Obviously, I'm pretty far behind in terms of pictures here. Kennedy's birthday party was only a week after her birthday, and I just finally edited them. Of course, I sat down to edit some more recent pictures, but then I remembered that I still hadn't touched these since I put them on the computer, so this is what I worked on. Hopefully, I'll get to the "Halloween" pictures before Thanksgiving...we'll see!
We woke up this morning with plans to go take pictures in the fall leaves at Namsan Park and then Eric had a baseball game in the afternoon. Our plans for the day were thwarted by rain, though. It was a cool, rainy, gloomy fall day here in Seoul, so we spent the majority of the day in sweatpants in the house, just relaxing. In fact, the only work I did all day was respond to student emails. It was a nice reprieve, though I was very disappointed to still not get a chance to take pictures up at the park. Those leaves have been calling my name all week as I drive to school in the morning.
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Kennedy began planning her birthday party for this year shortly after we arrived back in Seoul this summer. It didn't take her long to settle on an "art" party for this year. Then, Eric and I had the brilliant idea to involve our high school art teacher who is expecting his first child this spring. He had lots of great ideas and everyone was really excited about it.
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We were excited until we realized that we were actually going to have to schedule a day for this little party. Then things started to get complicated. We started with one day in mind, only to discover we were double-booking ourselves and he had family in from out of town. Then we chose another day and quickly realized that wasn't going to work, either. We finally settled on a week--the week that he arrived back from Singapore and his soccer season began. At this point, I said that we would just pick a day--if he could make it, then that would be great; if not, that would be okay, too.
Not surprisingly, he didn't make it. We had (shamelessly) planned to have the party at school in Eric's classroom. It has more space, we didn't have to worry about people finding our house, and we could just do a short party after school with snacks and cake. The two hours before the party (Eric doesn't teach the last two periods of the day, thankfully), we were running around his room and the school putting together last minute decorations and trying to figure out what we were actually going to have these girls do for two hours.
Thankfully, we came up with something--Eric did most of the brainstorming--and we were able to get everything together (for the most part) before I had to leave to go get Cade. That left Eric in charge of picking up all 13 girls after school and then herding them up to his classroom amidst screaming middle school students. I did not envy him this task. By the time Cade and I arrived, they were all seated in his room, eating an after school snack of juice, cheese, and crackers. Pretty impressive.
Cade was a bit intimated by the size (and volume) of the group of girls and chose to spend the entire party standing outside the classroom door. Of course, the girls thought this was quite the challenge--he already knows how to get the girls!
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They all had a great time at the different stations we had created--one for painting, one for drawing (with the world's messiest pastels), and one for decorating goodie bags. We had just enough time after cake for the girls to vote on their favorite drawings and paintings, so that we could award certificates.
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And, yes, Cade did decide that he could enter the room, eventually...to get cake, of course.
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We have already informed Kennedy that she won't be getting a big party next year; the first seven years of her life are long enough for that streak. It is always fun to see how she interacts with her friends, but we're looking forward to a year off! In our opinion, she is one blessed little girl, but she is being exposed to the fact that some of her friends live a much higher lifestyle. This week she has been invited to a birthday party that begins with a limousine ride around Seoul, followed by dinner in a restaurant, and then finished with a rented out pottery studio where they each get to make their own piece. Sorry, kid. Your birthday parties won't ever look like that!
We woke up this morning with plans to go take pictures in the fall leaves at Namsan Park and then Eric had a baseball game in the afternoon. Our plans for the day were thwarted by rain, though. It was a cool, rainy, gloomy fall day here in Seoul, so we spent the majority of the day in sweatpants in the house, just relaxing. In fact, the only work I did all day was respond to student emails. It was a nice reprieve, though I was very disappointed to still not get a chance to take pictures up at the park. Those leaves have been calling my name all week as I drive to school in the morning.
.jpg)
Kennedy began planning her birthday party for this year shortly after we arrived back in Seoul this summer. It didn't take her long to settle on an "art" party for this year. Then, Eric and I had the brilliant idea to involve our high school art teacher who is expecting his first child this spring. He had lots of great ideas and everyone was really excited about it.
.jpg)
We were excited until we realized that we were actually going to have to schedule a day for this little party. Then things started to get complicated. We started with one day in mind, only to discover we were double-booking ourselves and he had family in from out of town. Then we chose another day and quickly realized that wasn't going to work, either. We finally settled on a week--the week that he arrived back from Singapore and his soccer season began. At this point, I said that we would just pick a day--if he could make it, then that would be great; if not, that would be okay, too.
Not surprisingly, he didn't make it. We had (shamelessly) planned to have the party at school in Eric's classroom. It has more space, we didn't have to worry about people finding our house, and we could just do a short party after school with snacks and cake. The two hours before the party (Eric doesn't teach the last two periods of the day, thankfully), we were running around his room and the school putting together last minute decorations and trying to figure out what we were actually going to have these girls do for two hours.
Thankfully, we came up with something--Eric did most of the brainstorming--and we were able to get everything together (for the most part) before I had to leave to go get Cade. That left Eric in charge of picking up all 13 girls after school and then herding them up to his classroom amidst screaming middle school students. I did not envy him this task. By the time Cade and I arrived, they were all seated in his room, eating an after school snack of juice, cheese, and crackers. Pretty impressive.
Cade was a bit intimated by the size (and volume) of the group of girls and chose to spend the entire party standing outside the classroom door. Of course, the girls thought this was quite the challenge--he already knows how to get the girls!
.jpg)
They all had a great time at the different stations we had created--one for painting, one for drawing (with the world's messiest pastels), and one for decorating goodie bags. We had just enough time after cake for the girls to vote on their favorite drawings and paintings, so that we could award certificates.
.jpg)
And, yes, Cade did decide that he could enter the room, eventually...to get cake, of course.
.jpg)
We have already informed Kennedy that she won't be getting a big party next year; the first seven years of her life are long enough for that streak. It is always fun to see how she interacts with her friends, but we're looking forward to a year off! In our opinion, she is one blessed little girl, but she is being exposed to the fact that some of her friends live a much higher lifestyle. This week she has been invited to a birthday party that begins with a limousine ride around Seoul, followed by dinner in a restaurant, and then finished with a rented out pottery studio where they each get to make their own piece. Sorry, kid. Your birthday parties won't ever look like that!
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