The Year of the Dragon

Today, we celebrated Chinese New Year.  (Blessing #237)  Jillian loves everything that has to do with China, so she was excited for this day to come.  They talked about the Chinese New Year (CNY) in school, and her weekly reader was full of fun information about this Asian celebration. 

Chad picked up the girls from school since I'm still battling mycoplasma pneumonia.  He treated them (and me) to Sonic's Happy Hour.  (#238)  Gotta love half-price drinks on a special day like CNY.

I had found some fun ideas on Pinterest.com for CNY.  She colored and made this dragon.  Don't ya just love that smile?  (#239)

She made this Dragon Mask.  This is the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Dragon.  She loves using scissors to cut things out, so she was all about this project!

As you know, Jillian LOVES to color.  She could spend hours with her crayons, markers, and colored pencils. 

Jenica made Chinese New Year Cookies (aka "Haystacks") after school.  Because I am still sick, Jenica made the cookies. (#240)  They only take 15 minutes from start to finish, including getting everything out AND doing the dishes.

Here's all you need:  1 pkg. butterscotch chips + 1 pkg. chocolate chips + 1 1/2 c. chow mein noodles + 1 c. peanuts.  (I like to add a little vanilla also.)

Melt the chips in the microwave on 80% power, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth. 

Then, add the peanuts and chow mein noodles and stir well.  Place on waxed paper using teaspoons.  Put in fridge for a few minutes to help them set.  Makes around 30 cookies.

And Chad made supper. (#241)  He called The Gourmet House for chinese take-out.  Just in case you're wondering what Jillian ordered:  1 cup of egg drop soup, 1 cup of won-ton soup, and 1 cup of steamed rice.  This is how excited she's been since coming home from school today.  Those pigtails are so stinkin' cute!

Jillian's order:

Jillian was Miss Chatter-box tonight.  (#242) She even ate the wontons out of her soup with chopsticks.  Needless to say, she was the last one finished eating.  It was entertaining, just watching her use those chopsticks with her soup.  (#243)

We saved a fortune cookie (and an empty box) for Jacob.

And to celebrate CNY, I let her paint my toenails . . . something she's been wanting to do.  She did an "A-B Pattern" using 2 different colors.  She was so proud of herself, which is fun to watch her confidence grow.  (#244)

Beautiful!