Random Events From Our Weekend

We had another long weekend this weekend since the kids were out of school today for President's Day.  Somehow it totally got away from me though, and I didn't even get laundry done!  Oh well, that's why the kids have a bunch of clothes.

We started our weekend with market day on Friday, and I'm pretty sure I've mentioned the Korean strawberries and how absolutely delicious they are, well, I stopped on the way home and picked some up.  Here's what y'all are missin':

It was such a beautiful day that I couldn't argue with the kids when they asked to go outside to play for a while.  Tristan finally got to test his new two wheeled scooter that he got for Christmas!

 

 Tristan ended the day with a little "Risky Business"

Saturday we had a swim meet in Daegu.  This is another large city in Korea about 3 hours from where we are stationed.  Thankfully, the team was able to ride on the bus again.  I don't know that I would've gone if I had to drive 3-4 hours each direction (the bus normally gets it's own lane and gets to bypass the mass of cars on the road so it is able to travel a lot faster), and I don't know that I would've been brave enough to venture down on the train by myself either.  Grace did great, showing me and my nerves up again.  She improved her 25 freestyle time by almost 4 seconds, and completed each of her other races.  This meet they had the kids swimming 50's (2 laps of the pool), and though I was nervous for her (again), she proved that I just need to relax and she will get the job done. 

 I was wise enough to bring toys this time.

 50 backstroke - after she remembered she had another lap to swim.

 This was her 50 freestyle when she decided that she was done.  With a little encouragement and about a 5-10 second breather, she was ready to finish the race.

 There were lots of siblings there and it was a pretty nice day, so a bunch of them were out running around on the deck.  Proved to be a great time for Tristan - he got to run around as much as he wanted without Mom saying a word.

My children again proved to be wonderful without uttering a word of complaint and behaving well the whole day. 

Sunday I had a cake to finish, so we spent the day at home.  My kids are so awesome (have I mentioned that yet??)!  It's as if they know to not bother Mommy when she's decorating cakes.  They spent the majority of the day entertaining themselves, and got along really well!  Did a fabulous job showing many attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit - and for once I remembered to tell them so.  Another make Mommy proud kind of day!

A lady from my PWOC Bible study had a daughter who was turning 16, and she "heard" that I did cakes.

Turned out pretty cute, I think.

Today was another lazy day - we did a little bit of school, did a few crafts, watched a movie, and that's about it... oh, and we ate cake!  That's important, right?

 This was our just for fun, because I had leftover cake batter, cake.

I'm enjoying getting to experiment with my "new" cake pans.

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend too!

K Week

Thought I'd do a post about my little boy since it's been a while that one has been focused solely on him.  I guess what they say is true about second children... never as many pictures and never as much focus on them - it's really gonna stink when he becomes the middle child and really gets no attention!

Anyway, after a few months of me slacking off (justifiably, I would say, what with Dad's death and the holidays - but my laziness had a lot to do with it too), we're finally back on track with our letter of the week program.  I was told about this wonderful website (thanks Kim!) that has added to our program and makes me excited about it again.  The lady who puts this website together is a Christian home-school mom who puts together her curriculum and then shares them on her website.  So, for each letter she is doing she provides her calendar (and a blank one in case you don't do things exactly as she does), the worksheets that she has put together, a Bible verse for that week, and miscellaneous other things - all for FREE!  She does have a members only site that gives other things like power point presentations, but since I'm not really home-schooling Tristan full time, I didn't feel we needed that option.  Her website/blog also links to several other sites that have fabulous ideas too.  Can you tell I'm excited???

Wednesday we added the Bible verse and coloring sheet to the curriculum I currently use, and what do you know?  Tristan had it memorized by the end of the day!  "Keep your tongue from evil." Psalm 34:13 - and he can even tell you what it means!  In addition to reviewing the Bible verse, here's a few things that we did yesterday:

 Making his letters out of play dough

 He continues to write his letters daily

 "K"angaroo craft

His kangaroo

He seems to enjoy the new activities - it sure beats writing your letters and reading the same books day after day!  I'm hoping the new tactile learning will encourage him to commit things to memory a little better.  He's no slouch when it comes to remembering things, but he doesn't always think that learning and remembering his letters is all that important right now.  I already have next weeks lesson planned out and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he responds to this new curriculum in the next few weeks.

