The Lunar New Year:
On Saturday night we celebrated the Lunar New Year (all of Asia celebrates it, but it's also sometimes known as the Chinese New Year) with my family and some extra friends at our house. The Lunar New Year doesn't officially start until Friday, January 31st, but Greg and Andrea were going to be in town this weekend to celebrate his birthday (with Claire's birthday as well!), so we decided to do a combo-celebration weekend so they could join us.
Here are some photos from the party!
 |
| That's the back of Noah Caron's head--we were so glad that Noah and Beth could join us, along with cutie baby Vivien! |
 |
| It's the year of the horse, people! :) |
 |
| Mom's famous Chinese spicy noodles. |
 |
| I made pot-stickers... |
 |
| ...and tried making egg rolls for the first time! They were not half as hard as I imagined they would be! It's a great thing to have in my hip pocket, I think. Jonas was a big help to me in making and rolling these out. |
 |
| You can see a pink/red cake with yellow sprinkles in the upper right corner of this picture. That cake was dairy-free, so my kids could have a dessert because all of the cupcakes had diary in them. Turns out the diary free cake was much m ore of a hit than the regular cupcakes! Funny stuff! I used half "Earth Balance" and half coconut oil as the substitute for butter. Turned out pretty tasty, all things considered! |
 |
| Dragons. Because...why not?? |
 |
| Jonas and Layla did a dance for everyone. She LOVES dancing with her Papa. |
 |
| Layla, doing a very dramatic rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb, and dancing too... |
 |
| At the end of the night Jonas and Jon played some songs on the violin and guitar. Henry is J's BIGGEST fan. |
A Birthday Dinner for Greg and Claire!
On Sunday night we all went over to the Horsman's house to celebrate Greg and Claire's birthdays. Greg chose chicken tika masala for his meal (and Mom did an amazing job of preparing it!), Lauren made a lemon blackberry cheesecake for dessert, and Claire chose death by chocolate for her dessert. We ate WELL.
 |
| Isn't it pretty?? It was very good, too! I am intimidated by cheesecakes. |
 |
| Henry and Finn created a slide. Henry would need "help" each time to reach the top... |
 |
| ...and Finn was very dedicated to the job of saving Henry... |
 |
| ...and then they would slide down! :) |
