The Adventures of Team Stolasz!: The beginning of fall...

What a crazy couple of weeks! We have been so busy between school, activities, and special events. Teddy started doing soccer on Mondays. He LOVES it and asks me several times a week if it's a soccer day. He takes it very seriously in true Teddy fashion.

It seems like we are always having some sort of special night of one kind or another. A few weeks ago our buddies Emily and Jamie had a sleep over at our house. We did chocolate fondue, watched a movie and actually went to bed kind of at a reasonable hour so it was a success!

We tried to make rice cakes tasty, but we never really got them farther than "interesting". Here is a batch with cinnamon/sugar apples inside. It's just hard to get past that used chewing gum consistency and if you wait 10 hours they turn hard as a rock. I think we'll just stick with good old chocolate chip cookies thanks!

Teddy has really adjusted well to his first year of all-day school. He brings his lunch to school and eats with his class. I get to see this at lunch duty at least once a month. They are all super adorable and very sweet.

At least 2-3 times a week he just crashes wherever he is at around 5 pm. Sasha always finds him, puts his blankie under his head so he won't be "face on the hardwoods" uncomfortable, puts another blanket on top of him, and then OF COURSE tucks a pal in with him. What a good big sis.... We call it his power nap.

Zoe, and Allison and I found an AMAZING western style restaurant in Busan. It is now a staple on every Costco trip. Forget the Costco dogs baby, these girls are movin' up!

Allison was so happy she almost cried onto her lunch!

Sasha and I had a really nice girls day out the other week and I took her to Outback steakhouse. She wanted this dessert that was bigger than her head! Teddy of course would have injured himself on this but sensible Sasha took about 5 bites and declared that that was enough dessert. Clearly she's missing the Ferris dessert gene. I think Ted got her dose and his!

Sash started skating lessons in September. When she started she could barely stand up on the ice, but she had her awesome pal Emily who showed her the ropes and stayed with her each and every class until she got it. What a pal!

Em even let her borrow a cute skating skirt, and now she is not only looking good, she's skating in and out of cones!

There is a video of some Soccer and Skating clips HERE. Love the way she pulls her arms in when she "spins" and then flings them out. Makes me chuckle every time she does it...

Last weekend we went to this huge Onggi pottery festival. It's held each October. There was a Dinosaur at the entrance to the festival. Because nothing says "pottery festival" like an animated dinosaur am I right?

This village actually functions year-round and is an academy of sorts for traditional pottery. Here is one of the huge kilns.

Watching a guy make a kimchee pot:

So then all of us had to give it a try. The boys tried the spiral method and Sasha and I made pinch-pots. We better stick with our day jobs....

Beautiful flower displays outside the festival.

So what else? Teddy has a British accent. You can hear it on the video clip when he says "I got a goal!" Please don't beat us up when we get back to the states. Is there some sort of Expat decompression boot camp we can send him to before he hits the US public school system?

The cats are doing well, thanks for asking and living a life of leisure.

Dad and the kids managed to paint the Dinosaur before I tossed it out! So now we have a gorgeous Spinosaurus on the sun porch.

Fine work eh? A little heavy on the lipstick in my opinion but I can't criticize it because I didn't help and I have to give them mad props for creating a free-standing bipedal creature out of paper mache.

The last day of September was "Pirate's Day". This is a compound tradition on the last day the pool is open. There are treasure hunts, raft rides across the pool, and a big community feast. You can dress like a pirate or a fairy or a hybrid like Sasha.