Why I Love Four Year Olds:

Because you can still catch them sleeping in the same position they did when they were babies.

Because you can still catch them sleeping in the same position they did when they were babies.

And because they sing while on the potty (I voted for no picture on this one)

And because they find it fun (and comfortable) to sleep inside the toy bin.

And because they collect dirt in a bag and sign it.

At the beach

Here are some cool pics the videographer took while we were at the beach. Ah, the difference a good camera will do!

Beach Bums

Furlough Fridays

The State of Hawaii is sacrificing the education of their children to help alleviate the state's deficit problem. Do you see any irony in this? They have introduced Furlough Fridays, 17 Fridays randomly placed throughout the year where no one goes to school so the state doesn't have to pay the teachers and staff. The first one was this last Friday.

My mom always said if you see something that needs to be done, do it. Although I think it's a shameful decision on the part of the state, I saw a great opportunity in this to get a group of Kezia and Ivy's friends together. So a friend of mine and I started Furlough Friday Art Fests. We have 12 kids now. Last week we did Halloween crafts. (I got almost all our quick and easy ideas from www.familyfun.go.com. )This week we are doing Halloween foods. Any ideas?

Homeschool

Well, I finally did it. It’s been on my mind since before Kezia began school, and it was something I thought I would never do. I’m not the “type”, I’m too busy, and I’m not really that interested, to tell you the truth.

But I felt like it was needful for Kezia, me, and our family, so after 3+ years of being prompted, I finally went with it. I’m homeschooling Kezia (and Ivy). I’m considering doing this for just this year. So far, it is great, and it is meeting the needs that I saw we lacked.

Since Kezia was a baby, I felt like she needed a close relationship with her parents. And since before Elysse was born, I felt like I had a hard time bonding with her. So much junk was going on in our lives and I felt like she was kind of pushed aside. Then came full-time kindergarten and homework and naptime and yada yada.

For years I went back and forth on my decision. I felt like I should pull her from school and be determined to do so, and as soon as I made a “firm” decision, something would pull me toward public school and I’d stay where we were, and then I felt like I should homeschool, and so on and so on for 2 years!!!

I observed many homeschooling families and asked a ton of questions. Here is what I learned about homeschooling: 1. Wacko homeschooling parents create wacko kids; down to earth homeschooling parents create mellow kids. Hopefully we fall in the 2nd category. 2. Except for the wacko ones, in general homeschooled children appear to be more at peace; they are able to speak using eye contact more than public school children, and they seem more genuinely happy. 3. Without exception, homeschooling parents say they feel very close to their children and are happy with the decision they made. These are the things I was looking for: mellow peaceful children and a better bond with Kezia.

So finally, I was tired of my wishy-washy mind and decided I’ll just go for it. I might fall flat on my face, or I might find out this was just a wisp of a crazy idea, or this might convince me once and for all that homeschooling is not for me, or I may find the reason I felt I should do this. Either way, I conjured up the courage and pulled her from school.

And you know what? Things are working beautifully. For me, I notice that I’m not so on edge because I don’t have this feeling bugging me to homeschool (or not to homeschool?). I spend more 1-1 time with Kezia and with Ivy (Our mornings are dedicated to schoolwork), I’m a lot slower at the things I do. I now have the time to bond and get to know my daughter instead of just nag (“Hurry, let’s get to school”, “Let’s focus on homework”, “Get ready for bed” “Go to sleep so we can hurry tomorrow.”) I noticed the other day that I no longer walk on the balls of my feet, ready to hurry through life, but I stand back a bit more, more on the center of my feet.

The last few nights, Kezia has thanked Heavenly Father for the ground in her prayers, and I have to agree, feeling the ground beneath my feet again does feel good.

For Kezia, she seems a lot more at peace. We no longer have the problem of attitude or talking back (which I think might have come from the way her teacher speaks to her students), I can tell she feels more bonded with her mom, and she is progressing in the basics of education that I feel she missed in public school. For instance, she never learned how to write properly because she missed those lessons when we transferred schools. Before when I questioned her sloppy work, she’d say her teacher accepts sloppy work (who wouldn’t with 20+ kids to care for?). So we have been focusing on quality of work too. I am able to teach her reading and math at her level and skip the “busy work” assignments that she had for homework at school.


