Happy Lunar New Year!!! Gung Hay Fat Choy!!!

Hi everyone and Happy New Year!
We went downtown today to celebrate the new lunar year at the Ithaca Commons. The first new moon of the year is the beginning of the Lunar Calender. This is the Year of the Rat. Lunar New Year's celebrations last for 15 days from the new moon to the full moon. It's a great time to clean your house, letting go of the old to make room for the new, welcoming in the new year.

There were lots of games and craft activities for kids. Abby, Brinley, and Isabel made paper dragons.
We met some of our school friends at the celebration ...Brinley, Riley, Jake, Liam, and DawsonWe watched dancers from Cornell preform traditional Chinese dances.

And the best part, we watched the Dragon Dance. The dragon dances to bring prosperity and luck for the new year.

The newest member of our classroom

Here's a picture of the newest member of our classroom....

The preschool children created the terrarium this fall in an aquarium tank grandma found for us on freecycle. The kids collected stones, soil, worms, and plants from the pond behind the school. The tank leaked a little so we had to add a liner bowl and some aquarium gravel. The frog is from Pet Smart. He desperately needed a new home because he jumped out of his cage at the store and ate all the tree frogs in the tank next to him! They weren't about to keep him if he kept eating their inventory. He eats just about anything that moves crickets, worms, fish, salamanders, and yes even smaller frogs. We haven't officially named him yet. The democratic naming process in our classroom can go on for weeks, but I'm secretly hoping for Jaba the Hut.

Hanging out on a lazy Saturday

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope you all had a peaceful, healthy, and fun holiday.

We returned from visiting Grandma and Grandpa on Sunday and
Max, Parker, Ooie, and Aunt Jean all arrived a few hours later.
We've had a wonderful few days visiting and relaxing, doing puzzles, listening to music, and playing games.

The kids were up at 6:30 am Christmas morning.
Abby explained that Calvin barked when he saw Rudolph and that woke her up just in time to see the light from his red nose fly away. Santa loved the cookies we baked and the letters the children wrote for him. They opened their stockings while the grown ups filled up on caffeine.

Present opening consumed most of the morning...everyone was very good this year ;) We all took an afternoon nap and,as Abby describes it, had a "feast" for dinner. Food comas soon followed as we ended our day hanging out reading and playing on the couch.

I've posted just a few pictures to share with you. Most of the memories were captured on video and traditional film (I still can let go of my old camera).

Peace and friendship to all.
The Beames Family

Christmas Day 2007

Christmas in NYC

Abby's first train ride...metro north, Grand Central here we come....
The girls (and Stan) strolling down 5th Avenue
Looking at the windows....Sak's, Rockefeller Center, Lord & Taylor, Macy's