december...through christmas

December is upon us, and so is the feeling of Christmas in the air!

Well, not really considering the temperatures are still hovering in the 70's but with the Holidays comes all the festive decorations and music.  

 We visited the Honolulu City Lights at Honolulu Hale with my sister Elika and her family.

Here's the kiddos.

It may not feel like Christmas, but once you see all the Christmas lights and decorations, it's hard not to get in the spirit of the season!

 Once school let out for Christmas break, I knew I'd be hard-pressed to find some activities for the kids to do to keep them occupied and away from the computer or the iPad.

I found this giant coloring page on the internet and decided it was worth a shot.

I think the kids enjoyed coloring it!  It took a few days and the girls all played quite nicely together while each took a different corner and started coloring.  

Yay for cheap and easy indoor activities!

 And, with the Holiday season comes the Christmas train at the mall.  We let the kids ride this every year and they all love it!  Although truthfully, I think Kela's getting a wee bit too old for it!

(Though between you and me, she loves it just as much as the younger ones.)

It was my first time allowing Kaden to ride it.  While I was a tad nervous for him, I worried for nothing because he absolutely LOVED it!  The only time he fussed was when they were waiting to start.  Some other little kids were fussing and taking too long so they had to wait an extra few minutes to start moving.  He got antsy and wanted to move around...but as soon as the train started forward, he sat still and enjoyed every minute of it!  Yay!

Oh, and he also fussed when I had to pull him out at the end of the ride.  :(

He did NOT want it to end!

To get a bit more in the Holiday mood, Mrs. Neil (their preschool teacher) brought a shave ice maker to class one day.  She wanted the kids to make their own SNOW!

How fun is this?

Jojo with her snowball.  

 Kaden took a bit longer warming up to the idea of playing with a snowball...but once he discovered it, he kept going back for more and more!  

 Hopefully he'll get to experience REAL snow in the next few months when we visit the mainland... Hopefully!

Oh, and how cute are these?  A mom in the class made these cute little gingerbread men for each child!

Unfortunately, my kids aren't big on gingerbread cookies so they didn't get eaten...but still.  

How cute are these??

And then...onto Christmas Day.

My parents were trying to fly here to spend Christmas with all of us in Hawaii this year.

We booked them some buddy passes and crossed our fingers.  

Unfortunately, with the flight loads being SO full, they were unable to make it out on the 23rd.  So, Mitch being the super guy that he is, decided to fly out to Seattle to meet up with them in hopes of raising their chances of flying out on the 24th.  They still didn't make it!  :(

Which meant that we spent Christmas Eve with my siblings...but not my parents and NOT Mitch.

The girls were pretty sad, but truthfully, I was even sadder.

Here we are on Christmas Eve, Skyping with my parents and Mitch...hoping and praying that they can fly to Hawaii on Christmas Day at least!

And, thankfully, our prayers were answered!!

Christmas Day, my parents and Mitch arrived safely to spend Christmas at home with us in Hawaii!

Here are my parents with the girls just after arriving.

My girls even waited until Daddy came home to open their presents...they were so patient!  

I was super proud of them.  

And they were super happy with all of their Christmas presents. :)

After opening up their gifts, the girls wanted to make some of the "poppin' kitchen" candy food that Mitch had gotten them from Japan. 

My Mom helped the girls make the food and assemble the "candy sushi."

My girls LOVE this stuff!! 

Seriously..this is made out of CANDY!!  And they made it themselves!!!

I'm convinced that Japan has the best candy and food EVER!  :)

After my parents relaxed for a bit, it was off to meet up with the rest of the Sakumas.

The reason why my parents came in the first place...was to meet their newest grandchild, Nixon.

Elika's baby arrived a week early so they didn't get to see his birth, but I think it all worked out okay in the end!  Baby Nixon looks so tiny in Ojichan's arms!

This is grandchild number 23 for my parents.  

Look how alert Nixon is after only a week!

My kids (and I'm sure most of the other kids as well) were most looking forward to the new pajamas that Obachan always makes for them.  Well, some got pillowcases instead, but most of the kids got brand new PJ's...which is SO much work when you think of how many little grandkids there are!  

Thank you Obachan!

And as a thank you...I decided to put together a quilt for my parents this year.

I passed out a quilt square to each grandchild and had them decorate them however they wanted.
And then painstakingly assembled the quilt with ALL the grandkids personalized squares.
It was my first attempt at such a quilt...and I'm sure there could have been many improvements in the colors and sewing and such...but all in all, I thought it turned out pretty good!
Hopefully, my parents were happy and can have a tangible reminder of all their posterity.

Well...most of them.  
Baby Nixon wasn't included and there appears to be one more Sakuma baby on the way later this year, so I suppose in a couple of years I may need to make another one with ALL the kids!

