asher's "donut grow up" birthday party!

  last weekend, we got to celebrate our little man with our friends + family! 

after a year of dunkin donut runs together (we go 2-4 times a week!), I decided to stray away from my usual starbucks-themed fiestas and did a donut-themed party for my little guy! initially, I wasn't gonna do a themed-party.. i realized that this is probably the only year he won't really care about what theme his party is and themes cost money! however, party planning is one of my favorite things to do! it's so much fun -- and so much more fun when there's a theme to follow and draw inspiration from! 

i decided to spend as little money as possible and use the craft supplies I already had. with the help of many collegians (thank you!!!), I was able to make most/all of the decor for no cost at all, hooray! it forced me to keep things simple and to let loose + just have fun with the details! it made the planning more enjoyable and helped me to just be excited and have fun. 

of course we had to use our beloved letterfolk boards to help fancy-up our party. and these cut outs of asher with party hats were pretty much my favorite things ever.

doljabi is a korean tradition/ritual done at most first birthday parties. in honor of his 1/2 korean-ness, we thought it'd be appropriate to include it in our party! we tweaked our choices a little bit - nurse like mommy, pharmacist like daddy, missionary, pastor, entrepreneur or musician! 

one cost-efficient way to decorate a party is to get pictures (that you would want to print anyway) printed and use them for decor! I printed the photos using various photo-printing websites, taking advantage of the deals (1 cent per picture for some places!) and had an industrial-sized kraft paper roll for the backdrop! 

 the photo station started with the birth box that i made for him when he was first born with a few of his newborn pictures.

 

so much fun seeing how much he grew over each month!

there was a wall of photos for different events, different "firsts" and special occasions that took place during asher's first year. it was so much fun putting it together and remembering all of the wonderful things we got to experience with Asher this year!

 

     

also, can I just say that planning a party for KIDS is sooooo much fun! we had about 50-60 kids attending (so many friends!) and I was really excited to put together fun little things to keep them busy so that the parents could (hopefully) eat in peace..lol! 

one thing I was really excited to include in our party was the coloring station! I drew some random coloring pages and printed them at home. I also received bags of broken crayon pieces that my friends weren't using and melted them into lego molds for the kids to use! making them were so fun and easy (and best part was, it cost nothing!)

I had a lot of fun thinking up what Asher's favorite things were during his first year of life. most of them are such random things -- he's such a weirdo! 

For centerpieces/main table decor, we made these little donut banners out of construction paper that I already had and hot glued them to shiskabob sticks. We used sensory balls that I had and tissue paper that I got throughout my life (I think these pink ones were from my bridal shower 6 years ago...lol!) to stand them up on the tables. Of course we had to add more of little party-boy ashers. 

for the backdrop, we used some random VBS boards we found in the storage room and covered it with table cloths! to keep with the donut theme, we cut out and decorated A LOT of paper donuts (confetti is still everywhere in my living room) and got a few dozen donuts from dunkin's! 

  

I was too lazy to make dohl towers that are traditionally found at the head tables, so we settled with a donut tower. 

for the kids, we had the usuals (juice + fruit pouches) but also wanted to do some fun donut-themed goodies. here we have "donut seeds" which are just multigrain cheerios..

and I made these mini donut cookies out of nilla crackers (tutorial coming soon!) 

we kept it simple and catered DIY/serve-yourself tacos from El Toro Bravo

which made for a casual but fun, hands-free party celebration!

my in-laws graciously provided us with a AYCE baskin robbins section and some of our guests confessed eating 5-6 cups of ice cream. so awesome! 

Asher got to wear a traditional korean hanbok (lent to us by a dear fellow mama, thanks Lin!) 

and he did the traditional doljabi to close the party. (he ended up choosing missionary!) 

we ended the party with a smash cake. this was asher's first experience with anything super sweet so I was curious how he was gonna be! i made a simple frosted cake with some batter I already had on hand, and made whipped cream with some heavy whipping cream I had leftover. 

 he loved it so much and his response did not disappoint! 

