The Dinosaur Diorama (or Diarrhea)

Aiden got a homework assignment over Spring Break. To create a dinosaur diorama. He chose the Ankylosaurus because it had an outer shell like an armadillo that protected it from predators like the T-Rex (he's all boy!) He had to write a 3 sentence report about it and everything. He did great...we were VERY proud of him! Of course if Aiden made one Elaina had to make one, too. However, she got the name wrong. One morning we woke up and I asked Aiden if he was ready to color the walls for his diorama and Elaina said (in a very whiney voice) "But, Momma I wanna color my diarrhea, too!" Out of the mouths of babes, right?!

Thailand Pics

Here is a link (which I hope works) to our Kodak Gallery album of our Thailand trip. It was amazing. There truly are no words for the trip. All we can tell you is that if you ever get a chance to go to Thailand...GO! The elephants were definitely our favorite part, hands down. We have such a great respect for them now. We joke that we're elephant activists and our group is called Sete...Smiley's for the Ethical Treatment of Elephants. The beaches are beautiful, like nothing we've ever seen before and Bangkok was great.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=345862184803%3A990599623&facebook=true&sourceId=984136008703

Kid Funnies From Thailand

We are having a wonderful time on our journey. We've been in Bangkok for 3 days and head to Chang Mai tonight via the night train. Should be an adventure! Hopefully I'll get to do a real post from there. Onto the funnies...
Patrick, Elaina and I were snuggling in bed and Patrick said "I love my girls." Elaina's response was "Daddy, I love boys."

The kid's have been very popular here because of there hair and Aiden has recieved a lot of kisses and he told us "The next girl that kisses me I'm just going to give her our hotel key and tell her our room is 1407 and to come up." To which Patrick replied "That's my boy!"

Ladies First!

So, Elaina and I were at the post office and we had a package slip. We only have small PO boxes and they give you a slip if you got a package and you go to the package pick-up window to get your package. So, we go to the package pick up window and there are two guys in there BDU's standing in front of us waiting to get there packages. Well, my totally unspoiled child walks up to them and says "Hey Boys, Ladies first!" and then looks at me and says "You're right, Momma?" All I (and they) could do was laugh!

Insadong, Gwacheon National Science Museum and A's class performance

We went to the 'Art district' of Seoul a couple of weeks ago to an area called Insadong. It was pretty neat. Lots of Korean art, calligraphy brushes (I have started collecting them), celadon pottery, choks (Korean stamps) and just about everything else you can imagine. We didn't spend tons of time down there because you can only look at so much of the same thing over and over again, you know? We did see a few neat things though....

For the serious calligraphy brush collector...the world's biggest!

This celadon store was CRAZY busy and had the best prices I have ever seen.

We got MeMe a 'chok' for her birthday and this is hers being made.

Elaina and I at a paper store. Koreans make some of the most beautiful paper you have ever seen and it's all made by hand!

I then went with Aiden's class on a field trip up to Seoul to the Gwacheon National Science Museum. It was really neat and the kid's had a lot of fun!

The kid's in front of some rockets while we waited to go in.

They had a little bit of everything including a pretty cool exhibit of dinosaurs.

A wall of 'Smiley' faces....the Koreans love Smiley faces. Whenever I try to tell someone our last name I say Smiley and they thing I said Miley and so now I just say Smiley like Smiley face and they go "Ooooo....how nice hahaha"!

E watching the stars.

Aiden in front of a dinosaur femur which I almost knocked over! Not my finest moment!

Can you tell she was excited to see Ariel in this exhibit?!

They had a Dr. Fish exhibit and Aiden does love Dr. Fish!!

Astronaut Aiden!

This is just a fun pic I thought I would throw in! This is Elaina with her buddies, Emma, Reese (twins) and Maddi (our next door neighbor) at our house watching a movie and eating popcorn. Aren't they the cutest?

I went to Aiden's school to watch him practice his musical performance. We won't be here for the actual performance and I wanted to make sure I saw it. It was really cute. The first song is You Are My Sunshine and the second is called Rainbow. Rainbow is really sweet. Right before they sang it they were all saying "Ms. Erin this song is going to make you cry and get goosebumps!" and they were right! I do apologize for the bad videoing...again...I just wanted y'all to remember the importance of stretching :) One day I will remember I can only hold the camera one way. I do remember about 3/4 through the 2nd song and turn it the right way.

This would have been Aiden's vest if he was going to be at the performance.

Another fun pic...the joys of Korea...CHEAP pedi's for little girl's! Elaina is certainly getting spoiled here!! It's great because they will do hers and mine at the same time and when they're done with her they play with her until I'm done....I LOVE that they love little blond girls!!!

Well, check back often ....we leave tomorrow for 2 weeks in Thailand!!! We are bringing our notebook computer, so we will be able to blog from there! First stop Bangkok, then Chang Mai, then onto the beaches of Phuket and Phi Phi...paradise here we come!!!!

Valentine's Day, Wild West Night and ELMO!!

