There's Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Grandparents' Day, but no official Children's Day here in the U.S. Some kind folks from the Taiwanese Volunteer Group brought the celebration to California. It's not especially easy getting out with the three kids, and Isaac cried most of the time, but we had a lot of fun. I'd invited my cousin, but she had other plans.
The event and parking were free, but once in, you had to buy tickets for practically everything, and could only buy in $10 increments. We bought $20 to cover food for all of us and a couple of activities. I was so disappointed we were one ticket (called happy money) short for Lucas and Manny to get on the train ride. Lucas was such a good sport about it, but I know he'd been excited to get on. I'm proud of our kids for not acting spoiled and understanding frugality. When we left, Naomi said it was a great day (even though we weren't there long), and Lucas said we didn't have enough money so we couldn't stay till nighttime. I love freebies and really wanted Naomi to participate in some of the contests, but I didn't force her.
The longest non-food line I saw led up to a college program booth. Maybe it was something in close proximity to something else, but I wouldn't be surprised since it's a Taiwanese event after all. The Taiwanese Christian mission dental group was giving free check-ups, so that was nice to see. I really liked the costumes in the brief parade, and especially seeing folklorico dancers in it. We missed their stage performance. I'm proud to be an American citizen and proud of our kids' mixed heritage as well. I am a Chinese person from Taiwan. I don't speak Taiwanese, but my father does. I speak Mandarin (the Chinese national language) with a slight Taiwanese accent. I have no indigenous blood nor do I speak Portuguese like some native Taiwanese. So most of the time I identify myself as Chinese just to be clearer, but culturally I'm more Taiwanese. By the way, Enigma's "Return to Innocence" includes an Ami (indigenous Taiwanese tribe) chant--it's not Native American! Also, my roommate in college called a radio station to prove me wrong about that song being sung by a man. The DJ agreed with her that it was a woman, and that was it. But I knew I was right--it was sung by a man. That's okay, people often think I'm wrong; story of my life, etc etc.
Chris was in town, so Manny and he went to a movie afterward. I made breakfast cupcakes (eggs, milk, bacon, broccoli) for dinner with the older kids, while Isaac finally got his much-needed nap. The kids miss Chris, so he came by later to hang out with (or be tortured by?) them.
I was the adult in charge at the church nursery last Sunday. It was hard work caring for the babies and toddlers, including my own, with teenage helpers who cannot really carry the babies around or change their diapers (our church policy). They often chat as teenage girls do, but they help when asked. The Lord gave me grace--most of the kids came in crying, and I was able to calm each one down within a minute, even the two girls who usually don't want to be there. Very thankful!
We went to lunch at Denny's with Chris (no A/C), and then I took Naomi to the mall. It was primarily to return a couple of bottoms I ordered online (she grew this summer!), but I had wanted to do some other things with her. However, the place was packed, and the lines were so long with a lot of families doing back-to-school shopping, so we weren't able to do more than the return and getting her a jean jacket on sale at Macy's. I remember I was 13 when my mom also got me a jean jacket from Macy's. A lot of 90s fashion is in again. Macy's needs to work on the cash register situation, which hasn't improved since I was a kid. Anyway, Naomi was really cute trying to pay for it with her own money. Then we got a couple of gumballs, and that was our treat. It took me 15 minutes to even get out of the parking lot. Yikes. No more of that for us. While we were gone, Isaac was napping in the crib (he is the first of our kids to really do that at this age), and Manny and Chris were watching Marvel Superhero Squad with Lucas. He's into that right now. The kids and I stayed home for dinner while Manny hung out at Chris's for a while. Manny had purposely not looked at his work emails all weekend to not have it hanging over us, but he had an important meeting Monday, and his computer had gone kaput. So he had to go into work late at night. Thankfully, he didn't have much extra work to do, and I'm glad that worked out.
Photos from the Kids Day event:
Chinese rice roll (fan tuan). I'd been craving one for months. It was good, except part of the filling was stale.
The sun was a little bright for Lucas.
Naomi crossing the boy scouts' monkey bridge.
Happy Kids Day!
By the cool costumes.
Cotton candy to share.
The "i" in Taiwan is shaped like the island of Taiwan, in case you didn't know.
Folklorico in the parade.
The freakiest thing is that I have a friend that looks like this guy's mask. Those look like Mickey gloves.
Though he was tired, he always musters a smile for big sis!
