Today was Ella and Sterling's big birthday party. We had so much fun! Sorry for the picture overkill, but I just wanted to be able to share all of our pictures from today with everyone back home.
The day couldn't have been more perfect. We just barely finished unpacking all of our boxes in time for the party...we've been working very hard, hence no blogging this past week. We got the house looking presentable at about 2:30pm, and the party started at 3pm! AT 3pm, all the guests started to arrive. We had soldiers from Michael's work, lots of the Korean Nationals he works with, as well as some of our new neighbors. We even had a family from Camp Carol, where Michael was previously stationed, drive up to join us for the party. It was so nice that so many people were so excited to come and celebrate the kids' birthday with us. Around 3:30 we all sang happy birthday to the kids and watched them eat their cakes. As always, Ella was very ladylike about eating her cake. She just very gingerly dipped her finger in the icing and ate her cake that way. Sterling on the other hand went to town creating a mess. At first he dipped one finger into the icing, and I thought, 'well this is good, he won't destroy his adorable outfit.' WRONG! He then began flinging cake in all directions. This cake flinging was only exacerbated by all the guests who cheered on his antics. Needless to say...he was a sight. After we served cake and ice cream (which funny enough, the ice cream was a hit with the Korean guests), the kids went down very easily for their 4pm nap. All the excitement of their party left them very ready for a 2.5 hour nap! Then all the adults went outside to enjoy this very lovely spring like weather and eat all the food we made.
We had so much food! We had hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken breasts, baked beans, Mac-n-cheese, deviled eggs, pasta salad, cucumber sandwiches, bean bundles, and I don't even remember what else! I did learn a valuable lesson to remember the next time we have Koreans over for a party. I had a table set up with plates, napkins, silverware, cups, etc. As an after thought I decided to put out some chopsticks just in case our guests felt more comfortable eating with chopsticks. I did not take into account the fact that Koreans eat communal style, and don't really use plates. As it ended up, everyone stood around the buffet of food, chopsticks in hand, eating from the serving dishes! So, when in Rome do as the Romans, right? So, I ate baked beans and deviled eggs with chopsticks!
We all had such a wonderful time, and really enjoyed all of our guests. I had so much fun learning a variety of Korean words, and comparing all the unspoken cultural rules of the USA vs. Korea. I seriously can't remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much at a party! All of Michael's Korean co-workers and all of our new neighbors are just so incredibly friendly and genuinely enthusiastic to introduce our family to this culture. It was the best first birthday I could've ever hoped for my children to have. And it lasted well into the evening with the last guest not leaving until 9:30pm! I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all.

With all of our woes with the mail delivery here, I wasn't sure we would receive the outfits I had ordered for the kids in time for their party. I ordered them on Feb. 26th and they arrived just in the nick of time on Friday! I'm so glad they got here on time. Ella's dress was pink gingham with little birthday cakes embroidered on the smocking. So cute!
Also a show of how big she's getting...that's her first toddle bow in her hair. We've been loyal Bitty Bow users, but with my latest order I ordered her the next size up, the toddle bow. My little girl is getting so big!

Look at that little chest puffed out. He must’ve known all this hoopla was about him. Sterling was certainly the life of the party! Sterling's little jonjon shortalls were blue gingham with party hats and balloons embroidered on the smocking. Yes Emily Cayton, my son did wear smocking to his one year birthday party...and his Mommy loved it!


I know this picture may look like Ellabell is picking her nose, but I swear she’s not! We’ve been working with them on nose, mouth, eyes, and ears. I think we may have focused a little more on nose, because she has picked up on pointing at her nose. I’ll have to catch it on film. It’s so cute, you say “nose” and she’ll point to her nose. We haven’t mastered eyes, ears or mouth yet, but we’ll get there!


I’m so proud of their birthday bibs! I had them custom made by a lady on http://www.etsy.com/ .
If you don’t know about etsy, I HIGHLY recommend checking it out. It’s all custom, handmade products available for sell from the individual artists. It’s unbelievable all the beautiful things for sell on there. I can spend literally hours just browsing their sight. And I’m so impressed with the high quality of these bibs. Custom made in the fabrics of my choice, with monogramming for only $10. You can’t beat that with a stick!

Ellabell enjoys swinging with Mrs. Paige Hanes and her daughter Kendall. That's her other daughter, Hannah, hiding behind the swing. The Hanes family has adopted Hannah since being here, and she's just the cutest little thing you've ever met. The Hanes family and their three children drove the 2 hours from Daegu just to join us in celebrating the kids' birthday. I told you before we moved here that I couldn't wait for warmer weather to use the porch swing, and now that's starting to come to fruition.

I had to fight my way in line to hold this boy! Both the kids got passed around A LOT! Everyone wanted the chance to snuggle up to the guests of honor.

