Zachary's 2nd Birthday!

Hi everyone! Guess what? I turned 2 years old today. Come on in to my Blue's Clues birthday party! We had a great day.

Magenta came to play.

So did Blue (She was our pin the paw on Blue game)

And Blue's brother Sprinkles guarded the presents.

Mommy made me a paw print birthday cake.


My friends and I got to make Blue's ears. I put the spots on all by myself.
We had lots of balloons to play with.
Everyone got to have a 'clue' on their face. Even Matt joined in on the fun!


See my clue!

Watch me blow out my candle.

All of my friends wanted to blow out the candle too. This is a picture of Seth's turn.
Yummy cake :)
Nina liked my cake too.
Nikita enjoyed the party blowers. I got a lot of presents. My friends even helped me open them. I was very kind and shared my presents with my friends.
Mr. Mike and Mrs. Jaci gave me bubbles. We had fun popping the bubbles.

I got to spend my birthday party with my friends in Korea but my granparents got to join in on the fun thanks to Skype. Grandma Laurie, Grandpa Jim, and Grammy got to watch some of my party in Hawaii. Grandma and Papa watched my party with Nonna, Pop-Pop, Mr. RB and Mrs. Jackie. It felt like my family was at my party.

This is a picture of me thanking Mrs. Jackie for my present from the Ladies class at church. It's a choo-choo movie!!!!

Kacy and I are writing in our own 'notebooks'.



We had a really fun day. I am so lucky to have so many great friends and family here in Korea. I missed my friends in America but thanks to Skype, I got to talk to a lot of them. We even got to see cousin Dawson in Africa today.

Thank you everyone for coming to my party. It was so much fun!

Family Blanket

My mom made this really neat blanket for us when we moved to Korea. We just received it in a package a couple weeks ago. The blanket has the hands of everyone in my immediate family. Zachary enjoys trying to identify the hands.


Yesterday Zachary and I had a snuggle moment under our soft, cozy blanket. It is finally getting cool here so the blanket arrived at a perfect time. It's so nice to snuggle under our family.

Thanks Mom!

Zachary's New Bed

After two weeks of waiting for a mattress the big day finally arrived. Zachary slept in a big boy bed for the first time last night. He seems to enjoy his bed. We bought him a soccer goal bed and will be transforming his room into a sports room. Time to say goodbye to Blue's Clues.

Zachary has to have his blanket and pillow on top of him and his motorcycle with him, in order to sleep. It took him a long time to go to sleep but he didn't get out of bed at all last night. We didn't hear him get up this morning, but about 6:45, Patrick got up to check and he was standing right next to his bed with his motorcycle. He never came out of the room. My favorite part was that he woke up happy!!! It is hard to believe that my little boy is ready for a big boy bed.

My Big Boy Bed

My Pillow

Night- night
Finally asleep after about 45 minutes of playing in my bed

Here are some videos of Zachary enjoying his new bed. In the first one he is showing you how is bed works but kidly reminds us that it is not night night time yet. :)

In the second video, I have to laugh at how hard the mattresses are here. When he jumps on the bed it is like jumping onto a piece of wood. Make sure to listen for the thump.

Slurp!

Look at me! I can slurp a ramen noodle!

I'm home!

One of the things we left behind in Raleigh was Zachary's ball pit. Those of you who know him, know how addicted he is to any size, shape, color ball. At Homeplus they have a play area you can pay to drop your kids off while you shop. We paid to play but Mommy stayed around.

Zachary was so excited to find the ball pit! Of course, this is the biggest ball pit he has ever been in. He kept jumping in face first and then rolled around like a pig in a mud puddle. I couldn't get a picture of him staying still. I think he was just happy to be 'at home' in all the balls.

Daddy's coffee

They day that imitation is the biggest form of flattery. Well Zachary has learned all about coffee from his daddy. While walking through Homeplus, Zachary found a coffee cup and walked around pretending to drink from his cup and say "coffee, slurp, "mmm coffee", another slurp.
Of course we had to buy the cup. This morning on the way to church, Zachary had to have his "coffee" I am so amazed he even knows how to hold it like there is coffee in it. Makes you realize how closely kids really watch what you do. I wish I had gotten a picture of his white 'coffee' mustache. :)

Hey, that's mine!

