Can you believe this our 8th post about our themed weekends? Which means we’ve had 9 themed weekends (the first 2 were combinesd, Easter + Indoor Camping) and 10 weekends in quarantine. I’m honestly not hating it, but also, I’m ready for a change.
This weekend, the kids asked for a China theme. They are in an English/Chinese bilingual program at school, but I really think it was an excuse to eat dumplings. They loved them when we had them with the Singapore weekend, and have been asking for them ever since. Christian and I lived in Mainland China and, of course, in Hong Kong, so we were happy to oblige.
Thankfully we had some Chinese New Year decoratons, so we pulled out our lanterns and pineapples. Then after much deliberation, we decided to use whiteboard markers on the glass to draw the Great Wall and Chinese pagoda and temple. It was a bit subtle, but still added to the fun. We debated over washi tape and paper, but, honestly, this came together pretty easily.
The kids usually go out Saturday morning, to give Mama a minute to wake up and work out. Recently Papa has been taking them out, so this Saturday he took them to the market. My huband and kids love the wet market, with fruit and vegetables, fresh fish and cooked food. They had a little adventure, even in the rain.
They got some fruit and rice rolls, plain, shrimp and pork. The kids chowed down on the red dragon fruit, lychees and rose apple/cashew apple (one of my favorites, yet I’m still not sure of the name), but the rolls were the favorite. I also love the peanut dipping sauce.
Next they got to make thier own hand pulled noodles, for lunch. Any time my kids get to play with dough, they are pretty much in. After making the dough, they were able to stretch and then put to dough in boiling water.
While the dough rested, they started on the afternoon snack, which had a base of rice krispy treats. They had fun melting the mashmallows and butter, and of course, eating the extra remains.
After that we chilled out and watched a video while the rest of lunch came together. We watched a couple of short videos on ancient china, including this one. Then it was time to eat the noodles they made! (This was the adult version with spring onion and cilantro.)
After nap, they got to sample thier other morning creation. We used the rice krispy treats to make dragons, with fruit roll-ups and a few other small pieces to decoate– marshmallows, 2 M&Ms, more fruit roll up and dried mango for the fins.
Then we started the lanterns. I found this guide, so we made them 2 different ways. The kids decorated them and they were pretty easy. I had some fun orential flower washi tape twhich the kids used as well as crayons and markers. We stappeled them together, making it fairly quick activity, once decorated, and promptly hung them up with the other lanterns.
The kids then made Chinese drums. We used old paper plates we had left over from a party, so they weren’t as nice as using Chinet, but it worked. It came together with a bit of hot glue, a popscile stick and 2 strings of yarn with a bead.
The kids were ready to move, so we did a bit of Comic yoga about a dragon making fireworks before settling down to watch Abominable. For dinner, we ordered Chinese food.
The next morning we made paper fans. I’ll admit, I was going to do this a bit more simply, but my husband got ahold of it and made it a lot better. He drilled the end of the popscile sticks in order to string them, then glued them to the paper. The glue took a bit to dry, so by the time we took pictures they were a bit over it, but they looked good.
The kids decided yesterday that they wanted to wear their Chinese New Year clothes. East picked them out and layed them out, like mama does.
Then we made paper cup dragons, which took a bit for the kids get into, until I showed them how the dragon would look when it was done. Then they got super excited and loved it. Rookie move, mom! Paper cups, left over from Rush’s Construction Party, paper towel rolls, string and streamers made it come together.
Finally, it was time for Dragon Boat racing! We used the box from the rocket ship and painted a quick dragon then positioned it front of the pool. We gave the kids the stick from the broom and let them “race.”
It was nearly time for lunch, so the kids watched a Seseame Street about Chinese New Year, while Papa steamed some buns he pre-ordered.
After nap, the kids made candied fruit with thier dad. You can buy candied fruit on the street in China, so we tried it ourselves. It wasn’t that easy but the kids still seemed to enjoy it.
During home based learning, the kids made a lot of books, so I thought they’d love making a book on China. Turns out, that wasn’t so fun. But they colored and worked on thier letters for about 25 minutes.
After that, the kids colored dragon masks. East and I used markers and Papa and Rush used crayons, then we tied them on with string.
Finally it was time for a movie! Mulan it was, followed by pizza, as our usual Sunday afternoon. Rush was asked if he had to choose between dumplings and pizza which would he choose. He chose dumplings, so we must have done something right this weekend!