Year of the Dragon

I’m not sure if I’ve told you that I have a brother who lives in Taiwan? He has a daughter about Piper’s age and thanks to Facebook and Skype, we’ve kept up with their Chinese New Year festivities. So when my girls had to stay home sick today, we decided to make these super-fun dragon puppets in honor of Chinese New Year.

It’s just like a miniature one of these. The photo I saw on Pinterest was cute, but I didn’t realize until we actually made and played with one, that when you hold the skewers in each hand your little dragon puppet really moves like one of the big dragons in the Chinese New Year parades. It’s so fun — even I had to take a turn playing with it. Also since I’m party obsessed, I couldn’t help but think that if you’re having a Mulan, ninja or other Asian-inspired party, you could stick the puppet into a simple round cake and make a totally cute (and EASY) dragon birthday cake.

Check out my Chinese New Year pinboard for more fun ideas (this one was my other favorite).

For those of you wondering, “Isn’t Chinese New Year over?” I have three replies, take your pick: (1) Sure it was technically last week, but I’ve also read that some areas of China celebrate for 2 weeks, (2) It’s the year of the dragon all year long, and (3) We’re in Arizona so nobody really knows anyway.

We also had fun figuring out the Chinese Zodiac Signs for our family (you can look up your sign here). Superdad is a dragon, and I’m a monkey, which thankfully, according to the compatibility chart, is a “good pair.” The girls had mixed feelings about being monkey, pig and rabbit — but all were very excited that Daddy is a dragon, which is evidently the best one to be.

What is your zodiac sign?