The Sunday Update - Lots of Time Outdoors

This week has been fairly beautiful outside, so we spent as much time as we could outdoors.  I predict a lot of cold weather coming our way after all this strangely warm weather these days...so I need them to spend as much time outdoors as possible before we get stuck inside.  This was their last day before heading back to school.  We went for a walk late in the afternoon before the sun went down...

They're so silly.

The silhouette shots were just so adorable.

Collecting some "treasures."

Walking paths are everywhere here...

Beautiful.

The girls chatting it up as they walk along...

Running in the field!

Ri fell, and Tay helped her up and now they are running together...holding hands.  This is the sweetness they share...maybe not all the time, but it's moments like these that remind me how precious their relationship is.  Good to remember when they are fighting...

Daddy came and joined us at the end of our walk after work.

Fun times...

My little girl, enjoying the little things in life...jumping in puddles as the sun sets...beautiful.

Walking to school...leading the way...

...and my caboose.

There was a lot of playing indoors as well, though.  These two, in particular, have been really playing together a lot lately.

Meal times are messy, but it's so nice to see them all chowing down.

They are playing the boxcar children...

Lunch that day was a picnic in the playroom.  Look, even the baby is "smiling" for the camera!

Love these girls...

Playing Scrabble, Junior!  A fantastic Christmas present for a girl who's very much obsessed with reading and writing these days...I am so very excited she has finally hit this stage because now she wants to read to me and write notes to us!

Meanwhile, this was going on on the couch behind us while we were playing Scrabble.

She was singing to the baby and then "shushing" us while we were playing the game because her baby was sleeping.

They tackled her down and climbed on top of her!  What a good big sister to let the littles crawl all over her...

Tay seems to have aged suddenly this week.  She has been acting more mature, she has been reading and writing more, she learned how to make friendship bracelets this week (which she has been wanting me to teach her for the past year...it just suddenly clicked this week...like writing), and...

...she learned how to play (and sing) Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on the piano!  Again, something she has wanted me to teach her since we bought the piano, but it just hadn't clicked and she's gotten frustrated (or I've gotten frustrated)...until this week!  Amazing.  My little girl just doesn't seem so little anymore.  She's a little lady.

Now, on to the littlest of the bunch.  This is her favorite spot in the house lately.  She's always crawling into the kitchen and under the dining table.  And always finding some crumb to eat...as you can see by her mouth.

Every time.  I almost want to leave some Cheerios down there to distract her from eating anything else down there...::sigh::

Her "caught" in the act expression.

The duck face has made a big come back this week.

The cute face persists.

One morning, it was still too dark out to just use natural light and she had filled her diaper...so I had to turn on the light.  She was not a fan...so I placed the blanket just over her eyes...and she completely calmed down and laid still while I changed her diaper.  It was just so funny to see her there with the blanket over her like that...I kept peeking under, and she would squint and get upset, so I'd place the blanket back down and she'd be completely still.  I had to take a picture...

I love when babies fall asleep on me...they're so cuddly and sweet.

Sleeping babies...no matter the age...

...love 'em.

She loves sitting in chairs because she so rarely gets to sit up high on her own.  Look at that smile!

Baby kisses are so drooly...but oh so sweet.

Late night photos in the dark result in blinded babies...

Playing under blankets...again...the flash is pretty blinding.

She has been doing much better playing on her own and spending more and more time with her attention on something other than me.  She especially loves books...because of their paper content.  ;)

This is her corner in the girls' study room.  She likes exploring the toys I put there for her.

As I mentioned before, she has been pulling up quite a bit and today, she climbed up on top of this little couch.  I didn't get another photo because she fell off almost immediately...but it looks like she's going to be a climber just like Ri was.

Anyhow, since she has been on her feet a lot lately, she is also slowly practicing letting go and balancing herself on her own two feet...just a few seconds at a time.  She usually ends up plopping down on her bottom, but occasionally, she will actually bend her legs and get down into a squat and attempt standing back up before sitting down.  I may have a walker on my hands before I know it.

We went on an adventure this trip, recommended by a friend we met here.  On the drive, we saw this on the side of the road...I didn't catch what it was...

We went here!  

Set in the amazing Bavarian forest.

First, we took the path over the tops of the trees...some amazing views...

Amazing.

It was like we were walking on top of the clouds...on the tops of the trees...beautiful.

One part of the walk way was a "bridge" built where you could actually see down below...it was scary...for me.

The girls clearly weren't afraid...

I just loved seeing how tall and straight these trees were.

Once we got down of of the path, they had a variety of different things to see and activities for the kids and adults.  This climbing wall was popular.

The (nerve-racking) ropes course (with no safety measures except parental supervision) was also popular.

A giant teepee.

Waiting for daddy to bring us lunch...look at Ri's face!

Then, we went into this...the upside down house.

This place was very interesting...

Hahaha...

Crazy, no?

It was all topsy-turvy...the floors were crooked and everything was upside down inside the house (and outside the house, too)!

And...outside the house.  My little cutie sitting on the owl bench.

And the drive home...as the sun began to set.

I know I haven't done food posts in a long time, but I will...eventually.  But I did take some photos this week of what we made.  Here's some of the famous Cortez hot sauce (salsa).  YUM.

My all-time favorite Pioneer Woman lasagna.

Again...YUM.

My first attempt at whole kimchi...

Delicious.