  

it was a great day and such a fun celebration! 

what a year to testify of God's goodness and grace to us. something I really learned this year is that it truly takes a village to raise a child -- there is no way that we could have survived this year without the love, help and support of so many people in our lives. whether it be through prayer, words of encouragement, food/boba drop offs, emergency baby sitting sessions or just coming over to play with asher -- you all have made such an impact on our lives. we are blessed..my heart overflows! 

cheers to another wonderful year.
"donut" grow up too fast, little one.

2017 resolutions

2016 was a big year for us.

it was a year of transitions and changes. joys and challenges. exciting beginnings and lots of lessons learned in the process. this was probably the fastest year of my life!

in 2016, we had a baby and became parents. we muddled through the first few sleepy + delirious months of taking care of a newborn - tackling breastfeeding, sleep training, nap schedules, learning to live life with a small but very dependent human being. eugene finished pharmacy school, got accepted into a residency program and started residency. he took and passed his boards - he's a pharmacist now (whoo!) I quit my job at the hospital and became a stay at home mama. overall, 2016 was wonderful.

last year, I didn't take time to think of any resolutions -- i guess it was overshadowed by my water breaking on new year's day and having a baby (hehe, woops!) but there is something refreshing about stepping into a new year. a new year provides opportunity of introspective + extrospective reflection and examination of who + where we are today - and puts us in a posture of anticipation of what's to come! this year's new years day landed on a sunday which meant we were able to give the firstfruits of 2017 to the Lord in corporate worship - it was the sweetest! our pastor challenged us to redeem everything in our lives for the Lord -- every opportunity, every unique circumstance in our life now, every person we come across - everything that our lives touch. I was so challenged to make much of Christ, more than ever before, in this new year; to redeem everything in my life to bring glory to Him and to make Him known. when I think about who and where I want to be at the end of 2017, I honestly just want to know Christ more deeply, love Christ more fervently and to steward the things I have in my life more faithfully.. so to that end - here are my 2017 new years resolutions!

1. read more

  

a few months ago, I purchased a nook from amazon because I really wanted to get back to reading more books but its so hard to hold a book open and turn pages whilst watching/chasing/feeding a baby! it has been such a great investment. I am definitely reading more and having this handy and super portable device has given me a fresh + new excitement and eagerness to read. I am currently reading a biography of diedrich bonhoeffer and it's been awesome! these other books are the ones i'm currently tackling with different small groups + friends, so hopefully this year will be one with lots of reading and learning! 

i'm also hoping to finish reading through the bible in 2017. I am currently on 1 Kings in the old testament and gonna trek through the new testament with this reading plan. keep me accountable! 

2. memorize more

after becoming a mama, I realized the invaluable tool of scripture memorization. during those long days of cluster feedings and late nights of waking up every other hour to feed a baby, my mind was fried and I had little to no mental capacity to sit down and read something. in those times, I was so, so grateful for the verses I had memorized throughout my life because God really used His word that I had stored in my heart to strengthen + sustain me. I am hoping to really devote this year to regular scripture memorization! His word is living and active, and so powerful! my hope and prayer is that the Word I store in my heart would cause me to be changed in my inner being, rather than causing me to be puffed up in pride and mere head-knowledge! I thought it would be appropriate to memorize psalm 119:9-11 to kick the year off. join me!

3. finish trekking through the child training bible

when I was pregnant, a few moms at our church had purchased the child training bible (group discount, holla!) throughout my pregnancy, I tried to go through and put my CTB together. the child training bible provides verses for different issues (anger, anxiety, self control, etc) and enables you to mark up a bible in a way that you can easily find a scripture reference related to whatever issue you are dealing with. especially in these last few months, i'm seeing just how important it is for my parenting and my discipling to be rooted from God's word and not just my own words. my own words are tainted with sin, selfish motives and have no power. but the Word of God is powerful! I love God's promise to us in Isaiah 55:11: "so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."  trusting in this promise as I prepare this tool and my own heart to really teach and disciple asher with God's word.

i've done a little bit of it so far and it's already been doing wonders on my own heart. I hope I can finish it by the end of this year so that I can actually start using it!

