Happy Valentine's Day!

Emily and Hannah were quite into the spirit of Valentine's Day this year, which made it fun. We spent the weeks going into Valentine's Day making crafts- finger painting, coloring pictures of cupid, even making handmade cards to send to grandparents. The girls loved it! They were even more excited when their teachers announced that they would be doing small Valentine's Day parties. A quick call to Nana produced two boxes of character themed valentines to hand out to classmates.

Valentine's Day is quite popular here, everything is decorated pink and red and hearts start to appear on everything. The grocery store even had a large section with candy and small trinkets of affection. As an interesting twist, Valentine's Day here is when the WOMEN give to the MEN. How's that for a change? Exactly one month later on March 14th they celebrate White Day, when the men give to the women. As big as Valentine's Day is here, White Day is even bigger!

We volunteered to make sugar cookies and frosting for the girls' parties. Sugar cookies aren't huge here, and none of the kids had ever made them (minus Jake- Hannah's best friend and fellow Nursery class American). I thought it would be fun to have the girls help make the cookies, and then send it all to school for the kids to decorate. Koreans don't bake a ton. Partly because your average Korea doesn't have an oven in their home. Partly because they just don't bake as much as we do. Might explain why they are all tiny. . .  The girls helped me roll out all the dough and make two dozen heart shaped cookies. We made pink frosting and sent in red sprinkles. It turned out to be quite the cultural event. The kids in the classes were not quite sure what to do with it. One boy was shocked when Emily licked her knife. The teacher told him it was ok and he gingerly followed suite- then loudly proclaimed "GOOD!"

I sent the girls with a valentine for each child in their class and a small goody bag of treats. Everyone else reciprocated and you would not believe the load the girls brought home. You would have though we had celebrated Halloween all over again! The girls loved it and are already talking about next year!

Valentine's Day itself was pretty mellow in comparison. We started with a pan of warm pumpkin cinnamon rolls. They were devoured with impressive speed. Then we drove out to Chinhae to the Navy base and sat in nasty traffic going both ways. We did visit a Nike Employee Store once we returned home and enjoyed picking up some new shoes (one pair for everyone!) at steep discounts. Then the babysitter came and Tyler and I went out on a date. The dinner was lame- bad food, busy restaurant. Thankfully we stopped at Baskin Robbins on the way home, which perfectly redeemed the evening. 

Emily diligently working on her cards. She's quite good with her printing now. I just gave her a class list and she did the rest. She studied all the cards with painstaking detail to decide who would like what. 

Hannah helping with treat bags. She was hoping for leftovers- she lucked out!

Emily rolling the dough. Incidentally this is the BEST rolling pin ever. Non-stick, perfect weight. I think I am in love. . . .

Hannah is passionate about everything she does- and does it all with glee. Including cookie making, as illustrated by the face laden with powdered sugar.