Week 41: Cool Evenings

Oh boy. Another crazy week for us, but it was a good one. I have essays to grade, a new unit to plan, and report cards to do, so this will be short and sweet!

Day 276: Cade got a "new" bike from one of his buddies. He is so excited!

Day 277: I spent my Saturday afternoon in a hummus-making frenzy. I started the dried chickpeas soaking on Friday afternoon. Then cooked them for a few hours, then I did several batches in our weak blender. The work was worth it, though!

Day 278: Spent Sunday afternoon baking and decorating cupcakes for Kennedy to take to school for her birthday. Yup, we like to make it last as long as we can! (Or I'm just too busy to get things done in a timely manner.)

Day 279: Wrapping up the quarter at school. A busy time, of course. A time for comfort food. Cool evenings have finally arrived and put me in the mood for something warm, so I tried a new recipe for homemade mac and cheese.

Day 280: Cade is also feeling the burn from our schedule these days. He laid down on the floor and took a two hour nap after his play date Tuesday morning.

Day 281: Insane day at school. Had kids in my room delivering speeches from 7:45-5:00. Then headed to Lost and home to return emails to students. Must sleep.

Day 282: Started my day off with a homemade pumpkin spice latte. Then some blogging before grading essays and heading to school to pick up Kennedy and last-minute late work from students.

I'd better get back to work!

To see others' photo projects, check out the links:

 www.styleberryblog.com

Michael in Seoul

I really don't have time for blogging lately (obviously!), but Eric has been making me feel guilty for not posting pictures. I think I have some good shots from our staff retreat, but I haven't even had time to look at them yet. They might show up here at some point. Or they might sit on the computer forever.

 

Anyway, last weekend was our long Chusok break. (So you'd think I would be more caught up, right?!) Eric's cousin came to visit, so we were doing the tourist thing--or at least those things that were open.

We finally made it to a Doosan Bears baseball game--it is a different experience! Everybody has sticks that they call "boom sticks" and they do different cheers with them. Of course, we don't know any of the cheers, but we tried to follow along!

We spent one day doing the palace tours and checking out some of the big landmarks in the northern part of Seoul....

including Gwanghamun Square and the Cheonggyecheon.

I just posted the big photo ops of the weekend--people standing in front of big landmarks--what the week was really about, right?! If you want to see the rest, you can check out the album on the sidebar.

Week 40: Sports

How ironic. This has to be the first week in at least a month that I have not really taken a picture of a sport. So, of course it would be the theme. (Can you tell that I just looked it up? Whoops!) I worked really hard to take pictures this week, too. To actually use my dslr that seems to have been collecting dust each week since I started teaching this year. I've been missing it. So, this past weekend it spent almost five days wrapped around my neck!

Day 270: Took Eric's cousin on an extensive tour of our neighborhood and surrounding areas and then we had pho for lunch. I was impressed with how much Cade ate and how well he did with real chopsticks!

Day 271: Headed to the south side of the city to see the river, take in a Doosan Bears game, and finished up with a walk through Gangnam. (Just so he could say he's been there!) Our one sports event of the week.

Day 272: Kennedy and her friends at her fashion show-themed birthday party.

Day 273: Kennedy's birthday! She got a lot of Legos for her birthday from Eric's family and spent a lot of time putting them together. Eric, Michael, and the kids went for a hike up to Seoul Tower and then we had kalbi for dinner. Yum!

Day 274: We went to check out all of the tourist attractions north of the tower: the Cheonggyecheon, Deoksugung Palace, Gwanghamun Square, and then headed back to the War Memorial. A lot of walking...a bit of boredom for the kids as you can see by the look on Kennedy's face.

Day 275: Michael headed back to the States and we settled down to get some work done and relax a little. And build some Legos.

Day 276: Life back to normal. Returned to school. Didn't take a picture.

It was a great week. Working only one out of 10 days (and having that one day be an exam day where the students are utterly silent all day!) makes for a pretty good week! Now, I just need to finish that grading and start some planning!


To see others' photo projects, check out the links:

 www.styleberryblog.com

Kennedy's Birthday Party

Kennedy is one blessed little girl. And I'm one blessed momma. First of all, her birthday fell on Chusok weekend this year. Which means we were able to have her party on Sunday afternoon and still have three days to recover afterward! Yay!

Secondly, I came up with this brilliant idea to have our neighbor girls come over and help with the party. And lastly, the girls were actually able and willing to come over and help!

So, we had a fashion show-themed party. The high school girls came over and painted nails, curled and braided hair, and applied makeup.

All of the girls had a great time! The older girls really enjoyed making the little girls beautiful and the little girls loved being pampered.

And, of course, after presents and cake, the girls reversed roles. So, the little girls got to paint the nails of the older girls, as well as apply their makeup.

Then we headed outside for the fashion show itself once the parents had arrived.

Here they are bowing at the end.

It was a great party! There are more pictures on the sidebar if you want to check out the rest!

Week 39: Collection

We had another busy week around here. And, I really did take a lot of pictures. I just didn't take pictures every day. It was more like 100 one day and 100 the next, but then none for the rest of the week. Whoops.

Day 263: Really bad picture of some of our staff who participated in our pep assembly Friday afternoon. They did their own version of "Gangnam Style". Yup. It's big around here. I've heard that isn't just because we're five minutes from Gangnam, either.

Day 264: Baseball in Gwacheon.

Day 265: Church. School work. The usual.

Day 266: Made a new recipe tonight. Salmon with pesto, tomatoes, and parmesan. Baked for about 20 minutes. Really fast and really delicious!

 

 

Day 267: Busy at school. Again.

 

Day 268: Cade and I rode the bus to Namdaemun to get some things for Kennedy's party.

 

 

Day 269: Busy at school. Eric picked up his cousin from the airport. So I'll have lots of photos of our tourist excursions for next week!

I don't even have a picture for the theme this week. I certainly don't have a favorite. Next week will be better, I promise!