Seattle Chinese New Year

Last Saturday Seattle's International District put on a Chinese New Year Celebration. Chinese New Year is officially 2.3.2011 this year. The celebration was held at Hing Hay Park from 11am-4pm. Having never done this before, I had HIGH expectations and was really excited. Looking back, sure, I'm glad we at least checked it out, but let me say this: It was INSANE. They had a few booths that were intended for kids, but it was WAY too crowded to really enjoy it all as parents. The girls on the other hand had a lot of fun.
The part that I had REALLY wanted to do was the food walk. The concept of getting stamps while eating authentic chinese food for $2 and entering a contest sounded really fun. Unfortunately these really authentic restaurants were the fun holes in the wall that I would love to explore on my own, but not children and 50 other people trying to do the same. So, we ended up getting one thing - egg puffed waffles. I haven't had these babies since I was 7 in Taiwan and really wanted some. I stood in line for 30 min for 2 waffles but to me it was worth it and worth it to have the kids try it. We ended up eating at a chinese restaurant that was not participating in the food walk, but the food was still good.
Overall, I'm glad they did an event and that we decided to go... but we probably won't do this again with young children. :)

They had a fire truck there for kids to explore and climb on.

Then came the lion and dragon dance, which is always neat and fun to see.

Free face painting for children.

Craft table for kids to make things.

And the dressed up guy in the first picture was handing out red envelopes... unfortunately they only held candy and no money. :)