February 18, 2007
Happy Chinese New Year
Emily celebrated Chinese New Year last week in school, with singing, dancing and making musical instruments. She really loved the whole concept of this and asked if she could make a dragon when we got home. So here she is making her very own dragon. I have never seen so much glue and glitter used in one go! I am still trying to clean up and everywhere I go I see little pink sparkles. I fear the house is glittered beyond repair!
Today we went to the Chinese New Year festival in Belfast and it was a really great afternoon. I didn't expect it to be as busy as it was and it was completely packed, I could hardly get the pram through the crowds. There was lots of chinese craft, lovely food and market stalls and entertainment. Emily made a little piggy and we sat and watched different dances, singing and of course the dragon dances - which Emily was really excited to see. I typically forgot my camera so I don't have any photos to show. I was really impressed to hear that the whole entertainment side and the show part of the festival was performed by a group from mainland China who had only performed locally before and apparently it was their biggest crowd so far.
We even managed to fit in a trip to the zoo yesterday, to add to this fun packed weekend. We have never taken Emily before and I certainly can't remember the last I went to a zoo, probably when I was young too. I have mixed feelings about zoo's. I know they play a part in conservation but the thought of seeing animals in such confinement just saddens me, but the thought of Emily being able to see the animals is such a big thing. To be honest we were a bit disappointed as a lot of the animals were indoors, probably because of the time of year. We did manage to see quite a lot though but there just wasn't a very positive atmosphere in the place, but then again, maybe its because its winter and also the zoo is all up hill which is hard going with a pram. I still felt a bit uneasy about seeing the animals and I have to say that it was the chimpanzees that really moved me. They just seem to look so knowingly at you and it made me so sad, I almost cried. Zoo's are such strange places I just can't make my mind up about them. When I was pregnant with Emily I was pretty obsessed with watching the programme 'Monkey World' which is a monkey rescue sanctuary based in Dorset, they do amazing work rescuing monkeys from around the world. In fact Warren adopted me an orangutan called 'Gordon' for my 30th birthday, 2 days after Emily was born! I am getting all sentimental now...!
FInally a couple of pictures of my own little monkeys:
Posted by Maxine at 09:16 PM | Comments (1)
