It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...Brrrr

Tree is up, apartment is decorated.

This year I made some ornaments for the tree at pottery. Jack and Molly both have stars on the tree spelling out their names...
and of course we added the ornaments from China and the ones from Europe.
It's a truly international tree this year.

Roxie... the new addition

We finally did it... a new addition to the Pearse family.

Roxie the Daewoo Rezzo!

She is blue and will be ready for us on Wednesday... all things going well.

We took our first road trip on Saturday to Songtan with the help of Jools the GPS.
I'm not sure Jools really knew where she was going though.  We tested her out by missing the exit a couple of times, just to keep her on her toes.
We made it up and back in one piece... though we had the full experience with horrible traffic all the way back to Daejeon.
I must practice my reverse parking now... it is backwards and opposite and I think I will need some major practice pulling in right to the curb. Try it Aussie folks- remember steering wheel is on the left side of the car :-)

Meeting with Santa

Santa dropped by O-Jung Dong today.

Molly spend the morning getting prepared by making some Christmas goodies for her bedroom door. She made her first paper chain and some angels, stars and Christmas trees for her door.

Then we went to the TCIS Christmas Bazaar- this is an event to raise money for the OCK's. (The mission kids whose parents live and work overseas as missionary's and who stay on campus all year and usually don't see their parents.) We raise money for them to travel or do something nice for Christmas as often it is a lonely time.
Our kids made snow domes, frosted cookies, made hair ribbons, did face painting, bought second hand puzzles and games and books.

Then we went to have supper with and see Santa, to ask him about our Christmas wishes. Both Molly and Jack had written lists for Santa and were very sweet talking with him.
This area in the cafeteria has a lovely old stone fireplace which we only use for this event. The mothers decorate the cafeteria and we sit down for a proper hot Christmas dinner with real tableclothes and linen. Meanwhile, all the kids want to do is check out Santa.

Jack is still pretty convinced this is the real Santa.

So now begins the long wait for Christmas for Jack and Molly. Molly perhaps thought she might be getting her presents tomorrow, so we had a long and detailed conversation (with MANY questions) about the Elves, North Pole,etc... Let's see how many more times she will ask before Christmas is here.

Pots on the wheel

Last night at pottery I wasn't feeling particularly inspired.
I finished glazing and painting some Christmas ornaments and then had a bit of spare time. (Do you know what the red stars will spell?)

I looked through pottery magazines for inspiration and with 30 minutes of our lesson left I decided to try the wheel again.
Here are the 3 pots I made. The first one turned out suprisingly well (below on the left) and the teacher insisted I have another piece of clay to make another one. I think she was a bit surprised really.

My focus was on making a deeper pot and learning how to control the thickness of the base and sides of a deeper pot so the top did not become too thin.
I was pretty chuffed with how they turned out. The second one is a bit wobbly, but I really like the shape of the top of it (on the right above)
The little one was to use up the last of the blob of clay on the wheel. It wasn't too shabby either! (So my pots will not go onto the pottery wall of shame this week)
Next week I have to tidy up the base of each one (still have to work on that part)

Let's hope they don't crack like some of my last ones ;(  Fingers crossed!

Fall colors in Busan

This weekend we had a free weekend, so decided to head to Busan to see some mountains and colors.
We could not have picked a better weekend! The KTX now only takes 1.5 hours to Busan making it seem closer for a weekend.

We enjoyed a hike and the mountains looked like a patchwork quilt - it was amazing.

The weather was so nice we spent a couple of hours at the beach.

Today we went to the world's largest department store...
this store includes an ice skating rink, several movie theatres and a really nice park on the top floor.

We had a really nice relaxing weekend!

TED talk- 7 ways games reward the brain

This video has some interesting ideas and concepts.
Undeniably gaming is here to stay and a MASSIVE part of youth culture.
I think we are going to have to work out a way to coexist with it in a balanced, life giving way.

Sunny days in Fall

This is a lovely spot close to us where there are lovely trees and a nice playground.

We spent Sunday afternoon fooling around on the equipment and playing hide and seek.

We are trying to make the most of every sunny day!

Halloween

This year we celebrated Halloween around the campus on Friday night.
Staff offer to situate themselves in different places on campus, we get a map and the kids wander around and rake in the candy.

This year we set up a spooky tunnel with mats that the kids had to come through to get the treats... some made it and some did not... it was perhaps a bit dark and long- but it was fun.

Molly found another little Bella during the night.

We made some marshmallow ghosties.

Jack went as a ninja and Molly as Princess Bella.
Jack found Moses and a Knight along the way!

Molly and I stole a few lovely, cuddly moments together.

...and then Molly made me laugh with these glasses!