the last of the birthday shenanigans.

this is my fourth post about choi boy's birthday. fourth! and the boy isn't even home yet! can you imagine what the recaps will be like for his actual party when he's actually here? heehee ;)

so, after the good, the bad, and the ugly, there was the food. that *totally* deserves a post of its own, right?

i thought so. that's why we're all friends here, because we fully appreciate the beauty of a post about food.

after feeling crummy from receiving the ugly news from our program assisant, we sucked it up, put on our happy faces, and headed out to meet our family at one of our favorite local korean restaurants. once we got there, saw our family and anticipated good eats, we were instantly happier. good food always makes me happy. always.

we had some yummy banchan (i love banchan. sometimes, i could just eat banchan with rice as my entire meal):
i had some sushi (i know, not korean, but too yummy to pass up!):
peter had galbi dolsot bi bim bop:
my sister's vegetarian dolsot bi bim bop:
my dad ate an entire fish by himself:
my mom, aunt, and uncle ate some other dishes, but by this point, i was too engrossed in my food to take more pictures. you understand.

after dinner, we took some group pictures outside. i hastily made signs for us to hold in the pictures. my family thought it was kind of silly, but played along:
my mom and aunt were laughing, saying that the pictures kind of looked like a missing child poster. true, but he *is* kinda missing! ;)

here's a better one of the signs with my aunt and baby cousin:
and with my sister and liss again:

my sister and i happened to be wearing the same skirt. it's like US weekly's "who wore it better?" but, don't answer that. no, really, don't.


we also got some sweet gifts for choi boy! look at this freakin' adorable outfit from my sister:that kangaroo pocket? i can't even stand it!

and, we got a package the day before choi boy's birthday from my cousin in ny -- she didn't even know it was his birthday! she was sending a belated shower gift and it happened to come right in time for our little guy's special day.yup, those are baby jeggings. love!

the best part of our evening was coming home and finding a surprise package sitting outside our garage. our sweet, sweet friends, the snyders, stopped while we were out, *knowing* we were out, in order to leave us a surprise to come home to. isn't that incredible? love them! and love their gift:we love this book and were so excited to receive it as a gift. can't wait to read it to our son!

we are so blessed. friends, family, food and fun gifts...can't ask for much more than that!