Grace Lin's Blog, page 13

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What do you do if your toddler wants to bring in a birthday treat but the class has nut, gluten and dairy allergies? You make marshmallow ducks, of course!
Happy birthday to my favorite rain duck dragon!

(see full image)"I'm having a taco party with my dragons," she says. 

Behind our garage we've had a plot of land which nothing grows, not even grass. It has been dirt and a pile of leftover field stones for three years...until now!
Inspiration finally struck, and instead of expensive landscaping, Rain Dragon and I spent the weekend building a labyrinth!

 I'm hoping I can use the area as kind of a backyard zen retreat (plans to strewn the area with violet seeds--perhaps with the rocks they might grow--and add some flag banners, maybe a bench)...though, I have a suspicion that  Rain Dragon has plans to use it as race track for her toy ducks. 

Can't wait to finish it!

(see full image)"You can bring Totoro with you so you can hug him at night if you are lonely," says Rain Dragon. 

Exactly a month ago, on February 29th--leap year day--a teacher message me telling me how earlier in the month, she had been reading The Year of the Dog to her students and they had all been struck by this passage:

     "Chinese people give every year an animal sign," I tried to explain. "You know how horoscopes use animals for some months? Well, for Chinese people it's every year."
     "When is it the Year of the Unicorn?" Becky asked. "I love unicorns."
     I shook my head. "I don't think there is a Year of the Unicorn."
     Becky looked really disappointed so I tried to think of something.
     "But maybe during leap year or something they have a Unicorn Day."
     "Really? What do they do on Unicorn Day?"
     "Um," I scrambled, because now I was completely lying, "they draw pictures of unicorns and hang them up. Sometimes there's a parade."

The students immediately realized that since this year had a leap year, they could celebrate my fictitious Unicorn Day! And they did!

Apparently, the day was dubbed "Unicorn Day" with  kids choosing to read books about unicorns, make puppets, or color and draw fantastical creatures! There were many in unicorn costume, as evidenced by this stealth photo:

Students in costumes for Unicorn Day!Isn't that awesome? Happy belated Day of the Unicorn!

Yes, it's our third "Not-a-fairy" house. We're building a neighborhood!

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...ducks have temporarily taken a back seat to soot sprites.

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Rain Dragon decided that the neighboring duck needed a house of his own. 

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and it is snowing on our Totoro house! He has come to live in our "people" house as his was not made snow-proof..."but at least his food will not go bad," says Rain Dragon cheerfully. 

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In order to keep myself from obsessively checking my TedTalk stats, I helped Rain Dragon build a Totoro house. It's very specifically for Totoro. If you call it a fairy house she will correct you with a great deal indignation. 
He needed a house so the ducks could come visit.