Lew's Dol

Not a good picture, but this is the gold ring we got Lew with birthday money. It's very typical to get rings like this for the first birthday. Parents use the rings to pay for college.














Playing with friends and Grandma.

Some items on display about Korea and Lew's immigration. Also, we had pictures out from our Korea trip and from what his foster mother gave him.

Lew's cake and cupcakes made by my friend, Tiece. She has a blog if you want to see it of her awesome cakes: Tiece of Cake is the title. Just search for it. She's a new stay at home mom and is doing cakes to raise a little money. She's all booked until Spring time.

Tiece took different designs in the table cloth and put them on each corner of the top.

This was my outfit that my mother's friend gave me when I was little. Lew's foster mother gave Audrey one, but it was a little too big for her, so we just put her in this. Hopefully she'll fit into the other one soon as well! But it was crazy, the one she has on in this picture has decorations that match EXACTLY the decorations on Lew's outfit!! It was amazing!

Like I said, in Korea, the first birthday is a big deal. Lew had his hanbok (special outfit) on. He wouldn't wear the hat for very long. He was super cute. Here he is eating his favorite things: kimchi and cake.

Hanging out with Daddy.

This is the food we had: Top Row: turnip kimchi, cabbage kimchi. Bottom Row: Beef Bulgogi (sweeter beef - very tender and good over rice), Jopche (not sure of the spelling on that one - pork with noodles - a little tiny bit spicy, and then some super super spicy squid dish that was really hot, but very good. We also had seaweed soup for people to try. A lot of people liked it! People were awesome and tried a lot of new things. I was pleased about that. They were great and the majority I talked to liked what they tried!

This is what we called the more normal table. It had a good old fashioned Dutch staple: ham buns. My mother in law graciously made 40 of them!!! All but 4 went! They were a hit - especially to people who didn't want to try the other food. In the middle are Whale Food (Audrey's favorite in Korea), Shrimp Puffs (Lew's former favorite), and sweet potato chips. They are not salty, they are sweet. Quite good. Also, my mother-in-law made a great dip with cream cheese and a relish she got at Harry and David which is to the far right. Above that are wasabi (spelling?) peas. They are tasty, but spicy. I think there's like a teaspoon left of the dip, and after this, I am going to go eat it. That was served with regular old, tortilla chips. To the far left were some Korean pears that my mother adores. My sister-in-law graciously cut them up for me. I couldn't have pulled it off without their help!!! My sister-in-law also made the goody-bags. The kids loved them!

Well, that was it! We had a ton of people and it was a blast! The kids either played in Audrey's room or downstairs. They were all really well behaved - at least as far as I know, people may have been scared to tell me. :)

Sorry....sorry!

So it's been a LONG Time! Sorry about that. Lew is 1 today!!! Can you believe it? Well here are a few updates, and then the fun stuff: Our car was totaled. We had to get a "new to us" one. Todd searched and searched and finally found the exact car for us: 1997 Acura. The AUSA I used to work with said, "You total your car and get a better one!" I still miss the stick shift and the AWD and my little Subaru in general - first car without a name. Hmmm...we need to name this one! Any suggestions? Anyway, even though it's a 1997, it is a sweet car that I really don't deserve. Todd was attempting to use love and logic on me and get a really old minivan, but he was assuaged by his father telling him to leave the logic out of it. :) Gotta love my father-in-law! Come to think of it, I think he sticks up for me more than my parents do. They usually end a conversation with, "Poor Todd." :) Other updates: Lew is huge. I looked back at Audrey's 1 yr. appointment card and she was 19lbs. Lew is over 23. My friend's daughter is 20 months and weighs 26. He's eating Cheerios right now and is super cute. He woke up really happy this morning - oh by the way, he's sleeping thought he night now. Very awesome! Everyone is happy. He pseudo woke up today at 6, but since he's fully bonded to me now, I can let him just cry it out. Beautiful thing. I think he was sleeping, though. Audrey used to do that - she still does: you think she's awake (especially when she walks into your room), but alas, she's sleeping. That's why she stayed in her crib for a SUPER long time. Let's see...what else? Oh yeah, we couldn't go to CT for Christmas so my parents and my brother and sister came here! It was awesome! We had our first Christmas tree ever. We're never here, so we never get a tree. I just put it outside two weeks ago. I just didn't want to take it down. After vacuuming up all the pine needles, my vacuum smells really good every time I run it. I love it. I love to clean my house anyway, but now it also smells good too!! I think that's all the updates to get us to this weekend where Lew had his big birthday party.

I'm going to post again so I can post pictures of Lew's 1st (and only) birthday party. It will be a lengthy story, so I figured I'd start with what everyone missed and then get back into the swing of things.