It’s been a lot of fun, especially our observations that we do. We go outside and find a bug or a plant and if possible, put it in our magnifying glass and observe. I teach the girls facts about it from what I learn on Wikipedia, and the girls draw it and Kezia writes about it. We’ve learned some pretty cool stuff, like did you know that wood lice (roly poly bugs) have gills, not lungs, and that some species have returned to water? And that if a house fly is small, it does not mean it’s a young house fly; it’s just smaller because it didn’t have enough to eat when it was a larvae? And that the seeds of the beach plant, naupaka, germinate best if they’ve floated in salt water for 250 days? Pretty cool, huh?

So there you have it. This will be week 3, and I am awaiting the day when the novelty runs off and I actually have to motivate the girls to do school. So far, that day hasn’t come and I feel lucky and blessed. If you have any experience homeschooling, I'm all ears, cause I'm no expert! Pass along the advice!

Pumpkin Patch

We had fun at the Pumpkin Patch this year! It's fun living on an island. This is the only pumpkin patch serving the whole island of Oahu and yet as soon as we got out of our car, we ran into plenty of people we know.

Apparently, the farm was either really busy this year or did not have a good harvest, because the picking patch was a lot smaller, and full of already picked, rotting pumpkins. Ironically, this was also the year that Ivy was determined to find "the perfect pumpkin. One that has a stem and doesn't have a scratch." Somehow, she found it and we all went home happy. Here are some pictures of the day.

How Kezia and I Faced Our Fears This Week

Oh my goodness, so much to post!!!

First of all, to quench curiosity of the last post, I'll tell you of how Kezia and I "took the plunge" this week. I mentioned we have some videographers creating a promo video for our stand up paddle school. They came out this last Wednesday to videotape Nate and I stand up paddle surfing. That got me really nervous I’m not that good of a stand up paddle surfer. I usually surf my longboard, and only take out a stand up board on smaller days. Well, when we got to the beach that morning, the waves were even bigger than we had expected!!

Long story short, I paddled out with my heart in my throat. I knew I had to just go for it, since we had really limited time. I did, and I was really happy with the waves that I got. Nate went after me. Since he discovered stand up paddling, he hasn't returned to longboarding, so he is really good. Funny thing is, Nate said I surfed better waves than him (That's because the videographers asked him to surf a certain direction, which kind of threw off his game) I said, "You know why? Because I prayed harder than you before I went out!" hee hee!



Well, Kezia deserves accolades as well for her stint! She began surf lessons the beginning of this month. To prepare her, Nate took her out surfing tandem with her a few days prior. She came home singing “I love surfing” and said it was her favorite sport.

Come Wednesday, we found ourselves at the surf lesson. It was Kezia and two adults! (A cancelled tsunami warning scared off all the kids) The instructor spoke quickly and directly to the adults. I was afraid Kezia wasn’t understanding it all, or that she was getting intimidated from all the talk of reef and waves and falling off the board. I asked her and she said she understood it all.

The instructor said they all have to first do a swim test – swimming out to a lifeguard and swimming back to the shore….without a life jacket. Kezia has been so fearful of the water that she has always gone in with a life jacket. I thought this would be the clincher for her. This is when I saw a side of Kezia I had never seen before. It was one of those “YES!!!” moments of parenthood when you realize just how cool these spirits are in your home.

I asked her if she still wanted to do the test and she said yes. When her turn came she tried crossing the whitewater shorebreak, but was so fearful. However, she didn’t give up. She kept trying. She finally came back. But she said she wanted to try again. Again she went back to the shore where a lifeguard was waiting to swim next to her. This time she made it past the shorebreak and actually tried swimming…until she lunged for the lifeguard and returned back to shore. This time she said the reef was hitting her feet. But she said she wanted to try again a third time. Wow! She faced her fear 3 times on her own will!! When she still didn’t make it out, she was really disappointed. I was ecstatic and said we’re going out for ice cream! Kezia said she didn’t deserve it. Well, the instructors said she could come next time and try again if we practice.