Sterling was nearly rocked to sleep in Michael's co-worker, Mrs. Yu's, arms. She and Hannah enjoyed rocking Sterling on the swing and singing the softest, sweetest Korean lullabies to him. A boy could get used to this kind of routine!

Mr. Chung was our grill master for the day. He grilled up some hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken that would make Bobby Flay blush!

A picture of Michael and the First Sergeant of the 538th Ordnance Company, David Bailey.

This is me with (from L-R) Mrs. Yu, her sister, and her darling 17-year-old daughter Eun Ji. I am so impressed with her daughter. She goes to school from 8am-10pm Mon.-Fri. and 8am-12pm Sat. and Sun. (which explains the school uniform). She's hoping to go to college in the states to be a dentist after she finishes her bachelor's degree at Seoul University. She of course learns English in school, but she's incredibly shy to practice using it. She doesn't say much, but she understands everything being said around her. It was so funny. Michael asked what I would like to drink, and I told him. No big deal, right? She couldn't believe it! She was floored that my husband would serve me. In Korea the wife would serve the husband, so seeing this absolutely shocked her. She's such a sweet young lady, but it only makes sense- she comes from a family of very sweet ladies. Her mother and Aunt are just so kind, and I think they had an amusing time trying to teach me to speak Hangul. I'll at least know the words for most party foods! They also helped me to decipher my washing machine. A friend of my back in the states was able to tell me the basics, but they further translated it for me. It has settings specifically for towels, or blankets...even dusty things! Crazy.

I am just absolutely taken with this young lady. She's just so sweet. And she LOVES the babies! She just couldn't get over her excitement to hold them and play with them.

Even our Korean landlord showed up for the celebration. He and his wife brought Ginseng wine he makes himself, as well as this beautiful assortment of rice cakes. I was told by the Koreans this is a very elaborate and expensive gift of handcrafted cakes. Everyone was in awe of his gift. And I must say, quality does directly affect taste. These rice cakes are actually VERY yummy. They’re nothing like the rice cakes I tried the last time we were in Korea. They are rolled in a variety of puffed rice or sesame seeds. The inside is like a Fig Newton cookies wrapped around more puffed rice. They’re really quite good, and we keep snacking on the leftovers. Perhaps I can find a way to mail back a few to the states for people to sample.

You don't have to be able to read Hangul to know what kind of a gift this is. The kids received loads of gifts from everyone. It's going to take us until their next birthday to open all their gifts from party guests as well as grandparents back in the states whose gifts made it here just in time for the big party! Thank you so very much everyone for your kindness towards my children.

Everyone sang "happy birthday" to the kids. Of course, this year Daddy had to help blow out the candles!

Okay, so one year olds don't actually love to wear party hats....but they sure do look cute in them while they last! Oh, and yes, Bella's bib did read "Ellabella." We made need an official name change!

Sterling was having NOTHING to do with his party hat! It makes me so sad...we had practiced wearing it all week. Oh well, it will be back next year!

You'll have to refer back to the kids' "half birthday" cake to understand the humor in this cake (look back to my September 9th post).
So, when ordering the cake for the party, Michael took a picture of the half birthday cake with him and asked to have it duplicated. Well, it's not exactly the bright, cheerful primary colors of the Baby Einstein caterpillar (or is it an inch worm?), but it's still a pretty cake in it's pastel pinks, greens, and browns. Also, I know I had made mention earlier in the week that Michael had ordered a 90,000 won cake. Well, it was indeed large, but luckily it wasn't too big. We had enough to serve around 30 people a pretty sizable piece each and still have about half a cake leftover. And it was a pretty yummy cake too! The cake for serving was chocolate, and the kids' smash cakes were yellow cake.

Each baby had their own little 9in. cake for "smashing." Needless to say this was the last good picture I got of Sterling's cake.

Double the fun.


Ellabella very carefully investigates her cake before eating it.

Pre-mayhem.

Now this is fun!

Notice how much cake is NOT left on the highchair tray.

We're so proud of our boy! He's walking! All it took was a few onlookers, and a party and Sterling managed to wow us all. During his party he just decided to start walking. At first he took 2 or 3 unassisted steps towards Daddy. From there he was off like lightning. He got up to taking about 8-10 steps each time before reaching out for balance. We were so excited to see him walking we made him repeat his act about 30 times! He has officially walked in his first pair of shoes. Yes, we will be getting those bronzed. You can tell he's proud of himself too. He keeps giggling when he walks like this is some sort of fun trick. So, he finally beat Ella to one of their milestones. Looks like we need to start encouraging Ella to walk now!

Watch Sterling walking from Daddy to First Sargent David Bailey at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ0mGHfeVZA

P.S. I know it's not a very long clip of him walking, but we'll be adding lots more very soon!