happy birthday, aya!

My niece Aya turned 5!

On the same day as her new little baby brother was born (see previous post).

So, even with my sister Elika in the hospital with baby Knox...we went ahead and celebrated Aya's birthday anyway.
It was a family affair...at our house and complex's pool.
Nothing fancy, but with tons of cousins (and I mean, TONS), everyone had fun, I think.
Well, Aya had fun and that's all that matters, right?

So, here's a bunch of the cousins. But by no means, all of them.

The bigger kiddies at the deep end.

While Jolee hung out in the shade with my iPhone.
Hmm....why does this picture look familiar....?
See this post.

And my Mom's here!
Of course, she missed baby Knox's birth by one day, but we're all happy to have her here!!
And since she hung out with Kaden in the shade, I actually got to don my suit and jump in!

(Not that you'll get to see that, though!)

On your mark....get set...

GO!
(I do believe Ezra won this race...)

Kela and Rumi.
As always, inseparable.

Ah, and what's a pool party without a cannonball or two, right?

It was a HOT day...but with the cool breeze blowing through, some relaxing in the sun definitely felt good!

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

So, after the pool, we all headed back to my house for the rest of the partay!

First step...the Hello Kitty piñata!

Which broke off after the second whack by Aya.
Turns out it was one of those "pull ribbons" piñatas...where instead of whacking it, you gently pull the ribbons one by one until one lucky kid pulls the right one that supposedly opens the whole thing up.
We then decided to reinforce with a more strategically placed strap so the kids could continue to whack it with a baseball bat.
Because, seriously...who wants to pull strings on a piñata?

No sissy games here!

I got pics of each child whacking it...but decided to just post the one of Jolee.
Because I'll have you know she probably didn't even put a dent in the cardboard.

In the end, I believe Aya broke it open.
And then it was a mad frenzy to see who could pocket the most candy.

And finally the cake.

Which I was supposed to make...but since I spent all morning running around to the hospital, to another birthday party for Kela's friend, then to the airport to pick up my Mom, then back to the hospital, and then finally back to the birthday party to pick up Kela...I just couldn't find the time.
So, I bought some cupcakes from the store instead.

Sue me.

The kids enjoyed it!

But most importantly, the Birthday Girl enjoyed it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AYA!!

welcome baby knox!

Welcome to the world, baby Knox Daley!

(And if you read the previous post...I'll have you know he was born mere hours after Elika was hanging out at the pool!)

He was born May 27th, 2011

Weighing 8lbs. exactly!
What a sweet little baby boy!

And born on his big sister, Aya's birthday to boot!

Jojo...fascinated by baby's soft arms.

What a sweet little baby!
I feel like I've already forgotten what it's like to hold a newborn!

I know, I know...it's only been 4 1/2 months...
But still, Kaden is quite HUGE compared to this little guy!

Congratulations to the Daley Ohana!

summer=pool

On this, the first day of Summer break, we went to the pool.
Sure, we could have gone to the beach...but
1) Pool is in walking distance while beach is a good 20-30 minutes drive away.
2) Mitch is gone, so I try to avoid going to the beach sans Mitch if at all possible.
and most importantly, 3) My sister, Elika was in LABOR!
Yea, you read that right.
Elika was in labor.
At the pool.

Although, both Kela and Anna finally learned how to swim all the way to the deep end, I think Kela realized how much easier it is to swim with this floatie ring.

Here's our girls on the boogie board...

While Kaden and I hung out in the shade.

Jolee stayed mostly on the steps...


...when she wasn't in the shade playing with my iPhone, that is.

Kela and Aya...

Dean with Aya and little Justus

And Kashus on the boogie board.

And, here's the gang.
I had a great picture with Elika's nice baby belly in profile...but wasn't sure if she'd appreciate my showing it to the world, so this is all you're gonna get.
Sorry.

And...me and Kaden.
It was a HOT day!
And a FUN 1st day of Summer Break!
Looking forward to many more of these!!

it's that time of year again...!

Beach Season, of course!

With the end of the school year approaching, Jolee and Anna's preschool class celebrated their End-of-the-School-Year with a beach party with their classmates.
I wasn't too excited to head out to the beach sans Mitch...but I really couldn't deny Anna and Jolee a day of sun and sand with their cousin and friends.
And besides...the weather was GORGEOUS!

Here's some the kids playing in the sand...

And then heading out to the beach with Mrs. Neill, their teacher.

Jolee kept herself occupied with the sand. And only the sand.
As I mentioned before, she's a bit afraid of EVERYTHING, including the water.
Which was fine by me, since I wasn't too keen on squeezing myself into a bathing suit.
Thank goodness I didn't have to!

I spent most of the morning sitting in the shade with this cutie.

And despite staying ashore, this was actually Kaden's first time at the beach!
I think he enjoyed the day, too.

Anna was happy to finally hit the beach and the water!
And since she can swim, I didn't have to go in with her!
Yay!

Mmm...Spam Musubi.
Our favorite beach snack.

Man, look at that HAIR!
And it's not even the wind that makes it stand up like that!

And, though he's desperately in need of some color on his shockingly white skin...I'll wait a bit longer for that.
We stayed nice and cool in the shade.

We were only there for a couple of hours, but towards the end, the warm sun and cool breeze proved too much for Kaden...KO'd!

And...he wasn't the only one.

The preschool class with Mrs. Neill.

Looking forward to having only Jolee (well, and Kaden too, of course...) next year with Mrs. Neill in her weekly preschool class!

YAY! Bring on Summer!!

passports, parks and diamond head

This week, we ordered a passport for Kaden.
Not sure if we'll actually get to put it to use, but we're hoping (fingers crossed!!) that Kaden and I will get to tag along with Mitch on one of his trips to Japan this summer.
I'll be sure to keep you all posted if we do!
So, just in case...we got a passport.

And here's the photo (pre-cropping, of course)

This week was Anna and Jolee's last day of preschool with Mrs. Neill.
And since Jolee's birthday lands during the summer, Jolee got her birthday balloon early!

And then it was off to the park to run around.
Or...hang around too, I guess.

Anna...since she can't quite navigate the monkey bars from the bottom, she crawled on top.

Kaden...just hangin' out with Daddy in the shade.
Sucking his fingers.

And Jolee on the slide. Which, for some strange reason, she has been unable to slide down by herself lately.
Not sure where all this fear is coming from, but we're finding that Jojo has become afraid of quite a lot of things as of late.
(ie: dogs, slides, jungle gym bridges...etc. Hopefully, she'll outgrow her fear of everything soon...although, preferably AFTER she outgrows her innate clumsiness...)

And on this particularly day, we headed out to Magic Island near Ala Moana to go walking and enjoy the beautiful weather. The day was just too gorgeous to pass up!
Along with a photo op with Diamond Head in the background.

I'm pretty sure she's posing here...

While Kaden took a nap in the shade...lucky kid!