First Day of Kindy

Today was Coop's first day of Kindy (aka Kindergarten). Well, yesterday was actually his first day, but as most of you already know, Coop came down with a virus and had to miss his real first day. Fortunately, the first 3 days of Kindy are set aside for assessment and Coop was able to go today instead. Tomorrow all the Kindy students will be there.

We wavered a bit this morning about whether or not to send Coop to school. In the end, the excitement of school won out over staying home another day.  He practically jumped into his uniform (shoes, hat, backpack and all) the minute I said he was going.  He was so proud and said, "All my friends will be so impressed with me."  

On the way to school we stopped outside our building for some photos.  Coop loved making silly faces for the camera and Tucker insisted on being included in the photos.  

The walk to school is (ideally) 10-15 minutes.  It was pouring rain and we had Tucker in the stroller so it took about 30 minutes to get there instead.  Just as we were approaching the school, Coop said to me, "Mom, I am a big boy now. You can leave me at the top of the steps and say goodbye."  What a wonderful demonstration of excitement and confidence, but you could bet your sweet bleep that that wasn't the way it was gonna be. :)  Plus, there are no stairs. He was thinking back to preschool in Tacoma.

When we arrived in the classroom, no one was there. I was a little un-nerved, but thought to myself the teachers probably had an early morning meeting and I was right. The teacher, Mr. Strath, came in a few minutes later and all was fine.  Coop sat right down and began talking with him.  He had no problems saying goodbye to me.  A quick kiss and I was off.  

I really thought I was going to be sad about leaving Coop there for his first time in big boy school, but I wasn't. I was confident that all would be okay and it was.

When I  picked Coop up he was exhausted, but happy.  He loves his school and his teacher.  He made some new friends and even was able to play with a friend we met in the spring.  His only complaints were that there was not enough time to eat his lunch and the that the teacher next door was "bossy."  

Tucker, on the other hand, was quite confused as to where his big brother and constant companion was.  As we walked home, he stopped and looked around and said, "Bu-per?" When I asked him where Cooper was, he said, "Church."  That answer cracked me up so much I had to ask him again. So a while later, I asked again and this time he said, "Far away."  I had to do it again and his next answer was, "Harbour."  I asked one final time- not to torture the kid, but because it was so cute. The last answer I got was, "Bed. Shhhh!"  I ended my interrogation there. :)

As the evening went on I got little snippets about the day.  More about the bossy teacher next store who would not let him use glue on his torn paper.  A little about the nice boy with white glasses on the playground who helped him when he was scared. Lots more about not having enough time to eat lunch.  Then, as we were playing, he got all teary-eyed.  I asked him what was wrong and he said, "Mr. Strath's dog is lost."  He told me that his teacher's dog got spooked and ran away and hasn't been seen since.  Cooper is super sensitive about animals and this news made him incredibly sad. It was heartbreaking to see.  So, we sat down to write Mr. Strath a note. It read:

Dear Mr.Strath,

I hope your dog shows up soon. I want to meet your dog. I wonder where he was the last time you saw him.

Love, Cooper

So, despite the sad news about the dog, today was a great first day of Kindy.  Everything went smoothly and Cooper is happy and ready to go tomorrow.  The last thing he said before falling asleep tonight was to Tofie (our Pug). He said, "Not now Tofie. I have to get to sleep. I have a big day tomorrow."

The Twilight Parade

Wow.

If someone were to ask me about tonight's Twilight Parade that would be my response- wow.  I have never in my life seen such an amazing display of color and culture.  I felt so small and "un-worldly" watching so many people from different Asian countries proudly displaying their traditions.  There is a whole world out there that I feel I know very little about...

The Twilight Parade is huge!  Thousands of people must have attended. People lined the streets 4 to 5 people deep. Finding a place to stand where we could actually see was tricky. Once we found our space, we literally had to defend it from people trying to sneak by and take it!  Crazy! The parade route spaned probably a mile or so of downtown Sydney to Chinatown. There was representation from many Asian countries the biggest being China. The other biggies were Korea and Vietnam.  There was every kind of performer you could think of in the parade-- musicians, celebrities, politicians. dancers, contest winners. I loved seeing all the people dressed in the traditional clothing from their native countries. I think I liked the dressed from Korea the best. They were beautiful and looked very comfortable!  :) There were, of course, lions galore- purple ones, red ones, white ones, black ones, lions that were lit up and even children dressed as lions.  There were many different kinds of floats including each of the Zodiac signs. But the best part of the parade in my opinion was the DRAGONS! There were so many different kinds of dragons- some looked like fire, some lit up, another was made out of pots and pans and the others were all the colours of the rainbow. The dragon moves quickly and is hard to photograph!  He is carried on bamboo poles by the dancers unlike the lion who is worn by the dancers.  The dragons definitely were the biggest crowd pleasers.

There was a very strong presence of children in the parade as well. They did all the same "things" the adults did, but they were so much cuter.  I loved watching the little ones do the lion dance! The dragons created by the children were wonderful as well.

Another highlight of the night was the illuminations on the walls of some of the downtown buildings.  These changed every 2 minutes or so and were mesmerising and beautiful.


The biggest disappointment of the night was my camera. It was so slow and the flash wasn't working. On top of that the performers were all moving so quickly that I was only able to get a few good photos. I am very bummed about that.  I have added some of the better ones below and some that are not so great, but they tell the story of the parade. I may steal a few from the internet as well.... :)

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Dragon Floats

The leader of the parade

made from pots and pans

the komodo dragon- a float from Taronga Zoo

Zodiac Floats

Graffiti Dragon

These paintings were made by artists before the parade began.  They were made in the graffiti style using spray paint! I would LOVE to have this on my wall....

 Dragons
Not the greatest photos, but you get the idea

Chengdu's Panda Float
The city of Sydney has a delegation from China each year for the CNY. This year the delegation came from Chengdu. Their "representative" is the giant panda. Below is the panda float from the delegations. Each of the pandas are actually paper lanterns!

Lions
You all know about my fascination with the lion dance.  There were so many different kinds of lions in the parade it was hard to keep track. Here are the photos, though not so good, of some of the lions.

Love this!

Projections
Sydney likes to do projections on buildings. They did it at Christmas time and again tonight. I have to admit, tonights were far better.  I hope the photos capture the beauty of these illuminations. I stood and watched them for about a half hour after the parade ended and took tons of photos.  My favorite is, of course, the projections with the dragons.

My favorite

close-up

another close-up

another favorite

It was an incredible night. I had been waiting for over a month for this parade and it met and maybe even exceeded my expectations. I am sorry the boys were not able to stay long enough to enjoy it- it was too crowded and too late for them. My mom stayed with me a while after the boys left and then she headed home as well. So I stayed myself for over an hour. It think this was one of the best experiences I have had since we have been here in Sydney. Now most of the CNY events are over. You won't have to see any more lion pics or read about my CNY obsession anymore....until next year! :)