Halloween 2012

Halloween happened here the Saturday before Halloween. Our ward invited the Korean branch to come out to a fall festival here at our building. There were quite a lot of activities for everyone. We had a great time. Then here on post they have a trick-or treating day set aside and thank goodness it isn't ever scheduled on a school night. So the boys have already been out trick-or-treating. They both came home enough cany that it filled an entire gallon ziplock baggie full. The cool thing here is that the army is more lenient onto the amount of guest that each family can escort onto base and so we have quite a lot of korean children who are able to participate in an American tradition. It is so fun to see. We were able to bring a friend and her friends two children. My adult friend was trick-or-treating with the rest of them. And the two small children were so cute. My favorite phrase of the the night was when one of the kids went to the door and said, "Trick or Trick", gotta love it.

Jinju Lantern Festival

The boys and I went with a group from our church branch down up to the Jinju Lantern Festival that they have here. It is supposed to be the biggest and best festival here in Korea. We went on a Monday night and stayed out late (got home at midnight). That breaks all of my rules as a parent, of being in bed on time on a school night. Oh well, we recovered after a few days of torture. We weren't able to see the entire festival, but I guess that will give us something to do next year... somehing to look forward to. The boys were excited to be abe to make handmade art things that they had in the craft area. Braxton had to make one of every kind of stamp that they had there. He told me that the boys who were helping him make them told him that he was doing such a good job, that he needed to keep doing more of them. I was helping Isaiah make a straw bird that held an egg. He wanted one so bad and I didn't realize that it was going to be something that I was going to need to give full assistane to, so Braxton was left in the booth next to ours making as many stamps as he wanted. See what kind of a parent I am? Yup! That kind! I even let the boys try something that I didn't think that they would try. Silk worm larva. Yes, that's right. They both tried it and both said it wasn't great, but it wasn't good either. So now we are officially turing into Koreans. We can eat bugs!!!! We had a great time looking at the fun lanters that they had out and about. There was even a dragon lantrn that breathed fire. We were allowed to walk on a type of bridge that was made to be able to see the lanterns better and another area of the festival. What a great time and new experience for us. Next year we may just have to stay over night to see two days of the festival because they had a castle area witha performance that we could see happening but wasn't able to make it to that side of the festival. We are still having a great time living here and are enjoying all of our new opportunities. Anyone want to come and visit?

Here's what the boys have been doing...

This week the boys started two new activities. Taekwondo and Piano. So far the Taekwondo has been given a two thumbs up and piano has been awarded the okay mark. Taekwondo is a big thing around here a lot of children attend different Hagwons learning different skills after school. And now our boys are added into the Hagwon excitement. They are attending Taekwondo and Piano five days a week for an hour each. Learning is a big deal around here and they take it very seriously. And I think that is why the boys awarded that piano only an okay mark. The instructor gives them quite a lot of homework before they get to practice on the piano at least 20-30 minutes worth. She does want them to know the stuff and language is a barrier here with the piano instructor. she has great piano english and that's about it. But she is patient and has about 3-4 things going on in her studio at the same time. She has four pianos and can have that many kids practicing and a few more working on notes and music homework at the same time. It is pretty interesting to see. Braxton is getting the hang of reading the notes and loves to sing out loud in his little piano room when he is practicing. He sings out which finger he is suppose to be playing at the time. (1, 2, 3, 4... 2, 3, 1). Isaiah has already told us that he now doesn't need any lessons because has learned the notes and can play really well. The Taekwondo instructor is Master Song, and he loves what he does. He is able to come onto post and pick the kids up from school and walk them over to his place. It is about 200-300 yards off of post, but the streets are crazy here and I am glad to have him do this just for the peace of mind. Then after, the boys walk downstairs to go right to piano that is in the same building just on the bottom floor. In the picture you can see the Warrior sign. That is Taekwondo and the bottom windows with the music notes everywhere is the piano hagwon. Well, the boys haven't had much of a break this week as far as relaxing. But they don't fight us when it is time to get into bed. We can't wait to see how the boys advance in the new skills that they are learning. We are so excited to see them being able to learn new things.