We had a great weekend -- we promise!!

We had such a good weekend. Trouble is, on both days our camera batteries were dead, so we have no proof (shoots!) Friday was a holiday (Prince Kuhio day). That evening we went out paddling as a family. Nate has come up with a way to trail a board behind another board by strapping a leash around a suctioned hook on the nose of another board. Kezia and Ivy had a BLAST playing on the board behind while Nate and I took turns paddling on the board in front. Elysse sat frozen in one position until I coaxed her into standing and enjoying the ride.

Then Saturday we joined the hula halau at their kumu's loi (a Hawaiian taro farm) to help maintain it. We pulled a wagon full of 5-8 year old girls to a water planting area where we were to pull weeds. What at first were girls commenting of "Ew! I don't want to go in there!" turned into girls caked with mud and splashing around in the water. Our girls took 1st prize on being the muddiest ( and perhaps having the most fun.) Ivy was covered from neck down in thick mud.

Then that night we went on daughter dates. We each took a girl (or two) and individually took them out for ice cream and a walk around the art galleries. There is an art walk the last Saturday of every month where the art galleries open at night for people to peruse. Ivy and Elysse were with me and loved looking at all the paintings and pointing out their favorites.

Good times: 10 points Photos to prove it: 0 points

Sleep Over!!

Two weeks ago was spring break. We had so much fun! The definite highlight was on Wednesday when we hosted a sleep over with 4 friends. I now consider myself officially inducted into the realm of mothers of young girls.

Since it was St. Patrick's day, we did some Irish themed activities, like make pizza with green toppings,

played Hot Potato,(and no, the video is not in fast forward ;)

and cut out green sugar cookies into St. Patrick shapes. We rented a movie that was a flop for the rest of the girls, but of course our girls were glued to it til it was over. The other girls painted nails around the kitchen table.

We somehow managed to fit all seven girls into our small room, and with the promise of chocolate syrup on pancakes in the morning, they all went to sleep relatively well. One girl woke up a few times in the night, but we made it through.

I even got to sneak a surf session in in the morning while Nate served up the pancakes. A mom had dropped off 2 bags of giveaways, so we played the dice game and the girls rummaged through and took what they wanted. More nail painting

and playing and dressing up and then the party was over. It was so much fun and it only took 2 days for the girls to recover.

NATE

Well, I don't have a picture of Nate. That could be evidence of all the long hours he's putting in at his office. Maybe I'll take a picture of that for next time...

Nate and I finished our lifeguarding course this week. We are officially lifeguards!!! This was a 3 hour, 3 days a week course that ran a month long. We are grateful we could take it for our stand up school, but so grateful it is over. Let me tell you, for one not having a lot of insulation, going in and out of a pool when it's dark out and rainy and windy makes for a good case of hypothermia -- 3 days a week. So, if you're gonna drown, you can drown with confidence near us. (Just please, do it somewhere warm!)

Nate was voted in as vice-president of the BNI group on the North Shore (that's a business networking group). He is really happy with this group and he's been getting a lot of business leads from it. He's still teaching at the Women's Small Business center and at various events. He loves designing websites and marketing for people. We are amazed how many people come to him because they were scammed by a web designer. Better to go with someone you know.

Nate also was called as stake secretary of the young men in the church here. I was very hesitant about this with how busy we are but it seems like the president is careful not to overschedule and does a lot over the internet. That's great. He is still a co-seminary teacher.

HEIDI

Kezia and I collided one day -- the back of her head and my right eye. Here's the mark (after the swelling had gone down)

I just got asked to be the secretary of Kezia and Ivy's hula halau, NaLeiNaniOWaialua. I am grateful we can be a part of this halau and the cultural experience it gives the girls and all of us.

I'm still balancing family and teaching stand up paddling. I love befriending the people I take out, and having a great workout at the same time.

It was time to send Kezia back to school. I was nervous about doing so -- how she'll fit back in, if this was the best decision, etc. She's been back for 2 days now, and so far so good. I can breathe a bit easier now.

I finally got started on making the plot of dirt in the backyard into a garden, and I'm so proud of myself. I had the idea on Friday and did it on Saturday. I usually don't get a project done that fast. This week, I'll get plants in there. We already have a potted plant "garden", with swiss chive, tomatoes, peas, green onion, chives, a pineapple, zucchini and beans, chocolate mint and salad greens. This will be exciting to expand a bit.

KEZIA

Kezia lost another tooth! The toothfairy came and left a note with a tooth purse for her next teeth, two of which are wiggling their way out.

Kezia was hesitant to go back to school, but now that she's back, she is happy to be back and seems to be adjusting just fine. (despite the homework. Neither of us are happy with the amount of homework given to 1st graders.)

I looked at her the other day and noticed how tall she has gotten! She is getting so big and grown up! What happened to my baby?!

Her most prized possession is her "puppy pack", a growing collection of stuffed dogs. I think she's up to seven now. They all have names and personalities and take turns "seeing the world" with her.

Her other prized possession is her money. She loves to earn, count, exchange, count, touch, trans-place, and spend her money. She reached her goal this month (with help from a bag full of change Kay found in the house) of earning enough money to open a savings account so she can now have money to spend. Poor girl, though, the very day she had money to spend, she brought all $17 to the store with Grandma, picked out what she wanted, but had put the money on the shelf and it was taken. Hard lesson to learn. But Nate has gotten her excited about starting an online store to earn more money.

