Mid-Autumn Festival

We had our first Chinese holiday last weekend.  It was mid-autumn festival and there were quite a lot of things going on.

These pictures I stole from Wikipedia, but they were the same pictures I saw at the kids school.

Tuesday the Mandarin teachers invited parents to come to their class.  A lot of the class was conducted in Chinese, but they told the story of the mid-autumn festival which is all about the moon.  If you, dear reader, are really curious you can look it up on Wikipedia like I had to because I didn't understand the Mandarin from the kids school. I guess in short, it is a harvest festival, but it is based upon the lunar calendar and this year it is still so hot in Guangzhou, it hardly reminds me of a harvest festival.
Our first "celebration" was the Friday before.  Autumn was invited to a little party.  She loved that it was mid AUTUMN.  This mom read stories.

 They colored pictures.  Autumn was in a rush to get to the next station making a moon cake out of play doh and she just scribbled pink all over hers.  I was shocked later when she said something about the story of mid-autumn festival.  I said, "how did you know that?!" She said, "remember my coloring page!"  I didn't even know she'd really looked at it.  I didn't get a picture of the play-doh moon cakes, but it was pretty cool.
These are moon cakes.  They are filled with a lot of different things.  At Autumn's party they then ate real moon cakes.  I only tried one which was filled with a carmel like substance and was through the roof sweet.  Autumn wanted more and that one was gone so I thought I'd play a little trick on her since she'd only had that and the chocolate one and I gave her the one with egg in it.  She didn't even notice.  She gobbled it up too.
Other popular moon cake flavors include red bean paste, lotus seed paste, and vegetable and fruit.  Levin brought one home that had a weird purple gummy filling.  I'm not really a fan.  Levin got a bunch at work that we gave to Jenny.
I remember something that you're supposed to eat your moon cakes in the dark the night of Mid-Autumn festival.

This is a picture from Mandarin class.  The teacher aka "lao shi Bai" had the kids get up in groups of 3 or 4 and sing a song.  They also acted out the story of the festival and played a few games.  I wasn't sure if the kids were really learning much because sometimes it seems like they learn a little tune, but had no idea what number was what, they just kind of new the sounds.  But today Jenny was playing with Brandon and was counting to five with him and Oliver runs over and counted up to twenty in Chinese.  It won't be long now before they are translating for me . . actually that'd be pretty awesome.

After Chinese class we went downstairs to look at all the lanterns with riddles.  I actually thought what Wikipedia said about this was really interesting so I'll post it.

A notable part of celebrating the holiday is the carrying of brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, or floating sky lanterns.^[1] Another tradition involving lanterns is to write riddles on them and have other people try to guess the answers (simplified Chinese: 灯谜; traditional Chinese: 燈謎; pinyin: dēng mí; literally: "lantern riddle").^[10]

It is difficult to discern the original purpose of lanterns in connection to the festival, but it is certain that lanterns were not used in conjunction with moon-worship prior to the Tang Dynasty.^[5]Traditionally, the lantern has been used to symbolize fertility, and functioned mainly as a toy and decoration. But today the lantern has come to symbolize the festival itself.^[5] 

 On Wednesday the three little kids and I walked back to the school for the lantern parade. All the kids made lanterns in art class.  They vary depending upon skill levels for the different ages.  Oliver was so excited for this.  The day of he didn't hold his lantern up to where you could see it until I told him to . . so he did . . after he was almost past me. So this is all I got for pictures.

 Leah was a little more accommodating.  Here she is with a girl I don't know, and our downstairs neighbor, Akshita, who is probably her best friend, but they both have a lot of friends.  I love Akshita because she pops up and down between our apartments after school, but she is relatively quiet, super nice to Lance and Autumn, and well behaved and doesn't ever wear out her welcome.  She does run home scared if there is thunder and I find that pretty adorable.

 Afterwards I took the little kids to eat my kind of moon cakes . . . . muffins from Starbucks.  Our island has pretty much no retail, but right by the school is a Starbucks and I'd been wanting to visit it and this seemed like a good day to do it.  Looking at that blueberry  muffin and iced hot chocolate makes me want to go again.  Yummy!  Much better than bean paste moon cakes, I assure you. I know from experience.

 Oliver's class with their lanterns.

*Just a little "Melissa moment" to share.  I didn't realize until Autumn's little activity was over that it was a play group for members of the Guangzhou Women's International Club . . of which I didn't join.  It costs too much money for a lady with 3 kids at home who can't join many activities.  It was limited to only 10 kids, the first 10 kids who RSVP'd.  My friend had added me to the WeChat group when I first arrived and I never clicked what the group was for until that day when several people didn't live at our apartment complex . . . . oops!  I hope there weren't other kids that wanted to go and missed their chance.  It was an innocent mistake on my part.

Lance's BFF

Before we moved to China I noticed a friend of my friend from Moscow posting something on Facebook about China.  What do you know, she lived in Guangzhou, the city we were moving to.  I sent Jen countless questions about China and she answered all of them.  And oh how I loved her for it.  When I met her in real life a few weeks after moving to Guangzhou (they were on vacation in the U.S. when we first arrived) I felt like I already knew her.
Even more amazing is that she had a kid matched up with most of my kids.  Their baby is between Brandon and Lance in age.  

