Into the Woods

Here is a scene of Teresa playing Jack's mom

The Circus!

We were lucky enough to be treated to a night at the circus by my parents (Thanks!). We all had a lot of fun! I know, two pictures is pathetic, but these are the cutest and best pictures I have.

Yah!

Teresa is at the airport ready to board her flight HOME! We are very excited for her to come home, we've missed her. She is glad to be coming home, but sad to be leaving. She had a really fantastic time.

I'll try and update more, I completely redid her room while she was gone, so I'll have to get some pics up of that too. For now I need my rest, I get to go get them at LAX tomorrow!

Teresa's Sunday

We heard a bit from Teresa today, she was asking about what we had been up to and about Lady.

This is a picture of Nathan after coming in from playing.
We were teasing him he had dirt pants on. He wanted me to send it to sissy

Lady figured out how to get under Teresa's bed. Does she look like she misses her?

She found out one of the other students, Celia, was also with a family that didn't speak English. It sounded like a few of the families went to the baseball game.

Then we talked again as she was getting ready for her Monday. It was orientation with all the students from the different countries. At 6 am this morning I sent her bedtime hugs and she said she had a really great day, and she got to do some shopping.

Teresa's Saturday

We heard a bit from her last night, she sent a text to Nathan while she was eating lunch to say good-night to him.

Later we got a text and it said "I Love Seoul!" She said it started raining and they bought her a cute umbrella. They are staying in a hotel there where they can see a sea. They were showing her and used the word parasailing. One text said, they know the word "parasailing" but not "dry". They said the sea is very dirty, but it looked nice from afar. (after looking at a map, it looks like it might be a big river)

I told her she couldn't stay, that she'd have to eventually come home. But I'm glad she was is seeing some wonderful things.

The family took her to a fashion show in Seoul. She said it was fancy and crazy. She is enjoying the food. Her comment was, it's really good if you eat it right. She'll have to elaborate on that later. This was funny, so I'm going to quote her "...I have not once been hungry. These people wash down their food with more food, my appetite is considered small." She plans to make some Korean food for us when she gets home.

Our last chat it was Sunday for her, she had just finished roman for breakfast and was getting ready for, what her family called, an American day. That means chicken and pizza and baseball. They wanted her to have a day that felt a little more like home. That's very sweet of them! She said Saturday was very Korean. We'll have to wait until our tomorrow after 4 pm to hear how her Sunday went.

Our communication spans from 4 pm our time to about 11 pm our time. We might not hear as much from her come Monday. That will begin her adventures with all the students together. This first weekend was to spend time with the host families, after this they will only see them in the evenings.

Here's a picture of the city I found

Did you know you are considered to be one, when you are born? And after the new year you can say you are the next year older.

Teresa's travels Day 1 and 2,

I drove Teresa and 3 of the other girls down to LAX Thursday (Aug. 6th). There they joined the other half of the group and checked in. They boarded their plane about 12:15 and were to land in Incheon Airport Friday August 7th a bit after 5 pm their time. The Bucheon sister city group picked them up from the airport and took them to meet their host families.

Isn't she so cute!

She sent me a text on her Friday late(6 am our time). They weren't good...her family didn't speak English and she had puked her guts out. But things got better. I was able to text back and forth with her on her Saturday morning(her 5 am) and she was feeling better, just nervous about spending a whole weekend with a family who does not speak English. Later we talked(text) again and she told me a bit about what she had seen. She said it's beautiful and fascinating.

• There are hundreds of tall apartment buildings, the one she is in is 20 stories.
• There are hills covered in super green trees (she compared them to the Cayman Islands)
• She said the commercials are CRAZY! We don't exaggerate Korea because it doesn't get any weirder
• There are no traffic laws as far as she can tell, but they get around just fine
• And they all back in the parking spaces
• Oh, and the paper money is beautiful and elegant (she's already put some away to add to her coin/money collection)

When I last talked to her she was packing a few things to spend the night in Seoul, Korea with her host family and one of the other students and their host family. I'm guessing they will see some sights and then Sunday they are going to go see a baseball game. She was still a little nervous, but feeling much better about the weekend. She plans to teach her family some English and learn some Korean.

Did you know...

One American Dollar is about 1165 won(Korea's currency)

It's been a year...

                                                              That was then

                                   

This is Now!                                

Dinosaurs?

Yes, the second graders have brought back the dinosaurs! Nathan chose the velociraptor to do a report and model on. He did a great job! He had a vision, and I just helped him figure out what would work best. Most of his dino is paper mache.

A small balloon for the head and then a bigger balloon for the body.

It's all coming together now

Here is the finished product, he wanted lots of feathers

And now at Open House on display with his report, some bones, and a
little paleontologist, Nathan

I had to add these next two photos as well. We were at a birthday party and Nathan spun that wheel and won 1000 tickets. He was very excited! He was also pretty excited to be tall enough to drive the big go karts :)

Aren't these two so cute! This is after our fantastic Mother's Day at Marvel Universe Live 

Emma Katherine

Congrats to James and Amanda on their baby girl! I love that she was born May 1st. She is the second granddaughter born on my side of the family and they are almost 17 years apart. My first niece on this side, well, biological anyway.

Teresa says they'll be instant buddies. I think they bonded over poop today

Nathan was happy just looking this time. And Owen was tired. I'll have to get the boys with her later.

Mary Poppins

Here is Teresa singing her song in the play.

And here's a picture someone took since you can't see her face very well because of the spotlight

We googled how to do old make-up. She looked awesome!

Camp KEEP in a whole new light

If you aren't familiar, camp KEEP is a camp on the coast where the 6th graders go for 5 days. After you've been most kids long for the day they can go back as a counselor. Teresa got that chance last week. They loved her and asked her to come next year. It was a lot of responsibility, but she had a lot of fun with some great memories.

As you can see the weather was beautiful

She let her girls paint her face, and they did the whole thing

A little R&R during counselor free time(after a nice shower)

Kylee, Monserat, and Teresa

Sam

Trista

Faere

Madison

Kaitlin A

Kaitlin H

Teresa and Ally