The other day Brenda was telling me that she almost wishes she’d never used the 50mm lens on mine or Jen‘s cameras, because now she wants to use one all the time! For her upcoming Alpha+Mom craft column she had visions of a photoshoot at sunset, with kids holding Chinese New Year lanterns glowing softly in the dusk. But her own camera is ill-equipped for shooting in dim light, while a 50mm lens is made for it. Also Bug had just gotten a red cheongsam. Brenda knew Annalie already had a pink one, and she knew the two girls in Chinese dresses holding lanterns would be adorable. I didn’t really need much convincing. I’m always ready to do a fun craft with friends and then take pictures of cute kids. I told her to come on down.

Annalie and Bug thought painting the jars with watered-down glue was fun, and they each stuck on a few squares of red tissue paper. Annalie had only covered about a quarter of her jar when she announced that she was done, though, and once Annalie was done so was Bug. They wandered off to play while Brenda and I finished covering their jars with tissue paper, then set them out in the sun to dry.

Brenda and I laughed over the fact that we were doing this craft so she could write a kids’ craft column, and we couldn’t even get our kids to do it. Bug was happy enough to help Brenda make a few lanterns the day before at home, though. I think they were just too excited to play together to want to sit and do crafts. Oh well.

Later, Annalie was happy to decorate her jar with gold glitter glue, while Brenda and I decorated the other two with gold cord and paint. I had fun painting a gold fish on my jar, copying it from one of the decorations Brenda had bought on a trip to a Taiwanese market. I also copied the Chinese characters for “Happy new year” onto one of the jars, which was fun.

In case you’re wondering why the fixation on red and gold, those are the two main colors associated with Chinese New Year. Red is used in New Year decorations (and many other festivals and weddings too) because it symbolizes joy and happiness, and because in a legend about the origins of Chinese New Year the color red scared away an evil beast. Gold represents (duh) gold, money, prosperity, wealth, financial success. The traditional greetings at this time of year almost invariably include some wish for prosperity. That seems appropriate given the current economy, no?

Once all the jars were decorated and we’d wound and twisted gold craft wire around the top and into handles, we looked at the clock. We decided that with rush hour traffic and the kids getting a bit squirrelly since Bug had been playing right through her normal naptime, we probably shouldn’t risk the beach. Brenda had been able to get some decent photos at the beach by her house the day before, so we decided Snail Mountain would be a good alternative.

Troy arrived home from work just in time to come with us, so he quickly changed and helped us by loading the van while we got the girls changed into their dresses and did their hair. They were so excited to be in their “Chinese princess” dresses, and they both love going to Snail Mountain. To them the amphitheater stage and all those steps are the best playground ever. Not to mention all the rocks for climbing and the various critters one can usually see up there.

What one usually doesn’t see on Snail Mountain is many other people. Sometimes there is someone running the stairs or a couple huddled together on the seats whispering to each other, or a family having a picnic at one of the tables near the minuscule parking lot. But we often have the place to ourselves.

We were rather counting on having the place to ourselves this time. We were bringing glass containers and planning on lighting candles, both of which are generally frowned upon in parks. Also we thought it might be easier to get the girls to cooperate with our plans if there were fewer distractions.

When we got to the amphitheater, the parking lot was totally full, with a few cars parked illegally on the shoulder. It wasn’t a surprise that so many people were there. It was a gorgeous evening. The day had been overcast, the clouds promising rain but not delivering more than a few sprinkles. By late afternoon the sky had begun to clear. It looked like there would be a beautiful sunset.

We grabbed our box full of lanterns, the kids and our cameras, and huffed and puffed our way to the top. When we got all the way up, we saw that we had lots of company. Mostly there were couples and a few families with older kids, all enjoying the view.

As we started to set up the lanterns along the low stone wall, several people watched us with interest, and the girls in their matching hairdos and festive dresses got smiles and comments. A grandfatherly gentleman asked us if we were having some kind of party, and we explained it was a photoshoot. A woman sitting nearby with her husband and dog asked if it was Chinese New Year, and we said no, but it’s coming up soon.

Annalie and Bug both wanted to pet the dog, so I asked the owners if that was all right, and they said of course. The dog was beautiful, with black fur and soulful brown eyes. She sat patiently as the girls offered their fingers to be sniffed, petted her, talked baby talk, and danced around her. I let the dog sniff my fingers and scratched behind her ears as I asked what breed she was. The woman said she was a German Shepherd, which surprised me. I’d never seen an all-black German Shepherd before.

I guess the dog broke the ice or something, because Annalie chattered away animatedly to her owners for several minutes while Brenda and I sat up and took a few photos. I tried a couple of times to distract Annalie and Bug into coming over by us, but the couple good-naturedly laughed and waved me off, saying they didn’t mind in the least. I love it when perfect strangers are so pleasant like that; it gives me faith in humanity.

Once we were ready for Annalie and Bug to pose for some photos, we called them over. Practically before we even asked them, they were both climbing up on top of the wall. Not afraid, not these two! Of course, it helps that even though it looks like a steep drop-off in these photos, the ground is only about three or four feet below the other side of the wall. They walk on these walls all the time.

We did manage to get a couple of photos with them holding the lanterns, but then the wire on Bug’s slipped off! Luckily we were standing right there when it happened and nothing was broken or set on fire. After that we decided maybe some sitting-down photos would be a good idea.

We took a few on the pathway off to the side of the stairs, too. We just thought it was a pretty spot. I love how the path and trees look almost black-and-white against the red of the lanterns and Bug’s dress.

The next morning, we rewarded ourselves for all our hard work with a delicious breakfast. We had Brenda’s specialty: chocolate-chip pancakes with Ovaltine added to the batter and topped with chocolate syrup. We even had fresh blueberries and strawberries, and of course coffee.

Then Brenda and Bug packed up and headed home. It was a fun whirlwind visit.

And hey! Today’s the 26th, Lunar New Year, the beginning of the Year of the Ox. Congratulations and be prosperous!

(Psst, Brenda’s giving away this free pdf to print out and make the paper ox.)