Molly's Elsa Lego Party

This year we decided to try something different - separate parties.  After much discussion Molly landed on an Elsa/Lego Party.  Today was the day and we have officially survived one party.  We let the girls paint nails, paint a canvas, ice block, ride around in a sled, decorate cupcakes and roast marshmallows. 

 

She was so excited to see the banner when she rounded the corner walking home from school

Elsa - Check
Lego - umm just use imagination

Ice block followed by throwing it on the ground for "snow effect"

Sledding

All the kids painted a picture

The princess went to the park and we ice blocked at the park again

Throwing our ice blocks

eating dinner and saying things we appreciate about the birthday girl

Pintrest fail!

Decorating our cupcakes

Why put it on the cupcake when you can put it your mouth

YUM!

Roasting marshmallows!!

Ash Wednesday

Today we celebrated Ash Wednesday as a family.  Once Jon got home from work we ate dinner and then explained about what Ash Wednesday was.  Jon told the girls they would get a piece of paper where they could write down or draw something that they have done that might have made Jesus sad.  After everyone had finished we took it out to our fire pit and then placed our papers in and asked God to forgive us.  Then Jon set it on fire and with the ashes we made crosses on our foreheads. 

 

Molly drew a picture of an incident that happened a few days ago when I sent her to her room.
 

Burning our papers

Drawing the cross on everyone's head

Molly liked the process

Kelly also liked it

For some reason Molly felt the need to hold Riley.
We had to explain that the girls could choose if they wanted the ashes or not

This was the best shot she would give me

Molly and Kelly gave Jon his cross

Riley gave me mine

Molly took a family shot for us

Weekend Getawy to Korea

This year for the President's Day long weekend Jon and I got away to South Korea.  Our friends who we swapped with this summer watched our girls and they got spoiled for a few days while we got to hit almost all on our Korea bucketlist.   One of the great things about being on this side of the world is that a lot of people travel so we got hints from friends and we even have a few friends who are from Korea that gave us some pointers.  I think one of the things we were most excited about was the food but what I did not know is that Korea has a lot of American chains that I kinda miss.  When we travel without the kids we realized that we forgot to eat meals at the normal times and many times ate one big lunch at 3pm and one day it was ON THE BORDER!! 

Places we visited:

Korea War Memorial

Seoul Tower
DMZ/JAS - North Korea

hiking Mt Bugkasan

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Itaewon Market

Namdaemun Market

The hot tub at the Dragon Hill - walking 9 miles daily caught up

 

South Korea has great public transportation and used all forms of it.  We traveled back and forth all over Seoul using the subway and buses and got to see snow! 

DMZ/JAS was a very fascinating tour.  Seeing soldiers from two countries facing each other both ready to shoot if anyone tried to cross the border was interesting.  The solider giving our tour pointed out propaganda village where the north blasts out messages over their radio tour. We were allowed to enter the building that is exactly on the border and was built for meetings and family reunions but the family reunions haven't happened from what we were told.

Hiking - That was an interesting day!!  We followed our directions and rode the subway to our stop with a bunch of people dressed like they stepped out of a hiking magazine.  After this subway we made our way to the bus stop - again with people dressed in K2, Columbia, North Face, etc. and all with hiking poles and got on one of the 3 buses our map said we could use.  Once we got on the bus there was no longer English like most places that had a little English under the Korean so we looked a little lost I guess.  Francis a 72 year old retired businessman had mercy on us and asked if he could help us make sure we got where we wanted.  Once we explained we just wanted to get to the mountains and hike a little he invited us to hike with his group.  After we said yes he explained it was his college buddies and they were celebrating their 50th reunion from graduation this year.  I was a little nervous that I might not be able to keep up with these guys until one came limping up and then I knew I could hang with them.  We got put on the "a" team and hiked with them for 2 hours.  After that something got lost in translation b/c we thought we would be staying with them and they sent us a different way and said have a great trip.  We hiked for another hour and then headed down b/c I needed to hit the markets to get our souvenirs for the girls!

 

Started off with a bus ride - they believe in honking!

We even got to take Flat Stanley with us

On the way to the coffee can heart I might have said:
"Nothing says love like - Hey look Cold Stone!!"

Something crazy - Putting Locks everywhere to celebrate love

Why would you do this??

He loved the free dress up session - ok he endured it

Me in Korean Garb

He loved it

The Palace

See the mountain in the background - we hiked it

yep on the border!

War Memorial

Starting our hike with the 70 year old college crew

Hiking

We brought the average age down by 20!

What - they left us?? There went our chance for finding a great restaurant for the day

Getting ready to step foot in the North

This should be fun

Jon in the south
Ashley in the north

Ashley in the North and Jon in the south

Geocache!!

Local hole in the wall - Bulgoli!!!!!!

Super Bowl and Sickeness

This past few weeks we celebrated the Super Bowl and suffered through sickness.  The original plan was to gather with friends to watch the Super Bowl and eat lots of fun food instead we spent the day secluded from the outside world and eating a little bit of food.   Molly has had a pretty interesting few days starting with slamming her fingers in the car door then falling off the bunk bed and ending the streak with fifths disease (also known as Slapped Face Disease)

Once we could hang with the outside world we took our girls to the ever popular Fight Night where Jon showed the girls how to cheer for friends in whatever they do.

And as always a few matching outfits because the girls dress themselves and feel they must match in some way!

 

She might not feel good but she did have to accessorize.

Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots!!!!

Fight Night

Matching Outfits with swim caps - they are hillarious

100 year old Molly for 100th day of school.

Molly's Valentines to her class mates - silly putty.

Valentine Date night with the family!