'Not' Going Back To School Party!

Our homeschool co-op over here kicks off the new school year with a 'Not' Going Back to School Party every year. This year, our party was at Splish and Splash and I got to make the cakes! :)

I hope the teachers in my family and my teacher friends don't find this offensive! I know regular schoolers have a lot of fun too! :) But since it was specifically for our homeschool group I had to do something fun just for them. :)

They were delicious and the kids had a blast swimming with their friends one last time before the 'new year' started up!

Hey Mom and Dad...Look What I Made!

From the title you probably assume it's about something the kids made. But nope! I'm actually excited about something I made with crayons this time, LOL! I saw this idea on my new favorite website...Pinterest.com (it's truly addicting!) It is an endless treasury of all things crafty and creative...a little bit of heaven for me.  :) Anyway, I saw an idea like this on the site that was a smaller version that someone had made for teacher gifts, but I thought it would be a really cute addition to our wall in our schooling area. So I made a giant 'A'...for Adams of course and I think it turned out pretty cute!

All I did was take the glass out of the 17" x 17" frame and cut the crayons with scissors, then glued them  in an 'A' shape with tacky glue. I laid them all out first before I glued them down so I knew about where everything would go.  :) Anyway, it was fun so I had to share!

Here's a little closer shot of the crayons, you can see that they didn't all break even and I'm sure if you were going to make this and had much more patience than I have then you could get them all a little straighter and more even, but I was happy just to finish the thing and have them not all fall off after I hung it on the wall! :)

The Last Few Weeks of Summer in S.Korea

BEWARE! It's a LONG one....lots of pictures! I wanted to start putting posts up about our new school year, but I decided I'd better not do that until I wrapped up summer. I didn't post much this summer because we were too busy having fun, as Adams' always do! :) But there were a few pics and fun times that were too cute not to share, at least for the Grandparents if no one else! 

We went out to one of our favorite places here in S.Korea, the Art Park at Pyeongtaek Lake. The kids had a great time running on the little bit of beach that's there and playing hide and seek in the bushes and trees...

We went on the swan paddle boats, though I didn't get a picture of all of us in it since inside the boat it just looks like a blue box all around you! But from the outside they look neat, so I took a picture of some other people out in the boats. :)

Afterwards we got slushies. :) It was a HOT day!

I LOVE the precious 'brother - sister love' in these pics.  :)

Faithy enjoyed her slushie... especially the fact that it made her tongue a little purple. 

Peter took this picture and it made me laugh because I totally feel like a pack horse sometimes when we go places, especially when we're out and about on a hot day and I'm carrying all the water for everyone! So here's a picture of our family in water bottles...

Another day we took some new friends to a different park in Asan. I had to share these cute ones of Samuel and his sweet friend Alivia...too cute!

Samuel snuggling his handsome Daddy.  :)

It was really warm that day and Samuel kept wanting to play in the stream water...

My friend Carrie took a sweet Mama & kids picture of us too. So there was one of me...just not of my face! LOL!

With all those cute kiddos together in one place we had to take a group shot of course...well, minus the Mom's...cause the Mom's are always taking the pictures.  :)

It was a fun day with some new friends.  :)

(I made the girls' skirts! Didn't they turn out cute?!)  :)

We did a LOT of swimming this summer and the kids have turned into quite the little fishes and LOVE to swim n the big pool even though we have several shallow pools at Splish and Splash to choose from. 

I didn't take many pictures of everyone swimming though because most of the time I took the kids by myself to the pool while Peter was at work and wrangling the 4 of them AND the camera around the pool was just a bit much for me.  :) 

Joy loves swimming underwater, but the poor girl does it one handed because she has to plug her nose! LOL! Just like her Mama. :) We'll have to work on that one at the indoor pool in the off season while Splish and Splash is closed until next summer.

This is not a good picture, I think it was taken by accident, but you get the idea of how comfortable the kids are around water now.... Joshua is flying off into the DEEP end! The kids, and Peter of course think it's hilarious that Mama can't touch in the deep end of the pool so I'm treading water just as much as the kids when I'm in. :)

My sleepy Samuel, so tired from swimming and playing in the sun...

Peter was happy to get to play his bass a little extra this summer when our Chapel had a worship BBQ in the park where the band played and he got to be a part of it. The kids all loved watching Daddy sing and play while they danced and ate with their friends. :)

Except for the fact that we didn't get home to the States at all, it was a pretty good summer for us here in S. Korea.  :)  

Samuel Sings His ABC's

My baby is growing up too fast!

It's A Small World...Sometimes

Being thousands of miles away from my family and friends, living on the other side of the world, it feels pretty big most of the time. But this last month, I've been blessed to have the world feel a little smaller, and South Korea feel a little bit like home, even if only for an afternoon. I saw familiar faces, met some new ones and got hugs from dear friends that I haven't seen in years who just happen to be in this country the same time as me.  :)

A wonderful girl named Casey was my very best friend when I was little. We had so much fun together and were pretty much inseparable from about 2nd - 6th grade...and then she moved away and I was crushed. She had the sweetest family and they were always so good to me. They treated me like I was another one of their kids. Thankfully, she and I have kept in touch over the years (and I still adore her to this day :)

Casey on the left, Me on the right...

