World of Wishblossoms: Spring Break

Not a moment to rest on this vacation of ours! After thoroughly enjoying our day in the Caribbean we were ready to embark on the next leg of our journeys - China! Still experiencing terrific springtime weather wherever we go, we did spend quite a bit of the day playing outside. After all, don't you think kids play outside in China too? We also experienced some very fun "native" things during our day in China. We got out our tangrams and made pictures. We got out paint and paper and tried our hand at writing the Chinese symbols for the numbers 1 - 10. This was particularly challenging for my oldest who is wee bit of a perfectionist and sometimes has the attitude that if he cannot do it well the first time then he would rather not do it at all. Maybe it was in the spirit of travel, but I am very proud to report that he hung in there, and actually, had fun with it! "Mom, my favorite to write is 9." We read a couple of Chinese versions of stories that we know. The first being "Lon Po Po - A Red - Riding Hood Story From China" by Ed Young. The kiddos thought it was very interesting that instead of a girl who leaves to visit her grandmother as in the story we are familiar with, it is the mother who leaves her three daughters to go visit the grandmother. The wolf then disguises himself and tries to trick the daughters into letting him in. The second book we read was then "Yeh-Shen - A Cinderella Story from China" also by Ed Young. This, of course, was not as interesting as a tale with a wolf in it to my boys, but it did thrill my girlie. The part that stuck out to her, of course, was the golden slipper Yeh-Shen wore (instead of the familiar glass slipper from our Cinderella story). Yes, that would be my shoe-lovin' girl! Not long after it was time to try a bit of the cuisine. On the menu tonight -- Broccoli Beef Lo Mein. I am very pleased to say that, for the most part, this too was a success and enjoyed by all. My sweet little picky of course did not like the mushrooms, but did like the noodles and the meat. I tell you, it was genius of the chef, pure genius, to make sure our entree's had those ingredients! All in all, another great day of travel and memories. The only complaint of today's travels was from my son Nate, our middle child, who was, after wearing his "tropical gear" and swimsuit yesterday, quite dissappointed that he had no "Chinese outfit" today. I felt for him and tried to make him a make-shift kimono out of one of daddy's old shirts, but he declined. My poor Naterbug! He has always loved costumes and dressing up - I should have known that he would want to dress the part each day. Even with this setback we all enjoyed our day, and now I am off to get some rest for our next destination tommorow!