Asian New Year Celebration Potluck

We celebrated the Lunar New Year on Saturday with three other families. There was tons of  food, drink, crafts, games, gifts and lucky money. Hopefully we have started a New Year's tradition!

Pork & Shrimp Lettuce Wraps and Homemade Spring Rolls

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Vietnamese Beef Stew



Jap Chae

Traditional Nuggets of Chicken :-)

Soba Noodles with Edamame and Carrots

 Lots of fun Asian Micro Brews & Wine

Fresh Fruit
Homemade Sorbet

Almond Cookies & Sesame Cookies

Traditional Korean Cookies

Coconut Macaroons

Dragon Puppets

The girls hanboks

Happy New Year! 

Simple Valentine Photo Card with Envelope

Here is a fast way to make a special looking Valentine's Day card. The great part is there is a lot of room for your little one to decorate the envelope and inside. Older kids will be able to do this card from start to finish. They just need to be strong enough to use a crafting punch (they can be a bit hard to use!) 

I used a sentence strip for the envelope, which worked out to be the perfect width, but you can use card stock. 

Trim card stock to fit your photograph. Fold in half to create the envelope.

I used a craft punch to punch out a notch on top.

If you would like, use a decorative craft punch to jazz up one side of your envelope.

Tape sides with paper tape, colored tape or scotch tape.

Trim excess tape.

Glue card stock or colored paper to the back of your photo. 

Punch hole and add ribbon.

The photo card should fit in envelope easily. If not, trim photo card.

Have your child decorate the envelope and back of photo. Stickers, markers, even a little glitter glue would be pretty. Have fun crafting with your kids!

To Grandma's House We Go...

Here are a few pictures from our last visit to Grammy and Grandpa's (Papa King's parents) house. The girls wore the matching vests that my mom made for them. Soft, furry, and so textural, they absolutely love them. I think they look like little rock stars in them!

My In-laws have the nicest friends. Their good friends, Mr. & Mrs. W. like to drop off doll strollers for the girls to play with during their visits. The girls always look forward to playing with them. This time the strollers weren't empty...

 Inside each stroller was a brand new doll for them to keep! 

Thank you Mr. & Mrs. W!!!! We love our dolls. We feel so fortunate our Grammy & Grandpa have such great friends in their lives.  XOXO Lu & Em

Valentine's Past

Valentines Day is right around the corner! Here are some crafts from our archives. I hope you find one or two that work for you and your little ones. The beaded hearts were and are still popular in my house. Enjoy!

Sailor Valentine

Watercolor Doilies 

Candy Flower Pot

Bean Bag Hearts

Paper Plate Spirals

Paper Heart Wreath

Pipe Cleaner & Bead Hanging Hearts

Valentine Prints

Asian New Year: How To Make A Korean Yut Nori Game

I discovered kid friendly instructions on how to make a Korean Yut Nori game with kids at TLC Family. To make it easier for you I designed a fun printable game board to use for your Asian New Year celebrations. The kids just need to decorate the game board, 4 popsicle sticks and their game pieces.



Yut Nori is traditionally played during The Korean New Years. It is a simple, fun and quick game to play. If your little one can count to 5 they can play. My 5 year old had so much fun decorating her game pieces, popsicle sticks and game board. She was very proud to play HER game.

We are going to make Yut Nori kits for Lu's Kindergarten class. I am volunteering to help them celebrate the New Year. We will show them how to play and then how to make their own game. I think they will really like it!

I created a free Year of the Rabbit Yut Nori game board. You can print your own below. 

yutnorikoreangame

I also included the rabbit ying yang for coloring if you would like to print it. The ying yang is an ode to the ying yang on the Korean flag.

rabbityingyang

Instructions for making your own Yut Nori Game Board and pieces:

Game Board: Print out template on card stock. Children can decorate game board with round stickers and markers. Mark your starting point by a unique sticker or color.

Game Pieces: In place of a dice, you use sticks. Traditionally the sticks are rounded with one flat side. For this version children will use popsicle sticks.

Have child decorate 4 popsicle sticks - only on one side - any way you like. Use markers, paint or stickers. It is important to keep one side blank. If you would like, you can make a color represent the blank side and make the other side patterned. The player tosses the sticks on the table during their turn. Count how many decorated sides are facing up. That is the number of spaces the player moves. Bonus: If all sticks turn up blank you get to move 5 places.

If you land on someone else's spot you have to go back to start. The lines in the corner are shortcuts. If you land on those spots you get to slide across to the corresponding dot.

You can use anything as your game piece, a button, pebble, spool...

For Lu's class, I bought these little wooden pieces for them to decorate and personalize for their own game pieces.

I hope you try this game at home!

Happy New Year!

Valentine's Craft: Goo Goo (for you) Goggles

I saw this picture from this old post and it just made me smile. My Lu, so little and adorable! Just thought I'd share. Plus, this activity (which I forgot about) is Valentines's Day appropriate.

Asian New Year: How To Make A Toy Spinning Hand Drum

Spinning hand drums (also called Monkey, Tik Tak, Lollipop...) can be found in many cultures (including parts of Asia, Africa, Peru...) They are a fun and festive toy for children during the Lunar New Year.

This craft is suited for older children with some adult supervision (due to hot glue gun.)

Younger children can help decorate their drum after an adult constructs it.

Supplies: oatmeal or stuffing canister, two plastic lids, hole punch, exacto knife, glue gun, dowel, 2 large beads, string, materials to decorate (felt, paper, markers, scissors, ribbon...)

Cut the top off of container, aprox. 2 inches.

This is the base of your drum. The second lid will be loose - don't worry - you will glue gun it on.

Trace dowel to indicate opening. Use hole punch to gradually increase the size of hole.

Cover outside of container with felt, fabric, paper or paint. Use exacto knife to make X over punched hole.

Place drum flat on table with hole punch facing you (at 6 o'clock). Holes for string should be at 3 and 9 o'clock. Use exacto to punch 2 openings for string. Make holes just large enough to thread string through.

Measure 2 equal lengths of string. 

Make sure you allow for enough string to tie bead and glue/tape inside container, aprox. 8 inches. 

Tie one bead onto the end of each string. Make sure it is securely tied. 

(This is a potential choking hazard to small children.) 

 Thread string through opening. I hot glued in place, let dry and then taped to ensure it was not going anywhere. Repeat on other side.

Insert dowel. Make sure dowel is touching the top of container. Hot glue the dowel into place at base and top. This makes it stronger.

Hot glue lids onto drum.

To decorate...

Find a container aprox. the same size as in circle of lid.

Use to trace two circles.

Have child decorate. Cut out and glue to drum.

Tie ribbon around dowel.

Glue into place.

We haven't trimmed the dowel yet. The girls seem to like the long stem.

Rub the dowel back and forth to swing the beads.

Beads will create a great drum sound.

Have fun and make a lot of noise!

How To Make A Quick Clay Rabbit

2011 is the Year of the Rabbit.

Start with one larger sphere (head), two smaller spheres (cheeks), two medium cylinders (ears) and a small red sphere (nose). 

Flatten head and cheeks with palm of your hand.

Assemble.

Roll cylinders to ear shape and flatten.

Shape and add to head.

Tip: if you want to hang your rabbit - connect tops of ears.

Add nose. Use 2 different sized marker caps to create eyes.

Let dry.

Use a marker to color in eyes.