So the next week we practiced as much as we could on our own. She was so silly, because although she wanted to practice, her fear would take over and she’d scream and yell, “TAKE ME IN, NOW!!” and climb all over our heads when the whitewater came her way. It looked like a case of child abuse. But the next day she’d be up for trying again.



The next Wednesday she tried the swim test again. Again she turned around, fearful of the shorebreak. She said she was done and didn’t want to do it again. But the instructor said he’d swim by her, and I said we’d buy her a toy if she tried, and that was enough for her. Here it is (PS -- for those unfamiliar with youtube, you don't want to click on the video suggestions after the video ;)(PPS- whoever spots the turtle wins!):



Isn’t she AWESOME!?!? She said she could have swum the way back to shore, but the instructor brought her in anyway. Well, because she didn’t complete the test, we figured she couldn’t be in the class. So we played in the shorebreak. She said, “Let’s go to the whitewater!!!” And I said, “But Kezia, the whitewater is scary, remember?” And she said, “No it’s not, it’s fun!”

And then an instructor came up to Kezia and asked her if she wanted to go surf a wave. And she did!!!!



I was a proud mom calling up Daddy and Grandma and telling everyone I knew how brave my daughter proved to be. The head instructor said she should come back next year. But another instructor said to come back again because she swam well on her swim test. Before this next class, she and I practiced falling off a board and swimming back to it. She said on the way t o the surf lesson, "I don't care if there are big waves or small waves because now I know what to do if I fall off the board." Kezia got many chances to surf. Looks like she’s in the class for good now.

Camping at Ho'omaluhia

We got a chance to go back to Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden from October 9-11.

This place is outta this world. We LOVE it!! Here's Kezia taking in the view:

We were fortunate to have our friends Natalia and Brandon and their son Kai join us the first night (very fortunate, since they arrived later than the time the gates should have been locked, but the guard was kind and let us through). And then Kay joined us on Saturday night. We had the campsite all to ourselves.

It’s a funny thing camping in a botanical garden. During the day there are park patrons enjoying a peaceful walk through the gardens, and then WHAMMO! There’s our tent on the other side of the naupaka plant and there we are lounging around eating crackers with children running around playing. We got a few weird looks – and a lot of “Hey, how can we camp here?!?”

We went Hawaiian sledding,

fishing,

Can you see the fish?

duck feeding,

swinging on banyan trees,

croquet,

playing in water,

ball games, and plenty of relaxation.

Natalia learned that if you leave your child unattended for long enough, you may find him naked and walking aimlessly about in the woods. One story about the fishing, fishing time ended at 4:00. Everyone caught a fish except for Kezia. She was doubly frustrated because she hadn't caught a fish last time we were here. We only had 3 minutes left so I helped her hold her line. I then decided it would be a great opportunity to share with her all of Abraham Lincoln's disappointments before he became president, hoping that would motivate her in some way. (Good move, mom!) Halfway through my jibber-jabber, she caught the biggest fish of the day! Look how proud she was!

Can you tell we LOVE this place?!!

We wondered why it’s not better known and the guard told us they like to keep it a secret. Well, I’m glad we found out about it! Nate and I agree that this porscha-camping campsite is worth $80/night, but the best part is that’s free!

We reserved the campsite for Thanksgiving weekend with plenty of space for more people. We're going to cook a turkey over the fire. Who wants to come join us?!

Kezia and I took the plunge today

We conjured up our fears and went for it. More on this to come later....

Promo Video and Our Silly Attempt at a Date

Yesterday morning we had professional videographers come and do a promo video of our stand up paddle school. I had called plenty of friends to come be paddlers for it prior and got my nerves a bit rustled when I had 5 people call and cancel the night before, and those also happened to be those who were going to watch peoples' kids! But everything worked out just great. Everyone had a great time, the water was clear, the river gorgeous, we had enough equipment and enough paddlers and enough food, and the wind remained calm until we were coming in on the last shoot. We felt really blessed, and we are so grateful for everyone's help. Everyone said they had a great time. It's fun to be in a business that makes people happy.

Nate and I had a date that night. We were lucky to have had a date last week, but besides that we had not been on a date for too long of a time. We are the kind of people that could use a date once a week. So both of us were so excited that we could finally have a date. But it ended up that we were so tired. All the lifting of boards, lack of sleep the night before, doing this and that, traveling up the river twice and paddling into a strong headwind on the way back, well, winded us.

