Happy Children's Day!

May 5th of every year is a huge deal in Korea- it is the annual celebration of children, called "orininal" which is quite literally Children's Day. It is a national holiday and both children and parent alike have the day off school and work. Parents present children with gifts and then spend the day out and about doing things as a family. In Busan the two popular destinations (at least via world of mouth) were the aquarium and the Children's Park. For us, this mean to the two areas of the city to be avoided at all costs. The Korean group mentality can be a bit daunting.

We decided to forgo the gift giving (I mean really, my kids need nothing more. Christmas and birthdays is plenty!) and instead asked the girls how they would like to celebrate. They had each had a celebration at at school the day before which roughly amounted to copious amounts of sweet and a pirates booty of gifts from other children. As an aside the common gift amongst children here is stationary supplies. Markers, crayons, pencils, pencil boxes. You would not believe the pile of this paraphernalia we have amassed. Suffice it to say we have more than enough school supplies to last all my current and future children through high school at least. Possibly even college. Possibly. The children decided that the best way to spend Children's Day would be a party at our house with their friends. This would include: cupcakes, playing, and going to the beach. Sounds easy enough to me!

So to celebrate Children's Day we invited over three families we are friends with. The end result was a magnificent Children's Day. One that cost far less than the average Children's Day, and one that was much enjoyed by both children and parents. Incidentally I tend to think that every day is a bit of a children's day for us around here!

The much requested cupcakes. 

Liberal amounts of dress up were played. Even the little one now knows how to get in on the fun. 

After a nice lunch (simple, sandwiches, fruit, chips) we headed down to the beach for our first real beach trip of the season. Maddie wasn't so sure about the sand. . . . I'm sure she will come around and be eating fistfuls before we know it.

Macyn and McKenna

Nobody came with intentions of swimming, yet in no time at all many little girls were stripped down to next to nothing at all splashing in the cold waves.

Enjoying a cookie from a stranger. Yeah, so wouldn't let her eat that in the US! She gets generous amounts of free food here, though. Good thing, too, she's quite an eater!

Hannah and her best buddy Jake. 

Cute Susie. And half naked Macyn.

Not really sure what the game here was.

Maddie and her best friend Sonia. Sonia is Susie's mom and is a total baby whisperer. Seriously kids just love her. They are from Boston. Maddie's other best friends are prominently pictured as well: blankie and thumb. It's a great combo for her!

Soju the water dog. I had no idea how much I missed being a dog owner until we hung out with Soju. Our cat is cool, but this dog could spend all day chasing balls into the ocean. Seriously cool.

Emily also realized how much she misses having a dog. She keeps asking for a Soju. I used to say big dogs don't like apartments. Soju belongs to her teacher who lives in a much smaller apartment than ours. So there went that argument, and Emily is sharp enough to quickly point out my flawed logic.

CJ. This kid is a riot. He always has us cracking up. And I don't think I have a single picture of this guy not doing some crazy pose.

Finally our fantastic friends the Larsens (in town from Colorado visiting her mom). They braved Children's Day traffic to join us for some beach time. I'm not sure they found it worth the adventure, but we had fun seeing them, and the kids seemed to enjoy the underwear sand play as well. We knew Will and Kelley in San Diego when we were all single. They were married 1 week before us. Tyler went to their ceremony at the temple (I went to the reception later with him) and came home to tell me about the man who sealed them (AKA married them). He told me how longwinded this guy was and how he hoped he wasn't the one who would seal us a week later. Lo and behold we show up at the temple and meet our sealer and who should it be? Yup, the same kind (but a bit longwinded) gentleman. The moral of the story? God, too, has a sense of humor. And isn't afraid to use it! Almost seven years later we still snicker at this story.

We took our three sandy, tired kids home at the end of a very busy, fun day. All in all I dare say it was the perfect Children's Day! I would venture to say next year will be a repeat of this year. Why mess with a great thing?!