Harvest Moon Festival!

Our FCC (Families with Children from China) group celebrated the Chinese Harvest Moon Festival on Friday.  It is one of my favorite FCC events, the kids get to run and play, there's lots of yummy food, lantern crafts and of course our releasing of the lanterns!

This year was a wonderful time again and we all left it tired and happy!  The lanterns were beautiful being released into the night sky!

 But before we let the lanterns go we took time to play hard and meet up with all our FCC friends!

 Love this one of Sammy & baby O!  Lots of giggles and happiness from these two guys!

 Simone of course worked on her "Fairy Houses"...a favorite project for her and some of her pals!

 We enjoyed the water and watching the ducks as we waited for the sun to go down.

My silly sweaty boy-he played hard for sure!

 

 After our dinner we made our lanterns.  I was told we ordered "Sammy proof" ones this year!  (we still have his so good they were definitely great lanterns!! Thanks Elizabeth)

    We lighted up the way as we went on our lantern walk!

 And our lovely group photo!  We have such an amazing group of families that participate in our FCC events.  It makes my heart happy to see all these kiddos together, celebrating some of the culture of their birth.

 

 Finally ... it was time to light up the night with our lanterns.  We all help each other out lighting them and then stand back and watch them float into the night air!  It is beautiful and peaceful-just a real treat for all!

 Some of the kids decided to lay in the grass to watch the lanterns go....

 It was a super fun evening for everyone!  We got to meet new families and catch up with old friends and celebrate the moon with our wonderful children!  I feel so lucky to have such a great support group with the FCC and can't wait till next year's harvest moon!  As Simone said on the way home "well, only 364 days until we can do this again"!
J

*We used 100% biodegradable lanterns with no parts that can be harmful to livestock