Daniel vs. the Chickens

If you've ever been to Kauai you know there are chickens EVERYWHERE! The story goes that when Hurricane Iniki hit the island in 1992 it left chicken coops upended all over the island and all the thousands of domestic, normally cooped chickens escaped and started breeding with the wild chickens. The result: chickens, lots of chickens...everywhere. Anyway, they (in particular, the roosters who crow at any hour, day or night) are quite a nuisance and Daniel is on a mission to rid the island of them...well, the school campus anyway.

Here he is, back in December, building his first trap. It works well enough but Daniel, a man of efficiency, has decided that catching one chicken at a time is well, not efficient. So...

yesterday he decided to build a somewhat larger trap that he figures will catch 6-12 chickens at a time! My husband...I love him! Oh, and for the record, I don't know and I don't want to know what happens to the chickens once they're caught.

Soon to be replacing all "time out" chairs across the nation...

Daddy's Helpers

These boys love working outside with Daddy and they really are helpful! Here they are clearing the tree roots out of the soil in preparation for planting our garden. I love the little toy wheel barrow, filled to the max and then some! And pay no attention to their crazy, mismatched outfits and the socks with flip flops combo...who dresses these kids anyway?!

A Fun Project

Back in 1987 Daniel's grandma bought this town fabric for Daniel's cousin Ryan (he was 2 at the time!) She had planned to "sew it up" and make a playmat for him. Well, 23 years, 1 grandson and 6 great-grandsons later Grandma handed me the fabric and asked me to "sew it up" for her and give it to my boys.

What a fun project this was!

I had the fabric laid out for ironing when the boys walked in and saw it for the first time. They were in awe and couldn't wait to play with it. However, the first thing (literally!) that Aden said was, "Mommy, where's the church?" Well, there wasn't one so I immediately set to work at making a church out of one of the houses.

Before

After

(not perfect but it works!)

I made a little "garage" for their cars.

The racetrack

I bought this red quilted fabric for the backing (it looked nice and gave some padding to the mat) and I bought some royal blue quilt binding for the edges. I simply put the two layers together, framed it with the binding and stitched around the edges. I then stitched along all the roads to "quilt" the blanket together.

I also made a little bag to keep it in when it's not being used. Now, if only the boys could figure out how to neatly fold up the mat and fit it into this bag we'd be golden!

All put away and ready to be stored.

I love it! This is one of those "toys" that even Mommy likes to play with!

Leave It To The Girl...

to find the mirror!

Our boys both spent hours in this exersaucer and I don't think either of them ever paid much attention to the mirror. They certainly did not stare into it and smile like their sister does! The same can be said for the mirror on this little catepillar toy.

Is she a girl or what?!

3 Things I've Learned This Week

1) It is always wise to hold loosely the things of this earth...especially when you you have small children. My brand new (like, less than a week old) bathroom rug became the "grass" on which Jonathan drove his muddy (with RED dirt, no less) toy bulldozers and dump trucks. And I won't even mention that the mud got all over the floor that I just mopped!

2) It is a good idea (a REALLY good idea) to keep Pull-Ups on your "in the process of being potty trained" 2 1/2 year when they have a stomach bug.

3) Taking a teething, ready to crawl 6-month-old with you on your belated anniversary overnight "get-away" falls PAINFULLY short of a true get-away.

From Their Sweet Lips

So I'll never forget the things the kids said that brought a smile to my face, a tear to my eye, joy to my heart, and laughter to the room I started a second blog. From Their Sweet Lips, will be my "pen and paper" for recording these precious memories. Enjoy!

A Wonderful Day and a Wonderful Gift

Last month (February 13th) I celebrated my 33rd birthday. 33! Hard to believe! My birthday fell on a Saturday this year which allowed us to celebrate on the actual day. Always fun! The day started with my dear husband letting me sleep in (until 8:00!) while he made me one of my favorite breakfast meals, Eggs Benedict. It was delicious!

