Bodily Family Fun: Family Games, Fish, and Face Painting

Week 4:

This week was spent primarily at home. As usual, school was a top priority. The kids finished their science experiment that compared seed germination in different temperatures. I am sure you will find the picture of the sponges to be very interesting. Mitchell also grew some bean sprouts of his own and found out that he has quite the green thumb. Maybe he is going to take after Papa!

Most of our free time was spent playing family games, singing together, and watching "Old" TV shows. Darci is now singing the Dukes of Hazzard theme song and Mitchell even thanked me for introducing him to "old" TV shows because his favorite new show is Hogan's Heroes. We literally have watched everything from Andy Griffith to Family Matters to MacGyver (thanks to the package we received from Papa). Darci dancing to the MacGyver theme song and asking to watch it was one of the highlights of my week! Family games have become a big part of our entertainment. A while back, I found this box of games for family dinner time. Each night we pull a new card out and play the game. The kids love it. My favorite, so far, has to be the one where the kids and adults have to answer questions about how well we know each other. When Mitchell was asked to name the cities where I have lived he asked, "Mom, were you living in Wyoming when I was born?" This brings me to one other thing I have been pondering recently. Mitchell will be ten in just a few days and I think the closer he gets to it, the more common sense he loses. He was getting something to drink the other day and asked me where the ice was. I am a bit worried! Well enough about that. We also spent some time playing on the wii. Tennis and bowling are always fun. Darci has perfected a particularly unique way of bowling, as you will see!

We did have a couple of outings this week. The first of which was a quick trip to New City to get something to eat. Let me preface this by saying that we have made a deal with Darci. In an effort to get her to try Korean food, I have agreed that I will try any of her unusual food combinations and for every bite I take of something she mixes together, she will try a bite of anything we ask her to. I have to say that applesauce mixed with green peas was not my favorite, but she did try a bite of a hoppang that we bought. A hoppang is a steamed bun with filling inside. We bought these from a street vendor. They can have many different types of fillings, such as red bean paste or kimchi. We had one that was filled with a meat and vegetable mixture. It was DELICIOUS! Dave and I each bought one for only 1000 won a piece. We then took the the kids to a place called KyoChon. I did not realize this at the time, but it is one of MANY MANY places to buy chicken wings. We ordered some honey glazed chicken wings, which were served with pickled daikon radish (I guess its their version of carrots, celery, and ranch). Not that I have tried any other places here, but those were probably the BEST chicken wings I have ever eaten! Mitchell has even requested going back to get them for his birthday supper. The pickled radish was not to my liking, but I can say that I have tried it.

a hoppang

Delicious!

pickled daikon radish

Going to Darci's first Girl Scout meeting was another of our outings. She is officially a member of Troop 512. This is the first year that Camp Casey has had a troop so it is a mixture of brownies, juniors, and cadets. I think she is going to have a blast. There is a Daddy/Daughter Dance coming up and a Mother/Daughter bingo night. The troop even has a female soldier that has volunteered to come to all the meetings and do things with the girls. During this meeting, she taught the troop about first aid.

Our trip to the SM mart down the street was a unplanned outing that Darci and I had to make. She got a huge busted lip while playing on the playground with Mitchell and she could not hardly drink anything, so we went to get straws. This led to quite a few pictures and some miscommunication with the fish monger. First of all, I would like to say that I am not entirely excited about this, but an optional part of Darci's science lesson this week was to dissect a fish. She is super excited about the idea and decided that buying a fish at the market was the best plan of action. Well it would have been if we could speak Korean. Darci picked out her fish and we were able to get the man to understand how many we wanted, but I could not get him to understand that we wanted the fish whole. SOOOOO, long story short, I have some fish fillets in my fridge that I need to cook and a I have no idea what kind of fish it is! At the market we also bought some eggs. One thing I have noticed, or least noticed so far, is that there don't seem to be any white eggs at the local markets. I can only find brown eggs (don't get me wrong, I am not against brown eggs, I just find it odd). Anyway, just out of curiosity, I translated part of the label (in the pic, look at the orange bar on the label) and it said, "In the morning clean water and fed fresh food gave birth to healthy chickens." Wow, I guess I have been rambling! Sorry about that. The following pictures are are few from our walk and some of the items that are for sale at the market.

Some of the vehicles really look like MatchBox Cars

Seaweed

Dried fish of some sort

The fish we bought

Some kind of sucker fish

Yes, Frozen OCTOPUS!

30 eggs for about $3.58

egg label

Saturday began with a HUGE breakfast, and by that I mean HUGE pancakes! Dave decided that he needed to go for a world record this time. They were delicious, but I had troubling finishing one! I tried to take a few pics of the kids this morning. Darci kept running from me saying, "NO PAPARAZZI! NO PAPARAZZI!" Boy, she may actually be famous someday. Mitchell was easy to catch because he was glued to the wii. After all of that, we headed off to the base to the Easter Eggstravaganza. Dave's unit hosted this for the families. We had a good time, but it was cold and windy (thus explaining my hair in the picture with the Easter Bunny). The kids refused to have their pic taken with the Easter Bunny. I guess they really are growing up! We even had trouble convincing them to go get the eggs when it was time for their age group. They didn't want to be caught doing anything embarrassing, so Dave and I decided we would get our picture made with the Easter Bunny! It was quite a fun experience. I also have to say that Dave did something today that made me love him all the more! He is a GREAT Dad and the pictures show that he LOVES his Darci!

My handsome boy

There she goes!

Beautiful!

The bunny looks like he's laughing at us!

Hallelujah! We ordered pizza this week too! No really! We actually ordered pizza from Hallelujah Pizza and had it delivered and paid in won. I know this probably sounds quite boring, but I find it very FUN! Just the thought of our pizza being delivered on the back of a scooter is enough to make me smile, at least tonight anyway.

Sunday began with lots and lots of laundry and cleaning, but by the afternoon, we were done and ready to do SOMETHING! We decided that we would take a walk around our neighborhood. From our kitchen window we could see this set of stairs leading to the top of a hill and we have been wondering what it was, so off we went. What we found, like everything else here, just seems ODD and out of place, but that is way things are here in Korea. You never know what you might find. For instance, on this hill alone, we found a picture of a rock with writing, statues of animals, 3 ship's wheels, a workout area, miniature picnic tables, and a helicopter (well, sort of). Don't ask me. I have no idea what the reason is behind all of these random items. I also took a picture of our apartment from the top, as well. After coming back down, we went in search of cake ideas for Mitchell's birthday and ended up back in New City. We went to Paris Baguette, Tous Les Joures (I think I spelled that right), Dunkin Donuts (which does sell cakes), and Baskin Robins. We still had no luck finding a cake that Mitchell might enjoy for his birthday or at least not one he was willing to try. The solution....Mitchell and I found some prebaked pound cake at a small market and I will piece them together and decorate it myself. We also bought a Korean snack to try.....shrimp flavored chips. Meanwhile, Dave and Darci had an ice cream treat after she stared him down with her "puppy dog eyes" and convinced him that she needed one. So here they are with a few other sights from our walk...