Let's Talk about Air Quality

South Korea's Air Quality is seriously the worst!  About half the time, the air quality is considered in the unhealthy zone.

If the Air Quality Index falls below 60, M&M starts having a difficult time breathing.  Around 50, I start getting headaches.  Anything below 30 is just brutal!
At some points, the air quality is so bad that you can look directly at the sun and it doesn't hurt your eyes because so much smog is covering up the sun.

When we got here and found out how bad the air is and how ofter it gets in the unhealthy zone, I bought all of us masks!  As long as we wear the masks, M&M doesn't have problems breathing and I don't get headaches! I always try to remember to check my two air quality apps before we walk out the door.

It took a while to convince Little Monster to keep his mask on, but we have to wear our masks so often, since this is a walking base, that the Monster is used to it now.

Osan's First Snow

There was no school the day after Thanksgiving, so we spent the morning doing chores and practicing instruments.  Big Sis was in the back room practicing her violin, M&M was in her room practicing her cello, Little A was in the family room getting ready to dusty and the big sliding glass door was open to let sun in, when all of a sudden I heard a huge scream and then repeated screams.  I ran into the room to find out what was wrong, to see Little A by the sliding door jumping up and down screaming over and over, "SNOW! SNOW!  It's SNOWING". The other two girls heard the screaming and the music stopped instantly.  They both ran out of their rooms as fast as they could, without slipping on our tile floor, to see Osan's first snow. Our back door is swung wide open and three little girls run out onto our balcony proclaiming to all of Osan base that it is snowing. Little Monster heard all the fuss and also came running out to see what excited his sisters so much.

All around us there are huge snow flurries coming down.  As I am on the balcony trying to convince Little A and Big Sis to come in because it is freezing, I hear the front door open and close.  When we get inside Little A runs to the door and runs out.  It takes me a while to realize that two of my kids ran outside in pajamas and sneakers.  I ran out and caught them before they got on the elevator.  My snow deprived kids didn't have any idea that snow is cold and wet!  It takes forever for me to convince them to get in their snow gear.  The second they have all their snow gear on, they disappear out the door.  Kevin, Little Monster and I come out a few minutes after the girls. 

The girls were in a pure fantasy land of magic snow!  They made snow angels,

They made a snowman.

They had a snowball fight.

I even tried to softly throw a snowball at Little Monster.

He definitely didn't appreciate that one.  The second the cold ball hit him he burst out screaming and yelling "cold cold cold".  I got a very stern look from Kevin as he swept him up and told me I was not nice, HAHA!!

We stayed out with the kids for about an hour, but by this time, Little Monster was shivering and kept saying "cold". Kevin and I went inside with Little Monster and let the girls stay out with friends.

While they were out with friends, the girls went sledding down the hill that was across the street.  They had a few more snowball fights and made another snowman.  

It was definitely one of the best days!  They had such a great time and truly thought it was magic snow.  

Thanksgiving in Korea

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  Thanksgiving ended up being an entire day for us.  Well, if you consider baking the food, it ended up being a few days.  The older girls helped me make pies the day before Thanksgiving.  We made a Chocolate Silk Pie, Pumpkin Pecan Pie, Blueberry, Lemon Meringue and a Key Lime pie.

I made the crusts with the help of Big Sis and M&M, and the rest of the pies were pretty much all made by Big Sis and M&M!

We also spent the day before making crescent rolls and our famous 12 layer jello.  It takes a minimum of 6 hours to make this jello, which is why I only make it two times a year.  I had to scramble to find grape and blue raspberry jello.  The commissary does not carry a single purple or blue jello, and I didn't have time to order it on Amazon.  I placed a plea on facebook for the jello, and was lucky enough to get super quick responses with two people who had some in their pantry from moving here.  Thank Goodness! Dinner was saved by amazing neighbors, because we all know Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving with out "Rainbow" (as my kids call it) 12 layer jello.

Thanksgiving day, we had a house full of new friends, neighbors, unaccompanied co-workers and strangers.  The evening started as a rag tag group of strangers and we all left as friends.  We asked everyone to bring food to contribute to the meal.  We had beans, green bean casserole, turkey, stuffing, 12 layer jello, homemade crescent rolls, store bought Hawaiian rolls, and a few more dishes.  We also had about 12 bottles of sparkling cider.  We ended up having about 18 people in our house and it was great!

After everyone ate, we played a few games.  We also had the Wii on and the kids and adults were playing Mario Kart.  A lot of the unaccompanied guys had other places to go, so they didn't stay very long.

Since a lot of the people were associated with Kevin, I set up a game night with some of my friends.  We still had a few people here from the day, when our second shift of people started showing up.  We set up a dessert table, and gathered around the table to play games.  We then spent the next few hours with our friends: the Arny's, Lee's and Condor's! We played Code names with teams and had a blast!

By the time everyone left it was after 9PM.  We had a day with our little apartment bursting at the seams with lots of amazing people.  It was so wonderful to have so many people in our home playing games, being friends and showing love.  It was a stressful, fun, delicious, amazing night.  I am Thankful for great friends that always make us feel like family.

