kuhio day = beach day!

It's Prince Kuhio Day.
A holiday...so that means no school.
With little on our agenda, we decided to hit the beach.
Even though the weather was a bit overcast and even sprinkled a tiny bit in the morning...by afternoon, the sun was bright and shining...and HOT!
And I have the sunburn on my back to prove it!

We met up with my sister Elika and her kids, a few of Airi's kids and some friends of ours.
This happened to be during one of their little breaks from swimming.

Kaden with our friend's son, Daniel.
Checking out the waves...and the other swimmers.

Kaden, it seems, LOVES the water.
Particularly splashing the water.

And then our friend's daughter Clara.
SO cute how her and Jojo wore matching suits!

This was right before I scolded Anna for spraying Kaden.
Not that he minded, or anything...but still.

One thing we love about Ala Moana beach is that it's shallow for quite a ways out.
Which means it's perfect for little wandering babies like Kaden.
Because wander, he did!

Elika's two boys, Justus and Knox.

Apparently, after swimming, the older kids decided to hit the sand for some "Power Rangers"
Yes...you read that right.
No...I have NO idea what exactly that entails.
Except that they seem to be fighting.

Mitch burying Jolee in the sand.
Well, her legs at least.
Which apparently was enough for her.

While we were sitting on the beach, this red balloon floated by.
Since no one seemed to claim it, Kaden did.

And he LOVED it!

But so did baby Knox.

So, that's our Kuhio Day in a nutshell.
Plenty of sun and fun with cousins and friends!
Yay!

low tide

It's been a while since we've had Saturdays free to relax...but with soccer season finally behind us (at least until Fall) we thought this past Saturday the perfect opportunity to head out to the beach to go tide pooling. It was low tide, after all.

The girls LOVE tide pooling.
Jojo loves hunting for hermit crabs...and is surprisingly NOT afraid of them. Even when they pop out of their shells in her hands!

Kela and Anna, however, are more the fishing type.

With their handy-dandy nets, they managed to catch quite a few small fishes in the little pools left by the receding tide.

The day really was beautiful!
Sunny but windy enough to not feel overly hot...perfect weather to relax and enjoy the beauty of Hawaii. :)

Here's a little lowly crab that I manged to snatch up.
It's funny...the hermit crabs here like to make a variety of things into homes. Besides little shells...rocks, bits of coral...anything they can get their little bodies into, they do!
It's really quite neat.

The challenge of it all, of course, is to keep Kaden from plunging head first into the water.
Mitch had to hold him the entire time...while Kaden was literally fighting to get away all the while.

Remember what I said about Jolee and her fascination with little hermit crabs?

Here's the bounty.
The spotted sand crab?
I caught that one.
Anna managed to catch 7 or so fish. Kela caught some, too...but not sure how many.
All the hermit crabs were caught by our Jojo.
And fyi...all the tiny little "rocks" on the bottom are actually tiny little hermit crabs.

Yeah, Kaden wasn't too happy about not being able to play with the bucket of fish & crabs.
Boys...



So, after an hour or so of fishing and crab hunting...it was time to release their catch back into the ocean. Kela did the honors.

All in all, a great afternoon!
By this time, Jojo was a bit too tired and hungry to pose for the camera...

Yay for family outings!
And yay for such a beautiful place to call home!

jolee's first day of school!

Today was the first day of school for Jolee!!
It's a Tiny Tots program at McKinley High School...where high school kids get a hands-on class on early child development. While parents like me get a couple of hours freedom from their little tots.
A total win-win situation, if you ask me!

Maybe it's not an official school in the literal sense...but it's an 8 week, twice a week preschool program for preschool age kids. I put both Kela and Anna into this program when they were little and they both LOVED it!
I get to drop off Jolee for 2.5 hours, twice a week for the next 8 weeks.

It costs a meager $20 and I get to go do my thing for a couple hours with just Kaden.
Of course, it's in town, so after dropping Kela and Anna off at school, I have to rush to town and fight traffic to get here, but it's totally worth it for me.

It may not be much, but it's enough!

To be honest, I was a little worried about miss Jolee.
She's been having some separation issues at church and at the gym lately so I was a tad nervous she'd have a melt down...but here we are getting ready to go inside and she's all smiles!

