Handmade

Last week Defne started sewing with two of her birthday gifts. The Alex Sewing Kit and See and Sew: A Sewing Book for Children by Tina Davis. In one week she learned: straight stitch, sewing on buttons, threading the needle, and tying her own knots. I'm really proud of her.

Kitty




Puppy

History

Last Sunday we went to the Korean Folk Village just outside of Seoul. They took houses from different periods of history and areas of Korea and moved them to this sight for preservation. It was a very large place with some performances as well so we didn't see nearly everything. We had a nice lunch there as well but I forgot to take a picture of it.

Mr. K and the Kids in a traditional archway.


Tight rope performance.


Alter at a traditional wedding. That is a live chicken and rooster up there.


Bride being led in.


Another visitor who was dressed up for her visit.


Petting a donkey.


Cotton spinning.


Defne on horseback.


Carved masks.


Dried squids.


D grinding rice. She was quite fascinated by this.


Basket weaving.


D with traditional dancer.


Izzy playing dress-up.


Mr. K in mayor outfit.


Close encounters of the bovine kind.

Hippos and More!

Tuesday the Kids and I went with the post playgroup to Seoul Grand Park Zoo. It was beautiful and we had a wonderful time. Even some of the bathrooms had views of the animals.

Giraffes






Cherry Blossoms


Meercat


Tiger


Otter


Red Panda


Seal


Barbary Sheep


Hippopotamus

Hungry Caterpillar

A very nice gentleman runs our post playgroup on a volunteer basis. He does story hour every week singing and reading with gusto. Once or twice a month he organizes trips (like the zoo yesterday) for those of us with kids. He is very welcoming and doesn't think it at all odd that I bring my 8 year old to all these things. He's also a stay at home dad to his 3 year old son. His wife is our pediatrician and is now about 3 months along with their second child. At story hour each week he reads The Very Hungry Caterpillar so when I found this fabric I knew it was perfect for them. I made these for the kiddos to say thanks for all the hard work.





Crayon case still needs filling. Its a pattern I got from FlipSkipJump on Hyena Cart.




Kimonos are from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing and my first project from that book. I made one lined because I felt the white fabric was very thin.

Hot Air Balloon

On Sunday the Kids, Mr. K., and I went to Lotte World in Seoul to celebrate D's birthday. According to Wikipedia it is one of the largest indoor theme parks, but it also has an outdoor component.

One of the rides consists of mock hot air balloons that follow a track on the ceiling.


D was super happy because we got orange balloon number 8!


The favorite ride of both girls though was the carousel.




D loved seeing pirates.


She said that she wished for singing pirates for her birthday and she got them!


Izzy on the other hand wasn't a fan of the park overall but she loved her blue squishy ball.


Mr. K. even got adventurous and tried the peanut butter fried squid.


At the end of the day we were all tired.


But unfortunately we got back to the parking lot to find this.

Happy Birthday Defne!

Eight years ago today my precious Defne was born. I couldn't bear to even put her in the crib across the room so she slept with me the first 18 months of life. She is gentle and kind and I love her so much it hurts sometimes.

Last night we celebrated with spaghetti, corn on the cob, and a chocolate soccer cake at her request.



She received a ton of presents, including a set of chopsticks in a Wizard of Oz case.


Her watch is still in the mail unfortunately.


She also got a new soccer ball, Junie B. Jones books and a sewing kit.

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on It's Way

Well as much Easter as we do. Took the Kids to the post Eggstravaganza (no I did not make that up). They had fun jumping on the bouncy things and scrambling for plastic eggs.