Happy Valentine's Day!

With David gone, I tried to make today a little more special for the kids.  We tend to focus on them for Valentines Day anyway, but they've really been missin' Daddy lately, so I tried to make even the little parts of their day special.

We started the day with pancakes (something they rarely get because I'm not a big fan...).

 Then they exchanged the valentines they got for each other.

 Tristan chose a chocolate rose for his sister.

 And Grace chose a box of chocolates with a rocket ship on it for him.

 Then it was time for presents from Grandma and their little baskets from David and I.

Tristan had his Valentine's Day party at school and they had "fondue" for their snack.  It looked delicious!

 Trying to lick the spot of chocolate off of his face.

 They all made bags for their valentines - Tristan made an airplane with "heart bombs"  so when the pilot dropped the bombs everyone would fall in love.  Really - that's the gist of what he said.

 Grace had her Valentine party on Friday.

 We found a bunch of Mom's old cake pans when we were cleaning out Dad's house, so I had her send them to me (to add to my growing collection), and in that box were heart shaped "muffin" pans.

 Grace, of course, thought they were perfect - after all, they were pink, and were hearts - how could you go wrong with that??

 Checking out their loot.

 Snack time!  You've never seen so many sugary treats!  Surprisingly, several of the kids didn't finish everything because it was just too much sweet.

In that shipment of cake pans were several tiered heart shaped pans, so I used the smallest to make each of the kids a brownie heart for dessert.  Needless to say we'll be having brownies for the next several days since I cut one in half and then thirds last night and it was more than enough to satisfy the sweet tooth.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day and were able to celebrate with your special someone.  My special someone is half-way around the world, but I did at least get to talk to him, and I was fortunate enough to have our special blessings to celebrate with.

I love you and miss you very much David!

(and I'm looking forward to a Valentine's Day that we can ship the kids off and spend the day to ourselves!  Any idea when you'll be home for a Valentine's Day?  :)  )

Grace's First Swim Meet

Today was Grace's first swim meet!  We left bright and early (6:30 AM) on the bus to Yongsan.  She wasn't so sure she was ready for her race.  She came out of practice Wednesday and said, "Mommy, I don't think I'm going to feel very well on Saturday."  When I asked her why she said that, she replied, "Well, I just don't think I'm ready for my race?  I just think I should be able to swim.  I mean, what if I drown?"  I asked her if she could dive in and swim to the other end of the pool, to which she replied, "yes".  I then told her that she had nothing to worry about because that's all she had to do.  She seemed okay with that, and surprisingly, when I woke her at 5:30 this morning, there was no complaining!

Cheering on their team mates.

 Her first race - 25 meter backstroke

 That's one proud little girl!

Calling Daddy to tell him about her first race

 I just love this picture!  She looks so excited.

 25 meter breaststroke

 Racers, take your mark...

 ...BEEP!

 25 meter freestyle

She did well for her first swim meet - she wasn't at the top of her heat, but she finished every race, and did so with a smile on her face.  She was so excited after her first race, and was eager to get back in the pool.  We've looked at some of the pictures and talked about a couple things she can do to improve on her strokes, and she was very open to suggestion and seems like she'll work hard to get better.  She's already looking forward to practicing next week, and her next swim meet coming up on Saturday the 19th.  

Congratulations Grace!  You did great, and we are so very proud of you for doing your best!

What to do with...

... FIVE pounds of chocolate???

 David bought this when I sent him into the store for ONE item - and this wasn't it!

I explained to him that this is why he is not allowed to go into a grocery store (or any store for that matter) unattended.  And then, he left the country for three months and left it for the kids and I to eat!!!

So, we made s'mores, of course!

 They were delicious!

After that... I got nothin'.  So, it's sitting in my freezer until the next batch of s'mores.  Or the next brilliant idea... anybody have one?

And just a little insight on just how big this bar is...

Yes, a serving size is 1/50 of a bar.

I didn't mark it off, but I'm pretty sure we didn't use that much to make 6 s'mores!