Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

Christmas Kickoff Party

~ Etc.

 

We started a new family tradition(thanks to Eden for the inspiration), which is to have a Christmas kickoff party! We get out our Christmas tree and decorate while listening/dancing to Christmas classics, then read Luke 2 together about the birth of Jesus and then eat fresh out of the oven homemade cookies & milk.
The kids have accidentally hurt me pretty bad the past two days; hitting my eye with a stick, jump roping and smacking my face, leaving cupboards open, causing a bruise on my nose, and then tonight as we were decorating the tree, one of the kids was swinging a flashlight and smacked it hard right on the back on my head. I got angry and said, “My goodness, why do you guys keep hurting me lately? It hurts so bad! You need to be more aware of other people in your surroundings, it’s not just you that live in this world, the world does NOT revolve around you. Be considerate of other people!” Right when I was done talking, my 8 yr, old daughter says to me, “Wow, mom, wow. What a JOLLY Christmas.”
I was still angry but it melted as I realized how I was so excited to start this happy Christmas tradition and here I am yelling and lecturing at my kids, ruining the Christmas spirit. I started to laugh and then we all did and we made up with kisses and hugs and it indeed ended up being a JOLLY Christmas after all.
 p.s. my son was not happy we wouldn’t let him eat the cookie he snatched until the end. haha
p.p.s. I want to post more about family on my blog. So expect more family posts from me!

Ice-Cream for Dinner

~ Etc.

It was Children’s Day in Korea on May 5th. It’s a holiday in Korea where they celebrate children. No school but filled instead with parades, games and helicopter rides. That’s how it was for me growing up there anyway! So I celebrate it with my children and starting this year, I’ve also added a new tradition which is throwing an ice-cream/dance party with my kids where we have ice-cream for dinner on Children’s Day! It gave me anxiety just thinking about it but I kept telling myself ice-cream for dinner once a year isn’t going to kill them…. but I still had anxiety so we had tofu pad thai for “snack” and then had ice-cream for “dinner”, see what I did there? 😉 And let’s not pretend I’m a better mom than I am, I should note the pad thai was from Trader Joe’s and I just added sliced tofu. It’s simple things like this the kids will remember, not extravagant things. So Happy Children’s Day until next year!

Children’s Day

~ Etc.

the girls were cold during the wagon ride so they decided to cuddle to keep warm.  moments like this…. just makes me so happy.
I thought I transferred all the pictures from this day onto my computer but these are the only pictures that got transferred!  I took the cutest pictures, what a bummer!  But at least I have these pictures I guess. argh.
On May 5th(05/05) we celebrated my favorite Korean holiday, Children’s Day.  I loved growing up in Korea and celebrating this holiday where there is no school, many fun events(like free helicopter ride) and eating free at restaurants.  So I pass this tradition to my family and while they have to go to school, they get to pick out any activity they want. they chose the petting zoo and the dinosaur museum.  Taking three kids around all day by myself is definitely tiring and I’m so pooped by the end of the day!  But it is worth it to see the smiles on their faces and how much fun they have.  Every time we go to fun stuff, they have to earn it through chores and proper behavior and I think that makes them appreciate all the fun stuff we do and enjoy it more since they earned it and deserved it!  Happy Children’s Day!…3 weeks ago but yes, I’ve been slacking on blogging.  I have much to catch up!  View last year’s Children’s Day post here.
What are some of your favorite family traditions?

May 5th

~ Etc.

May 5th is a holiday in Korea called Children’s Day. Children’s Day is a day of showing respect and celebrating their happiness and it was one of my favorite holidays while growing up in Korea. School is closed for the day, many restaurants are free for the kids, and they have many fun contests/games for the kids to participate in.  So now, we celebrate Children’s Day in my own family.
Since May 5th fell on a Sunday, we celebrated the holiday the day before on Saturday.  The day started with going to cheer Jay at his half marathon.
the girls wanted to wear their metals just like dad and Adi also grabbed a cone 
to use as a speaker phone so she could cheer for her daddy.
there he is!
and there he goes!  then we drove and went to the finish line to wait for him there.
he did it!  he placed 42nd place in his age division which is not too shabby
 especially for his first half marathon! I am so proud of him!
Then we went to go watch The Croods, and after the movie we went shopping where every member of our family got to pick out something from the store.  Jay got a pair of pants, I got a maxi dress, Adi got a pair of shorts and a dress(to share with Ana too), and Ana got a pair of “mint sparkly slippers” as she calls it.  
Then we finished the day by going to eat at Sizzler’s.  We love their parmesan toasted bread!  If you’ve been to Sizzler’s, you know that place is dominated by all the cute senior citizens.  And every time we go there, Jay and I talk about how we’re going to be one of them one day, going there every week with our senior citizen discounts. 😉
Happy Children’s Day!