Celebrating Diversity in Provo

Celebrating Diversity in Provo...yes, there is some diversity here! hehe. (two thirds of my Provo household is diverse!) Lady Hiva had another Relief Society meeting today. This theme was an International celebration. I went to help Lady Hiva set up again and it was fun to see the diversity come out of the recesses of Mormon suburbia.

Lady Hiva wanted to celebrate her Tongan roots and planned a presentation and a display to do that. Sadly, at the last minute the person that was going to dance with her dropped out, so Lady spent the entire night before the even learning a new dance off YouTube (see you literally can learn everything on there!) She found a dress to wear and even hemmed it to size herself (*proud husband moment! I usually do the sewing, but she is learning! hehe...that is until she ran out of thread on the bobbin and didn't know how to re-thread it! We are still learning...one step at a time)

She promised Tau'aho a lollipop if he would dance with her and so today they would dance together. When they called me at work he came on the phone and said, "Daddy, I goin to dance with mama!" And dance they did!

"Tau'aho look at me!"

"Tau'aho, look at the camera!"

"No...look up!" Ok, that is up...but not what I meant

Women from our ward (congregation) brought items to display from around the world. There was Korea, Scotland, France, Germany, Norway, New Zealand, Turkey, Russia, Morocco, Tonga, Brazil, Mexico and many more. They brought food from their country to try and memorabilia to represent the cultures there. I was there for the first part to help Lady Hiva and then to watch Tau'aho while we waited to dance and even I was enjoying the presentations and the pride that was being displayed in their pasts.

Doll made by Aunty Linda to represent Lady Hiva...it is amazin

Showing off his outfit..."See, look at my muli. It looks like marshmallow shells."

Lady Hiva, despite saying she was nervous, did really well. I am proud of her when she is up in front of people. He is quite humorous--she even told the whole group how to tell if a dancer is a virgin or not. They were rolling with laughter--I thought it was great because my quiet, regal Lady does not usually open up in public about things like that. But she stole the show! Then she and Tau'aho danced together.

She was beautiful, he was cute. At one point one of the other Polynesian families came up to give Tau'aho some cash (tradition when someone is dancing) and he was so excited. He took it out of his shirt and showed it to everyone! He is turning into quite the entertainer too. Afterwards I took of all of his outfit and was trying to keep him quite while the next person was describing Russia and he kept saying, "Where's my lollipop?" I would shush him so then he would whisper in a forceful, creepy kind of voice, "I danced! I want a lollipop!" This little guy has a mind of his own.

Our little Lucky Dragon is not looking so little anymore

Speaking of a mind of his own, I posted the video of Lady and Lucky Dragon dancing on Facebook because I was proud of them and it was up for less than an hour and already 90 people had "liked" it and nearly half of them had commented on it too. Someone must have texted Lady Hiva that it was there and she was fuming that I had violated her "rights" and posted the video of her dancing! Haha. She promptly logged in and deleted it (so much for making sure your spouse knows all your passwords!) Tau'aho, our tender hearted little Dragon, said, "Mommy, don't be angry. Daddy just loves you! Be happy." That made us both laugh. He is becoming so smart. But the video still stays off apparently...(unless enough of you beg for it, maybe she'll change her mind! :) ) 

Here are some other photos of the evening, Tau'aho and I left after the dance as there were some really fun quips about Russians (told by a Russian so it was OK) and again you could hear laughter all the way out the door. The rest of the evening looked fun too. I hope that even those that were skeptical at the beginning enjoyed themselves! I know I did and I wasn't even really invited!