red egg party with family

Rain Dragon's second red egg party was a family one in Upstate NY:

She stayed awake for some of this one:

to the delight of Aunties and Grandmas:

We combined the party with my niece Lily's birthday:

birthday girl and the baby!

But Rain Dragon got the best present. It was the 100 Wishes Quilt that began at the baby shower! They finished it! Isn't it beautiful?

I was told that so many people sent in fabric that even though it had originally been planned as baby size, it turned out queen size.  I was so touched to see all the people who contributed, people from all parts of my life-- local friends:

we had another red egg party with these people!

far away family:

all the way from Taiwan!

author/illustrator colleagues:

I like how Anna  made all her pieces color coordinated!

I particularly love the material Barbara chose because it reminds me of my cherry bedsheets

and new cousins:

love the Star Wars wish!

The quilt was backed with this neat dragon fabric:

The whole thing was perfect for Rain Dragon:

Thanks so much, quilters!

The talented quilters from l-r: Carri, Janet, Cappy (who didn't do any quilting but is in the photo because he thought this was a pile on game), Lily, Lissy and my mom

A 100 Good Wishes Quilt, a Bai Jia Bei,  is based on the Chinese tradition where family and friends each add a piece of cloth to make a quilt for a new baby. Each piece of cloth symbolizes their wish for the child and the quilt becomes a precious way to show how welcome the baby is into the world. 

the cake we bought

The first question people ask after they hear about Baby Rain Dragon, is "Is it a boy or a girl?" Well, we wanted to tell our families the answer in a more fun way than usual so (borrowing the idea from my friend Elaine--who just got her first picturebook contract, by the way!)when we got our ultrasound we had the technician write the sex of the baby down on a card and place it in a sealed envelope.

This sealed envelope we brought to a bakery. We asked the baker to make the cake chocolate if it was boy and vanilla if it was a girl and to ice the whole thing in white. This cake we planned to take to the Sasquatch's family for Christmas to cut Christmas morning--all of us finding out the sex of the baby at the same time as our holiday gift!

Of course, in the meantime, I tried to guess by just looking at the ultrasound photo. But I couldn't tell:

However, finally, Christmas morning came and with the magic of technology I skyped my parents and sister's family in for the grand cake cutting...

And it was....

Vanilla! Rain Dragon is  a girl!

I checked the card just to make sure:

Hello, Rain Dragonette!

the cake we made

For Thanksgiving, my mother asked me if we could bring the dessert. The Sasquatch and I had thought about making pie but I saw a recipe in Martha Stewart's magazine for a gingerbread cake. It looked yummy, so we made that:

We decorated it with gingerbread cookies (that is the Sasquatch's specialty. He makes amazing gingerbread cookies).

And we added a surprise....

Surprise!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

summer fun with family

I've still got my nose to the grindstone, slowly turning out my novel. But it's summer and summer is time for family, so I did temporarily halt the wheel to spend time with my favorite niece and nephew (okay, my only niece and nephew but they're still my favs!!).

One particular fun day was our trip to the Utica Zoo:

My niece's name is Lily, so this is joke on two levels...Lily is getting watered! Get it? The kids & I thought it was hilarious...

They also thought I made a fearsome tiger:

And we dressed in stripes so we could match the zebras:

(my mother's striped shirt had roses on it so we called her the "romantic zebra")

There was also (on other days) sushi,

yes, all this sushi is just for her!

Sparklers (on sale after the 4th of July so my mom bought a bunch of them):

My nephew calls fireworks "funny fire."

Bouncing houses:

I've seen kid heaven and it looks like this!

Peach picking:

The Sasquatch is hoarding all the peaches!

Bowling:

This was the best bowler.

The beach:

ice cream:

a lot of ice cream. I had a cone a day. My nephew is shrieking in horror of my excess!

and blue tongues:

Ah, such fun! Good summer memories...but back to work I go!

there's food in the buses!

Here's my niece with my belated birthday gift to her, a Kikimoto Backpack that was designed by my friend Aaron Meshon (you might remember him from this post):


The Kikimoto Backpack was a big hit! In our imaginary make-believe it became a school bag for pretend school (taught by Mr. Hinklemcdoodle, aka the Sasquatch...I wonder if she would draw the Sasquatch like darpl?) and then a traveling pack for our expedition through the pyramids. I was actually surprised how much she liked it.

"This is my favorite bag," she said, "because there's food in all the buses."

a pearl for memory's golden casket

Here's a photo I took of most of my family gathered together to watch the 4th of July fireworks. We're all busy and it seems like time flashes by so it's nice to take a moment and realize, if only in retrospect, these are the faces of those I love most. Not as loud or as brilliant as fireworks, but beautiful nonetheless.

a family thanksgiving dinner

It's probably dull for people to read about my normal family doings, but it's these normal occasions that make life so lovely that I can't help chronicle them.

This year's Thanksgiving was especially fun as we spent it with my older sister's family. They had a full house with 19 people to feed!

(Notice the red envelopes? They are filled with fortunes--like in fortune cookies. They were written by the kids which is why the fortunes said things like, "You are a duck" and "You are a hot dog." It's our new Asian-American tradition.)

Most of the noise was made by the monkeys kids:
Who made the cliche, "My how you've grown," feel very appropriate:

Nephew Cappy about 3 years ago

Nephew Cappy now (I hope he still has the same pajamas next year).

And those great poems that we wrote became the highlight of the after dinner entertainment:





It was a great Thanksgiving! I hope yours was as fun and as happy!

thanksgiving

I'm spending time with my family for Thanksgiving and so far the highlight has been writing poems with my young niece. At Bookmania I met Isabel Campoy and purchased her book, Pio Peep! with English and Spanish nursery rhymes:


I bought it mostly as a keepsake, but was delighted when my niece picked it up and started to read it with interest. We enjoyed it so much that we began to write our own poems:


My good friend Elaine has always advocated poetry to me as a great way to encourage reading and writing with kids, and now I completely believe it. It's created a Thankgiving memory I'll always remember with happiness.