I forgot to take a picture of my yummy breakfast so I snagged one off the internet. I assure you, Daniel's looked every bit as beautiful as this! Plus, his came with hash browns and coffee!

We were amazed at how many dishes and pots an order of Eggs Benedict and Hash browns required!

After breakfast Dave and Carolyn came over and watched the kids (Yes, all 3 of them!) while Daniel and I went on a bike ride. I think it was only the second time I had gone anywhere without Elizabeth since the day she was born! It was so nice! We decided to ride around Kilauea so we could make the most of our window of time between Elizabeth's feedings. It was a gloriously beautiful day...perfect weather with clear skies and we had a truly lovely time cruising around and enjoying the breath-taking views of God's creation.

My sweet hubby!

Ocean View or Mountain View? Well, you could have both! This lot (above and below) is for sale. They want $1.6 million for this 3 acre lot. What's $1.6 million? Actually, though, given its location (gated community on the North Shore of the island) that actually seemed reasonable. Of course, unless you planned to pitch a tent you'd have to add the cost of a house!

So lush and green! I love Kauai!

It's so beautiful! To think...this is only a mile from my house.

The fence that Daniel is leaning on is the boundary of the National Wildlife Refuge. If you look carefully you can see the Kilauea lighthouse in the distance. There are many unique birds that call this area home and we enjoyed listening to their various calls and songs. No one was around and all you could hear were the birds and the sound of the crashing surf. We were in our own little peaceful world! And I love this picture of the horizon...I think I could gaze endlessly at where the ocean meets the sky. It's such an amazing thing!

Although I don't have any pictures of it we stopped for lunch on our way home at the Kilauea Bakery. Such a treat! Then later that evening we all had dinner at Grandma's house to celebrate Carolyn's (2/10) and my birthday. I had a really nice day and...

Ta da!

My "big" birthday present! A new bike and a bike trailer! Thank you Dad & Carla, Mom & Jesse, Dave & Carolyn, Ralph & Sally, and Grandma! I love my new wheels!

We went on our first family bike ride this past Sunday. It was so much fun! Daniel rode alongside Aden and I pulled the little ones in the trailer. I couldn't stop smiling the entire time!

Elizabeth was quite content (I was worried she'd be too small for it and thus would be fussing the whole time...not so!) and Jonathan had a blast...all the while serenading the town of Kilauea with his two favorite hymns: Nothing But The Blood of Jesus, and Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon and I can't wait to do it again!

Although Jonathan looks ginormous in this thing next to Sissy he and Aden can fit in it together comfortably. In this picture Jonathan is leaning forward and it makes it look like he is somewhat cramped. He's not though...the trailer actually seems pretty roomy. And in case you're wondering...it is super light-weight and easy to pull. And that says a lot coming from this totally out of shape Mama!

Pretty sure she's sucking on her froggy and her thumb at the same time. Silly girl!

This look was the, "Mom, I've been in here for almost an hour and you're riding on borrowed time!" look. We needed to get home for dinner anyway...

Aden did a great job keeping up and mentioned several times how happy he was to be on a bike ride with the family. I love that boy! And by the way, we DO have a helmet for Aden! In fact, we have three! Somehow we ALL managed to leave the house without making sure he had it on! To be honest, I didn't even realize it until we got home! Yikes! Yep, that's material for "Parent of the Year" award! To make you feel better, he is still riding with training wheels so our maximum speed was, well...slow. Stay tuned for bike riding updates as "removing Aden's training wheels" is one of the first things on Daniel's spring break calendar!

Up until November taking walks around town and to the park was a part of our every day. It was great and I was thrilled with that aspect of living in a small town. Unfortunately in November I developed Plantar Fasciitis and have not been able to go on walks since. I've missed that element of our life here so much and am thankful to say that these outings will now be possible again with my new bike/trailer set up. Here's my happy little boy at the playground again...finally!

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

I've never done much more than wear green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day but because of a desire to make the time with my kiddos memorable I decided to have a little fun today. Plus, my kids are at the perfect age to start some fun family traditions. When the boys woke up this is what they found...

