Family Memories: 4th of July

Nothing like posting about a holiday that happened almost 3 months ago, eh? But it was a special 4th of July since we are in Korea. I have to say, the military did a really good job of helping us feel at home with the 4th of July festivities. They had the biggest bouncy house contraption I have ever seen that Claire had a lot of fun on (even if she was overwhelmed by the crazy number of kids on it.)

Claire channeling her Twisted Sister. The girl has style, though not one most would want to imitate sometimes.

There was face painting and games which she also had a blast with. One soldier was really missing his little baby, and Maddie reminded him a lot of her, so he gave her this strange toy thing that he won. Claire of course wanted her own toy too, so we played a game where she won (with help from the game worker) a similar toy. She was very happy.

Meet Gelery. (We have no idea where she came up with that name.) His twin brother, Celery (we named that one to match), has silver horns. What is this creature you asked? I thought it was a weird monkey, monster-like thing with horns until many days later, Claire squeezed the belly and it let out a big "mooo." Humph. I guess it's a strange bull. Oh, and on the belly, it has a picture of the map of Korea.

Maddie, playing with her Celery.

They also made an attempt at American food, but some of it was just that, an attempt. (Koreans headed up most of the booths.) Chris and I thought some corn dogs and some cactus taters sounded good. Well, the corn dogs were really bread-like covered dogs, and the cactus taters instead of being fried and crispy like french fries or potato chips, were fried, greasy, and more like rings of potato boiled in grease. Fail. Oh well. They tried. We still had a good time though.

While we were there, we checked out a cool tank. Claire climbed in and thought it was cool (though she of course has no clue what a tank is.)

Claire was getting really tired at the festivities, so we had to go home long before the fireworks started. The good news is that we live right across from post, and after getting the kids in for bed, we got to watch the fire works from our living room window. It was really relaxing, fun, and there were no crowds. Win!