Happy Year of the Ox

I know it's 2 days early but the art museum in town sponsored a family event for Chinese New Year this morning. The girls spent a lot of time last night trying on their Chinese clothes. Okay, to tell the truth, Margaret Rose tried on about 20 outfits and Mary Clare found a blue one and was done. They were excited about going this morning and were disappointed when Baba had to go to work. He got a desperate call from a colleague this morning at 7:05 and was out the door to give the SAT to 7th graders 5 minutes later. We worked together and got everyone ready including Rose & Tweetsie and got there when the festivities were just starting. They got their cheeks painted first. Margaret Rose chose a flower and Mary Clare a chinese character.

Then they practiced their calligraphy.

We looked at the China exhibit and Mary Clare was intrigued with the sculptures of the earth spirit tomb guardians. She was full of questions and demanded that I read all of the information next to each exhibit. Margaret Rose was mesmerized by the man playing a traditional Chinese instrument. The music was really beautiful and she told him "xie xie" as we were leaving- such a sweet child. Then came the best part of their day- the dragon and lion dances!

When the dances were over Margaret Rose turned to me and said, "That was awesome!" We will definitely be taking the girls to Tennessee this summer for the Chinese acrobat day.

Here are the girls, Tweetsie & Rose taking a rest and hiding from a particularly scary piece of "art" that only had one eye and frightened the bejeezus out of Mary Clare.

Outside the girls amused themselves by posing under and arch.

Then they decided to reenact the Lion Dance.

Margaret Rose took a break while Mary Clare amused us with some sort of tap dance. It resembled that dance the frog does in the Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Margaret Rose who is a self proclaimed "very good finder" spotted a stage and the show continued with Mary Clare dancing and Margaret being the audience and then both girls dancing. They had fun and I so enjoyed watching them enjoy each other and the day!