my ongoing quest for peace...

...In Church, that is!

Well, OK. Of course we all seek some peace in our lives...but for the past 6 months or so, this has been my project for *hopefully* bringing a little bit more peace during Sacrament Meetings at church on Sundays.

I mean, when you're trying to contain 3 little girls in a church pew for an hour all by yourself...you gotta stock your arsenal! Right?

File Folders!

I made 7 folders. All laminated, cut-outs attach by Velcro, and with pockets for some of the extra pieces.

Is it bad to try and "teach" math to my girls at church...?

Hmm....Oh well.

Here's a "Spiritually-minded" one.

And I do have more than one.

I promise!

Hopefully...it will work.

And hopefully...the rrrrrriiipp! of the Velcro won't bother our neighbors either.

Oops! ha ha ha...

a scared little billy goat

This past week at Anna's preschool class, the teacher, Mrs. Neill, prepared an enactment of the classic story, "The Billy Goats Gruff."
The "play" was pretty basic.
And not very elaborate.
(note: the upturned tubs are supposed to be the bridge...)
But she DID however go ALL OUT on the troll's mask!
So much so that all the kids were pretty spooked by it.

My friend, Akiko had to carry Anna (not to mention her also frightened son, Taisei) across the "bridge."
We all thought it was pretty hilarious.

*Does that make me a bad Mommy for laughing at my daughter's "goat-a-phobia?

Jolee was fine with the goat-crown.

But we didn't force her to cross any bridges...

Finally a *hint* of a smile after the play is done.

"4"

Happy Birthday to our not-so-little "Anna Banana" who turned 4 years-old on April 25th.

I would post some baby pictures of her and reminisce of her birth, and whatnot, but in all honesty...I can't really remember.
Sorry...

So, per our usual birthday fare, I made cupcakes. Personalized with the birthday girl's name, of course!
And one of my favorites: Chocolate cupcake with strawberry frosting.

Mmmm.....we brought home left overs.

Anna licking the frosting off of her 1st cupcake.
Notice the ice cream that's left neglected?
And so it remained neglected...
Until I decided to sacrifice my stomach and eat it in her stead.

We can't go around wasting food now, can we?

She wanted another cupcake...and we told her she could have a second one.
So long as she ate the ENTIRE first cupcake (rather than just licking the frosting off of it)
She apparently wanted that second cupcake's frosting SO BAD, that she forced herself to eat the whole thing!

*That'll teach her!
"You want more frosting? Eat that entire sugar-filled cake and THEN you can eat more frosting!"

I mean....if they don't learn good eating habits at home, where else are they going to learn it, I ask?

Most of the gang.
Gathered together to help us celebrate all things Anna!

(okay, that was probably a bit of an exaggeration. They most likely just wanted to play with their cousins and eat cake and ice cream...)


Either way, Happy Birthday, Anna!

no cavities!!

All three of our girls had their teeth cleaned a couple of days ago.

And thankfully...NO cavities!!

(well...technically, Kela had a one tiny cavity filled last week, but at least no new ones!)

And since she's 21 months old...we thought it was high time for Jolee to have her first go in the chair as well.

Of course, I sat with her, just to be safe. Wouldn't you know it...she didn't even fuss! She patiently sat there, opened her mouth for the typical cleaning and even the flossing!

Why, does a 21 month old need her teeth flossed, you ask?
Genetics.

Her father had to have 3 teeth pulled in order for the orthodontist to slap on his braces in high school.
( I know...can you imagine having braces in high school? Poor guy!)
Have you ever seen a child with baby teeth totally crowded together? That's our girls.

So, with his genetic disposition to have crooked, crowded teeth...my girls pretty much have NO hope of a decent smile.
We even got a look at Kela's x-rays...and could visually see her adult teeth making their way through. Crooked, of course!

*sigh*
Forget about a college fund...I suppose I should start a separate "braces fund" for all three girls right about now.

beach day...EVERYDAY!

For the past YEAR or so, Mitch has been saying how much he wants to get a sandbox for the girls.

I mean...we finally have a yard to play in, and all the girls have to play with is DIRT!

