Children's Day 2011

I still can't get onto Blogger at this point, so sorry that these pictures won't have captions!

Yesterday was the annual Children's Day in Ch1na, always a big celebration here at Shepherd's Field. For the past many years that I've been sponsoring with SFCV I've seen the yearly pictures from this event and *always* wanted to be there in person! The day started out with a program at 9:30 in which many of the kids performed. Grady sang and did magic tricks, the preschoolers sang songs, Cody did his characteristic "rock star" version of the "ABC song" and "Twinkle Twinkle" (you'll recognize him in the pictures!), older girls Wendy and Stacey played piano and sang, and several kids sang solos or recited poems. The younger kids (minus the small babies) all sat and watched them. As is tradition here, the kids' faces were all done up with make-up (even the boys had penciled eyebrows and red lips!) and many were dressed up too. After the kids had performed, they descended upon the bouncy house in full force, jumping, crawling, falling against the walls of air, and screaming their heads off in glee! It was so fun to watch them having fun. The morning finished up with a special McDonald's lunch for the kids, even for the little ones! Then they headed off for nap/rest time while the rest of us ate a quick bite of lunch and started filling water balloons in preparation for the coming water fight once they all woke up at 2:30! Sara (SFCV adoption liason), Jeff (visiting photojournalist), Irene and Philemon (therapy interns), Kathy (a volunteer) and I all spent about two hours to make 300-400 water balloons (all of which lasted about 5 minutes with the kids!). There were also three little wading pools set up and a bunch of mega-sized squirt guns which the kids could barely hold, but nonetheless LOVED!

It was so special to give the kids a whole day of fun and excitement. They so look forward to this time and I am so blessed to have been able to be a part of it this year!