2/13 Beck's Lunar Year Year Lunch Party

Beck's school has one big fundraiser a year during the Lunar New Year. This year they had it at a big hall in Mountain View. Since my mom and brother were going to be in town, I bought tickets for all of us. I went earlier with Beck since students needed to get there by a certain time and because I volunteered to help.

I ended up helping sell tickets for what they called a Chinese auction. They had like 3 dozen boxes laid out for items that you could put a ticket in to win that item. They had things like a train trip with one of the teachers, an ice cream party, gift certificates, etc. The train trip was actually one of the most popular ones and was with Beck's teacher. He put a couple of tickets in that one but didn't win. Hansel put a ticket in for one of those inspirational prints that had a runner on it. He did it because there were no tickets in the box, so automatic win. But then he was going to pull it out when he found out how much each ticket was worth (which I think was $4). But I told him to leave it, so we would be guaranteed to get something.

They also had a regular auction for items that each class made. Beck's class made a garden box of herbs and a canvas painting. The items made by the preschool classes went for fair amounts, but some of the elementary class items went through the roof.

Each class did a performance. I didn't get really any great shots because I was too far, and we didn't bring the lens with the super zoom.

Beck is in the blue.

For lunch they had a Chinese buffet. That was, as one would expect, kind of chaotic. They asked everyone to first only get food for kids, but people, of course, are going to get food for themselves while they're up there. We didn't have to wait that long because we purposely sat by the buffet.

And to top it all off Martin Yan was there. He did a demonstration -- showed some fancy knife work and prepared a dish. He also autographed books that he had for sale. My brother and I got a book for our mom.