Which they happily play with, but you know...they're GIRLS!

We simply can't have our little princesses playing with DIRT, now can we?

After researching, and researching, we decided on coral sand to fill our sandbox.

Just FYI, for those with little kids and sandboxes...did you know most "play sand" you get at the stores contain crystalline silica and is extremely harmful when inhaled?! Yea, it causes cancer. Crazy, right? Can you imagine kids playing with sand and NOT inhaling some of the dust? That's like giving a baby a teething ring laced with lead & telling him not to bite it!!

...oh wait...they did that too!

WHAT'S THIS WORLD COMING TO WHEN THEY KNOWINGLY SELL CHILDREN'S "PLAY SAND" THAT CONTAINS DANGEROUS PARTICLES?!? SERIOUSLY!!!

(Grrrr...Ok. End Rant)

So, anyway, after searching all over...we decided on CORAL SAND.

Which, is basically, beach sand!

*NOT the same stuff as play sand, which is mined from quarries in the mountains and such...

And since stealing sand from the beaches here is illegal, we had to buy it. At Home Depot.

And surprisingly, it was pretty cheap! Woo Hoo!

Jolee digging in.

Who needs water when you got all that sand, right?



You can take the girls away from the beach...
But who's stopping us from bringing the beach to the girls!!



Sandbox...$20 off of Craigslist.

Sand...$30 from Home Depot.

Not having to drive to the beach or park to entertain the girls??

PRICELESS!!!

And the only drawback is this.
Times 1000!

EVERYWHERE!!!

Ah, well...the things we sacrifice for our kids...

a birthday celebration...

fit for a 33 year-old!

(which is to say...it was very, very LOW KEY!)

Mitch turned...um...I'm not sure if it's ok to say how old he is. Oh wait, I just DID! So, anyway, he turned 33 this week and we got together on Sunday evening to celebrate.

Like I said...it was very low-key. So low-key, in fact, that the tiny cake was simply a dessert we shared after dinner. :)

I mean, can you even SEE the cake?

It's hiding behind Kela's head. (ha ha ha)

Oh, THERE it is!

Sans candles...as if 33 candles would even fit on that tiny cake, right?

Jolee thoroughly enjoyed the cake.
Well...I think everyone did.
It WAS a Trader Joe's Vanilla Bean cake with chocolate frosting.
What's not to like about that?!



Anna...notice how the frosting is gone before the cake?
Yea...that is SO not a trait she got from me.


Kela. She barely finished this small cake.
Ah, now THAT'S my daughter!


Who's the grumpy birthday boy?
Frowning about all the cake Jolee's scarfing down, no doubt...


See? Notice how she's eyeing Kashus' cake...

Apparently trying to convince him that he doesn't want that last bite.

She failed.

Happy Birthday, Mitch!

(Now we're the same age! )

family fun fest

Kela's school has a HUGE party every spring as the school's major fundraiser. It's a big deal. With rides and games and food...it's actually a community event!

Mitch even signed up to volunteer to help set up beforehand...grilling the chicken for the Teri chicken plates.

(Which we later ate, btw. And it was yummy!)

We started out on the rides. Like the "caged" effect?

(Where can I get one of those, I wonder....)

Here's Jolee on the merry-go-round.

I had to sit in the middle to make sure she didn't fall off.

Only after it started moving did I remember that I get motion sickness...

Then it was onto the games.

Here's Anna trying to catch a fish with her skimpy paper-net.

She didn't catch one. Thank goodness. Although I did feel a bit bad afterwards. I probably should have helped her so she could have had the experience of scooping up a little fish. I just couldn't help thinking to myself..."I don't want to touch the stinky water!"...(sissy, I know!)

Then onto the little octopus ring-toss. That Jolee kept trying to run away with. I mean, it was a pretty cute little octopus...



Then the a bottle ring-toss.
Daddy just couldn't stand watching Anna throw the rings into the bushes...

And to be honest, there were plenty more games they did...I just didn't get around to snapping very many pictures because:
1) It was raining.
2) I had Jolee most of the time. She doesn't let me have a free hand most of the time...
and 3) Most of these games took all of 30 seconds. I just wasn't quick enough to get my camera ready.


