Gone for a bit

I won't be posting for awhile. But, check back because I will start up again at a later date.

Wonderful Weekend.

The girls and I had such a great weekend with friends. Our good friend, Ahmi came to stay for a few days. She is so good at spoiling all of us. She cooked lunch and dinner both days. How great is she? It was great visiting and also having a little break while Ahmi read or played with the girls. Ahmi adores the girls and vice versa. On Monday another great friend, Melissa and her daughter Skyler, came to join the fun. Skyler just turned 2 and is such a sweet little girl. She talks non-stop and just cracks me up. Melissa is such a great Mommy. It was such a hot day that we put all of the kids in their suits and filled up the pool while the adults watched and visited. Thank you all for such a great time. We love you all!

Me, Ahmi and Melissa. We have all been friends for a long time.

Skyler (Melissa's daughter)

Sisters having fun. They all chant, "teeter totter" the whole time they are rocking.

Kira, Madison, Ahmi and MacKenzie (L)

MIA

Madison and MacKenzie playing dress up. We have 2 Queens in our house.

Kira stopping to smell the flowers. She LOVES being outside.

Okay, so I know I haven't posted in forever. And I am really sorry for that. I was having problems with my blog and then kind of gave up for awhile. I will try to be better at blogging -- I promise.

Things have been going great here these days. The girls have been so much fun and we are all enjoying the summer weather that has finally arrived this week. It has been crazy weather. We have had 80 degree days and 40 degree days. This week as been in the 70's wtih warmer weather each day. The girls love to be outside and make mud pies, chase butterflies, pick flowers, search for pretty rocks, and many other things. We also spend a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It is so nice having them so close. And this year they got a horse named Rain. The girls and Rain have a great realationship. They adore each other. They all love giving her carrots and horse treats.

Cliff headed back to Korea to finish up the golf course. It had been shut down due to problems between the owner and the construction company. But, everything is back up and running and should be finished in a few months. He will get to come home for a week next month. We are all counting down until that time arrives. But, until then we are going to have as much fun as we can to help the time go by quickly.

Grandma and I are trying to plan a trip to the Minnesota Zoo this month. We figured it is best to do it before it gets too hot. I am hoping to bring the girls to a water park also.

Our awesome friend, Ahmi, is coming to spend a few days with us. She is a special ed teacher and school is finally out. We hope to see her lots this summer. Another great friend, Melissa, and her adorable daughter, Skyler, are coming to join us on Monday. It should be a fun day for all. Adult visiting and children playing.

Okay, I am off to get a massage today. Grandma is taking the kids and I am going to pamper myself a bit. I am so looking forward to it.

Happy Summer!

Last week we had an 80 degree day. We took the kids for a drive to the lake near our house. The ice still isn't quite off the lake yet and with the winds and warm weather the ice was pushed onto shore. It was really fun for the girls to play with some ice while enjoying the warm breeze on their faces.

Kira, MacKenzie & Madison

Pictures from yesterday's post.

Daddy with the girls on our picnic.

Mommy with her girls.

MacKenzie (L), Kira & Madison

Easter egg coloring.

The new family toy. Mom and girls going for a ride.

Back in USA

Well, we made it back to the USA and are now settled back into MN life. It is so nice not having our picture taken every time we go out of our house. We are no longer celebrities. LOL The girls have adjusted very well and are loving all of the freedom they have outdoors. The weather has finally turned into Spring and we have been enjoying some mid-60 degree days. It should be a fun Spring/Summer. We have also been spending a lot of time at my in-laws house. They live 1/4 mile from our house and the girls LOVE spending time with them (as do I).

Cliff purchased a new toy and it was delivered and waiting for us when we got home. He LOVES it and has been on it every day. The girls think it is a blast to buckle in and go for a "Prowler" ride with Daddy. We even packed a picnic the other day and headed way out on our land and had a great time eating our lunch outdoors in the beautiful sunshine. Then we walked around and let the girls explore. Great day.

We also had a very nice Easter with family. The girls looked for eggs and their basket at Grandma's plus the Easter Bunny left some goodies at our house. The girls thought it was great to eat so much candy. They handled it better than I thought they would. I don't let them have much candy and figured they would have a crazy sugar high. They did spend a lot of time outdoors that day, so they burned off a lot of their sugar energy. :)

I will have to post pictures later. For some reason it isn't working right now.

Special Koreans

Yesterday Ajuma and Ajoshi had us over for lunch. We had a nice visit. We are going to miss them so much and know that we have friends for life.

Ajuma with the girls. MacKenzie (left), Madison & Kira
Kris, Ajuma and Bora (Ajuma's daughter).
The gang. BACK: Ajoshi, Cliff FRONT: Ajuma (L to R) Ajuma, Kira, Madison, MacKenzie and me.

Picnic

Cliff got home early from work last week so we decided to have a picnic outdoors. There is this nice little walking area close to the beach. Since it was mid-day we knew it would be fairly quiet. It was so nice. We were actually left alone -- because noone was around. The girls loved eating outside.

Kris and girls.
Kira Anne
Madison May
MacKenzie Kay
Cliff and girls.