Yesterday we went to Homeplus to do some shopping. There is a McDonald's in the shopping center we always love to stop there for lunch- OK in Jennifer's world, french fries and ice cream. For around 60 cents you can get a chocolate dipped ice cream cone which has become one of Zachary's favorites, mostly because he likes to pull the chocolate off bit by bit to eat.

In three weeks, Zachary turns two. In the past couple weeks he has learned the phrases, "I do it"and "Zachary's chair" (toy, ball, whatever). While sitting at McDonald's yesterday, he said something he had never said before that just caught us so funny. He had his own pack of french fries and Patrick reached over to grab one. Zachary looked at Daddy with this horrified look on his face and said "Hey! Mine. " He didn't yell it or say it rudely. The way he said it was like "Hey Dad, did you realize those were mine?" We had a good laugh out of it. We did get in a lesson of sharing and when Daddy asked and said please, Zachary was very happy to share his french fries. :)

I guess he is just a little possessive of those fries like his mommy :)

Growing up

Zachary Pinho- 1 week old in 2005

Our friends here had a baby this weekend and it has really made me think about Zachary as a baby. It is hard to believe that he is almost two years old. The time has flown by and he is so independent now. It is an absolute miracle to me how God created people and how we are designed to learn as we grow all by his amazing plan. Two years ago all Zachary did was eat, sleep, poop, and look cute. Now he can walk, talk, feed himself, play independently sing songs, push elevator buttons, help mommy make cookies, color pictures, count to 12 and still LOOK CUTE! I miss my little baby but it is so much fun to watch him grow and learn into the little boy God designed him to be.

Pushing the Number 7 in the elevator- he knows which one it is :)

Making cookies with mommy
Coloring Aunt Sheri's birthday card

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Bulgogi Fish :)

Eating bulgogi lettuce wrap
eating with daddy's chopsticks


Since we have been in Korea we have learned to eat many new things. Bulgogi fish is not a real dish but to Zachary it is. He has become very picky and the only Korean food he would eat was mandu. We have learned though if you call food something he likes, then he will eat it. For some reason he wanted fish tonight (never had anything but fish sticks but that's what he wanted). We were not having fish but bulgogi which is a marniated beef. We just called it bulgogi fish and he enjoyed eating it. Woo Hoo! He even liked when you wrapped with the rice and lettuce and especially using the chop sticks. I feel bad 'lying' to him but if he will eat it called by a new name
I'm game. :)

eating with my own chopsticks

Singapore

I have found a new country to love in Asia. Singapore is such a wonderful place. Why?
Three reasons:

1. The speak English here.


2. The country is one big shopping mall! Toys R Us, Ikea, grocery stores with lots of American food


3. If the building is not a place to shop it is a place to eat. Subway, Taco Bell

Ok so there are many other reasons to enjoy Singpore. It is so beautiful here. It reminds me a lot of Hawaii. It is so lush and green and tropical. Very different from Korea. There are trees and green everywhere.

I have had to go to some meetings but have been able to enjoy Singapore as well. Last night we rode on a river boat and got to see the city from the water at night. Beautiful! I will have to post pictures later.

Some of the funny this I have learned about Singapore is that there is a fine for everything. One of the other teachers and I have been trying to take pictures of all the find signs we see.

• It's a $100 fine for not buckling your seat belt in a taxi


• There is a fine for stepping over the yellow line at the train station before the train stops.


• You could be fined for jaywalking.


• My favorite is you could be arrested for chewing gum and spitting it out. It's illegal to sell gum in Singapore!
  
  
  
  

I have enjoyed my time in Singapore so far but most of of all I have enjoyed getting to know the AERC staff and ministry opportunities we have to serve missionaries around Asia. I can't wait to get to started!

Did Chase come with us?

Zachary has a little boy in his class who is a 5 months older than him. His name is Seth. There are many times when I look at Seth and think it is Chase from back home. Chase is a little smaller but they have some similarities. Here are some pictures so you can compare and tell me what you think.

Chase

Seth

So what do you think?

Mandu!!!!

Zachary's favorite Korean food is mandu, actually the only Korean food he will eat :). It is a fried dumpling with pork, cabbage, rice noodles and I really don't know what else inside. I am afraid to ask but it tastes really good. Our friend Ellen took some videos of Zachary eating mandu the other night. I hope you can tell how much he enjoys it. Last time we ate it he had 5 in one sitting.