Oh well...


And, what's a little carnival without some face painting?!
Of course, my girls being the squeamish girls they are, didn't want the paint on their faces. (yay!)
They opted for the paint on their arms.


Which was a good thing since it rained off and on all evening. And the paint bled and ran down their arms.
I shudder to think of what they'd have looked like with blotchy (and sadly, poorly drawn) paint trickling down their cheeks.


Dinner break.
The aforementioned Teri-Chicken plate.
We sure were lucky enough to find a covered area to plop down for dinner.
The rain was NOT a welcome addition to the festivities!

We finished off the evening with a few more games.

Kela wouldn't go near this booth since she can't handle popping balloons.

And then some swinging ride that I thought Anna would be too scared to try, but was totally wrong.

Can you see her smiling?

She LOVED it!

So much, in fact, that she wanted to ride it again!

At the end of the night, we were exhausted!

And the girls were ecstatic about their prizes from the games.

The trolley ride home to our car.

The girls had a blast!

And I was happy to change out of our wet clothes and relax in a warm bed!

Sheesh, I think I'm getting too old for this!

happy easter!

Holy Cow! It's Easter Already?!

I really do try and avoid starting blog posts like this, but I just can't help it.

Where did all the time go?!

Seriously...didn't we just ring in the new year?

Anyhoo-back to Easter.

As per our usual routine, we started the Easter festivities with some egg-hunting at the local library. This year, since Kela is in kindergarten, it was just Jolee and Anna. And since Mitch was working (what's new?), I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked.

Bah! A few is better than none, right?

While waiting their turn at the egg-hunting, we passed the time playing with puzzles. When I wasn't chasing Jolee around the library, in between the tall stacks of books, that is!

Did I mention that Mitch was at work?!

(insert exasperated sigh here...)

Once the bell sounded, the kids trailed out in search for eggs. And to make it fair for everyone, they staggered the kids by age. Which meant that Anna had to wait a few minutes while I escorted Jolee out first.

And, since Jolee didn't want to hold the bucket herself, I was also her bucket caddy.

Hence, the lack of pictures...

(*optional-another exasperated sigh here...*)

Here's Anna, not needing too much help with finding eggs.
She was actually a great sport about waiting the few extra minutes by herself while I went with Jolee.

Not to mention a good sport about Jolee finding more eggs than her, too.

...Of course, that could have something to do with the fact that I was holding Jolee's bucket.

And therefore, aided in her finding most of her eggs...

But what d'ya expect? She's only 20 months old, right?

(plus...it's not as if she can eat all that candy by herself!)

Here she is, checkin' out her Easter loot!

She was happy to hold her bucket NOW!


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

THEN...

On Easter Sunday, we drove out to my sister's house in Hau'ula to celebrate the season with family. After watching the last session of General Conference together, we turned our attention to the REAL meaning of Easter.

Easter Eggs, right?

No! But I suppose for the kids...it's the only tangible connection they have to this special day, so we really couldn't skip it!

While it rained in the morning, by late afternoon, the rain let up enough for us to venture out doors for the egg-hunting!

Don't mind the Tyvek and building material and equipment lying around. They're in the process of renovating their house.

Here's just some of the little ones after the egg hunt.

Um...so the pictures are a bit out of order...

Here's some pictures from the actual hunt....at my sister's CONSTRUCTION SITE!

Jolee fishing out an egg from the dirt.

Ahhh...WHO chose this place to hide eggs?


Kela with her cousin Hugo.
In the unfinished downstairs addition to the house.
A few stray eggs were apparently hidden here as well.
Obviously, the Dad's were in charge of hiding eggs this year...

Kela and her cousin Aya showing off their findings.


"1...2...3...everyone say EASTER BUNNY!"

You'll notice it was a smaller fare than usual, since my older sister's family (with their 5 kids) was out of town. BUT, it was still a fun day of family, fun, and great food!

And despite all the candy and food...the best part of the day was spending time together, and remembering why we really celebrate Easter.
That because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and love, we can attain that precious gift of Eternal Life!



Happy Easter, everyone!