Chinese New Year--Year of the Dragon!

Luci and I made a dragon cake for Chinese New Year.

It's a scary dragon!

We got the idea from the Do They Have Salsa in China? blog.  M3 (the author) and her friend made a very intricate cake for her twin daughters' birthday party, and it is gorgeous!  For directions on how to make this cake, please see her blog post.  And when you look at her cake, don't judge mine for the poser it is.  Please.  Ours tastes fantastic, and the main person it's for (Luci) is very happy with it.

Luci and I made a simple version, and as you can see from the second photo, Luci is plenty happy with it--It's scary, Mom!   :)   We also made ours gluten free, with no artificial colors in the frosting (used turmeric for the yellow).  I got the recipe for the bundt cake from Allrecipes.com plus I made these changes:  I used Pamela's Bread Baking Mix (gluten free) for the flour, and I added some extra instant coffee, and used the chocolate syrup mentioned in the heading of the recipe instead of the coffee liqueur.

Chinese New Year

I guess I should feel a bit guilty for not getting to these Chinese New Year crafts earlier in the month, but nah--I don't feel guilty.  We are busy!

Today Luci and I put together these lanterns

and this good-luck money envelope (in her hands).  Which she promptly told me to "fill up with some money, Mama!"

Luci begged me to take her photo with her lanterns.  Messy hair and all.  If she's anything like the other two kids we've got around here, she will someday choose to run when the camera is out.  So I obliged her.  Messy hair and all.

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The crafts came from Celebrating Chinese New Year, an activity book.

One Week....

Last Saturday we went to Athens' Families with Children from China (FCC) Chinese New Year Party.  We met Lily Mei!  I've been following her mother's blog and met on FaceBook.  Finally we got to meet in person.

There were quite a few Chinese children!  At least forty in this photo.  Two hundred people were at the dinner.

Even though Luci had never met any of these children before, she held true to form and made herself the front and center of the photo shoot.

Friday was homeschool skate day at the ice rink.  It's nearly one-and-a-half hours away, so we don't get to go often.  It's always a treat to get to skate.  Luci was being pushed encouraged by JT to skate without her walker.

Luci with her walker.

JT finally got the walker away from Luci and got her to skate a little bit.  Unfortunately, there were only ten minutes left of the 2 1/2 hour skate time.

And for this Saturday, we had another Chinese New Year party with our local FCC group.  I had a nice time (thanks to John for ambushing me with the camera).

Luci with Kate.  Both girls are from the Guizhou Province.  Kate is the only girl we've met besides our adoption-travel group who is from Guizhou.  The girls are from different parts of the province, though.

Quite a different group than the Athens FCC!  I love how Luci is holding her feet.  So glad her shoes are not expensive; the scuff marks don't hurt my wallet.

Alexander showing off his chopstick skills!  So cute, Alexander.

Luci and Kalyn!  They got a little too rambunctious towards the end.

London Bridge has Jack all locked up.

And...
this guy was TEXTING as he drove!!!  Scary man.