4. budget better

now more than ever, there is a great need for me to budget well. since eugene is in residency and i quit my full-time job, we have to learn how to be savvy with what we have. we are learning the beauty of living within our means and though there are times when I feel like I'm in want, i'm seeing how abundantly and sovereignly God always provides. I want to be a better steward with our finances, and so I really want to commit to learning how to use our budgeting app YNAB (you need a budget) better. thankfully my friend joanne offered to help teach me so cheers to spending less and more wisely!

5. purge, organize and learn to live and work with less

as you may know, i've been trying to 'tidy up' and purge like crazy after reading marie kondo's book: the lifechanging magic of tidying up. it's been fun, therapeutic and a little overwhelming. we have so much stuff! and much of the things that fill our homes and lives are things that are of little to no need to us. i've been attempting to follow the guidelines in this book to tidy up, but nobody told me how much harder it is to do cleaning extravaganzas with a hurricane-like baby running around! though my progress has been slower than I'd like, I'm hoping that I can really spend this year better organizing the things that I do have to be okay with living with less.

this goes hand-in-hand with budgeting -- but i've been really trying to make an effort to think twice, thrice and even four times before buying something, rather than impulse buying it on amazon prime (which makes buying things in one-click so darn easy!) just because I feel/think that I need it right then and there.  it's been forcing me to be creative with the things i already have and making me reconsider the things I really need vs. the things that would just be nice to have or make my life a little easier.

* * *

of course there are other goals I'd like to accomplish this year - blog more, cook healthier meals, take more pictures, minimize screen time (i removed facebook from my phone and it is life-changing!) , exercise more, etc etc. but I'm hoping that these 5 resolutions will help me to live 2017 purposefully and intentionally.  I really hope that I will learn how to redeem everything in my life - every opportunity, every circumstance, every person I interact with, every coffeeshop I frequent, every play date.. to bring glory to God!

cheers to 2017!

Asher is ONE!

My baby turned one today. 

It's crazy to think that an entire year has passed and that we have had the honor + privilege of having this little guy in our lives for the last 365 days. he's officially a toddler now, but my asher baby boy forever. I initially didn't have anything specific planned for today -- but as it was a holiday anyway, we were able to get the whole family together (on a monday!) to celebrate our little guy and shower him with love! 

we haven't been all that big on getting him gifts this year. we didn't get him anything in particular for christmas and wasn't planning on getting him a birthday present, but I was able to score a bag of these balls for $5 from another mom in the area so I hauled him into the car and picked it up early this morning. he loves them! spontaneous birthday presents are the best (especially when they're only $5! woohoo!)

then my parents came over and my mom whipped up an amazing meal: traditional korean seaweed soup, galbi, bossam, jpachae, etc. she is #GOALS.

taught my mama how to make bossam in the instapot! 

thankfully, asher loves korean food and specifically loves this seaweed soup business. seaweed soup is a meal traditionally eaten on your birthday so my mom graciously offered to prepare it for asher! 

  

he ate as much as a small child. 

  

I whipped up some quick birthday decor, auntie audrey brought a cake, auntie kat brought some party masks + birthday goodies and it was party time. 

the biggest blessing of today was being able to spend asher's birthday with our entire family. it is absolutely true that "it takes a village".  we truly could have not survived this year without the help of our entire family. their love, support and eagerness/willingness to help us with all things big and small helped make this past year easier and so much more enjoyable! 

we ended the day with a treat. a bubble bath! he had a blast and was so happy! 

there are so many things to be grateful for and so many things i have been reflecting on these last few days in honor of our first year with Asher. our lives are so full and sweet because of this boy. we praise God for His gift of grace to us in blessing us with Asher but pray that the joy and gratitude in our hearts would compel us to love and trust in Christ more and to live for Him more faithfully and more wholeheartedly!

 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. - j a m e s 1:17 -