HFC Chuseok Event 2013... who will be the King and Queen?

Chuseok (Korean: 추석),^[1] originally known as hangawi (한가위, from archaic Korean for "the great middle (of autumn)"), is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, it is held around the AutumnEquinox. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food such as songpyeon and rice wines such as sindoju and dongdongju.

In honor of this celebration FLIK company puts together a fashion show where they ask Foreigners to dress in traditional Korean Hanboks.  Blake and I were asked to model... little did we know that we would be asked to wear these... 

We had to show up the night before for a dress rehearsal and then get their early on the day of to get dressed, get make-up and hair done.  Here is Blake with his undergarments... doesn't he look so happy.

Koreans use these really hair pins to decorate their hair.  I asked the lady that brought all the clothes (she has a hanbok store) how much these are... and she said they range from low hundreds to high hundreds of dollars... 

Here are some hand made shoes for the little girl in the show.  I will get a pair of these for me before 

We had no idea what we were going to dress up as... we definitely did not expect to be King and Queen of the night... 

Here we are... all the models waiting to take the cat walk...

Some of the people thought the below boy was Pierce... but it is not.  He name is Wesley but he looked very similar to Pierce.  They had similar mannerisms and Wesley is 10 so there were so many differences.

They had some performances before the models...

The Kids took the stage first.

Then the adults.

These two were to represent brides...

The lady in yellow was to represent a dancer (similar to our US flapper)

This couple was to represent a King and Queen on a normal day.

This couple was to represent to King and Queen at a royal happening.

We barely fit on stage with our head dress (which cost about 10,000 USD)...

Everyone back out for one last bow.

Blake and I felt like celebrities after the event.... everyone wanted to take pics with us (as the King and Queen).

It was a fun night and definitely added some great memories to those that we already hold so dear to in our life here in Korea.

Video of the King and Queen on our first debut... 

Anna and Bailey

My typical blog entry usually pertains to my immediate family day in and day outs.  However today... I could not wait any longer to share these two sweet precious girls... my nieces Anna and Bailey... I am one blessed Aunt (and Uncle and cousin)... We miss them so.

The Big Dawg this year!

Our big 1st grader... called year 2 here in Korea.  We are in denial (still even in Jan) that Pierce is old enough for 1st grade.  We are so proud of him in so many ways and keeps making us prouder.  God has truly blessed us with one smart, sweet, lovable, independent, and charismatic little man.

So happy to be going to Year 2.

Again this year Pierce has Mr. Milford for the composition Year 1/Year 2 class.  Last year he was in year one so he was the baby of the group and now he is the "big dawg" and so happy to be the big kid. He and another good friend named Bodhi got to stay in Mr. Milfords class.  Last year I had gone to the head master and wanted to request that Pierce stay in Mr. Milfords class bc of how well it worked out that year and how well Pierce excelled in his class.  I do like the other teachers but I did not know how Pierce would do in their class and we all knew that Pierce was happy, settled and succeeding in his current class.  So as I am talking to the Head Master he says "hold on let me check where Pierce is"... I wait while he reads the list and tells me while smiling "this is easy... he is already in Mr. Milford's class"... Meeting dismissed.... Praise you God.  

Later Mr. Milford came to talk to me (after he learned that I went to the Head Master) and said "I just want you to know that I asked for Pierce before you asked for me"... I wanted to hug the man but I didn't (should have) and my heart was about to leap out of my chest... Don't you just love people that love your children (and knowing where we have been and the trials we had in Singapore... this was a huge blessing).  So happy for Pierce... and just to give you a heads up... this year has been as great as we expected and still love Mr. Milford.