Out for dinner

There is a Bulgogi house very close to our apartment that I have wanted to try since we moved here a year ago. Well, finally a year later we found the time and engery to load up the kids and head out for a wonderful dinner. We had bulgogi (grilled beef), rice, spicy soup plus all of the many side dishes they put on the table. Of course they had a little play area for the kids. Man are they going to go into shock when we are back home and they discover that the grocery store doesn't have a playland. Poor things. HA HA

Mommy and Kira
MacKenzie (L), Daddy and Madison.
Family photo. Mommy, Kira, Daddy, Madison (on lap) and MacKenzie

Sidewalk Chalk

Alice (our neighbor) and the girls using sidewalk chalk on the side of an apartment building.

Having fun making pictures.
Kira, MacKenzie (blue hat) and Madison (pink hat)

Friends

We had a great dinner and visit last weekend. Our friends, Malissa, Troy and their daughter Sabina had us over to their beautiful apartment that has a great view of the beach. They are also from Minnesota and working in Korea. Troy works for Nike here in Busan.

The kids eating Korean style. Madison (pink), Kira, Sabina and MacKenzie (purple). I think it was make a funny face event. LOL

Our neighbor girls really like playing with our girls. They came over to our place the other night. Alice (older girl), MacKenzie, Kira, Rebecca and Madison. It is pretty cute because they only speak a little bit of English and they call Cliff Daddy because that is what our girls call him. LOL

New Playland

Thanks to another expat family we were told about a brand new playland not far from our house. This one is even nice for parents. They have tables, chairs and food. We brought the girls one evening after dinner and they thought it was great. Then Ajuma brought us one day last week. When you pay it is for a 3 hour time frame. We ended up staying the whole 3 hours. The kids were in heaven and Ajuma and I had a great time visiting.

MacKenzie playing a little hit the animal on the head game.
Madison sitting on an egg. LOL
Kira bouncing. Look at those pigtails.

Who Needs Hawaii to Have Fun?

This past weekend Jenny and the kids came to spend Saturday and Sunday with us. Her husband, Steve, was on a business trip to Hawaii for the week. We all pretended not to be jealous that he was in such a tropical climate. Instead we enjoyed the city of Busan to the fullest.

Here is Sadie and Kira enjoying the motion censored video aquarium. We found this by accident, but the kids enjoyed it like we had planned it into our day.

There were 3 screens projected on the floor. All three had different fish scenes. Whenever you stepped on a fish it would move out of the way or the water would ripple. I think this lasted about 30 minutes. We pretty much had to force them to leave. They got to ride a train outside the Lotte Department Store. This we also found by accident. The night before Jenny and I headed to the store to pretend we could afford to buy a Louis bag. We saw the event billboard and interpreted Korean the best we could -- okay, we saw a photo of a train and the date. So, we sent Cliff and Benjamin down to the store after breakfast the following day to find out the start time. We were pretty much the first ones in line and kids got to enjoy 3 or 4 rides without having to wait in line.
On our walk to our little park near the river we came across a white puppy. The nice owner let the kids enjoy some puppy love.

Because our time (along with Jenny and family) in Korea is coming to an end I wanted to get as many pictures with our new lifelong friends as I could. I thought this was a gret picture of Jenny and I with our little kidlets. From right to left: Benjamin (almost 6), Sadie (20 months), Jenny (age not important), Madison (4), Kira (2 year 5 months), Me (don't even ask) and MacKenzie (4).

Fun With Stickers

The girls have been having a blast with their sticker books this past week. It is great now that the big girls can get the stickers off themselves. This allows me to help Kira while we all enjoy our conversations together. Kira is even able to get some stickers off. Oh the independence.


Stickers are so much fun (and take up quite a bit of time).
Miss Madison. What can I say -- she wanted "sticker boobies."
MacKenzie Kay. Look at that precious face.
Sweet Baby Kira. She loves to copy her big sisters.

The Tale of Desperaux

One morning last week Ajuma brought the girls and I to "The Tale of Desperaux." She had called all over the city to find a theatre that had it in English. She really is so sweet, caring and giving to our girls (and us). We are so lucky to have crossed paths and will miss her when we head back to the States!

From right to left: Ajuma, Kira, Madison & MacKenzie. This was Kira's first movie in a theatre and Madison and MacKenzie's second. They all were so good and LOVED the movie, popcorn and snacks. They have talked about it every day.

Daddy's Work

A few weekends ago we made a trip to Cliff's golf course. It is really amazing what he can do with some dirt. He really is an artist. The girls thought it was great because Mommy brought cartoons, hot chocolate/marshmellows and snacks. LOL

Cliff and girls checking out Daddy's great work.
Daddy and girls.
Mommy and girls.

Fun with Friends

We had such a nice weekend with friends. Friday when Cliff got home from work we loaded up our stuff and headed to Steve & Jenny's place. They live near the city of Daegu here in Korea. It is about a 2 hour drive. It was an uneventful trip there (meaning no one got sick thanks to some Dramamine).

We did lots of visiting while the kids did lots of playing. Since both of our stays here in Korea are winding down we are cherishing these times together even more.



MacKenzie (L), Madison (R) and Benjamin enjoying some Saturday morning cartoons.
The girls having some art time. Sadie is getting so big. She can do ALMOST everything the big girls can do. (Madison (pink) & MacKenzie (brown))
Sadie & Kira. Sadie was showing off her Buddha Belly.
Sometimes you just have to let your kid shred up her lettuce and pull out almost every napkin in order to enjoy your meal. LOL Look at that mischievous grin!
Steve & Jenny brought us to their favorite Bulgogi house in their town. It was delicious and the kids were great. Okay, so I brought their cartoons, coloring books/markers and lots of snacks. You know me -- always have to be prepared.