Super heroes on the cheap!

Liam and Samuel are obsessed with super heroes. What three and almost five year old (in less than 12 hours) isn't?! Well, I decided I was going to do something so cool  for Liam's birthday. I was going to make capes and masks for everyone so they could all be supers. Did I mention, I made this decision on Friday afternoon and his friends were coming over on Sunday afternoon? We were expecting 16 to 20 kiddos between 2 and 6. Holy cow! What was I thinking?

Anyhoo...I was determined to make this "super hero" thing happen. I mentioned it to my amazing neighbor Lorri who had already lent me her ginormous cake pan and allowed me to raid her fridge. She then produced a pack of party masks.

So, here was my brilliant idea. I was going to cover these masks in adhesive felt in "super hero" colors.

I traced and I cut.

Behold! The finished product! Easy peasy. Now on to the capes.

I cut out rectangles, six per yard in black and pink (because not all supers are boys!). I then folded the top of the fabric down 1 inch and pressed. No, I did not finish the edges. Call me lazy, but we are talking about preschoolers here and cutting and sewing about 20 of these suckers.

Sew baby! Sew!

I had a ton of 1/4 inch ribbon so I cut it into 20 inch pieces. I then took a safety pin and feed it thru the channel I created with my seam. (Pardon my hands. They don't seem to care for Korean winters or doing dishes.)

This is the back of the cape. I cut a lightening bolt design out of adhesive felt. I pressed it to the fabric and then sewed it in place with a zigzag stitch.

Ze front...

Ze back...

Ze end!

Until next time,

Lisa

Playin' hookey

Since this is what it looked like last night...

This is what we did today!

That's a dog. I can see it. Can you?

Scary Black Widow!

If you've never tried Bendaroos with your kids, do! They are pretty darn cool. You'll end up doing most of the work but the kids love it so who cares! Great activity for a rainy/snowy morning:O) Check them out here.


 On to the next activity.


My friend's twins. So cute!



Team work!



"I'm tired Mommy."



Lots of walking up and down the hill.

Look at that face! Was he having fun or what?!

And when it was all over, this was the end result...

A good day. Wouldn't you say?

Until next time!

Lisa



A little spring infusion

So, it's been incredibly cold here in Korea. We've had single digit temperatures and minus windchills. I'm getting a serious case of cabin fever and keeping these little boys indoors is enough to take a mom right over the edge! I needed a little "pick me up" and thought I would share some photos of a really great place to kick those winter time blues in the bottom.

My friend Heidi took me to a wonderful wholesale flower market last summer. If you are on the peninsula and want coordinates, I'm sure I can get them for you!

This orchid was incredible! It reminded me of an angel.



This was just a sampling of the orchids. There was a greenhouse the length of a football field full of them!





 

This fountain display reminded me of a scene from Avatar.

There were several greenhouses full of any kind of plant imaginable. It felt as if you could walk forever and never reach the end of the building. A friend once told me that to Koreans, "it's not done until it's overdone". If you have been here, you totally understand.

We finally made it out of the greenhouses and crossed the street heading toward an industrial looking two story building. Heidi told me this was where we would find all of the fresh cut flowers. Now, Korea is full of lots of smells in the summer time. Many are quite unpleasant. As soon as you walk in the double doors of this building your nose is immediately overwhelmed by the most amazing smell of millions of flowers and it hits you like a brick wall. Roses, mums, daisies, eucalyptus! They had any and every type of fresh flower you could ever want.  It was so unexpected. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect. I''d never seen anything like it!

Mums anyone?



Have you ever seen roses stacked like this?

 The second floor of this building was where you would go to buy things like ribbon, vases, artificial flowers, and gift items.  This was also where you would go to have floral arrangements done.

So much talent!

There was so much of everything floral that I ended up leaving with very little and I haven't been back since.  I have to make at least one more trip before we move this summer or I know I'll kick myself.

Are you ready for spring now?! I know I am!

Until next time,
Lisa

Apartment Livin'

Ahhh apartment life. What do I mean? We live in an apartment tower in Korea. When we first moved in, I was not fond of this set up. It's a real adjustment to go from living in a house with a two car garage and a back yard to an apartment. With two busy boys, we have to be creative. We do any number of things to amuse ourselves.

We grow an "urban"garden on our balcony.

We play in boxes.

We put underwear on our heads.

Sometimes we get really crazy and walk to the exchange and try on glasses at the Optical shop.




If we're lucky, we can go down to the fire department and sit in a big truck!




 It's not so bad. We have fun;o)


By the way, these pics were taken in the summer and fall.







This is what it looks like here right now... 

Thinking warm thoughts, thinking warm thoughts!

Ahhh. The Cape Fear Coast! We'll see you soon!

Until next time!
Lisa

Seoul searching...

Yesterday was one of many eventful treks to the big city. Dear husband had taken a few days off so we thought it would be a great idea to spend the day in Seoul. In case you don't already know, just to set the stage a bit, Seoul is only about 40 miles from where live. It takes about two hours by car, an hour and 10 minutes by bus, or anywhere between an hour (if you know what your doing) and 3 hours by train (if you make the mistake of taking two strollers, one of which gets stuck in a turnstile, getting separated from husband and one son, husband losing said son, finding said son thirty seconds later thanks to a group of grandmotherly type Korean ladies who saw the panic on dear husband's face, getting on the wrong train going in the wrong direction and stopping at several stops along the way with no English signs and no English speaking passengers. There was also a lost ticket and some Korean charades as well as getting stuck on a train that stopped running completely but I'll stop there.) That was our first trip away from home. I'm honestly surprised we ever left again.

I have to say that for the most part this adventure was relatively uneventful. Thank  you God:O)

Seoul Tower in Namsan Park

"Haechi, Seoul's symbol, is an imaginary creature that helps realize justice and enhance safety and happiness."

This is the observation level of the Tower. What a great place to race cars!

Hubby and I goofing around.

One view from the Tower. Sorry about the spots. The windows were a little dirty.

This was part of the walk down from the Tower. Really nice trails but it was cold! The high was 20 degrees that day.

Hot chocolate with marshmallows!



Post hot chocolate with marshmallows smile.

After warming up, we hit the streets and the subway and after about two hours of navigating crowds and changing trains, we arrived at the COEX Mall which is located at the Seoul World Trade Center. It's ginourmous! The mall and the Trade Center building! 
They have a wonderful aquarium but I had lost steam at this point with taking pictures so here are just a couple that were too cute to not include. 


A Spiderman fish tank!



Double trouble:O)

We decided to try Korean Chicago style pizza (interesting) for dinner and then start the journey home. I'd like to thank my friend Susan for talking to the cab driver (in Korean) that seemed to have no immediate plan to take us where we needed to go. Not because he didn't want to. He didn't know where he was going! And he had a GPS! Go figure.

Never a dull moment!
Lisa