Scorpion Anyone? July 9th

Today we went on a quest for Lion Heads and Large Lanterns. Every Chinese New Years we decorate our house with Lanterns and other Chinese decorations. We have a celebration with friends at home, as well as a large celebration with usually a hundred people, all families with Chinese children. We have a parade where the kids wear the Lion or dragon heads and play their clang and bang instruments. We also all dress up in traditional Chinese clothes, eat lots of yummy Chinese food, and of course have fireworks! It's lots of fun. A couple of friends bring their Lion Heads but I wanted my own big one. It took a lot of asking and walking but we finally found a shop that makes them. We found them for $10 each and so bought two. I would have loved to have bought more, but they're a bit bulky to bring home. Then we found a lantern shop and I told her I wanted "Hen da-de (very big)" She sent her husband off somewhere and ten minutes later he came back with lanterns that are 4 1/2 ft in diameter. "These are the biggest they make" Well they're bigger than I had imagined, bigger than will fit in a suitcase and bigger to take as a piece of carryon luggage, but I was tickled by them, and they were SO cheap I bought them anyways. I also bought some that weren't quite so big that we can transport home. So my amazing husband is now at the post office trying to see if we can even mail these. I'll be sad if I have to leave them but it was worth a try. We'll have to take the Lion Heads as a carryon. I'm SO excited. Thanks Lee for helping us find them.



Derek, Alex & Siyuan had a pillow fight and tickle fest. It was so wonderful to hear him laugh and giggle. He is SO adorable!
While Siyuan napped, Derek and the kids went to get a foot massage and a 'foot repair' which I think we'd call decallousing. It cost $11 for both and they were there for an hour and a half. They all came back raving about how great and 'repaired' their feet were.


Derek and the kids have been dreaming of trying scorpion while here in China (mostly for bragging rights), but we haven't been able to find them so far. Today while walking through the market we found buckets of scorpions, but they were still moving (too bad you can't see this picture as a movie, it's quite stomach churning). They were waiting to be taken home and stir-fried up for someone's dinner. Too bad we don't have a wok! So we'll keep looking. You can see how great Nicole & Alex are getting with chopsticks though. Their Chinese is coming along too! Two more days until we go home, we can't wait to see you kids!