Everland

We took advantage of the nice day (well, it was supposed to be a nice day) yesterday and went to Everland.  It is an amusement park similar to Disneyland (just nowhere near as big).  I think one of the things we liked best about it was the way it was all decorated up for Halloween.

This is the view from the park entrance

There was a really cool interactive tree right in the center

We finally ventured over to some rides that the kids could get on.

Is it wrong that we put our kids on this ride?

David and I figured it would be pretty harmless, but Tristan really didn't like it (he started shaking about 30 seconds into it), and Grace didn't care for it after it started getting high either.

This was a much better choice

Grace and I got the front seat

This was our view

I had a great time!

There were some beautiful views

We had a great time in this ball fort!

Take a look at Tristan's face

My loving husband... shooting at his wife and kids.

I can't get this boy to be serious for a minute!

They even had their own version of "It's A Small World".

This was David's favorite...beer, imagine that.

I am so excited to be somewhere where the leaves change color!

They also had a parade in the streets.  We kinda caught the tail end of it, but we had a bird's eye view which was nice.

The kids love feeding the birds, and they had a place to do just that at Everland too.

We tried to convince them to ride the camel, but they chose to ride the pony instead...

Of course, cowboys don't ride camels, so Tristan said no way.

Taking time for a little target practice.

They had a really neat safari ride too.  They took you around in a bus and you got to see the animals up close, and they were just roaming free in this area.

This isn't a very clear picture because it was getting dark and I couldn't use my flash because of the glare on the glass, but I had to include it because this bear is standing up to get food from our driver.  The bears would just walk around on their hind legs when the bus came through because they knew the driver would feed them.  Really gave a good feel of how big a bear really is!

We had a lot of fun and plan on checking it out again a couple of times during the different seasons to see the changes in the park.  We may even get season passes as they have a huge water park there too and it's easy to get to.  Yep, I said it, we found something in Korea that is easy to get to, and it took us less than an hour each direction to get there!

Grace's 6th Birthday

Grace will have her birthday party on Saturday, and since only a few of the girls were invited to her party, we decided to celebrate with cupcakes in her classroom on her actual birthday.

What a face!

I think she was a bit embarassed when they were singing to her and was trying to play it off, I don't know.

But she was super excited to pass out cupcakes.

We had strawberry (because this year's birthday is all about pink), and chocolate (because I didn't want the boys to have to eat pink cupcakes (eewww!) if they didn't want to).

My friend, Kim (and her 3 kids), got her this cake bakery

"So she can bake and decorate cakes, just like her mommy."

My mom got her this really cool kid's Adventure Bible.  It even has her name on it!

As most of you know, Grace has accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior and loves learning about all things related to Him.  Praise God!  And she asks a ton of questions so it makes David and I have to be pretty knowledgeable about things of the Bible, so a lot of times we're all learning together. 

And to go with the theme of this year's birthday, she got Pinkalicious - but she's not at all happy about it...

...or this either.  It's a craft, and it's related to Princesses, 'nough said.

Her tie-dyed, leftovers cake

It was a surprise.

She thought she was in trouble by the way David called her back into the kitchen.

Who needs to cut it?

 

Her Grandma Judi sent her a beautiful gold chain with a charm that says "Angel" on it.

She put it on immediately, and has only taken it off when she plays soccer.

And she sent Barbie clothes.

Really, this kid isn't happy about anything she received this year.

She has been begging to bake a cake since we opened the box, so I told her she had to follow the instructions on her own if she wanted to do it right away because I was in the middle of fixing supper.  So she did.

And she did pretty good too!

The cake mix is horrible, but hopefully we'll be able to use some of my cake mixes to whip them up in the future.

Happy Birthday Grace!

Happy Birthday Grace!

Six years ago we were blessed with the most precious little girl.

It is hard to believe how quickly time flies when you're watching your children grow.

My prayer for you, my precious Grace, is that you will continue to shine the light of the Lord that He has placed in your heart and that you will continue to live for Him and share His love with everyone you meet. You have been an example of Christ to me and others around you in so many ways. It baffles me how you know so much at such a young age. You are truly a blessing to your daddy and I. We love you!

Rice Paddies

Just wanted to share with you what the rice paddies are looking like now that it's close to harvest time.  When we first moved to Korea, the plants were just sprouts, then they turned to fields of lush green, and now they are a beautiful yellow-gold.  We were coming home from church one day and the light was hitting some of them just right and they were the most beautiful golden color!  Unfortunately, it was on a really busy road so I couldn't have David pull over so I could take a picture. 

 

These paddies are on the road home.

I had no idea what rice looked like while it was still on the plant.

I thought it made kind of a neat picture.

Hello Kitty Cafe

As a bit of a surprise for Grace's birthday, we headed up to Seoul to find the Hello Kitty Cafe.  It was a rather rainy day, and the cafe  is tucked away in an alley in a shopping district, so it was a bit of a challenge to find the place.  Amazingly enough, we asked several people about it (and even had a picture), and nobody knew where it was.  But, we perservered and found it.

After all, it's pretty hard to miss a pink building with a big neon pink bow on it!

 

She was just a tad bit excited

It was very girly inside 

I do believe that this was the only thing in the cafe that wasn't pink or red 

I mean everything was pink... 

She kept saying, "I can't believe you brought me here to surprise me!!!"

Even Tristan (the shaggy wet dog) had a good time.

 I think the boys began loosing their minds after being around that much pink for too long!

The treats they offered were pretty neat too.

The waffles they had shown in the case were even shaped like Hello Kitty's head. 

Despite the dreary weather it was a lot of fun.  How can it not be though when you have a little girl that is grinning from ear to ear the whole time?