A Birthday Party

An interesting day today. We were all buckled up in the car ready to go, when I turned the ignition only to find it was already engaged and the battery long dead. It seems that in his haste yesterday afternoon, Clark had somehow (I'm really not entirely sure how) managed to pull the key from the ignition without actually turning it off. He also (and this I really really have trouble understanding) neglected to put the car in park, instead leaving it in reverse after backing in to the parking space. Husbands (insert rolling eyes here). My mood quickly soured as we sat in the underground parking garage - with a baby who was becoming increasingly cranky - waiting for assistance from our insurance provider. As it was rather early on a Sunday morning, I feared we would be stuck and miss the birthday party we were trying to get to, but thankfully here in Korea there are some things they do mightily well, and roadside assistance is one of them. It took the Samsung Anycar tow truck driver all of 15 minutes to find us. Most impressive if you ask me.

Minor catastrophe averted, we headed off to Bucheon for Mommy Cha's son Thomas' 3rd birthday party, hosted at the kid's cafe in Homeplus. And I tell you, after visiting this Homeplus, I now have my sights set on Bucheon if we ever move; hands down the biggest and bestest Homeplus I've ever had the pleasure of setting foot it.

Mommy Cha did a terrific job organizing the party. In truth, this was our first-ever children's birthday party, and we had an excellent time! It was great fun to meet and spend time with other expat families. I was familiar with many of the moms from Facebook and/or the Expat Parents Korea forum, but had never actually met most in person until today.

The kids dined on chicken nuggets, pork cutlet, french fries, rice, and salad (I think this pretty much stayed in the serving bowl) and there were yummy COSTCO pizzas and chicken caesar salads for us parents. Logan, unfortunately, sat idly by gumming down a rice cracker; but I don't think he minded.^^

Here's the birthday boy and the MC, who led the group in the Korean rendition of Happy Birthday.

In Korean age, Thomas turned 4, thus the candle on the cake, but he's really only 3. Actually, Clark provided a good chuckle this afternoon when he remarked that Thomas was a really big kid and super advanced for his age. I couldn't quite catch what he was talking about until it dawned on me that he thought today was Thomas' 3rd 'Korean' birthday, which would only make him 2 in western age.^^ He obviously hadn't noticed the candle on the cake but had heard me comment that Thomas was turning 3, so was confused.

It was great having "daddy" come along for the party because it meant I had more time to schmooze with the ladies while he played with Logan :)

Suddenly now upon uploading the above photo, I have to agree with the people who remarked this week that Logan's hair is long. For some reason I never saw it until right now; now that I see the toupee on his head! I'm going to have to find an alternative to this horrendous side part he's got going on. It seems the time for a first haircut is fast approaching...a mohawk perhaps?

Mommy could stand a decent new style and some colour, too! Eight months of motherhood has hastened the graying process ~ yikes!