Bobae's First Birthday Party

Have you ever been to a Korean style first birthday party? It's. Incredible.

Our dear friends, Karen and Charles, just celebrated their daughters first birthday in Korea. Charles is Korean, Karen is Canadian, and we met them in Pyeongtaek in 2008 when we first moved here. They got married that fall and here's a picture from their wedding that year!

Okay, so I couldn't pick just one!

Karen and Charles moved back to Canada in 2010 and became pregnant right after we found out we were pregnant with Isaac! It was really exciting to be able to "be" pregnant together even though we were apart. June 1st, 2011 was Bobae's birth date, wouldn't you know that little girlie came out at 12:01am. I've loved seeing Bobae in her pictures but it was just a dream to see her IN PERSON.

A Korean first birthday has one huge tradition: doljabi. (We did this at Isaac's 100 day party.) The idea is that the baby will "choose" their path in life by choosing an object from a tray. The guests get to participate by guessing which object the baby will choose. Put your ticket in the slot you think she'll choose and keep the ticket stub. After Bobae picked her item (the pencil!) the MC chose one name from the winning box to receive a prize. So it was a tradition and a raffle! Cool!

So happy, reunited!

presentation tables

glimpses of the partay.

The party was fun! Even though we didn't understand much of what they said, we got the idea. They gave money, horray. They gave raffles, horray. They gave chocolates to the person who traveled the farthest, horray. And so on. Wahoo! Our first party hall birthday!

We stuck our buffet sticker on Isaac's nose and watched him try to get it off :)