GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Happy Year of the Tiger!!! One of my favorite parts of the Chinese New Year is the Lantern Festival that starts on the 15th day of the lunar new year. For the past three years the city's main festival has been held around the corner at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, so we've been able to get over to see the displays - multiple times!!! I took the kids on opening night while Tony was still in Japan... perhaps it was the wrong decision! The kids are now totally afraid of fireworks, pyrotechnics of any kind and loud sounds and of course the official 'lighting' of the main lantern brings with it much fanfare and all the aforementioned things!!! There I was in a sea of local people with my daughter clutching my neck screaming in my ear and my son standing on his stroller seat squeezing my leg while tears streamed down his face... ZAO GAO!?!? As soon as it was over, I high-tailed it out of there to take them to see some mellower displays in front of City Hall... and as it was getting late, I thought we'd seen enough for one night and we headed home. Just as we got to the otherside of City Hall, there was a major fireworks display out the top of the building - it was loud and directly over our heads!!! The kids started screaming and trying to escape from their seats so I ran as fast as my weary legs could carry me to the Eslite building and got right into the elevator to the basement so they couldn't hear or see any of it!!! My goodness - I did not realize how freaked out they would be!!! We eventually made it home and they eventually went to sleep!!! I don't know how they'll go for the 4th of July!?!?

I knew if there were no fireworks the kids would be keen to see the lanterns, so one night when Tony returned we rode the kids on the bikes over to have a look. They still held on pretty tightly when the big tiger started rotating... but we kept them distracted with the other lanterns...

Hunter of course is still watching out for the big lantern and the fireworks in the distance...

They eventually got over their fears and enjoyed playing with their dinosaur lanterns that Tony assembled for them.

The Flora Expo is the main theme for this year so the animated flowers were out and about - a little strange, but the kids liked them.

Then on Saturday, we rode bikes to see the Lanterns again in the daylight... I think this helped!

And... it was Hunter's first ride outside our neighborhood, along big streets with cars, and he did it!!! He was great - and he was just so proud of himself he was beaming!!! I couldn't help but feel a bit of mixed emotion though as I watched my little boy riding his big boy bike by himself - I was also so proud of him, but realized he is not a baby or a toddler anymore... they really do grow up fast!!!