Day 8: Oops, forgot to do something today

So I forgot today. I'm sure there is a pin about spending time with kids or something. Mornings I am not very motivated, then all of a sudden it is nap time. I could tell this has been a great playing week, toys every where. But today we had to put away our things so that you could get to the surfaces for tomorrow when Chona comes. She is our cleaning lady and she does a fantastic job. It is really nice to have a clean home every.single.week. Today was the worst clean up before the maid comes day but we are getting better at putting our things in there proper places.
And now off to dreamland, well after I watch a couple episodes of Downton Abbey.

Day 7: Ice cream bon bons

I must have a thing for bon bons lately but I also am not patient enough to get the chocolate just right. Maybe it is my microwave or maybe it is just me. Anyways I made ice cream bon bons (not just mint chocolate chip like the recipe calls for and I didn't make my ice cream, bought it).

Just imagine a frozen ice cream ball with dollops of chocolate since I didn't get it to melt right. I guess the double boiler will have to be my tool for melting chocolates. And maybe I will do a post on recipes from pinterest I've already tried and will make again.

Day 6: dry erase "boards"

Today's pinterest was brought to me by a useless link to "how to pin". The picture example was a lot cuter than the ones my friend and I made (maybe it was because theirs had way cuter duck tape) but the girls loved them. Take sheet protectors and put duckt tape all around to firm them up. We went another step and added a piece of cardstock in the sheet before taping up. The girls started using them as menus and the possibilites starting coming to my head. Cuter duck tape is on the list of needs and maybe some cuter paper to stick inside. My girls and I love to play restaurant in the summer for our lunch so these will come in handy for the waitress:).

Day 5: Mini Chocolate Bar Mug cakes

I've been intrigued by all the mug cakes I've seen on pinterest lately. After reading reviews for several, I picked a recipe to try out that did not have eggs (several of the reviews said that the cake was too eggy). This recipe called for candy bars to be added but I opted out of it. Okay really I just forgot to get out the candy.
mug cake

ingredients all in a mug

all mixed and ready for the microwave

ready to eat

So it was okay, maybe I cooked it a little too long. But it is great for a chocolate cakey fix. And the portion control is really nice. I think I will make it again and try not to cook it as long.

Day 4: Soft pretzels and learning how to pin from website to pinterest

So today was a busy day. Shopping, out to lunch and finished the evening by watching my friend's kids while they went out on a date (we've started a babysitting swap but more about that another day). All day I wondered to myself what was I going to make from pinterest. The only thing that reallly caught my eye was soft pretzel bites. I already have a great recipe for soft pretzels so I just went with that recipe and made bites, regular pretzels and pretzel dogs. I also made a delicious cheese sauce to dip the pretzels in. So today I was still inspired by pinterest even if I didn't exactly follow a pin.

My biggest pinterest accomplishment today was figuring out how to pin a dress and cute jacket from downeast to pinterest. I figured it out, hurray for me! And now I need to talk myself into getting the dress and jacket.

Day 3: cinnamon and sugar popcorn

Friday nights are our movie night(movie this week was My Neighbor Tortoro which we all enjoyed) and I usually make popcorn. Tonight I decided to try cinnamon and sugar popcorn. Basically you are adding cinnamon and sugar to your popcorn. It was tasty but I needed to add butter to help the sugar stick. I did like it enough to make it again and maybe next time I will make it in the microwave in a brown paper bag.

Day 2: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Balls

Today I decided to try something I had been staring at for a while, chocolate peanut butter pretzel balls (recipe from make happy). Sophie was my helper and Elanor our photographer.

These turned out okay, definately not worth the work and will not be made again. My chocolate was uncooperative and didn't melt properly, that was me and not the recipe. I think we had too many pretzels and truthfully it was a sticky mess balling them up. Next time if I want these flavors I will get a spoon of peanut butter and handfuls of chocolate chips and pretzels. Or I will make bukeye pretzel bites which I would have made last night if I had the right kind of pretzels.

PS. As I type this blog, Charlotte has changed the name she calls Sophie. She use to say "Bedgie" and now it is "So phie". How sad, maybe I can still get a recording of her saying Bedgie.

Day 1: Aquariums

Today's craft is brought to us by enchanted learning. Elanor and I made an aquarium.

first Elanor painted a plate blue

I drew some fish, plants and Elanor cut them out

Now it is time to decorate the animals

Glue everything in place

TaDa...an aquarium

I wanted us to make an aquarium so I could post about our recent trip to the COEX Aquarium in Seoul. We (mostly Andrew since he is the driver) were adventurous and drove to Seoul to the COEX Mall where there is a pretty awesome aquarium along with a lot of other things. This place was huge and parking is interesting to say the least. We had a little late start so we arrived around lunch time; first stop was lunch. Andrew found a Korean restaurant that had something Sophie said she would eat.

Sophie eating rice with chopsticks. This is fried pork chop with rice, corn and cabbage salad. She ate around the brown sauce on the chop:).

waiting for our food

Still waiting

This picture cracks me up. Look at that grin.

Our lunch ended up being 2 of the fried pork, mandu (korean dumplings) and kimchi fried rice which is becoming one of my favorite dishes.

After lunch we headed into the aquarium. It was a lot of fun.

we saw lots of sharks

Our favorite was the manatee. It was fun watching them eat and move around.

Touching starfish

holding a starfish

pretending to be in a shark

silly face

crazy fish tanks

40 day challenge of 2012

Last year I challenged myself to blog for 40 days during lent. This year I am going to add a little bit more of a challenge...40 days of blogging of creations I made from pinterest. If you don't know what pinterest is, sham on you. Just kidding, look it up. For me it is a place to find great ideas for recipes, crafts, sewing, etc and then find them easily.
Back to my challenge, I have found lots of great ideas on pinterest and so I am challenging myself to do them. 40 days worth. And to blog about it, good luck to me. You will see a range of recipes and crafts. Children's science experiments and sewing projects.
Let the fun begin.

Post, schmost

I keep meaning to update the blog but taking pictures on the phone and uploading straight to facebook has been so quick and easy. Blogging takes more time and energy. Things here are going. We've had good days and bad. Days that we wonder what the heck are we doing here and unfortunately those have out numbered the good. Look for some happy posts of fun things we've done and maybe some whinny posts of what we wished life was like here.
The plus...Andrew's office is less than 10 minutes away. The negative...he is always working, has weekly phone calls to the states at crazy hours and it is cold outside (I know this one will go away soon enough).
The plus...Sophie is getting some school testing done and the results should come soon. The negative...Elanor is b.o.r.e.d and I am not the best teacher. I go back and forth with wanting to put her in school. Korean preschools are 5 days a week from 9/9:30-2:30ish. Long day.
The plus...the outdoor market. Fun place to see and buy the best strawberries. I can't wait until the spring when they are even more plentiful and cheaper for freezer jam. The negative...language barrier. I am not good with languages and this one is hard. I just have to think in baby steps.

Okay, that feels a little better. There are more things but that is enough for today. I just needed to get some of that off my chest