thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving this year was a little different than usual.
My sister Airi rented a great house right on the beach in Laie for Thanksgiving weekend...and so we all drove out to the North (East) shore to enjoy some relaxing time together with family and friends.

And really...what can I say?
It was BEAUTIFUL!
Nothing inspires a feeling of Thankfulness like sitting right next to the beach with great company?!

But before all that, it was my job to cook the turkey this year.
I soaked it in a brine overnight....then baked it in the oven...and although it wasn't the best looking turkey I've ever seen...it was pretty darn close to the best tasting!
Having had bad luck with turkeys in the past, I was a bit nervous but it turned out better than I had hoped!
(I'd show a picture of the bird...but although it was one of the yummiest turkeys, it wasn't necessarily one of the prettiest turkeys. So, no pic. At least not here. You can see it here if you're interested.

See? Not very pretty, huh? But it was ONO!

So, upon first arriving at the beach house, this is what we saw.
Hmm...while Atau serenaded us to some ukulele music a couple of the boys decided to climb up the tree.
Can you spot them?!

Ah, here they are.
Luckily, no one fell out.

The spread.
There was just TOO much food!
All of it yummy!!

So, here's the adult shot.

Caleb and Kaden.
Hanging out in the play pen while the rest of us ate our Thanksgiving feast!

Jojo and Luke.
I don't think I can get enough of these two!
So stinkin' cute together.

Speaking of hanging out together...here's Rumi, Kela and Anna.
Enjoying their turkey dinner.

After dinner...we hit the beach.
Even though it was windy and pretty chilly.

Mitch and Anna walked up along the shoreline and stumbled upon this poor puffer fish who washed ashore.

While Seina and Ezra spent the whole time perfecting their sand sculptures of a killer whale and her baby! That's some fancy sand sculpting!

And while the little ones played...some the other kids threw sand at each other...
and thankfully, managed to hit only each other and NOT any of the rest of us.

AND then, the next day (the day AFTER Thanksgiving) we headed out to the beach again and what did we see?!
A family of turtles swimming mere feet from the shore!
Can you see its head?! There must have been 2 or 3 of them...and so close, it almost seemed like they were close enough to touch!
Which we didn't.
Even though we wanted to.

And then, to top off the weekend festivities, we took a handful of the little ones out to the beach at night to hunt for little ghost crabs.

And we found a LOT!
Jojo was fearless! And must have grabbed at least a half dozen all by herself!
While her sisters were too scared to touch them for most of the evening.

Our crab-hunting party.
COLD and windy...but good fun!

Here's the bounty!
Of course, we released them back onto the beach right after.

All in all, it was a BLAST hanging out on the beach and eating some yummy food with family and friends.
We have SO much to be thankful for!

To check out more photos from our Thanksgiving weekend up in Laie, click HERE!!

a day at the park

Things have definitely been slowing down here lately.
Here's just a few pictures and videos from the other day.
We headed out to a park in Hawaii Kai to get the kids out and run around a bit.

Me and my baby boy.
Getting so big!

Airi and her little boy.

Anna and Jolee.
Rowing their makeshift boat.

And...with a couple stowaways, too.
When hanging with a bunch of cousins...it's easy to find some way to have fun without any fancy toys or elaborate games.
How lucky we are to live near so much family...and to have so many cousins to play with!

Here's a video of Rumi and Jolee skateboarding down the hill.
While Kela rides Kumen's bike.
It's a small hill. :)

And then the kids doing a traditional Sakuma gathering activity.
A friendly race.
Complete with cheaters.

the halloween post, parts 1~3

The Halloween Post.
No, we didn't celebrate Halloween three times.
But that's not to say that I didn't have to attend 3 separate Halloween-themed activities.
Confused?

Just don't think too hard and read along.

Our front porch.
No Jack-O-Lanterns for the Seavey household this year.
We preferred to showcase NON-moldy pumpkins on our porch, thank you very much.

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PART 1

Thursday was Jolee's preschool day.
There, she got to help clean out a pumpkin.
I was actually quite shocked Jolee was brave enough to get in there and scoop out the goo!
She's usually our clean freak...who can't stand having dirty hands and is constantly wanting to wash them.
She obviously wasn't afraid of the slimy, messy, gooey gunk that is pumpkin guts.

Kaden, on the other hand, was unimpressed...

Mrs. Neill ( her teacher ) made these cute little Halloween bags for each student to put their Halloween treasures she hid around the class inside.
Jolee thought it made a perfect had instead.

Some of the fun things Mrs. Neill hid that the kids got to hunt for?
A stick that makes an annoying noise when tilted, a loud castanet-looking toy, some stickers and a small pumpkin.

By next week, I predict only one of the above items will remain in our house.
I'll give you a hint...it isn't loud or perishable.

And then they ate some cookies afterwards.
Here's some of her classmates.
ALL the other children are 2 years old, while Jolee -the oldest- is 3 1/2.
Betcha couldn't tell, eh?



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PART 2

Friday night was our ward's Halloween party.
Since Mitch was busy helping them set up, I had to get all the kids ready and to the chapel on time, all by myself.
What's new, right?
In case you can't tell...Kela is a cheetah (although it's sort of a cop-out costume since that dress is an actual dress, NOT a costume), Anna is a Cheerleader (costume courtesy of her cousin Aya), and Jolee was a cute little bumblebee (which all I had to do was sew on some yellow ribbons onto a black t shirt).
Kaden wore an orange onesie.