The first video is use waiting for dinner. Zachary likes to play with chopsticks. I accidentally uploaded the wrong one but it took so long I am keeping it on here :) He says hi to grandma so its worth keeping :)

Here is Zach eating his beloved mandu.

Mandu with chopsticks :)

Zachary's second love in Korea- dancing to Korean music. He dances when we are in restaurants, stores, or at school. Whenever he hears the music, he is dancing. The teachers in the ELC love to watch him dance. They will play music on their cell phones just so he can dance for them.

Notice the very empty plate and one final grasp for a mandu. :)

What's missing?

OK so I will finally get around to posting my game of What's Missing? I am going to post a few pictures. You can try and guess what is missing from the object or room and then I will tell you at the end. What do you win, you ask? More knowledge about our life in Korea!

1.Located on TCIS property
2. located in our kitchen



3. This hangs on our porch.

4. Located in our bedroom

5. located at the back of the apartment

6. Located on TCIS property

7. located in Zachary's bedroom


1. Students in Patrick's classroom that is in a 'container' -something like a trailer just stacked on top of each other :)

2. You may think it is a normal trash can but our special Korean trash bag is missing. In Korea, special green trash bags are bought at local kah-ges (convenient stores) that you must use to dispose of your non recyclable trash. This allows you to pay for your taxes for garbage collection. Recyclables should be sorted on a certain day of the week and your food compost goes in a separate container on the street. We haven't got the hang of it all yet. A lot of extra stuff gets placed in our green bags. :)

3. Clothes from our wonderful drying rack! Crazy invention!

4. Our comforter! We sent many items ahead of us with some friends and apparently someone decided to enjoy our comforter over the summer.

5. No Dryer! We are hoping baby #2 comes along soon so we can get that dryer! We are getting used to wearing very stiff clothes and ironing EVERYTHING!

6. Students from Jennifer's classroom :) Jennifer's classroom is located in the main building.

7. Zach's crib AND his clothes- When we arrived we only had a pack-n-play that was borrowed from another family. We now have a crib for him. I really just wanted to show off his Blue's Clues room. Zachary enjoyed it when we had no air conditioning because he got to run around almost naked. Even now he likes to run around with no clothes on. He is too much like his Hawaiian daddy :)

Hope you enjoyed this edition of What's Missing?

Our new home

I guess it is about time to post another blog. I know John has been waiting :). We have finally settled in to our new home in Taejon, South Korea. We have been here for almost 3 weeks now but it has felt like we have been here for much longer.

We endured the first couple weeks with no air conditioning. I think God was helping us to appreciate those littel blessings in life created by technology. Many people told us about August in Korea and that it would be hot and very humid. I don't think I really believed them. Some days were extremely sitcky and felt worse than any NC August day. They say the weather drastically changes on Sept 15th. I hope that is true.

Life before air conditioning

"Our Blessing"

School has gone well. We absolutely love the 'family' we have here at TCIS. The administration is unbelieveable. It is so wonderful to work in a place was God is the center of all we do and winning souls for the kingdom is far more important than test scores. Of course we are here to educate children and that is our goal as well but the focus is so much different.

We are enjoying life in Korea so far. The transition has been pretty easy so far. We have manage to handle the hard beds, bright lights all the time, crazy driving and boldness to cross busy streets, eating lots of yummy food once we can read the menu, and living on the 7th floor of a building.

Tune in for more fun Korean facts in my next posting that will be titled "What's missing?"

Post without pictures but lots of nerves

We leave the United States in less than 24 hours. I have no pictures to post today because everything is packed away. I have plenty of nerves though. I have been sick to my stomach since I woke up around 4:00 this morning just from all the nerves and thoughts in my head. I am sure tomorrow morning I will be throwing up. It's just one of those things I am used to doing. I am frightened of a new life in Korea but so excited at the same time. I know this is exactly the place God wants us to be and He will help overcome my fears and nerves. "Be bold and corageous for the Lord our God is with you!" He will help me through the long 15 hour flight tomorrow and all my stresses of Zachary on a plane and going to day care. This is my last post from NC for a long time. Next time I will be writing from our new home in Taejon South Korea on the other side of world! Wow! Can't wait!