A Day with Bugs

Sorry it's been a while since a new post. Been busy having fun :)

So the past two weeks we have hired a nanny/house keeper named Ging.

She is wonderful! The boys love her and she speaks Korean and English so she's speaking both to the boys in hopes that they'll learn some :) It's wonderful to have someone help with the cleaning since the floor alone takes over 2 hours to vacuum and clean! We have been able to go to playgroup and I actually get to talk with some other moms 'cause I don't have to run after the boys all by myself! Makes life feel a little less like I'm a single mom during the week.

We are lucky being here in Seoul. They have a wonderful transit system of buses and subways. It's very easy to take the subway to post, shopping, pretty much anywhere! At the station we get off at to go to post they have a Bugstory event going on right now. It is really cool! All sorts of live creepy crawlies to touch, amphibians to catch, monkeys to hold, and lizards too! The boys had a blast!

Tobias got to hold a snake, a monkey sat on his shoulders, & he picked up a huge horned beetle all by himself...

Zac wasn't so impressed with the lizards. Tobias was holding one and we were trying to get Zac to touch it and he wouldn't have anything to do with it! He was really funny! He did like the dwarf bunnies, the ferret, albino skunk (on a leash), and the little monkey that was jumping onto people's shoulders!

There was a huge pool with tons of really big toads inside and the kids had nets and were able to catch the toads! Very cool for little boys :)

By the time we left I had the creepy-crawlies!!! I did get to have my picture taken with the boys and bunnies and the monkey even jumped onto my shoulder! Why are monkey's so cute???

It was a great day and to think this all happened on the second level of a subway station! It's amazing how the Korean people have so much to experience in such a cramped city! Kids are their most important concern it seems and so they make it possible for the kids to have a great time no matter where!

Hope all is well with everyone!!

Our First Golf Game

Tobias has been asking for weeks to go to the mini golf course on post. On Saturday we finally made it! I didn't know how long it would keep Tobias' attention but he loved it! He was really trying to putt, although sometimes he would follow the ball with the putter...just to make sure it went the right way :) I was suprised by how many shots actually were really good! He seems to have good hand-eye coordination 'cause he made quite a few holes at or below par.

Drew and I tried to play too but with Tobias going through the course really fast, and Zac just wanting to put the ball in the waterfalls and ponds, we decided to just let them play and us watch. It was fun anyway :)

Zac tried to hit the ball a few times, and actually did pretty well for a 2yr. old. With all the waterfalls and ponds Zac was too distracted to worry about putting. It had also rained that morning so the ground was wet and Zac kept sitting down. Good thing he had on pants that were quick to dry :)

Even though I'm usually the one behind the camera, Drew did manage to get one shot of me...I'd rather be taking the pictures though!

It was a great day! We found an activity (besides roller blading) that Tobias really likes. Here are some pictures and video of our morning.

Enjoy!

The Hamster Ball

So, Drew and I bought the boys an inflatable castle last Christmas for the boys so that they would have some place to burn off some energy inside when we couldn't go out. It was not very well made and so didn't last long...had to return it two weeks later :( We've been on the hunt for something similar since then and I found it for Zac's 2nd birthday!

We bought a huge, inflatable ball that is open in the middle, with windows so you can see them rolling around inside! It's really cool! It looks just like one of those hamster balls!

So last night I blew it up (took almost an hour with an electric pump!) and the boys went to bed an hour late 'cause they were having so much fun in it! I knew it was a bad idea to put it up right before bed but they wore themselves out and went to sleep REALLY fast :)

Anyways, here are some pictures and video so you can all enjoy watching my little "hamsters".

Love to everyone!

House Warming/ 4th Of July Party

We had a house warming/4th of July BBQ at our house on saturday (06JUN08). It was a lot of fun! I marinated flank steak using my mom's wonderful recipe, and it turned out great! As a test, we had our friend, Garrett, taste test (he never eats steak without sauce) and he said it was "good". We also barbequed chicken and brats. I made cabbage & ramen noodle salad and Thai Peanut Salad. I think there was too much food 'cause I still had two salads in the fridge that didn't get taken out. It was fun though. Drew invited some of his friends for Camp Stanley, Casey, and Red Cloud. Dean was the grill man. He was happy as long as there was a cooler full of beer by him :) He's a true texan! It was nice to have people over.

We invited our new neighbors. Tricia & Josh Roberts have four kids, Grace (8), Aiden (5), Liam (3), and Ewen (3mo). Tobias and Aiden have a lot of fun together but it gets a little crazy! Liam and Zac play great side by side, and Grace is a girl so she doesn't like to play with the boys very much :) Dorothy came, she lives on the 7th floor. She brought two professional Korean basketball players, one of whom reminded me very much of Darko...only because I had to look up to look at his face. The tall one, I'm sorry I don't remember his name, but he grew up in Seattle. It's a small world, eh? We also had a professional magician. He is really amazing. His name is "J" and he was doing some incredible tricks! The kids were all sitting on the floor, mouths wide open... you could just see them thinking "How did he do that???"

It was a great first party. I'm sure we'll have more but it was good to get our apartment put together so now people can come over and not have to see thirty boxes sitting in our living room :) Unfortunately I was so busy being the hostess and designated driver that I didn't take any pictures :( I'll have to get pictures from others who were here.

We moved all our boxes into the rooms they need to be unpacked in, so now all that's left to do is unpack them!!! Lots of stuff we didn't need to send over here, but it's hard to know what's in what box when they've been in storage for a year! Thank goodness we have a lot of storage space in our apartment!

It's been really muggy here the last few days...we are all feeling a bit drained but the boys still want to play outside so it doesn't bother them as much as me. Ah, to be a kids again :) Hope all is well with everyone!

Tobias, the Thinker. . .

So the only time I can get Tobias to sit down and read with me is at night, before bed. Last night we were reading Shel Silverstein's "Where The Sidewalk Ends". We read a poem titled "Yikiyuk" and then the next page titled "Bloath". When I was done reading both Tobias looked up at me and asked, "Do you think that Bloath could eat the Yikiyuk off that poor guys toe?"

It amazes me how much Tobias actually listens ... probably because he never seems to hear what I say :) Just another moment that proves children are paying attention when we think they're not!

Just wanted to share that with everyone :)