Christmas Dinner was sushi.  And some left over BBQ from Christmas Eve (which, I did NOT take any noteworthy pictures of.  Sorry...but with Mitch and my parents stranded in Seattle, I wasn't really in the festive picture-taking mood)

Justus and Jojo.  

These two are like two peas in a pod whenever we get together!

After dinner it was time for some friendly white elephant gift exchanging...

...followed by some Wii Just Dance.  

It was a Very Merry Christmas for all of us!!

nature hike

The day after Thanksgiving, Kaden got sick.

And since we had little else to do, I decided to take the girls out for some outdoor hiking while Mitch rested at home with Kaden.

I took them to Moanalua Valley...it's a fairly long trail that bisects the entire island...but we only went about a  mile in, and then came back.

 Here we are at the trail head.

Thank goodness we remembered to bring the insect repellent.  

Mosquitoes EVERYWHERE!

 The girls with their walking sticks.

Jojo checking out the huge trees overhead.

 Some historic stops here and there...there was even an old cottage-but the trail was a bit overgrown and looked muddy so we passed.  I think looking at the trees was enough for my girls.  :)

 Oh, and carving their names in the muddy ground.

 See?  Mud.

 Me with Kela and Jojo. 

Anna was behind the camera.  

 On the way back, I noticed a rope swing someone had made out of a hanging vine!!

  Kela on the vine...

And even me...

Jojo wasn't into swinging from any vines so I forced convinced her to pose on this rock.

She looks scared, right?  She was.

The playground here was run down and falling apart, so they played around on the exercise equipment for a bit before heading back home.  Moanalua Valley trail was at the very end of a residential road, way off the beaten path...it was nice and quiet and peaceful!  Except for the creepy dude hanging out at the picnic tables that kept trying to talk to us.  We stayed for only a couple of minutes before booking it out of there...can't be too careful around weirdo strangers, right?

But all in all, it was a nice and relaxing hike for the girls and I got to spend some quality time just us girls.  

thanksgiving 2012

Let me preface this post by saying....I have been severely slacking in my picture taking lately.

And by "slacking," I mean that I don't even carry my camera with me most days anymore.

Gasp!  I know, it's like I'm a completely different person since acquiring the much nicer iPhone 5 with a better camera and flash!

Ok, so this year for Thanksgiving, I didn't have to make a turkey.  My sister Airi did.

My brother made the ham and my sister Elika made the pot roast.

(I know, I know...which one doesn't belong, right?  We were trying to be creative with our proteins this year...)

I made the mashed potatoes, heated up the corn, and made a large pan of tofu watercress salad.

(I know!  We were going for an eclectic Western-Asian theme this year) 

So, here's most of the kids.  I notice some of the little ones were missing...but when you're dealing with so many kids, really, it's kind of inevitable, right?

This was merely a smidgen of the food.  I didn't even bother taking pictures of all of it because it was SO much food!!  But right here is the main stuff anyway, right?

 After dinner, we gathered all the kids together for some friendly wrestling.

Yes, I said wrestling.  This lasted for quite a while, actually.

And involved most of the kids in various competitive combinations.

 Including a ninja or two as well.

 Airi's friend made a huge Thanksgiving mural and had all the kids (and adults) draw their handprint and decorate them into turkeys.  Cute, right?

Here's Anna's turkey.

 Jojo's turkey.

 Kela's turkey.

 Kaden's turkey. (that the girls decorated in his stead)

And my turkey...that the girls also decorated.

Apparently, mine also was the only one that spoke.

No reference to my constant nagging and scolding, I'm sure.

This year's Thanksgiving was a LARGE affair at my sister's house, filled with many friends and extended family, in addition to our own fairly large family.  The food was aplenty and the kids had so much fun gathered together to play and chat and eat!

Because isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about?  Enjoying good food with great company.  We are so blessed to be able to enjoy both!   :)

putt putt golfing

Kaden's friend invited us to his 2nd birthday party...at a putt-putt golfing range.

(are they called "ranges" if it's putt-putt golf?)

Anyway, we were invited and even though it was a tad rainy, we all went and enjoyed ourselves.

(minus Kela, who had another activity to go to this day)

Here's a couple too many kids on the merry-go-round.

Kaden with his church nursery buddies,

C.J in the middle is the birthday boy, and Sammy on the way right is the same age as CJ.  

All 3 were born within 3 months of each other... unfortunately, Kaden looks way younger than the others.  :)

 Kaden in the lion's mouth.

Jojo on the pink elephant.

All of these were coin-operated rides.

Yes, we indulged and let them ride and ride and ride. 

You're only a kid once, right?

And yes, I followed him around and around...just to make sure he doesn't fall off the ride.

Paranoid mama right here.

 And then there was the putt-putt golfing.

My kids need some practice...

Obviously, the concept of taking turns is one we haven't quite mastered yet...

Did I mention we don't putt-putt golf much?

Hahaha...regardless of the rules, (not to mention the rain on this particular November afternoon) the kids had fun!