pizza, Thomas the Train, and memories made

Friday night Sam and I turned our kitchen into a pizza parlor and made Kimchi Pizza.  Kimchi--the national dish of SK-- is fermented cabbage.  Trust me when I say it has a very pungent smell and taste.  In my humble opinion, the only way to eat it is with lots of bacon on top of pizza ;).  While the finished product has not been our favorite dish made so far, the process of making it was the stuff memories are made of.  Sam helped roll out the dough, "chop" the kimchi, and taste test along the way.  The rolling pin he used to roll the dough belonged to my great-grandmother, and as I watched him, I couldn't help but think that she had no idea her rolling pin would be used to make kimchi pizza or that it would be used by her great-great grandson who joined her family all the way from SK.  If she was seeing this scene from heaven, I hope it brought a smile to her face.

After counting down for the past month, this morning was the BIG day for Sam---the day he was going to meet Thomas the Train!!  We had a blast watching our sweet boy take it all in and enjoy his special day.

Sir Topham Hatt made an appearance and took pictures with all the kiddos.  While waiting for our turn to meet the Railway Conductor, I kept thinking that Sam was going to freak out and have one of those "Santa Claus moments"--you know those moments when kids are screaming at the sight of Santa but parents take the picture anyway.  Surprisingly, we didn't have one of those moments.  Sam told him hello and took his picture with him; although when I asked if he wanted to stand next to him, he was quick to say no {understandable since the costume was a little on the creepy side}.  Once we got on the train, Sam spent most of his time looking out the window and exclaiming over all that he spotted; it's not every day that you get to view the world from inside a train car that the Number One Blue Engine is pulling :0).

In spite of the heat, it was a GREAT day with our sweet Sam!! There's truly  nothing better than making memories with our favorite little boy!  And, since he has the memory of an elephant, we'll be reliving this day for a long time to come as we talk about it over and over and over again.