I've learned my lesson...babies and costumes DO NOT a happy combination make.

Kela and her Cheetah ears...the ONLY thing that turns this outfit into somewhat of a costume.
She wouldn't even let me paint a nose and whiskers or put the tail on!!

Where she gets this aversion to costumes, I have NO idea!

Just kidding...did I mention that neither Mitch nor I dressed up?

Need I mention that Mitch and I NEVER dress up?

Anyhoo - here's Daddy taking our bumblebee Jolee to the activity rooms.
Those bee wings and antennae headband were courtesy of Mitch's mom.
Who LOVES to shop at thrift stores and dollar stores for fun things for my girls.
While I don't care much for most of the things she gifts them...this particular find turned out to be brilliant! Thanks, Mom!

Anna...fishing for some candy...

After running it up on the XBox Kinect activity room.
The game? Wipeout.
It was hilarious!
And despite the fact that I am anti-video games...it made me want to get one for our family for Christmas!
Of course, it all depends on whether I can convince Mitch to agree with me...

Another activity...another candy...

They even had a bobbing for apples bucket!
I was absolutely wary of allowing Anna to even touch that water (knowing how many other kids had plunged their faces and mouths into that same water makes me feel like throwing up a little...) But she really wanted to try.
In the end, she barely put her nose in the water and fished the apple out with her hands instead.
Good girl.

Me and Kaden.
His shirt says "I love my Mummy"

Yes he does...

At the end of the evening, the kids relaxed and munched on their candy while the adults cleaned up.
In case you were wondering, little Luke is "Thor-kachu"
Apparently some hybrid of Thor and Pikachu.
Points for creativity?


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PART 3

And finally...Halloween Day.
And can I just start off by saying that having Halloween on a weekday was LAME!
Ok, beyond that, the kids had fun walking around the neighborhood collecting candy from strangers with their cousins.
And the neighbor girl.
Who decided to come along with us, sans invitation.
Because her Dad said it was OK.
Even though "I" didn't say it was OK.
But whatever.

We only went down ONE street and one stretch of Town homes.
But that took nearly an hour!
That's how fast a 3 year-old walks with big wings on her back and a heavy bag of candy dangling from her arm.
Almost can't blame the older kids for running ahead at every opportunity.
Which they got soundly scolded for afterwards...

I was quite surprised that Jolee was brave enough to say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You" to the candy passer-outers.

But I suppose a child could overcome a variety of fears when candy is involved...

This house was just one street above us.
And was the scariest house on our route.
With scary decor, spooky noises and a smoke machine, I had to literally DRAG Jolee inside the gate!

And then...once we were done begging for candy, we headed home so I could make dinner.
While Kela and Anna had fun passing out candy to the other Trick-or-treaters who came our way.

Don't judge... but the candy in the box is basically all the junk candies we had received the day before and didn't want...one man's junk is another man's treasure, right?

And then...to finish off the night (not to mention, the junk candy), I placed this box outside on our front porch with a sign asking kids to take only one.
After a few minutes, the girls peeked outside to find the box nearly empty!
Anna's funny observation, "Mommy, I think some people took more than one!"
To which Kela opined, "Maybe they couldn't read?"

And Anna's reply? "Because they're SPANISH!"

Hahaha...the funny things that go through the minds of a little child.
And the even funnier things that come out of their little mouths!

To check out the other pictures I took related to Halloween, click HERE!

Sure hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween as well!!

Now, onto Thanksgiving!!!

soccer season...DONE!

After a short (but long) 2 months, the Fall season of soccer is DONE!
I know, I know...if I'm so happy about it being finished, why sign them up in the first place, right?
It's not that I don't enjoy watching the girls play soccer.
No, I enjoy it a lot!
It's all the other stuff that gets tedious and time consuming.
Like the weekly practices when Mitch is gone and I have to drag ALL FOUR KIDS WITH ME TO THE PARK FOR AN HOUR! Or, fighting for a decent parking spot at the games on Saturdays-which is IMPOSSIBLE if they have a game later than 8:30AM. Or, the HEAT!
Oh, and did I mention that I was team parent for BOTH girls' teams?
So, as much as I enjoyed watching them play soccer, and seeing their progress in the sport...I'm equally happy to have some reprieve until the Spring season begins in January.

So, here's Kela's trophy.
Fancy, huh?

And her team.
The Pink Cheetahs.
Kela wasn't the youngest on the team...but she was still the smallest.

Coach Jen.
Who was AWESOME!
And who's daughter is also Kela's classmate at school.
Yay!

AND...here's Anna's team.
They were the Blue Unicorns.
There were only 5 girls, with 2 coaches.

Coach Sheldon and Coach Michelle.
The U-6 division had a hard time getting parents to coach the teams this season...so we had co-coaches.
It was a bit of a struggle getting started and into a set routine...but Anna had a lot of fun and the coaches were great and positive.

Her trophy.

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And...to wrap up the season, here's just a couple of pics I took at their games.
For more, click HERE for Kela's pictures and HERE for Anna's.

Kela...chasing the ball.

Jojo...line ref.
Just kidding. Just helping Daddy referee the game.
Which he did almost EVERY game.

Relaxing in the shade between quarters.

Anna...rockin' it on the field.

See you all in the Spring!