Some cute stickers and a green recorder!

Yesterday I was shopping for some Easter stuff and I found these recorders among all the Easter basket gifts. There were only two left, they were only $1.00, and they were both GREEN! Perfect!

One of my many sewing projects this month...shamrock cloth napkins!

Thanks to an idea from Family Fun Magazine we had a fun little treasure hunt this morning! Twelve little leprechauns (ie. Mom staying up until 2am) left shamrock clues scattered around the house that lead the boys to a pot of "gold". This really was a lot of fun...for them and for me!

Who needs real gold when you can have chocolate in gold wrappers? Right?!

So, I loved Lucky Charms when I was a kid and I thought it would be fun to serve them as part of our St. Patrick's Day breakfast. Can it be that at one point in my life I actually liked this garbage? They were super sugary and the marshmallows got all slimy...and then to make matters worse I was eating them with green milk! Yuck! Lucky Charms, I am so over you! Don't tell the kids though...we still have a whole box to get through!

You can't tell by the picture but this bagel has green (sort of) cream cheese on it. I was trying to conserve my green food coloring b/c I needed it for the shamrock cookies that we were going to be making so I didn't use much dye. This meal was a case of something tasting better than it looks. When I looked at it I just couldn't help but feel like someone had spread mint toothpaste all over my bagel...yeah, not so appetizing. Of course, the kids thought their green food was pretty cool.

Lunch was MUCH better. Something about the fact that everything on this plate was naturally green made it far more appealing. Here you see a spinach wrap (with cream cheese...yes, it was green, leftover from the bagels...ham, red peppers, lettuce, and ranch dressing), pear slices, and cucumber slices. Yum!

Finger painting fun PLUS a lesson in color...blue and yellow make green!

Here you can see their finger paintings! They turned out cute.

I was pleased with how the cookies turned out...until I ate one. This was definitely a case of something looking better than it tastes. They didn't taste bad...just not particularly good. Oh well, they looked pretty though!

And the next four pictures show why I chose to decorate the majority of the cookies myself.

He broke the stem off within seconds of getting the cookie, dropped a single glop of frosting on top, dumped sprinkles in one spot and said, "I'm all done Mommy, can I eat it now?"

Aden, too, broke the stem off within seconds of getting the cookie and then proceeded to meticulously spread frosting over every inch of cookie (and thus touch every inch of cookie while he was at it)

The he moved onto the sprinkles

And this was his finished product. Do you see now why I frosted the rest myself?!

Not the best shot of Elizabeth but the best shot I had that showed her little dress and shamrock "baby legs"!

(Kelly, these were the first pair that I made and I learned a few things...as always with sewing...but I have made a few more pairs since and I love them. Today I was so thankful to have these b/c it was too cold for her to just have a dress on but I bought this dress with St. Patrick's Day in mind. So, the baby legs made the outfit possible! Yay! They actually matched really well and she looked pretty cute!)

Elizabeth loves to suck on her lower lip. So many pictures that I have of her show her doing this. I decided I may as well post one for y'all so you can see the face that I so often see! Also, she is trying so hard to crawl! And she seems quite determined. I don't think it will be long!

After all the pictures I took today I somehow failed to take even one picture of the corned beef and cabbage feast we had with Dave, Carolyn, Lucas, Ralph, Sally, and Grandma. I hate it when I do that! Oh well. Anyway, it was nice to spend time with everyone and it was fun to eat a festive meal together. We had corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and carrots, lamb stew, corn bread, and rhubarb pie with ice cream. Everything was delicious!

At dinner I did manage to get a couple of shots of the baby...surprise, surprise! =)

Elizabeth wouldn't take her eyes off of Grandpa...it was SO cute!

Such a big girl! Elizabeth sat with us at dinner and really seemed to enjoy being a part of the group. Between eating her pears and being a part of the activity and conversation she was a happy little girl!