Chinese New Year & Pic Nic Fun

Man have we been on the go. Started our morning at 8am which was wake up time. Got all of us ready and then were out the door by 9:30. Today's play group we are celebrating the Chinese new Year. Yes I realize we are slightly late in our celebration considering it started on the 14th, but you know we had a lot going on around the 14th so we decided to wait until later in the week to have a big party. The lead organizer hosted her house and all the guests were to bring a oriental dish. Of course I don't eat a lot of the Asian or oriental dishes so I spent the majority of yesterday Google searching Asian desserts. Not trying to confuse you with the Asian, Oriental, Chinese, but we decided to broaden the party and allow all the cultures of food at the party. So anyways I managed to find a Chinese almond cookie. It was supposed to make 2 dozen cookies and darn did it make a lot of batter. I ended up with 5 dozen cookies. I personally was not a big fan of the cookies so I decided to also make a pork dish. No I don't eat pork, but I know the majority of people do. So needless to say I ended up smelling pork the entire night in the crock pot. Nauseating. But Paul tasted the pork before we left and gave me the approval LOL. So we get there and she has all these cool decorations up. All the kids played and the next thing I knew there was a line of all sorts of foods. It was awesome. Not for me so much, but it was cool to see everyone put such an effort. Even, if the majority of the food was from the frozen section. LOL The organizer did give a demonstration on how to make chicken fried rice. That was neat for all the kids. I think the best thing brought was the poky sticks. Can't go wrong with chocolate sticks. So while the kids ate and then went off to play the adults all got together and made origami. I will admit my brain doesn't get it. Not sure if it's because there are a ton of kids running around and talking in the background that breaks my concentration or what. But I had a hard time. I did manage to make a heart, pig, tiger, and picture frame. Kailee made a lantern. When I looked at the clock it was after one. CRAP! Way past JP's nap time, and after having his hand slammed in the door he really needed one. :( He fell asleep about ten minutes away from the house. Bummer. I still made him and Kailee rest when we got home, but neither napped. After resting time I took the kids to get a Happy Meal and have a pic nic in the park by the house. Since neither napped they were pretty tired and grumpy. They warmed up after a while and ended up having a really great time. Perfect weather. Actually really warm. Unnatural to me to be wearing shorts and a tank in Feb but whatever.
We left the park and came home to bath time and bed time. I'm putting these tired kids down early. We have another play group at the park in the morning.

P.S. Sorry for all the additional pictures of random kids. It's easier for me to upload all pics to my blog instead of half here and half on our group's web page.

And, in case you're wondering where the park pictures are...I opted not to upload them. We went while the sun was out so needless to say the lighting is all funky and it would take forever to correct them. Sorry!