Easter Weekend

We headed north to celebrate Easter with Justin's side of the family. We always enjoy our get togethers with them. We decided to break up the 5 hour drive each way and spend the night. We enjoyed our gathering at Aunt Sharon's, our night in the hotel, and Easter service at Sharon's church. After church on Sunday, we headed to Eau Claire to spend time with Dennis and Judy and kids. The kids always enjoy playing together even with the age gap.

The Easter Bunny found the kids in the hotel and left a surprise for each of them.

Outside St. Michael's (Sharon's Church) Easter morning

After a busy week, which included ALCS Spring Concert, Good Friday service, the insurance agent assessing hail damage (which includes needing a new roof, gutters, window casings, etc) and lots of running around then a trip to Minnesota, we were glad the kids had Monday off of school!

Korean Culture Day

Justin working hard on his Hanji box

We attended Korean Culture Day which was put together by a college aged Korean adoptee and several friends from the UW Madison adoption group. The adults learned how to make Hanji boxes (decorative boxes made from special paper) and heard a panel of older Korean adoptees (college age or just graduated) share of their adoption experience followed by insight from a few of their adoptive parents. After the panels, we joined the children in learning how to make Mandoo (Korean Dumplings or Potstickers).

Panel of college age Korean adoptees share their experience of growing up, traveling back to Korea, and some meeting birth parents

Drum Playing

The finale was performances put on by the kids (they showed us different things they learned that day.) and then a few of the college helpers shared some of their talents as well. My favorite was a break dancing routine. The kids LOVED it and couldn't take their eyes off of the guy performing.

The younger kids enjoyed Korean Story time, song & dance time, and making a Korean Chonggo drum. Ben's group learned another type of Korean drum dance, participated in Korean follow-along dance videos, learned some beginning Korean phrases, and learned how to write their original Korean name. We all had a blast. After a very enjoyable morning, we headed to Panera with our friends, the Weber family, for a delicious lunch before they headed back to Milwaukee.

Happy Birthday Ben!

8 years ago a little boy was born in Seoul, South Korea. God created him knowing that the woman who grew him inside her for 9 months would not be able to care for him. He also knew that half way around the world, a man and woman were longing to have a child. God knew that that little boy would be our son and that we would be his parents. We are so incredibly blessed to have him in our lives. We thank God that his birth mother chose life even knowing that she would not be able to raise him. Our little boy, who arrived in our arms when he was only 7 1/2 months old, is now 8 years old. He is a loving, kind, and smart boy who loves basketball, his brother and sister, and most of all, loves the Lord!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Ben's birthday party

This year we told the kids that we were going to let them help plan their birthday party. We have a small budget and they would be able to help decide what they would like, as long as it fit in the budget. Anything left over, they could have. Ben took to this immediately when his birthday was coming close. He was excited to help find a fun, yet inexpensive way to celebrate. He thought of ideas like having friends over to play the Wii (fun, yet hard to do with more than 2 or 3 people) or have friends over to play outside (another great idea, but hard to do since weather in April is really unpredictable. I gave him the option of going to an Open Swim at the place they have swim lessons. We have several open swim passes that we received when we signed the kids up for lessons.

So, on April 7, along with lots of friends, we headed to swim to celebrate Ben's birthday. We were really fortunate to have the entire place to ourselves. The kids swam then enjoyed some pizza and cupcakes for dessert.

Ian loves the water

Ben is having a great time with his friends!

Time to open presents!

Everyone had a great time!

Hail

What sounded like an attack on our house, turned out to be golf ball size hail. Within minutes, the streets and grass were covered with hail.

It was amazing to see the roads covered with the ice balls. Justin and I watched in awe as the thunder of hail hit our house, garage, and windows. Surprisingly, the kids were so tired that none of them woke up!

We found out that because of all the hail, we will need a new roof, window casings on several windows, and new gutters.

Maple Syrup Farm

The Sugar Bush (aka Maple Syrup Farm)

Grandpa shows the boys the lines that go from the tree to tree and eventually takes the sap to the holding tanks before turning it into syrup

Tasting the sweet watery sap that comes from the lines

Looks like a milk tank, but it actually holds the syrup

Cami takes a peek then poses for the picture

The "kitchen" where the cooking down of the sap takes place before it becomes the delicious syrup we put on our waffles and pancakes

A boy and his bug

While at Target today, Ian picked out a special lunch. We don't normally purchase Lunchables, however, because I had a coupon and they were on sale, I gave in to his request. He picked out the pizza pack (I vetoed the chicken nugget one). He was excited to make and eat his cheese pizzas for lunch! He was full after 2 and made a special one for his ladybug friend. I did not realize this until I was about to throw it away. He screamed with excitement, "Mommy, my ladybug friend is eating that" I was confused until I found the ladybug buried under a pile of cheese. I pushed the cheese aside and the ladybug walked around the pizza crust and "ate" the food. Ian was VERY proud to have shared his food with his friend. Who am I to argue with that???