Costco

The kids always get so excited when I come home from Costco!

I go once a month, usually right after pay day, and it is alwasy an experience. I'm finally learning my way around, but it's still pretty stressful. There's the challenge of finding everything, trying not to get run over, beating the clock (we always plan to meet at the van at a certain time and I'm always worried it won't be enough time), and being sure that you have enough cash to pay for everything. I always have that one thing in the back of my head that I'll put back if it turns out I don't have enough money. Yup, fun times.

And, I always get home about 7:00, so right around bedtime. I call Eric when we get close, so he can help me carry everything in.

So, the kids always come running outside in the pajamas to see what I've brought home!

It's just about the most exciting event of the month for them...especially this last month when Costco had Goldfish crackers!

They are always ready to dig into the newest snack food!

It's the little things in life!

By the way, sorry if posts have shown up twice...tonight Blogger decided that when I hit enter, it means I want to publish instead of move down to the next line...so frustrating!

Park Play & an American Experience

The weather finally warmed up enough that we were able to go the park both Friday and Saturday of last week...so exciting!

You might remember from last summer that there are a number of adult exercise parks throughout the city. On Friday night, after we went out for a kalbi dinner with friends, we stopped at the nearby park to work off our dinner.

Cade fell while running around, shortly before having an accident which led to our quick departure. We were thankful to be close to home!

On Saturday, our friends took us on base to go see the Muppets movie and to have dinner. It was an interesting experience. It was amazing that we were able to go to a movie, get popcorn, and have dinner for less than $50. Crazy! It was less than $10 for all four of us to see the movie!

Cade had a hard time understanding the fact that we were suddenly in the "U.S." and he had to sit in a carseat and wear a seatbelt. It was a scary glimpse into this coming summer. The ride home from the airport is not going to be fun!

It was really weird to walk fifteen feet and go from being surrounded by Koreans to being surrounded by Americans.

You have to walk in the crosswalks on base, but there is this weird phenomenon where if you are in a crosswalk, cars stop for you. I know, it's weird. People have the right away in little America here.

We took the kids to this huge park across the street from the theater after dinner.

Our friends have kids the same ages as ours (though their oldest is a boy and youngest is a girl), so the kids always have a great time playing with them.



















All in all, we had a wonderful (long) weekend, and we especially enjoyed temperatures around 50 degrees F. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few days. Now, it's back to cooler temperatures. And rain. Weird.

Cade's Birthday

I am quickly falling behind. I have started writing posts on the weekends to publish throughout the week. But do I remember to do it? Eh, maybe. If you're lucky!

So, Tuesday was Cade's birthday. It was a terribly long day for Eric and I to be away from our little man on his birthday. We had a PD meeting after school, and while I love our Curriculum Director, it was still painful to be stuck in a meeting until 4:30, miss the bus, and have to wait forever for a cab to get home!

We took him to one of his favorite restaurants--the first one that we went to upon arrival in Seoul--All American Diner. It's not one of my faves, but the kids love it and it is what it sounds like. American food. Cade enjoyed the hard-boiled eggs in my crispy chicken salad, and they both enjoyed smoothies!

I won the "Guilty Mom" award for this birthday because I baked nothing for my son's birthday. I know. You're appalled. To make matters worse, I forgot to bring a candle for his brownie and ice cream. But, you can trust that he was not at all bothered to have a warm brownie and ice cream rather than cake and ice cream!

He did have plenty of presents, though...

It was very much a cars-themed birthday...

They both really enjoyed the semi-truck car carrier that Kennedy picked out!

He got this little miniature version of our neighborhood green bus from someone at his party...

I just had to take a picture of this gift bag because it is so typical of Korean English sayings...they crack me up!

Week 9: A Great Leap

Oh my. It was such a busy week with Cade's birthday, PD yesterday, and an overall overwhelming feeling as I realized that in two weeks I'll be leaving for Singapore. There's still so much to do! As a result, there was no creativity whatsoever this week.
I had ideas, of course: the kids jumping on the bed, a leap of faith, but what you see is what you get. A lot of pictures of Cade. A lot of my memories associated with his birth are people saying things like, "Oh. Good thing he wasn't born a day later. He would've been a leap year baby." Really? He turned 3 this year. If he'd been born a day later, he would have been born on March 1st. He was way off from being a leap year baby. Apparently, they were taking a leap with their logic!

Day 55: Eric and the kids doing a puzzle after school on Friday evening.

Day 56: Cade eating cake at his birthday party with his buddies.

Day 57: Going for a ride in the cardboard box car that Daddy made!

Day 58: Don't be confused by the solemn face. He was simply showing me yet another of his birthday presents: Pororo band-aids. No injuries here. But yes, he does have another cold. Ugh.

Day 59: We went out for dinner to celebrate Cade's birthday on the actual day. The kids even got their own smoothies. Just one of many celebrations during his "birthday week"!

Day 60: The kids attempting to hail a taxi on the way home from Lost night. It was the night before a Korean holiday, so taxis were few and far between at 8:30pm.

Day 61: Cade and I on the couch watching Up before bed. Particularly bad iPhone pics this week since I took them in the dark.

I love how last week, I finally broke down and used one iPhone picture. This week I've got two. I hope it's not a trend! I'm finding it particularly hard to pick a favorite this week. I love the one of Cade and his cake, having just blown out his candle, with the smoke coming up through his eye. You have to look twice at it. But, I also really like the one of the kids with their smoothies. It has kind of a vintage feel to it. Hmmm...maybe I have two this week!

If you'd like to see others' work on Project 52, check out the links:

www.styleberryblog.com

Favorite Photo: February

I can't believe that another month is over in 2012. I can't believe there are only three more months of school. I can't believe that in just over three months, we'll be back in the States. The past year has flown by, and I have a feeling the next year isn't going to any slower with so much going on!
Anyway, it's always so hard to figure out my favorite photo, but here it is: my favorite photo of February.

Yes, I probably should have chosen a picture that had a face in it, but what can I say? This is the one I like! I can say that I am already so excited that I've chosen to do this project this year. Yes, it's hard at times. And I am definitely not always happy with the pictures that I take, but even if they're not great, at least I am documenting our lives each day of 2012.