And another adaptation of a Pioneer Woman recipe - Chipotle beef chili.

And last, but not least...I want you to look through this series of photos...and look for this adorable face.  It will make you laugh...and brighten your day, hopefully.  :)

She just couldn't stop laughing...and I loved every minute.  :)  Good night, everyone!  Or is it already good morning for me...Yikes!  2:51am!

Have a wonderful new week!

Welcome to 2014!

Since Monday and Tuesday was a blur before the new year, so let's just start with cake.  Cake is always a great way to start.  

We were kindly invited to a New Year's Eve party at a neighborhood friend's house, so the girls and I baked a cake to bring over for the celebration.  The food was delicious and the company was grand!  :) The girls had a blast meeting new friends and ringing in the new year (at 6ish).

The girls got to fire off their first Roman candles (under close supervision and panicked-mommy eyes).

Even Ri got a turn...and she was a little scared, but not too much.

Jeff had to help her point it in the right direction...she was so excited that she kept trying to turn around.  Yikes!

After all the festivities, the girls were exhausted, so the two little ones passed out before 10...

...and the oldest and Daddy fell asleep before 11...until the neighborhood decided to turn on the sky outside with fireworks starting around 11:45pm.  The sparkles and bangs started going off all around the house.  Every street around us had a group of folks outside shooting off fireworks of all types.  Loud and very bright...it was like daylight outside.  Luckily, the two older kids stayed asleep and the baby only woke up for about an hour.  Very exciting!  Next year, we know we need to get the girls to take a nap on New Year's eve so they can join us for the late fireworks!

When I was growing up, my mom always made sure we had the traditional rice cake soup on New Year's Day (Hi, Umma!), so I was determined to make it for my family, too.  In Korea, it was easy to come by all the ingredients, and I tracked down almost all the ingredients here in Germany, too...all except the rice cake.  UH.  Need rice cake for rice cake soup, right?  Luckily, I got a rice cake maker for Christmas!  YAY!  (Thanks, Umma.)  The device isn't really for making rice cakes for soup, so I had to make some tweaks, but look!  It turned out!

Sliced.  It wasn't perfect...still needs some tweaking, but I was running out of time.  I tried about five batches before I got this far...you can still see some rice grains that didn't get completely beaten, but it was still delicious!  And chewy!

YUM!  The broth turned out really spectacularly this time around, too...and Ri especially loved the "diamond eggs."  So, we rang in the new year properly with rice cake soup...and then I made black-eyed peas the next day...since I forgot to soak the beans the night before.  Eh.  :)

On with the rest of the happenings around the house.  Here, the girls are trying to teach the baby how to say blessing before the meal...it was quite an amusing ordeal.

Here's another photo of the baby trying to get into the cabinet...

...and getting caught.

Post-bath crazy hair.  Sorry for the blur.

Someone found my glasses...whenever she does, she always puts them on like this...upside down.  8)

We were having a silly dress-up morning, and Halmuni had sent some headbands for the girls.  They tried them on, and they were so adorable, I asked them to sit down so I could get a picture.  I could not, for the life of me, get a photo of them all looking forward...but thought this was cute anyway.

I'm not sure why Rea was so fascinated with Ri, but she just couldn't keep her eyes off of her.

One of my goals for 2014 is to get this house organized, a little bit at a time.  I decided in the first week, I'd do the pantry.  It had gotten out of control over the holidays, so it seemed like a good place to start.  Tay was a HUGE help.  She helped empty out the pantry entirely as I sorted and threw out any expired items.

I tried occupying the little one as much as I could without wearing her on my back...

A pan of Cheerios entertained her for a bit...until she started throwing them all over the floor...and I started stepping on them.

So, I relocated her to the living room where Ri was watching television.

Well, the Cheerios didn't fare so well there either, but at least I wasn't stepping on them.

Ri decided she would share some of her noodles with Rea on the floor...(yes, sometimes, it's just easier to feed children like animals than trying to feed them at the table like civilized people...forgive me).

These two have been interacting SO much lately...it's hilarious.

 Oh, and we're back to organizing the pantry.

So, here's the result of all our hard work:  Still looks so cluttered, but now I know exactly how much of everything I have and exactly where everything is!

Back to the sisterly silliness.  These two...

...they can entertain each other for many many minutes (I can't say "hours" because there is always a risk of injury to one or the other every few minutes).

 Hahaha...look at that face.

This is her face when she's eating something she shouldn't be...like a rock, or a bead, or a hair tie...ugh.

Chattin' up the dog.

Playing "drums" first thing in the morning...on a towel...so mommy doesn't go crazy.

Playground naps are fun.

Playing with the neighborhood girls at the neighborhood playground.  Did I mention I love this place?

Exploring the neighborhood.

Sweeping out the garage together after a muddy walk.

Last, but not least, we hosted a brunch this Sunday!  We had Jeff's colleagues from long ago over and we put out a pretty decent spread.  I'm not angry here, I promise...Jeff just caught me as I looked up at him.  I was making sausage gravy.  I discovered a very easy biscuit and gravy recipe I will share soon.

Jeff grilled out some jerk-marinaded steak kebobs.

The table.

Our lovely guests.  :)  We loved hosting the brunch so much, we think we might make it a regular thing...

 Oh, and here's the recipe for the frosting for the cake I made for New Year's party.  In case you wanted it.  :)

Good night!