June 1st is Children's Day here. I will argue that most days are children's day here, but this is the designated celebration day. 4 of our kids go to the pre-school/kindergarten for half of the day. But today the school was turned into a 3 story playground. Previously, our children have been subjected to
danced in their Children's Day performances. I am convinced these performances are only for the parents to get pictures and mortify their children on the day of their wedding. I told the principal this year thank you for not making us do the performance thing again.
On the third floor they decorated hats,
did a sand art project with 85,000 other kids,
and gazed longingly at the outside festivities. It was this glance downstairs that projected us to skip most of level 2 and 1.
But on level one there were lots of snacks that could be earned as you moved around to each station.
One of the large dance rooms had several games laid out. There was the "blow the ping pong across the cups" game, the "hang the banana on the wire game" and finally, the "stack the empty crushed cans game."
And no Chinese celebration would be complete without a Karaoke station.
Remaining culturally appropriate, the kids slid on silver plastic slippers before entering the sand box.
But then took off their shoes, shirt and pants to step on and crush
catch unsuspecting fish. You were supposed to catch these little guys and then take them home and cook them for lunch. Tapping into the conservationist side, or maybe just the wise parent side, we simply let the fish go.
None of this stopped my boys from jumping right in. Any excuse to be naked, stomp around in water, catch fish and step on the dead ones was good for them.
And of course, no event is complete without an interview of the foreigners. They pulled Malachi aside and asked him several questions. Then they grabbed Brad and I and asked us our thoughts on the celebration. The camera man and interviewer lady ran around the rest of the park looking for the other foreign kids to catch on camera.
And then we headed inside to pose for more pictures.
This time the pictures were for the other parents attending the festivities.
Makaria has got this school wrapped around her little finger. She flashes those eye lashes and says good morning in Chinese and just about gets whatever she wants in a day.
Malachi wanted to make sure and do everything, so he ended his time by making soy bean paste with an ancient Chinese machine. The school did a fabulous job and each kid walked out with treats and toys in the end. I will say that it was crazy, but super fun.
