Chinese New Year…It's a Sssssnake Year!

As usual, we had a great big reunion at my in laws with the extended family. It's steamboat dinner this year with loads of food! 

After the ever so filling dinner and catching up with the cousins, we headed home. All dressed in their new PJs, we retired for the night on their new sheets!

It was a little hurried this year as it fell on a Sunday where we had to go for church before rushing off to grandaunt's place for the annual meet up. 4 generations under one roof.

It's a time when the kids had the most fun!

And of course, Keren was just so happy with the mobility to move around and explore new tastes!

Chinese New Year

The night before we had the usual reunion dinner…loads of food and loads of people

We ushered in the Chinese New Year with new pajamas and the kids received their 压岁钱。

Even Keren knows what it means to receive an and bao!

 新年蒙恩！

It's Chinese New Year visitation with the cousins having great fun!

 Our little sweetie pie was enjoying the day too! Just loved her smile..

 Never missing the family pictures…We are getting too big to be all in one picture.

元宵

元宵 is celebrated on the fifteenth day of Chinese New Year. This year it falls on 28 Feb. According to the Chinese tradition, at the very beginning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousands of colorful lanterns hung out for people to appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve the puzzles on the lanterns and eat yuanxiao (元宵) (glutinous rice ball) and get all their families united in the joyful atmosphere.

Abel's school pre-celebrated the last day of Chinese New Year on 26 Feb. The teachers were so keen to see Keziah again and so we took her off from school to join in the fun. The kids made lanterns and some glutionous rice balls, rowed the boat and had a spread for lunch.

The kids just messed around with all the Chinese New Year decorations. Abel was rather fascinated by this little lion head.

We also took the opportunity to have a look at what Abel had been doing in school. His little crafts...

CNY inspired pieces

Some of the pieces she did at her art class 2 weeks back....

Reunion

As usual, we had 2 reunion dinners. One at Ah Ma's place and another at Nai Nai's.

To add on, at Nai Nai's, Wenying Gu Gu brought some sparklers and the girls had fun. Abel was invited to join the fun. However, he was not keen to try and only keen to just wonder around.
Our little precious wanted curly hair so just before bed, Mommy pleated her hair and she happily went to bed with it.
The outcome the next day! Heehee, many thought Mommy had permed her hair.

Zoo on CNY eve

Not sure if it was CNY eve or was it Universal Studio's opening, the zoo was rather quiet. For the first time, we decided to rent a tiny explorer to put the kids in so that they won't be too tired out.

Things are never bored at the zoo. There's always new things to discover. This time we managed to get a good seat for the Splash and Elephants@work show. The kids were really fascinated. Even Abel was sitting quietly watching intently at the show.
It's our 2nd time feeding the elephants. This time round, Keziah was keen on the feeding. In the past, she would shun once she right in front of the animal but this time, she just loved the experience. Not only that, our little Abel was just as excited despite facing such a huge animal.
Rest and relax...
We stumbled into the crocodile enclosure which we never seemed to have come by the previous many times. We were always watching out for them at the treetop walk.
We were just in time for giraffe feeding. We discovered that aside from having long neck and long legs, they have long tongues too!

Along the way, we bummed into the peahen and her chicks. They looked just so different!

Hey, orang utans chewed on sugar canes too!

Nothing beats filling our tummies after all the walk. It's KFC!
Our posy gal....