Dressed up in who knows? what, playing something...I don't know, but having tons of fun doing it!

She has an adorable little sister, Chelsea (who's all grown up now!) and the most amazing, kind, loving woman for a mom. Their family taught me so much in those short 5 years when we were close and I never forgot all that they had done for me. I know that Joanne and Tom probably had no idea that they had such an impact on me, who I was to become and the choices I would make in life. But they sure did.  And I am forever grateful for the love that they showed me all those years ago.

It makes me think a little differently now as I look at my own 2nd grade daughter and her friends. Joy is the same age now that I was when I first met Casey. I hope that Joy will have a special friend like that, who she'll be able to keep in touch with all throughout her life. And though they may not see each other often, when they do, it's just like no time has passed at all.

I was so blessed today to get to see Joanne, Casey's Mom and her sister, Chelsea. It's been years since I've seen either one of them other than in pictures, but seeing them in person and getting hugs from old friends...it felt like home! Chelsea is here teaching English and Joanne came out to visit her. What a treat it was for me to be in the same foreign country at the same time! Now if only Casey could have been here, it would have been perfect! :)

Another awesome thing happened recently that made this big ol' world feel a little bit smaller. We met Chuck.  :)  We had never met Chuck before this last month, but he is married to one of our sweet friends that we knew when we were living in Missouri! At the time, we'd never heard of him. But here we are years later and they have since married, joined the Army and now he's stationed here in Korea! Thankfully, we recently got in touch with Amber who told us her husband was headed this way. We were able to meet him face to face because he's living and working right here on the same post that we are, everyday. :) We are praying that Amber will be able to join him over here soon, cause that will be SO much fun to get to see her all the time again! (and I'm sure her hubby will be thrilled to have her here too!)

Chuck has quickly become a great friend and the kids adore him...just as they adored Amber when they got to see her every week too!

Chuck had a birthday a few weeks ago and being stationed here, all by himself, we couldn't let his special day go by without a celebration! So we made him a cake and had a little party of our own, complete with hand made cards from all the Adams' kids and singing...they insisted we "sing AND have candles for Mr. Chuck!" It's certainly not the same as having his wonderful wife here, but hopefully it made him feel like he wasn't alone WAY over here in Korea, he's got a place at the Adams' family table anytime!

(But we sure miss you Amber! So get over here SOON!!  :) 

I really like it when those things happen that make the world feel a little bit smaller. It makes being over here  on the opposite side of the world a little bit easier, but it still doesn't make me miss my family and friends back 'home' in the States any less! We're counting down the days until our much needed visit!

Happy Birthday Joy!

Our sweet Joy turned 7 this week! Her special day started with a cinnamon roll breakfast...

...which she thoroughly enjoyed!

Then she got to Skype with grandparents and open her presents from Oma and Papa. I absolutely love her reactions as she opens presents! She was VERY excited...

She got the Kanani doll that she has been wishing for since it became available back in January! Kanani  is the 2011 American Girl doll that's "from Hawaii"...so of course she was REALLY hoping that she'd get this and decided she wanted to have a Hawaiian theme birthday. It would have been much simpler to do if we were in the States (there's Hawaiian party stuff everywhere there) but in S. Korea, not so much. 

That's one happy 7 year old! Thank you Oma!

This weekend we had a party to celebrate and were surrounded by wonderful friends that made her birthday so much fun this year! Peter filled up a ton of water balloons and did games with the kids and everyone got a little wet and loved it since it was SO hot outside! :)

She wore one of her new dresses Mommy made! :) This one was made from a giant pillow case. 

Everyone is chasing the birthday girl with the last of the water balloons...

One of the things she requested to be at her party was pineapple. I think our pineapple bowls turned out pretty cute, and everyone ate it all up!

There's that great excited face again....  :) She was spoiled with wonderful presents and treats from all her friends. I love how excited all the other kids were about her opening the presents from them, it was too precious watching them all be excited together!

Here she is with one of her matching sets of dresses for her and her doll that I made.  :) 

And her cake! She was very specific about what she wanted on it...It had to have the ocean, a sandy beach, a hula girl, a palm tree, a big sunshine and flowers. I wasn't thrilled about trying it because I don't draw people very well, especially in icing, but she was happy about how it turned out.  :)

Making a wish...

Everyone seemed to enjoy eating it...

Then it was pinata time! Look at all those cute kiddos!

We let each of the kids take a couple of swings with the blindfold on...

...and then decided after no damage had been done to let them all do it again without the blindfold! 

Even after the whole line of kids hit it several times each, we still needed help from some of the daddies to break it open!

This isn't all of the friends that were there, but most of the group. She had a very fun 7th birthday celebration! (I can't believe she's that old already!) We sure missed all of our friends and family that are back in the States and we can't wait to see you all again!  Until then, No One Has More Fun Than The Adams'!...even in South Korea.  :)