Happy Korean New Year...(Early)

We celebrated the Lunar Korean New Year today even though this year it is really on February 14th. Three families were together for this occassion and today just worked the best for everyone. Here are Cole and Noah about to bow to us to show love and respect. Noah is wearing his hanbok. Cole was too shy but appropriately picked out a red shirt. Red is worn traditionally in Korea on that day. He also has the American flag on his shirt which I thought was appropriate considering their dual country history.

Here Noah is bowing and Cole is getting his "bok jumoni" (Korean money bag) ready for treats. They each received some Korean candy, some coins, and a traditional name stamp with their name in Korean.

Cole's favorite phrase lately has been "Two more times!" I love it, he's honest. Let's face it, one more time is just never enough. So this year we will celebrate the new year two more times!

Little Boy Wisdom #51: The good times in life are worth celebrating not just once, but two or three times!

A Song and Some Snow

The boys just love snow. Bless their hearts. They get it. They get that we are blessed to be alive. It's winter, it's gray most of the time and dark. But they still smile, they get up every morning and want to play the minute their feet hit the floor. On the way home today in the car, they were singing songs together and loving the sound of their own voices. Each one, encouraged by the other's bold sound. They even took turns! One would stop and say, "Can I sing alone this time?" and the other would listen. Then they would switch. Beautiful boys with beautiful voices, in the middle of traffic and brown slop crossing my window with the windsheild wiper fluid. My heart sang quietly as I listened.
Little Boy Wisdom #50: Sing! It's almost as good as the summer sun!

Beautiful Boy

Our sweet boy Cole turned four years old today!! As he prepared for his birthday party, he decided to bake cookies for his friends. He decorated them with much thought and artful skill, calculating each candy piece, each swirl of color, and every single sprinkle. When they were all done I asked him what we should call them. Since his party theme was "Rescue Heroes" I suggested, "Tornado Cookies" because of the swirls. He kept decorating and quietly responded, "I think I will call them "Beautiful."

Little Boy Wisdom #49: Find beauty everyday. Find it in the faces of your friends, the sprinkles on your cookies, and the laughter of children.