Moon Festival of 2011

The Autumn Moon Festival....

What an amazingly fun night we had with our FCC Friends last Friday, celebrating the Moon Festival.  The Moon Festival is a harvest festival which is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar and consists of such traditions as eating moon cakes and carrying lanterns or releasing them into the night sky.

Below is a group photo of our sweet FCC kiddos!   Boy is it nearly impossible to get them all looking at the same time!  But they're all in the picture, so we've got that going for us!

                                                  

The meet and greet at each event is always so fun.  The kids are all excited to reunite with all their pals!

And then the playing begins!  Simone, SP and FuDa built a fairy house.

While everyone else hit the playground....

We got to meet our newest FCC addition!  Baby O came home a few weeks ago and is just darling!  It looks like Sammy is trying to share a truck with him....

Or maybe not!  He did love the baby though and kissed and hugged him all night!  I've never seen him enjoy a baby like that.  I have a feeling they're going to be best of buds!

Oh...his JieJie pushing the swing!  I'm told Miss O has been an amazing big sis!

The three amigos!

Mmmmmmmmm..........Mooncakes!

Craft project time- making our lanterns for the lantern march!

Oh....SP is Sammy's favorite buddy!

And story time - a book about the Autumn Moon Festival!

And then our march!  

It's so awesome to see these 20+ kids of all ages marching along with their lanterns! 

Then we got to release our lanterns into the night sky!  This is magical to me...always my favorite part of the night!  It's so beautiful and peaceful to see all the lanterns lit up and soaring together.  And the contrast of that peace mixed with all the commotion going on around, all the noise of the excitement and the kids and adults laughing and ooohing and ahhing.  

And another reason it's my favorite....the kids reactions are just the best!

Sammy was amazed!

Here's our lanterns (biodegradable and environmentally friendly!)

And so now we just have to wait another year before we get to do it all again!

Follow this link   Brooke's video    to watch a video one of our FCC member's daughter made of the night.  It really is a great video and I think she captured some of the joy we all have in our celebrations!
J