The Fishing Cafe

It was one of those days where the kids were wild, jumping off the walls and full of energy.  There was no school due to teacher trainings, so we were all home. Since there had already been multiple days where the kids had school off, I was beginning to loose my mind!  The best antidote to a crazy mom, is leaving the house and doing an activity.  I had wanted to go to the Fishing Cafe ever since I heard about it, so that was the desired destination.  I sent a call out to friends to see if anyone wanted to join us on our fishing adventure.  The Arny's joined us for the fun.

When the kids found out that they were going to literally be fishing, they got so excited. I paid for the kids to fish for an hour.  We were given bracelets to track points associated with the fish we caught. All the kids were given fishing hooks and a plate with a good cup and half of fish bait for the hooks.

A Korean worker showed us how to fish and apply bait. We all struggled at first and the girls created their own technique to catch the fish.  They would pop the fishing line up and down quickly.

The worker got mad and showed them the correct way to fish. Once Big Sis and M&M got the hang of it, they started catching fish after fish after fish.

This is when I learned that it is a catch and release type of deal.  At first the worker would unhook the fish and put it in the net so the girls could put it on the scale.  After the first few though, he walked away.  When M&M caught a fish and it was flipping and jumping everywhere with the hook in it's mouth, I started to panic. The worker was intentionally avoiding eye contact.  I was worried the fish was going to die, so I rolled up my sleeves and grabbed the flapping fish, trying very hard not to squeal too loud.  I had no idea what I was doing!  The fish was flipping so much in my hand.  I kept trying unsuccessfully to get the hook out.  By this time, the fish had stopped flipping around.  I was pretty sure I had killed the poor thing.  I finally got the hook off, and told M&M to quickly weigh it and put it back in the water. Luckily when it hit the water it swam away.  I barely had time to recover and get my heart rate down before Big Sis was announcing she caught a fish and needed help.

I tried to help Little A because she was getting distraught at not catching any fish.  It was hard for her to see her sisters catching so many fish, and she hadn't caught a single one.  It was about this time that Little Monster started to live up to his name.  He was definately being a monster!   He was running everywhere, trying to go in the bathroom, and kept trying to pull the fishing pole away from his sisters. It was pretty much impossible for me to help Little A and watch the Monster.  With having to divide myself three ways- helping Little A, unhooking fish, and chasing Little Monster, I was at my wits end.  By the time our hour was up, I was probably more frazzled then when we left the house.

After our hour was up, we had a total of 10,050 points to use on prizes. Big Sis got a magic trick that she recognized from 2nd grade, M&M got a firefly, Little A got tattoo markers, and Monster got a giant tube of bubbles!

The kids were smiling from ear to ear after they got their prizes, they were super happy.  M&M and Big Sis were already asking if we can go back tomorrow.  Ugh- That's a trip they will have to take with their daddy without me next time.  I had my fill of catch and release fun.  Although, I am a master at unhooking fish now.  Perhaps I'll tag along when daddy takes them, just so I can watch him unhook the fish, LOL!!!!

Nothing else to do... go bowling!

When there is nothing else to do, what do we do... we go bowling!

We went with the Arny's and Rust's to the bowling ally.  We were able to get one lane in the kid's area, and two right next to the kid's lane.

The littles bowled on the small lane and all the older kids got the two lanes to themselves.

We bought some French fries and spent a few hours just relaxing, playing and bowling.  It was a good way to get the kids out of the house and spend time with friends.

Buraksan Park Playground

There was no school for the majority of the first two weeks of November, so a group of moms took our kids to the Buraksan Park.  We were hoping to take the kids on the Ropes course, but we were too late for our reservation, so they did not let us do the course.  We decided to let the kids play at the park on the other side of Buraksan Park.

The park has this huge grass field where the all the kids ran around, played tag, hide and seek and other running games.

On the side of the park is a little hill where a ropes playground was made for kids.  There were small rope swings, and ropes to help climb up the side of the hill.

There were also tight ropes for the kids to try to walk across. The entire ropes playground is on dirt, so the kids got dusty dirt all over their clothes and hair.

We didn't get a chance to to the real ropes course, but the kids' ropes playground was super fun for the them.

Right next to the playground there was outdoor exercise equipment.  One neat thing about Korea is the random exercise squares.  All around town, in parks and outside office buildings you will find a small area that has anywhere from 8-12 exercise machines.  All the kids had fun using the running machine and the legs machine.  While we were there a handful of older Koreans came by and used the equipment for a quick workout.

It was a great day to get out of the house and all the kids had a fun time.  The best part was being with friends.

Everland...again

Hey there, Big Sis here! The first time my family and I went to Everland was for the rides and crowded places. We are going back now for the animals there and the other half of the park to explore and see. Last time, we only saw the first half because we wanted to spend our day wisely, but now we are going to see the pandas, basic zoo animals, and the interesting areas.

We made our lunches, dressed up in proper clothes for a theme park, and filled our camel-backs. We didn't need so much stuff this time because we now know what is necessary and what isn't. This time we had much lighter backpacks and more space for other things.

We all piled in the car and we started our second journey to Everland. We invited two other families to come with us to Everland for extra fun. We invited the Arny's which are our friends, and the Condor's which are our friends and neighbors.

