Happy Chinese New Year - the Lion dance!

This Feb for Chinese New Year our building hosted a lion dance

This is the walk from our tower to the main lobby

They had the lion dance in front of the main lobby

It is hard to see but there are black posts with yellow stripes and the lion walks up high on them and does acrobatics

Okay this man was quite charming in person but looks really scary in the photo

There were so many loud drums.  Andrew was really freaked out and wouldn't let us take him near the lion dance.  He waited with Mike outside in the grass (hooray our condo has grass as much grass is hard to find in KL)

Then the lions continued the dance inside the main lobby so everybody went in.  When they were done we were supposed to put red envelopes in their mouths

Helen's daughter and her two boys came to see the dance also...aren't her boys so cute

"Feeding" the lion

Here is Ishan, Helen's grandson, holding a canister or something from the dance

Afterward we walked around the building, checked our mail, etc.  Andrew is in our mailroom in this picture.

Typical Joseph shot

All kids LOVE family photos

 I am so happy my mom dragged us all to take family photos while we were in CA.  It was quite a feat to coordinate all of our attendance, and even more of a feat to figure out what we would all wear)!  All my CA peeps will know these are taken in Woodbridge Lake in Irvine, CA (where I grew up and where my parents still live).

 The boys were still a bit jet lagged and tired, so to get them to smile for the photo we had to enlist them in games of peekaboo.  You would die laughing if you could only see how many people were standing behind Niki's camera when when she took the below photo...all doing some crazy dance or some funny song to get the boys to smile

The matriarch and patriarch themselves!

My last name is no longer Robinson but that doesn't mean I'm not full of Robinson pride.  Go ROBINSONS

:)

Our little JO-FES

Yes, that is how he says his name.  Jo-FES.

 He really is becoming Mike's little buddy.  They have fun together, mostly doing things like playing peekaboo, hiding in the curtains, and Jofes trying super stealth ways to get Mike's cell phone and computer.

He loves to sit up on the big couch and wedge himself up to the pillows.

Unlike our older son, Joseph will smile on command.  So funny.

We love our little Jo-FES

Live Sea Food Anyone?

Mike holding our soon-to-be dinner

Mike planned a dinner out for his work group because some special coworkers were in town from Baltimore.  He decided to try this famous sea food restaurant out by the PJ Airport that has live sea food from all over Asia.

On the right is Jen, Mike's boss' wife, ordering--"I think we should get two of those..."

Mike's coworker's wife holding the crab.

The big man John himself (Mike's boss) holding his newest employee

Here is Jen (John's wife) being so brave...if I remember right I think this crab tried to bite her

Sitting at dinner with Mike's coworkers

This is a Chinese New Year thing--there is this special appetizer that you put all the food in the middle and everyone reaches in with chopsticks and tosses it in the air

Here is the work group

 Thanks for dinner!  I never had sea food so fresh.

Trip to Hong Kong

We went to Hong Kong in Feb to visit the temple.  It was my second trip but we stayed in a different hotel this time.  This city is quite overwhelming but cool at the same time.  The air is pretty bad though.  Every new Asian city we visit I end up thinking "Could I live here?"  This one would be cool, but the air quality with kids would be a negative.  Our trip ended up being around Chinese new year which was fun.

The below four pics are for my sister Heather.  Heather I think we will have to take you to this hotel when you come visit.  The whole time in the hotel we were walking around and saying "Heather would love this!"  It just needs some of your artwork on the walls so we will have to talk to the artistic director about that.

To the right of the room door was a fake book with the room number and the "do not disturb" light.

This is the elevator lobby on our floor.   If you look close you can see Mike peeking out of the elevator.

Hanging red envelopes--happy Chinese New Year

We went to dinner at this little place with paper menus as place mats.

My dish was $98!  I had to learn to divide everything by eight (usually not an easy quick multiplication problem, unless you're Mike--I hope my kids get his skills and not mine--lol)

How cute is this random family

More pics of our adventures

The best part (referring to the temple below, not the pic of Mike checking his blackberry--heh)!