4th of July in Korea...

4th of July is always a lot of fun but also a good reminder to our family how thankful we are to be Americans.  Although we have been out of America now going on 5 years we are so thankful and proud to carry an American passport and know that we have a country to call home.  We just love Red, White and Blue and got a group of friends together (some from America and some from other countries) to celebrate!

Here is a picture of Pierce and Kate (I think Kate has filled in the role of Violet in Singapore... these two are cute together).

Where the party happened... at X block in the foreigners compound.  A great place for the kids to play, a BBQ pit for grilling and some seating for the adults.

The men in charge... but I think my man just did a lot of talking and he was like the dog of the party... he ate the hotdogs that fell off the grill so they would not go to waste... :-)

Pierce meeting a new friend (this family just got here last week and this boy will be in Pierce's class next year).

He found some pom poms... oh no... Daddy told him to put those down... 

 

Meredith the hostess with the mostess had her mom here with her and she is a principal and had the great idea to let the kids make their own ice cream... how was this going to work... well it did... not sure of all the ingredients really but put some sugar, vanilla and milk in a small ziploc which then goes into a larger ziploc that has ice and lots of salt and the kids shake shake shake and throw and throw and within 5 min you have homemade ice cream... and it tasted so good... it really worked.  Here Pierce and Andrew are tossing their bag... 

 

Now time for the "roasting of marshmallows"... And Pierce was happy to leave on his helmet bc he would eat and then go riding... come and eat a bit and then off again.  He always wanted to be ready for the action and downhill scooting.

It is dark now and it was time for the fireworks... Mr. Graham gave everyone the rules of fireworks... it was a serious moment. :-)

Even a team agreement that they understood... now we are ready.

Everyone got a sparkler... several sparklers... 

 

Even the moms... man look at that belly... this is the only blue or red shirt dress that somewhat still covered my body... buy wow... that is a belly... 

First Roman candle of the night... wonder what the security guards are going to say...

And the grand finale put them over the edge... we got cut off from fireworks after this one... but it was worth it.. the boys lined the fence with roman candles and lit them all... 

All the adults with sparklers... Pierce was the photographer but he cut me out of the picture on the right... oh well it is probably best that way... but you can see my sparkler :-)

And Blake was getting brave... at first he was hesitant on getting the fireworks going (we were not sure if we were allowed to do them) but towards the end he was getting into it... so he loaded a bottle full of like 50 sparklers and lit them all on fire... after it singed his arm hair in about 1.5 seconds this is where the bottle ended up... not such a great idea babe.

Another great night with new friends... Happy 4th everyone!

First cookout in Ulsan with friends...

We had our first cook-out here in Ulsan with new friends and it was so much fun.  The previous weekend there was a yard sale at the compound and there are a lot of people leaving so there were a lot of good finds... and here is one.  I had wanted one of these kid bike attachments in Singapore but they were too expensive so we never got one and we never really had the space to ride like we do now.  I had always thought this would be the perfect contraption for Pierce... and it has been a huge hit for our whole family... I think daddy likes it just as much.  Pierce can now stay up with us while riding bikes and can even take a break on the long rides.  So daddy had the great idea to bike to the cookout... I can't bike right now so I took the car.  Here are my boys ready for their ride.

We all finally made it to the compound safe and sound and the kids were off playing, the men were cooking and the ladies were chatting...and it was a bit chilly see all the pants and later we brought out the jackets.

Pierce of course found a gun that belonged to one of the big boys... 

 

Here are some of our new friends... they are all so sweet.... this by the way is a terrible SIDE pic of me and Blake was squatting when taking the pic (which is never that flattering) but I wanted you to see our new girl friends...

Annie's got a gun...

Pierce playing ball with the kids... but he kind of blends into the brick behind him.

Pierce after a couple of hours of playing wanted to go for another spin... so they took a joy ride around the block.

 

 

 

 

We have since then taken the bikes to the river and the boys rode for an hour and I walked... so much fun and good purchase for sure. 

Supper Club Singapore - August - National Day celebration...

I forget when it all started but my first supper club was The Supper Club Houston group with Lindsay, me, Alaina, Amanda, Jordan and Jessica (in order of picture below and Jordan & Jess are not in the picture) and all of our husbands... This group and our monthly supper clubs hold some of the fondest memories I have in Houston, TX... well I wanted to continue these memories here in Singapore (although with a different group.. I will always remember my first :-)).
We have a total of 6 couples in the Supper Club Singapore group... this group was naturally formed prior to this and adding a traditional supper ever month just seemed like the right thing... We had our first Supper Club Singapore (SCS) in August and Blake and I were the host. Since this month in Singapore is a big month to celebrate the countries birthday we decided to have a National Day bash at the BBQ pit.

We asked everyone to wear red and white and there were many festivities and activities planned for the evening.

Blake was suppose to wear this flag as he was the chef for the night....but they decided it might desecrate the flag so we tied it to a tree and let it flap in the wind... also everyone was greeted with a bear hug from me and tattoo in their desired location... Blake had his on his cheek and mine was on my bicep.

Our spread was hamburgers both beef and chicken satay, hot dogs (beef with Guinness and Mexican), tandoori chicken, chicken kabobs and lots of other stuff... yum yum.

After dinner we decided to play a friendly game of Taboo, females against the males. Oh it was so much fun and we really learned alot about our couples... and how well they liked each other... HE HE HE... and to let you know the FEMALES won.

After our friendly game (did I mention the females won)... we had fireworks... we were already told by security to keep it down so we decided to make more noises with poppers and screaming sparklers.

After fireworks we had dessert... Happy Birthday Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes....

And I had to add this pic bc soon we will have our youngest member... baby Unruh (the only Singaporean) to our group.

The boys...Toby, Blake, Travis, Justin, Jacob, and Jayme.

The girls....me, Jenn, Mel, Jess, Gillian and Jennifer had already left to relieve the babysitter.