Here below are Leah and her good friend Maddy and Oliver and his good friend . . . wait for it . .. Oliver!  Leah and Maddy aren't in the same grade at school, but are in Primary at church.  Oliver and Oliver got different teachers but are in the same Mandarin class.

Somehow I never got a picture of Autumn and her buddy Lucy.  They get along so amazingly well.  On my birthday we had the Allens over and all 3 sets of friends disappeared and we never heard a peep.  They all just played!

This picture was taken a week earlier at a restaurant area at/near their housing complex.  Look at Oliver's face - no one has ever said my kids don't have personality.

So you'd think Lance would be left out - but his match up is actually  my favorite.  Look at Lance's face and that should tell you everything!  Hannah is AMAZING!  Hands down one of my favorite girls ever . . and then add on top of that that she plays with Lance and well . . . she's well . . I don't have words to say how much I love it.  She honestly seems to enjoy playing with him and he loves playing with her.  They are an amazing pair!

Birthdays In China

Happy Birthday to me!  Brandon wanted a little cake action and reached right into my cake.  If you watch Master Chef you'll know what it means when Levin said, "I really put myself on a plate."  Yummy cake!  This wasn't the only cake we had . . . but it was the only pictured cake.

Our apartment complex gives everyone a gift on their birthday.  For Autumn they brought this cute bird.  Imagine my surprise a few weeks later when I was at the reception office and saw Autumn right there on the bulletin board.  I noticed all the adults got wine.  So on my birthday when they asked if they could bring me a gift I knew it'd be wine.  They made a really big deal about getting Autumn's picture with her gift and now I knew why. I was pretty nervous about getting my wine anyway.  I'd decided not to decline it because that'd make the employee who was just doing their job feel awkward.  I was nervous however about having a picture of the Mormon lady with all the kids having a picture of herself with a bottle of wine.  But happily, they didn't even ask for a picture! Crisis averted.  

I don't know if we did the right thing or not, but we poured the wine down the toilet - we did let all the kids have a sniff first.  I remember when people would talk about "you can smell he's been drinking" when I was a kid and for a long (really long) time having no idea what smell they were talking about.  So I guess I thought knowledge is power . . . and let my kids have a whiff.  Leah said, "oh, smells like Grandma Flake's sour dough bread."

Lance Finally Gets His Roller Coaster

We got Lance his birthday present before we moved.  We let him and the kids ride it about two times each . . maybe a few more.  Then we packed it up - put it in a pile for the movers and later said goodbye to it for two months.  When we got our shipment Levin built it and Lance rode it over and over and over. This video is probably his 20th time and he still loved it and went down many more times.

My sister-in-law has one of these and my kids have always loved it when we visit.  When we saw pictures of our apartment here in China a light bulb went off in Levin's head that this was the perfect house for something like this.  And it sure is!  Well, I'm not sure our downstairs neighbors agree . . . .But we do!

Family Photo Shoot

I don't know why I waited until now to post these, but I just realized I never did.  I wanted some family pictures before we moved from Maryland.  We didn't have time to book a professional, so we used the next best thing - Levin's Dad and Levin.  I wanted to remember our home in Maryland also . . . our rusty barn roof and all.  Maybe that wasn't such a good idea . . but it is what it is and hey, we didn't hire a professional.

 This picture isn't the one we chose to hang on our wall, but I love it.  It is so . . .  Leah.

 This is the one we hung on the wall . . . she looks so grown up in it!

 And these ones are included just to remind us of Leah's fun personality.

 She wanted one of her twirling.

 This one is to remind me of what a hard time Autumn had looking at the camera.  We'd promised the kids Rita's if they were good and Autumn was trying so hard . . . but not looking at Levin.

 This one below I made large because look at those eyes!  No photoshopping here folks . . . I don't know how.  Her eyes amaze me sometimes.

 Trying soo hard . . . . but even though it was an overcast day she had to look up a little at Levin and was looking right into the sun.

 Once I realized that we had Levin get lower and so she didn't have to look at the sky.  Here is my beautiful girl!  I was just so proud of Autumn because she was trying so hard to be good and not complain.

 The best one we could get of a 6 week old baby who still can't hold his head up.

 Brandon says, "please stop!"

 I was the most worried about getting Lance to smile . . . first picture and he nailed it!  Oh gosh he's cute!

 I love this one . . . minus my fingers i the picture.  I know I edited this once . . but I can't find that one and I just want this posted.  So  . . . here you have them.  The wonderful Flake kids!

Newborns and Passports

Brandon was our 3rd baby that needed a passport for right after he was born.  I think he was only one week old at this point . . . trying to get newborns to open their eyes is so hard!  We never succeeded with Brandon.  This photo was taken at Levin's office.  To be honest Walgreens seems to have it down a little bit better.  With Autumn we laid her down on a poster board on the counter while fellow Walgreens customers cheered us on trying to get her to open her eyes.  It took a very long time.  Luckily for us, they accepted this picture of Brandon.  I kind of love it every time I see it.