Things have been pretty slow around here. It's been really cold and it doesn't make us want to get out and do much. We get a warm day here and there, but for the most part it's just really cold. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel though...2 weeks from today we are headed for a 2 week vacation to SUNNY Thailand! We can't wait...I'm sure there will be lots to blog about!

Valentine's Day came and went without too much fanfare. Aiden had a party at school and we had friend's over for dinner. Aiden asked a Colesie, a friend from school and our neighbor's from Pope's daughter, to be his Valentine. It was really cute (after I got past the whole he's my baby boy thing). He asked her while she was at our house and here's how it went...
Aiden: Colesie, will you be my Valentine?
Colesie: I have a boyfriend in Texas, Aiden.
Aiden: Well, will you be my Valentine?
Colesie: Okay.

Colesie showing off the Valentine that Aiden made her.
A & E at A's school party...I couldn't get that little girl to get out of the picture...I have 3 with her!
Aiden made me (aka his REAL valentine) ;) a flower!

The next night the Officer's Spouse's Club put on Wild West Night. It's there big fundraiser. We did pretty well, too. It was a lot of fun. They had it set up like a casino with a live and silent auctions and lots of raffles....I even won a really cute plant stand and 2 ugly Korean figurines which I think might make cute bookends one day.

Smiley's and the Ferguson's (of course) at WWN!

We went to the O'Club to watch the Superbowl....it's on at 8am on Monday morning here. The guy's get the day off to watch it!

Kim and I cheering on the Saints!!

Then to Elaina's GREAT joy Elmo came to town!!! They came and did a show through the USO. She was over the moon. She got to shake all the characters hands. It was so much fun to watch it through her eyes. She never stopped dancing. At one point all the characters were trying to make each other feel better (it's based on Dad being deployed) and all the characters were hugging, but Zoe wasn't getting a hug. So, Zoe said "Hey, I need a hug." and before I knew it Elaina was running as fast as she could shouting "I'll give you a hug!" It was the cutest thing...I'm sorry to report that she didn't get the hug, but she got a handshake a little later.

Waiting on Elmo to start...she NEVER stopped smiling!
Got to give Zoe a handshake...how cool!

Dancing along with the gang!

At the end of the show...sad to leave!

Now here are just a few randoms I think are fun.

Elaina with her favorite girls over here, Chloe and Kristana, they are Noelle's girl's. We go swimming after school every Thurs and they were putting on a 'show' in the water!

Us in our party suits...mine has new patches!

Patrick's patches, that you can't see real well, are all of the places he's flown in combat (Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan). My little patch is the LA state flag because that's my home state, my proud to be an American patch and my just for fun Butter's babe patch (Patrick's call sign is Butters)!

My Korea patch, We like 'em Big and Slow patch (get your mind out of the gutter...I'm talking about the plane!) and my Smiley face because I had to have a Smiley face! Patrick's other side is his proud to be an American patch and he's supposed to have a home state flag, but he doesn't feel like he has a home state, so he left his blank. Next time we wear them I'll take a picture of our "backsides" because there's more!

MLK day skiing, Geoyongbuk Palace

It's been a while and we've been pretty busy. For MLK day we went skiing with a group from Aiden's Taekwon-do class. It was fun. We put Aiden and Elaina in lessons and they both did pretty good. Aiden skied the whole day and Elaina had about had it after 1 hour, but then the last hour she "got it"! We couldn't get her to stop. She would just point her ski's straight and go! Skiing in Korea is not ideal. We were hoping it would be really slow, but the slopes were SO busy. You had to wait in line forever and the skiing was not good. It only took about 2 minutes to go down the mountain. There is supposed to be some pretty good skiing about 4 hours from here, so maybe next year we'll try it out!

The kiddo's ready for skiing lessons! There goes Aiden!

Go Elaina Go!!

The fam on the slopes at Jisan Mountain!
The whole group

This is Aiden's whole Taekwon do group with Master Moon (who Aiden is with) and that's Grand Master Moon in the center. He is the one who taught Chuck Norris!!

We took a "warmer" (read highs in the low 40's) to go to Geoyongbuk Palace. It's where the King and Queen used to live. It's in the center of Seoul. Today the Presidents house is up behind it. It was really interesting to learn about. I think we'll try going back in the Spring and hopefully the flowers will be blooming!

The "soldiers" in front of the Palace

Trying to get the whole front of the Palace. Those two specs in the middle are A and E

Kiddo's and I in front of a giant drum...no idea what it was used for!This is where the parties were. I told Patrick I wouldn't be upset if he could find a way for them to open it back up for my 30th!!

They also had all of the Chinese calendar characters (Koreans follow this as well). Elaina is the year of the dog...Aiden was jealous and told us he wanted to be year of the dog!

Aiden is year of the ram.

I'm year of the monkey.

Dad's year of the horse!

I just thought this was a neat pic of the Korean hanbok tops (traditional Korean dress) The kid's playing a game the kid's at the Palace used to play.

These are just for fun...we've just discovered that Elaina is shockingly flexible!!! Wish we could get her into gymnastics!

The Splits!

Folding herself in half! Impressive, huh?!