunt.

 

Warmer winter fun

With a slightly warmer temp, we were able to some outdoorsy winter recreation: skating and sledding!

I finally relented to the girls' requests for me to skate with them. It was the first time in many, many years and wow, was I wobbly! But hopefully it reinforced the fact that it can be fun to try new things, no matter how old you are!

We then attempted to buy new dresses for Lunar New Year (five stores and nothing in their size). We wrapped up the day with Cambodian food, boba tea and checkers! Yum!

Polar Vortex

We've had some very frigid weather here, as in 25 below with a windchill of minus 50. As such, we've spent a few days inside. Staying inside to keep warm has included homemade cinnamon playdough, regular playdough, books, jump rope, Chinese jump rope, gymnastics, roller skating, snow ice cream, maple snow taffy, playing with balloons, kids as DJs, and tossing a pot of boiling water into frigid air to make it snow.

And some videos!

 

Dog Show

We attended the Land O' Lakes Dog Show. Willa got all decked out for the occasion.

This big sheepdog was very interested in Willa's little sheepdog.

Kicking back with Grandpa.

 Corgis!

Many, many corgis!!

Hello Masterpiece

The girls were introduced to great works of art by Hello Kitty at Hello Masterpiece at the Burnet Gallery in Le Méridien Chambers Hotel downtown. 

Hello Haring.

 
Hello Frida.

Hello Munch.

Hello Van Gogh.

Hello Warhol. Hello Kitty has a beauty mark too!
 

Hello Last Supper.

Pretending to be models.

We followed with fabulous desserts at the new Glam Doll Donuts. They sell all sorts of fun varieties of donuts including a chocolate one with caramelized bacon. We tried a peanut butter donut drizzled with sriracha sauce, a strawberry cheesecake donut, and others.

 We enjoyed all the vintage furnishings.

An awesome night.