After a long day at church we had waffles for brinner and mommy did a quick wrapping of presents and frosting of cupcakes. Alex told me he wanted a mickey mouse cake and i stumbled upon some cute Mickey Mouse cupcakes using oreos. They turned out pretty cute and tasty! Birthday song, presents and cake followed suit! Happy Birthday Alex!



Coloring book from Cade

Card from Grandpa Bob & Grandma Corrie

with money inside!

From mom and dad

(he was so focused on the wrapping paper and not the presents!)


From Grandma Kathy


And a last surprise from mom and dad- his little animal that he lost and slept with every night. He was so happy!

Nice cake face

What a great day for our family; Father's Day and Alex's 3rd Birthday!

I'm so proud of my husband. He works so hard, yet still yearns to be home with his family. His sons adore him and can't wait for him to be home, even if they only see him for a few minutes or tell him goodnight on the phone. I love how much we work together to keep things running. I try to keep the house in order, but he's there to pick up the other pieces when I'm low on energy, or patience. He always keeps things light and funny and spontaneous and I love him for that. He's taken us on a great adventure here in Seoul and I look forward to what will be in store for us in the future. Happy Father's Day Dan!





And Alex gets to celebrate with Daddy today too! I can't believe Alex is 3. I mean, didn't Cade just turn 3? *sigh* I guess they're growing up to big awesome big boys.

Alex really is just a bundle of fun. He has lots of character and spunk. He's stubborn and a bit bossy, but always turns around and melts your heart. He's super cuddly and fun to play with. This year we hope to potty train and make that pacifier disappear, wish us luck! Happy Birthday Alex! Here's a look back at past birthdays, and look for more pictures to come later :)

Here's Alex as a newborn!

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

And a recent picture

I love my boys!

Right next to Seoul Grand Park is the Gwacheon Science Museum. There is a group of us from church that do bi-weekly Seoul outing so we decided to check it out. It was only 2,000 won for me ($2) and the kids were free and so was parking. It was a bargain and the kids really enjoyed it, but there really wasn't much for the kids to DO, just see. I like museums that are more interactive, and since they can't read the signs we can't help them know what they're looking at.







Who needs an aquarium? Every museum we go to has fish!


I love the look on these Korean girls' faces

Inside a space shuttle!

Friends from church. Our boys are the same ages and she has another little one too.


These are the random things you see in korea. Not only does it look like he's picking his nose, but the slide empties out into his belly?

At the end we found the kid's area of the museum. Much more for them to do here. Below is a little room with a slanted floor!




Cade is fascinated with human body stuff so he loved this model about digestion.




And who can go wrong with a giant train outside! Sadly you couldn't go inside, just walk up stairs and look in the window.


I love the mountains surround the museum and seoul grand park.

Ahh, the good ol' Seoul Tower. You can see my other post here from when we first went. This time we found a better way there! We took a taxi, and he took us up almost the whole way. No finding a parking spot and walking to the cable car and paying for both. Then when you're done you get on the electric bus (you'll know it when you see it), and it'll take you down to itaewon where we had lunch (thai food!) and took a taxi home. This was all much less expensive than the first time we went and much easier. :)

Here we are on the way up

Have I ever mentioned how much we get mobbed? This trip with Dee and Jon was probably the worst we've had it with just about everywhere we took them. They even took pictures of Dee and I! They'd scream when they saw the boys, and then ask to take a picture, and then scream again like they'd just seen Justin Beiber. Madness I tell you.

But have I told you how much Cade loves the attention? He told me once, "Mom, when I see girls I know i'm going to have fun." Uh oh! I wonder if when he's older he'll have a thing for Asian girls.


Here's a view of Hannam village from the top of the Seoul Tower! The 4 high rises in the middle are part of HV along with the low-rises to the left. I tried to include a picture labeling a few things but it didn't work. Grrrr. Our high rise is the back right and we're on the 4th floor.

Chilling at the observatory deck

They have this fun set of TV screens on the floor that interact when you step on them. It makes it seem like you're falling to the bottom of the Seoul Tower. The boys loved it!

The bathrooms were pretty fancy (which is major for Korea). If i had known Dan had taken a picture of the men's I would have included one from the women's!

And even in the elevator there's something to entertain you; a TV screen up on the ceiling to make you feel like your flying into outerspace and then back to earth on the way down. I think the boys liked it.








And here's Cade's very own Seoul Tower.

At least those books are getting some use ;)