"Great Grandma's" House

We are so blessed to live within 10 minutes* of Daniel's grandma. She has welcomed us to this island with open arms, an open heart, and an open invitation to her home. From the get-go she has made sure that we are always taken care of...bringing us food, checking in on us with phone calls, providing extra jobs for Daniel (and thus extra $), and just overall looking out for us. She loves seeing the kids and loves to spoil them...ice cream, cake, tall glasses of "straight" juice, gifts, etc....and they love going to "Great Grandma's"! We love Grandma/Great Grandma and are thankful for the time we get to spend with her.

(*unless of course there is road work going on between Kilauea and Princeville which can mean that we live within 45 minutes of her!)

Here's a sweet shot of Grandma with Elizabeth. I think Elizabeth resembles her. What do you think?

Here's Sissy hanging out in the antique cradle at Grandma's. Grandma's grandmother slept in this...in 1865!! And many babies have slept in it since then, including Daniel and his siblings! It's fun to think that so many generations of babies have laid their sweet heads in this little cradle.

A shot of the boys in their new robes...a gift from Grandma. Thanks Grandma! These were a perfect gift for these bath tub lovin' and beach lovin' boys!

My Kids as Playmates (and then some of Sissy too!)

Here's Sissy quietly playing with her toys on the blanket while her crazy brothers "crawl" around her chanting, "I am a crocodile" in deep, raspy voices. If only I'd captured it on video...

Believe it or not, this was not a posed shot. I thought it was cute and it made me smile because I just know that these three are going to be great friends! The boys love Elizabeth so much and she is just captivated by them...seriously...she's interested in their every move! Just try nursing her when they're in the same room...yeah, good luck!

And, here are several very similar but very cute shots of my baby girl!

I bought this rattle at a garage sale when Aden was a baby. It is great BUT it is heavy and thus is definitely best as a tummy time rattle. She actually bonked herself on the head with it several times when she played with it while on her back and one time it even made her cry. Poor thing!

You can see how thin her hair has gotten...

Definitely looking forward to reversing the hair loss cycle =)

Do you see her two little teefers?

Lawn Mower Cupcakes

I got this idea out of the Family Fun Magazine last June. It was actually a "Father's Day" idea but since my little boy LOVES lawn mowers and all things yardwork-related these were perfect for him! Since we did Winnie the Pooh for his big party I decided to make these for his little preschool celebration. They were a hit!

You can see the excitement on Aden's face as Miss Connie set his cupcake in front of him! As a parent I don't think I'll ever get enough of my children's sweet innocence. To see the joy that something so simple as a cupcake can bring to them. Here Aden was squealing with excitement. Precious!

Singing "Happy Birthday" to my Aden Boy!

Twelve 3 and 4-year olds with chocolate frosting = lots of messy faces and hands!

Jon Jon got to join in on the fun! He loved it!

The kids burning off some of the sugar before heading back into class.

Poor Miss Connie...I arrived a little late, disrupted her circle time, brought messy chocolate frosted cupcakes and juice boxes, forgot napkins, AND had a fussy baby in tow. Yes, I have become one of THOSE parents that used to drive me nuts when I was the teacher!

Nap time?

Totally caught in the act!

Elizabeth has made a habit of playing with her dollys when she is supposed to be napping! Her dolls and animals are lined up at the foot of her crib and this little monkey loves to do a 180 after I lay her down and pull these two dolls from the group to play with. Yeah, don't let a quiet nursery fool you! I can't tell you how many times I have assumed that the quiet nursery meant a sleeping baby! Oh contrare...the quiet nursery often means a happy, occupied baby!

I just can't get enough of those dimples!

Sweetie Pie!

"Mommy, if you wanted me to take a nap then why did you leave these fun dolls in my crib?"

Winnie The Pooh and Tigger Birthday Party

Aden wanted a Tigger party for his 4th birthday so a Tigger party we had! Of course, where there's Tigger, there's the whole Winnie the Pooh crew. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time...a gathering of family and friends, yummy food and cake, and some good old-fashioned games.

We had the party at Anini Beach Park (a hop, skip, and a jump from Dave and Carolyn's house)

which made setting up and tearing down convenient. Many thanks to all those who helped!

The bounce house was a huge hit!

Here you can see the boys in their homemade t-shirts

Sippin' juice boxes and munchin' on turkey sandwiches, Dorritos, and carrots

Not a bad backdrop for a picnic lunch! :)

Great Grandma, Daddy, and Auntie Tricia (our pastor's wife)

"Bouncing Tigger" game

A "Bouncy Tigger" twist to the classic gunny sack races

The kids LOVED this! I think they really thought they were Tigger! Amazing what a stuffed, striped tail pinned to shorts can do for hopping skills!

Sweet Darla

Darla and her older brother Isaiah live across the street from us and Darla is always a good sport about playing with "the boys" (you'll notice she's the only girl at the party!) BUT we keep telling her that it won't be long before Elizabeth will be ready to join in on the fun.

Well, this can't compare to the awesome firetruck cake that Auntie Stacy made for Aden last year but it was cute enough and Aden was pleased. I just wish I would have taken it out of the Costco box before I snapped the picture!

Aden and Jonathan kept their tails on for the rest of the party...I thought this shot was cute with their tails sticking our behind them as they ate their cake.

At one point one of the parents said, "Where are the kids?" and we looked over to see Aden (my crazy tree-climbing monkey) up in this tree with all the other kids on the ground looking up. He was probably 10 feet off the ground and I'm not sure how he managed to get himself up there! It was cute though because in one of the classic Pooh stories Tigger bounces himself up into a tree and can't get down. Although, Aden figured out how to get down!

Here's Isaiah getting ready to pin the tail on Eeyore.

And here's little Kamu (our pastor's 11 month old grandson) doing the same...without the blindfold, of course!

How appropriate to play a game of "pin the tail on the donkey" with Eeyore!

Presents! Presents! Presents!

Improvise

For Aden's third birthday (firetruck theme) Jonathan's gift to Aden was a firetruck t-shirt. I wanted to make that a tradition...the morning of Aden's birthday, he'd open Jonathan's gift and it would be a shirt that he could wear to his party that went with the party's theme. Well, as soon as Aden decided that he wanted a Tigger party for his birthday this year I started looking for a cute Tigger t-shirt. I looked at all the stores here and in several stores in Oahu and I looked online. I found lots of adult t-shirts and lots of little girl t-shirts (form fitting, capped sleeves, etc.) but as far as little boys there just wasn't much out there, surprisingly. After scouring the internet I finally found one BUT to have it shipped to Hawaii would have ended up costing me $30+...for a single t-shirt. Well, that wasn't going to happen so I decided to improvise...

I bought a couple of plain boys' t-shirts at Walmart for $3 each.

I bought a yard of this darling fabric for $4.

and I appliqued some of the darling fabric onto the cheap shirts. Very easy, very inexpensive, and pretty cute.

I liked this one the best! On the day of the party Aden chose to wear the other one because it was ORANGE (of course!) and he let Jon Jon wear this one.

While I was at it I made a "Cars" shirt too!

And with the scraps I made a "better than just plain white" washcloth!