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.