Kezia is a serious bookworm. Definitely picked that gene up from me. She's been reading ahead on chapter books I got to read to the girls, recently "Ivy and Bean" and "James and the Giant Peach". She's so excited to give away future happenings in the story before we get there!

Kezia is currently taking swimming lessons, hula, ballet, tumbling and tap dance and recently finished a ceramics class. She says ceramics, swimming, tumbing and hula are her favorite.

IVY

Ivy is still full of energy and passion. When she speaks, her whole body moves up and down in a vertical wave. Kay mentioned the other night that she eats as much an elephant, but she's gotta be able to feed that ball of energy somehow!

Ivy can usually be found outside petting Wanda (the neighbor cat that wishes she were ours) or catching roly-poly bugs. Ivy is like a sweet lemonade with a pickle inside. She'll hug you and tell you "I love you" and then talk about blood and spooks. She dances and plays fairy inside the house and then goes outside to dig in the dirt for bugs. Yesterday she was playing with a bowl full of roly-poly bugs I had uncovered in the garden plot. Here's what she said:

"Oh, mom! You missed it! It was so precious!" (And then pointing to the bowl of crawlers) "This mommy roly poly was sleeping and these other baby bugs were crawling all over her trying to wake her up. It was so precious!"

She reached her goal of not sucking her fingers anymore, and was awarded with a stuffed dog from the ice cream shop (you can see it in the picture with Wanda the cat). Ivy amazes me. You can ask, bribe, threaten, plead and beg for her to perform one small task, like pick her underwear off the floor, and she'll twist and howl about it for an hour. But ask her to do something really big, like stop wearing diapers or stop sucking her fingers and whammo! She goes cold turkey. I can't figure it out, except crediting her stubborn determination.

Ivy is currently taking swimming lessons, hula, tumbling, and ballet. She also finished a ceramics class recently. She says her favorite is ballet and swimming and ceramics.

fun at the beach

burying mommy in the sand

ELYSSE

Elysse is a lot of fun, now. She is speaking a ton. Some things she says a lot are "What that say?" when she is asking what something is, and, when she is telling you what something says, she'll say something like, "Wanda, 'meow', that." or "Ivy, 'please', that."

Elysse is so independent; she gets what she needs and wants. And she loves apples!

Ivy and Kezia are so good to her and include her in some of the things they do. Whenever Kezia unloads the dishwasher, she lets Elysse help her, and tells her what each article is, from cheese grater to spatula, then tests her new vocabulary next time she unloads. Elysse loves the attention. Both girls read to her, so she's quickly picked up the reading bug and can be found reading (and sometimes destroying) books to herself. She was reading a book the other day with a picture of a sad king. Here's what she said: "King is sad. Ohhh. Give hug." (She hugged the book) "I love you." cute, huh?

Of course, sometimes she gets in the way and it's difficult when she doesn't understand why she can't play with the older girls. She needs someone younger to pick on!

She used to have a fear of taking a bath in case she defecated in the tub (she'd actually hold her bum and shriek) But with the discovery of bath crayons and bath coloring tablets, now she asks to take a bath every day!

Elysse likes to change her clothes a few times a day and tries to be as independent as she can. She likes to help me in the kitchen. Putting bread in the toaster is sheer joy.

Elysse and her friend Lauren

Bubble bath!!

This what happens when you add 3 girls + 1 cap of bubbles + 6 jacuzzi jets!!

All it takes is an open mouth

I have been struck by how easy it is to DO THIS to help your community stay "clean", no matter where you live. All you've gotta do is open your mouth.

Sorry for such an ugly subject, but have you noticed the current Sports Illustrated issue? The cover is a half-naked woman, and I'm not talking the swimsuit edition. Nate and I have successfully been able to get them off the shelves at Malama, Foodland Wahiawa and Foodland Pupukea. I'm not sure if this publication is still running, but more "traditional" magazines are using porn on their covers.

Next time you're grocery shopping or in any store that has magazines, if you see an inappropriate magazine cover, ask to see the manager. What I have done is, while showing the manager the cover, I say, "I am surprised that a store like this would carry porn." Usually that's all you have to say. If they start giving excuses, you can say, "For the sake of the children, and all your other customers, will you please have this removed from your shelves?" Usually, that's it. Then I wait to see that the magazine is actually removed.

And you know what we've found? Usually the manager is apologetic and grateful that you've brought it up and they remove the magazines immediately.

When you have success stories, I'd love to hear about it! If you have friends or family that could help "clean up" the publicly displayed magazine racks, please ask them to do the same! Feel free to copy and paste this onto your blog, etc to help more people get involved!

Elysse's funny

We were in Walmart picking out underwear for Kezia. Elysse was pulling underwear off the shelf in 2 year old fashion, so in an effort to get her back in the cart, I asked her if she wanted to see the underwear Kezia chose. She said yes so I successfully got her back in the cart. But she didn't seem interested about the package of underwear Kezia was trying to show her. And then we saw why. Elysse picked up Kezia's dress to see what underwear she chose to wear! Haha! I guess I have to be more careful about what I say!

BTW -- does this bring back any underwear memories for any of you ladies? I bought her underwear with days of the week on it. WAY cool move for mom. I remember thinking those were sooo cool too!!