If you're not ready for a picture overload then do not read this post! :)  Our boys get a party on the even years of their birthdays so there are lots of fun pictures to share.

First Cade was so excited to do the snack on the last day of school before his birthday and spring break.  Here are his mario cupcakes, made by our  neighbor Marie (maker of the best cupcakes i've ever had), with mario tags by me.

Then I put Cade to work. Here he is helping put the goodie bags together. He put on the names, pictures and put everything inside.


From Grandma Kathy

 From Grandpa Bob
 From Alex
From Mom & Dad (he loves wearing a black tie, but lost his)

 Now it's party time! Here are the boys all ready to go!

Instead of having six 5-6 year olds in our apartment we decided to have it at the bowling alley. It was so much fun and I think all of the boys had a blast. Cade was allowed to invite 6 friends (since that's how old he was) and they all turned out to be boys, much to the dismay of a few girls in his Kindergarten class. "Cade's mommy? Why did Cade only have boys invited to his party?"  lol.  Here are some shots.
















 Time for cake and presents!





 Someone inhaled enjoyed the cake!
Thank you hugs

 The whole crew

Lastly Dan asked all the boys to make their best crazy face. Happy Birthday Cade! It was a fun day.

Cade has had two momentous occasions this week.

One- Receiving his red belt in TaeKwonDo (and he's testing for his black belt in May!)

All of this just before he turns 6 next week. He's really looking forward to having his birthday party on his actual birthday, at the bowling alley with 6 of his friends, Mario themed. Should be fun! Wish me luck on the cake :)

This place was cool and crazy all the same time. Picture a hands on pet store inside a subway station. Snakes, bugs, fish, dogs, cats, hampsters, guinea pigs, ferrets, hedgehogs, turtles, and even a skunk! These were all available to touch and pick up! Cats and dogs were just freely roaming.

Crickets!

Frogs

Crocodile (we weren't allowed to hold this one - phew!)
Turtles
 Check out this snake!
 Cade is one brave kid


 It was fun to watch the kids interact with the animals. Just look at this precious smile on cade's face while playing with this dog? We must get an animal when we get back to the states!
Tortoise just walking around the room
 Here's the skunk! He had has 'stink glands' removed so it wasn't so scary. I even touched it, because really, when am I going to get another chance to pet a skunk?

Here was a fish tank where the kids could catch these ones....
.... and feed them to the piranhas.  There were a lot of dead fish in that tank due to high volume of kids, including Alex.
Cade with the cutest puppy!
Holding a mouse
Alex trying to catch one. He was a bit rough with the animals, grabbing mice by the tail and then dropping them.

My friend Ruth hanging out with a turtle.
 More snakes!


Alex finally tried the whole snake thing out, but good thing i was standing by because the snake just curled up and fell off his back, and i caught it just in time. That was enough snake handling for me.
This was our Seoul Searchers event for the beginning of the march, and there was no school that day so we ended up with a large group (enough for a discount) and another group of military wives and children showed up at the same time. There must've been 30 people or more! Here we all are getting treated to a special event:  feeding a rat to a snake!
We were told the rat had a brain tumor so it was going to die anyways. There weren't very many places for the rat to hide.
Within seconds the rat ran right in front of the snake and ::SNAP:: it spun around that rat SO fast!
 And just kept wrapping itself around its body.
 After about 15 minutes the rat was still twitching and struggling so we never actually saw it eat the rat, but it was still an interesting experience. The whole crowd shrieked and gasped as it happened.
 And then in true Seoul Searchers form, most of us had packed lunches and we needed a place to eat. What better place than this little bench inside the subway station to cram 12 kids around? And it was COLD! Brrr.. we ate fast and got out of there. I just love how we all congregate and the Koreans stare. Haha...

Another fun adventure in Seoul!! Love it!

Dan and I realized that it's only about 4 months until we leave Korea. Wow. That is going to go fast. So with how much Dan works we knew we needed to start doing some of our 'things to do before we leave Korea' soon, or we'll run out of time. So here is my bucket list, to which Dan may add a few things :)

Korean Folk Village in Suwon
Seoul Land (we had a blast there with the boys so we want to go one more time)
Nami Island (this time without the 3 hour each way drive and torrential downpour, hopefully)
Mt. Seorak
Seodaemun Prison History Museum
Get a painted Kimchi Pot
Damyang Bamboo forest

And of course there are other things like last time eating at Korean restaurants that we love, but these are the adventures I want to have before we leave. Can't wait :)

I haven't posted in awhile because the cold winter has kept us from doing very much, and if we have gone out it has been somewhere that I've already blogged about. More adventures will come, i promise, as things warm up and we start tackling our "Things to do before we leave Korea" bucket list.

But the good news is that we have been permitted to curtial our assignment by 30 days and move in July instead of August! This is GREAT news because we will be able to get in country before the schools start in Colorado, which makes the transition a bit easier for Cade. So as of now our exit date is July 17th, give or take a few days!!! We have a realtor and are beginning to look at houses, and I have to say that I am ecstatic at the thought of having a back yard and some space to let these boys run!!!