We arrived to Everland in less than an hour and waited in line to check into the park. The park changed the decorations from Halloween to Christmas decorations. Instead of ghost in every corner, there were ornaments and beautiful trees.

Fall time in Korea is so much more pretty than back in San Antonio! The trees start to fade in beautiful ways and are so bright. Red leaves were my favorite to see along with the orange, yellow, and the fading trees too. Everland was covered in these type of trees. But, since it was fall time, it was pretty cold too. Korea gets real cold real fast!

After we admired the beautiful trees, we headed towards the animals section of the theme park. We saw birds, monkeys, tigers, lions, flamingos, giraffe, antelope, donkeys, cheetahs, sheep, bunnies, and guinea pigs.

My favorite animals to see was in a place called Panda World, you guessed it, the Giant Pandas.

There were two pandas and, oh boy, they were very fat ones. One panda was a girls and the other was a boy panda. They were really fun to watch even though they were mostly sleeping and slowly chewing on bamboo. My favorite thing that one of the pandas did, was knocked over their pile of bamboo next to them and had the look of "Really?" on her face. The next second she is showing her behind to the air with an arm hanging to try to reach her fallen bamboo. That gave me a good laugh.

After we left Panda World, we bought dinner and headed to see the Everland light parade. While we waited for the parade to start I ran into a store and got a Christmas present for M&M along with Little A. I also got a souvenir for myself and left just in time to see the most amazing light parade ever.

We left Everland after the fireworks which happened after the light parade, and went home super late at night. I had a great day in Everland for the second time.

Kids Cafe: La Cartata

We planned to go to a kids cafe today called Bang Bang!  There was a group of us in four cars that drove in search of Bang Bang.  We finally found the parking garage and walked around and around the buildings trying to find the cafe.  We finally found it and rode the teeny tiny elevator to the top floor, only to find that Bang Bang didn't open until 1 pm, which was 3 hours away.  I was determined to make it to a kids cafe today, so I told everyone that I had heard of a cafe called La Cartata and was going to try to find it.  Everyone else was on the same page and we all piled in our cars in search of La Cartata.

The only way to get around in Korea is by using the app: Waze.  However, since all the building are these 6 plus story buildings crammed all in the same location, I had no idea exactly where La Cartata was, just that Waze had declared, "You have arrived".  There was no parking whatsoever,  so we drove around the general location until I found a super-small-up-a-curb-in-a-field spot.  I pulled a Kevin and backed up the car like a boss.

We were surrounded by super tall buildings in all directions, and weren't sure where to go.  Luckily, where we parked, we had a perfect view of the huge building that had a picture of cartoon cars all over the top floor windows and La Cartata written in English and Korean.

We got to the building and rode the super small elevator to the top floor. Here we are all squished in an elevator!

 When the doors opened and the kids saw the cafe, they all started screaming with excitement!  They were so excited they ran past the benches to take shoes off and were trying to run into the Kids Cafe. Luckily, they heeded our calls and we were able to pull their shoes off while they wiggled around trying to get out of our grasps.  Once the shoes were off, the kids were gone.

La Cartata is AMAZING!!  There is an indoor track with at least 40 battery operated ride-on cars.  They even had a hand full of ride-on remote control cars for the kids that can't reach the peddles.  In front of the track were buckets of helmets and pads for the kids.  Each kid grabbed a helmet and hopped in their own car.  Big Sis had her knees in her chest and looked like she was in a clown car, but she still rode around the track a few times.  M&M and Little A were in car heaven.

Little Monster found his car and I used the remote control to take him around the track.  He must have thought he was driving because he was making car noises, turning the wheel, laughing and shouting.  After Big Sis realized her car was going ridiculously slow due to her weight, she took over the remote and drove the Monster around.

After Little A had her share of driving her car around, she went exploring the rest of the Kids Cafe.  She found a slide that shot her into a huge ball pit. Big Sis and M&M also found the ball pit and slide.  They enjoyed the turning wheel and spun around and around.

There was an overlook above the track where Little A decided to explore.  She found a small play kitchen and food.  There were cute paintings on the wall, and a huge assortment of play food.

I was able to convince Little Monster to take a break from his car and go exploring.  He found the Korean "sand/wood cubes" pit!  He and Little A enjoyed playing with the wood cubes. We were lucky to have such amazing friends join us.  Here is Little A with one of her best friends, Ella.

We also found a trampoline jump room.  There were flashing lights and colorful trampolines.  The trampoline was set up like the one at Big Jump, where there was an incline to the trampoline to make it a slide at one end.  The room was surrounded with padding and of course, in Korean fashion, there was a music video playing and music blaring.

Little Monster also found a Music area with a piano, drums, and an assortment of musical instruments.  I was impressed by the variety of toys and the like-new and well-cared-for condition they were in.

The kids wouldn't let us leave until they rode the cars one last time.  I told them three times around the track and then we needed to go.  They all raced around the track and Big Sis drove Little Monster.  They all left exclaiming that this was their new favorite place in Korea, and of course, asked if we could go back tomorrow.