Happy Camper

“Mommy, today was the best day ever!”

That’s what Molly told me on the car ride home. We spent the day back in the old town, with the old friends. There was a certain comfort that being back in the “old” provided for Molly. And me.

The morning began with Miss Lily’s Mandarin class. Molly started with Miss Lily when she was only a year old. Although she doesn’t always love Mandarin class, she always loves Miss Lily.

After class we went to lunch with Molly’s best friend Mia. Now that we have moved and Molly has started Kindergarten, she has tons of friends. I mean tons. She has friends that she plays with daily at home. Friends that she sees everyday at school. Friends that are at her extracurricular activities.

But ask Molly who her best friend is and she will reply without hesitation: Mia.

Molly was thrilled to go to lunch with Mia. These two always order the same meal. When they are together these two slowpoke eaters inhale their food just so they have more time to play with each other.

After lunch, we went to the China Friends playgroup. Molly has known many of these girls since she was two. The group has recently expanded and we have more formal monthly outings now, but Molly still looks forward to each and every meeting.

For todays outing, Annie’s mom Jill planned an exciting day for the kids. She had teachers from a local Mandarin school (not the one connected with our Families with Children from China where Molly goes) come over teach the kids all sorts of traditional Chinese activities.

Here are the girls learning about the Chinese Zodiac.

Next up was chopstick lessons.

Molly is already proficient with chopsticks so she enjoyed showing off her skills.

After chopstick lessons, the girls learned the hand signs used when counting from 1 to 10 in Chinese—different than we use here in the USA.

Then they learned a hand play using Chinese counting.

Finally they learned how to play a Chinese version of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

This proved to be great fun and they were still playing this game at the conclusion of the activities.

At the very end of the day, the girls took part in a candy tasting. The kitchen was filled with different stations where the kids could taste a whole variety of traditional Chinese candy and then vote on their favorite. How fun is that?

Sorry, not pictures…I was too busy tasting candy myself! And for the record, the sesame candy was my favorite. Molly like the lychee gummies.

The drive home was a quiet one. I had a tired little camper in the back seat. A tired little camper with a big smile on her face. One that though that this was the best day ever!