We dropped the girls off at our friend's house, peeled ourselves off her livingroom couch, and joked about coming back as early as 8:30. We suggested many things to do and they all sounded either too strenuous or too sleepy to us, and we ended up going to a favorite pizza joint. After staring at it for a long time we finally got out of the car.

As we ate our pizza, I watched parents walk around with their children in tow and commented how sorry I felt for parents whose kids stay up late. A little while later I asked Nate what time it was. It was only 7:20!!! We were already ready for bed!! But we couldn't go back before our kids were asleep, so we walked around town for a bit, got laughed at by the registrar at the grocery store for returning 3 times (a tired mind is a slow mind, folks!) and came back to our friend's house at 8:00 where Nate quickly fell asleep on her couch. Even still, we had a great time and laughed about anything and everything.

What Kezia likes about herself

A couple of weeks ago, I complimented Ivy on something she did that day. Not hearing a compliment for herself in the same breath threw Kezia into a pathetic fit of self-pity ("Nobody loves me!!!") I suggested she type a list of things she likes about herself. She LOVED doing it! I finally had to ask her to quit and go to bed. She continued working on it a few times during the next two weeks and today said she is finished. Here is the list. True to her gift of always thinking of someone else, she says "you" in the list refers to the reader. You are speshal.

Kezia : What I'm good At

I like me because how good I swim.

I like it when I do good stuff, and bad stuff.

I like me. You are good to.

I like how I run.

I look pretty.

I’m very berave.

I’m very strong.

I love me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love me because I'm a girl.

+I’m nice to.!!!!!

I’am very special.I have cothes.I’m super duper helpful!!

I’m good at the monky bars,and cartwheels.

I’m good at listening.

I’m glade.I love you.

I’m great.

In our school we have diamonds, and marshmallows. I am always a diamond.

I’m 6 years old.

I’m helpful to. I have you.

I have a best friend.My birthday is on agust 20 first.

Her name is Isabella.I go to school.I have 21 kids in my class.I have 2 sisters.

I’m good at being nice.I know a girl her name is Isabella.she does not like fruits.but I do like fruits.

I look like a princess.

I’m the best.

My toys

I love my toys.because then I would nnnnoooooot HAVE ANYTHING TO DO.

ME!!!!

I LIKE ME BECASE HOW GOOD I DO THE MONKY BARS.

MY TALENTS

MY TALENT IS DRAWING.

YOU!!!

You are speshal.

KEZIA BURGOYNE

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Today is Nate's birthday!!! He is 33 today. I overheard him tell my brother that after 30, age doesn't matter, that if seems you're the same age as anyone else....I think that's a sure sign of denial...

The girls loved decorating the house for him. What a lucky dad to enjoy *pink* streamers all over the house! Ivy and Kezia wrote him nice cards, and Kezia made a paper purse for him filled with decorated paper bracelets.

We watched General Conference today, where we can listen to the prophet and apostles speak, then I sent him off to my friend's house, who is a masseuse, for an hour massage. He left looking like he was nearing 40 and came back looking 30 again--(a fresh and youthful age). He really enjoyed it and said he needs one every month (who doesn't?).

Then we went on a date, a gift in itself because it's been a looong time. We met a guy who started a business at Turtle Bay renting mopeds and doing Segway tours and we decided to advertise for each other. So we went out to try out his Segway tour. They're actually pretty cool because you move the machine by shifting your weight. Stand up paddling is to surfing as Segways are to four-wheeling, in a way.

I gotta say, though, the name "Segway Human Transporter" is too sci-fi for me. It's like, "Beam me up, Scotty." Why don't they let go of the futuristic idea of "everyone will be riding it someday" and just normalize it by calling it a "Two Wheeler" or something?

It was sooo nice to go out with Nate again. He always makes me laugh, and I am so much more giggly when we are away from the kids.
My rebel husband whispered to me, "Watch--I'm gonna ride some hills on the golf course!!"

Here he is being rebellious:

Tomorrow we are having a big bash at the beach with tons of friends. It should be fun.