The Long Winter Months 2011

January and February are the hard months here because it is hard to do much outside, the wind is freezing and chills you to the bone. We made it through the worst of winter!

Here are some of the highlights.....The gym finally opened! We have been looking forward to playing basketball in the gym for two years!
Chinese New Year, for the third year. I think it will be the last one we celebrate in China, although we will continue to celebrate every year after we move back to the states. The entire school went to the field to enjoy this beautiful Dragon dance celebrating Chinese New Year.
School Projects: Nicole's country project for fourth grade, many hours were spent making this model of the great wall, and the topographical map that also showed population density.
Trejan's second grade learned about their ancestors and researched their family trees.
International Day was fantastic. Parents from over 20 different countries shared cultures and gave samples of delicious food. It was so fun to see how proud people are of their home country.
Damon surprised Nicole and showed up at school to read to the kids during book week.

Dressing up in traditional clothing to attend a friend's wedding. Usually people here don't dress up for weddings, but these friends are from California and they asked everyone to wear Chinese clothes. Damon designed his own tangqhuang Chinese style jacket with the embroidered dragon, Nicole and I wore Qipao dresses, Trejan outfit was definitely the most comfortable.