Singing at City Hall

The weekend after Thanksgiving the children's pre-k class was asked to sing at the lighting of the Christmas tree in City Hall. The event was meant to be an example of the diversity of cultures in SF so their class was asked to sign a Christmas song in Chinese. I could hear the class learning the song each day when I picked them up from school and the kids practiced it constantly while at home. They were all set for their big performance...uh, until we got there. Timo got a little overwhelmed by the whole thing and decided to sit this one out. You can see him looking up at how big the rotunda is inside city hall, trying to take it all in.

We arrived and everything seemed to be going great. The kids saw all their classmates and Timo was so excited. The teacher was lining them up off to the side, getting them ready to go on stage, I walked away to get a good seat to video it, the mayor got up to speak and then I saw a group of drag queens walk up next to the kids. They were full on make up, kinda scary looking to a 3 year old, and then I heard Timo crying. I just knew what had happened before I even saw him. He got scared and didn't want to go anywhere near the stage. I made my way through the kids to get him and didn't feel so bad once I saw a few other kids crying for their moms too. But Cameron was heading on stage so the show must go on! I lost my good seat when I went to rescue Timo but was able to slide on the floor and get a decent video of her singing. She was way more distracted by everyone else singing than by the audience!

I'm so proud of her! I was a little teary eyed...my baby girl's first school performance. I love this shot of her waving goodbye to the audience after the performance.

When it was all done they ushered the kids into another room to take a group photo. The kids ran over for the picture while I was talking to another mom...then I heard Timo crying again. His teacher was bringing him to me saying he didn't want to have his picture taken. I guess he thought they were going to go out and sing again?? Oh well, my little sensitive boy. But Cameron had so much fun posing for her pictures...

Timo was feeling a little left out and asked me to take a picture of just he and Cameron as we were about to leave.

As we were walking outside, their teacher, Fu Lao Shui, came up to say what a great job Cameron did and gave Timo encouragement. Timo asked to have his picture taken with his teacher...so sweet. Teachers are such amazing people, especially preschool teachers!

So just to show you that Timo does know the song, he wanted me to video tape him singing it after he watched the video of Cameron singing...so here they are, singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in Chinese.