Happy New Year

You would never know from this picture that Ella was a bundle of nerves over this performance:

Yinghua put on another awesome show.  It was great to be able to help but even more fun to watch.  All the classes did great.  The Kindgergarten classes were adorable all the way up to the 8th grade girls that did a pop number in Chinese.  But my favorites were the 5th Grade combined performance and 2A.   :-)

When you volunteer you get first choice in seats in the auditorium as well as better chance of good parking at Bethel.  But, you also have to help keep kids quiet during the dress rehersal.  I had limited success. ;-)

You also get to see your big girl come in with her friends and see her enjoying the day.  

And then you get to stand in the wings with the kids from 2A while they wait their turn to do their dress rehersal...lots of shhhh.... its quiet time... again, with limited success.   :-)

The performance ended with the traditional Lion Dance.  Inside one of the Lions was Elizabeth's old Kindgergarten teacher.

And to end the night you get to go out to eat with great friends!  Thank you Reenie for coming to the show.  We get 4 tickets per family and since Grandpa isn't able to come, I let the girls decide who to ask.  This year they asked Reenie and Ellyn (Elizabeth's reading tutor) and both were able to come.  Thank you again!  We also enjoy going out to eat with the Whalens.  We have known them since our first adoption trip to China and its wonderful that our girls are all at school together. We thought about going out for Chinese but American was the winner.  

As I get more pictures, I will post the good ones.  This year the school had two parents with awesome cameras take up close and personal pictures. I am excited to see them.   We also have a dvd of the performance coming so it was really nice to just be able to sit back and enjoy the show.

Happy New Year - its the Year of the Snake.