the 15th day

Today is the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year.  It's a big deal.  And the entire country celebrates with more firecrackers.  Ahhh, feel the love.  By day 15 the firecrackers are one seriously old story in my book, and I'm ready to move on to something new and different.

The very best thing about today? SUNSHINE!!!!  If you live somewhere you see sunshine every day, or even most days, or even some days, or even occasionally.... you might not understand how significant this is.  The winter here is foggy, gray, dreary, rainy, overcast,dismal, hazy - all that stuff. 

And a sunshine-y day is a BIG DEAL.  Way bigger than the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year (okay, so that's not the most culturally sensitive comment I've ever made.....)

Matt and Isaac celebrated with a long afternoon bike ride.  Matt needed to go deep into downtown to find a shop to repair the screen on his phone and he turned the outing into a 'boy adventure'! 

adding air to the rear tire - Isaac wants to be right beside Matt anytime tools are involved!

The child's bike seat was a gift to Julianna on her first birthday.  All three kids have spent hours in it - today's ride was a solid hour each way.  Mostly through bustling cityscape - bridges and tunnels and honking horns and big trucks and overstuffed buses and busy taxis - needless to say, there was plenty to entertain the little man in back while Matt rode :) 

The girls played school and leaf collecting and water painting and even did a little gardening - all in the courtyard sunshine - while I packed and cleaned and finished up laundry.  Late in the afternoon all three of us ladies took a quick walk up to the local mini mart to pick up some airplane snacks for tomorrow.  We're traveling this week - the whole family - back on Saturday afternoon. 

And tonight before bedtime we lit up some sparklers, our little tribute to day 15 of the fireworks and firecracker extravaganza.