Waiting patiently for all the other parents and grandparents to drop off their kids.
Some kids were NOT as excited to be going to school as Jojo was.
You could hear the screams and crying from out here...which didn't help my nervousness.
But Jolee seemed unfazed.

Her very own cubby.
(With her misspelled name.)

Upon dropping her off, this is how she looked.
That is a smile, by the way.
She doesn't like to look directly at the camera at times.
Makes for some annoying shots, but oh well.
It's just a picture, right? :S

So, after dropping her off, I drove out to Ala Moana beach park with Kaden, strapped him into our jogger stroller and hit the pavement for a good 6 mile run while the little guy took his morning nap.
Yes, I think I'm gonna like this schedule...even though it's only temporary.

And the best part?
Jolee had a blast!
No tears, no whining...and all smiles!
Yay!

spring break, part 3: soccer season finales!

So to end Spring Break week, the girls had their final soccer games.
The day was hot and long.

With Anna's game starting at 8:30 AM and Kela's at 11:15 AM...we didn't have time to go home in between the two games and subsequent season-end potluck parties.
So, basically, this was an all-day event. (er, all-morning to be exact...but it still FELT like all day!)

Anna's game was first.
With it being one of the first games of the day, there was ample parking and the weather was a tad cooler. Yay!
Here they are...the final team hurrah for the Teal Sharks.

And per usual...the most challenging part of the girls' games is thinking of ways to occupy this guy...and simultaneously keeping him away from the actual game and game equipment.

Here's Anna dribbling down the field...she had a GREAT final game and scored a goal in the beginning of the game.

Here's her trophy. Which I picked out for all the girls since I was the team mom.
Oh, and you can't see too well, but I also got teal colored buckets for each girl...in lieu of a goodie bag...for their team treats and prizes.

Great season, Teal Sharks!

Anna with her coach, Gavin.

So, at the end of the season, we usually have a potluck luncheon with all the teammates and their families. This was Anna's. Hotdogs, cupcakes and pizza.
Kaden particularly liked the rainbow cupcakes...

Can you tell?
I do believe half of the cupcake ended up on his shirt or on the ground...

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

And then, after an hour or so of resting...it was time to head back up to the field for Kela's game.
It was a pretty intense game...the teams were pretty evenly matched, but our Purple Lightnings prevailed!
And Kela even managed to score a goal as well!
The above picture is of that goal...taken just a smidgen too early.
Way to go, Kela!!

As for Kela, this is her last season playing soccer.
As much as she enjoyed it...she doesn't want to move up to the next division and has expressed a strong desire to try something new.

(Be on the lookout for a gymnastics post in a few months...)

Kela and her trophy and goodie bag.

With her awesome coach Jen!

And then...our SECOND potluck of the morning.
I made pizza buns, while the other fare consisted of fried noodles, fried chicken, chicken katsu, spam musubi, fruits and (thanks to Jen and her Meadow Gold connections) Ice Cream.

It was a GREAT season for both girls and I know they had a blast!
And as much as I enjoyed watching them progress and have fun out on the field...I'm looking forward to having my Saturdays back!
Until next season!!

spring break, part 2: the zoo

The zoo.
It's our go-to place for a family outing.
Today was pretty hot...but with a few nice breezes, it wasn't too bad!
The parking was a nightmare, but after securing a nice spot, the rest was a nice and relaxing day of looking at some animals with my sister Elika and her kids.

We got to the zoo a little before Elika, so while we were waiting, we killed some time looking at the turtles.

And the orangutans.

Not to mention eating some lunch.
Spam musubi's of course!

And then some more waiting...

And even more waiting...

Until finally, they arrive!


You can barely see the giraffes since they were a bit shy today and stayed far away from the fence...but really, it's the kids we really want to see, right?

Here's me and Kaden in front of the new elephant compound!
It's new and much more spacious than the last place!

Here's Anna and Aya, holding hands through the African Savannah area.

Oooh, and we got lucky with the cheetah!

I don't think I've ever been to the zoo and NOT taken a picture on this giraffe...

Yay! The Keiki Zoo area is everyone's favorite place.

Where Kaden encountered his very first goat!


The fish tank that all the kids crammed into...

Even Kaden (after several minutes of serious contemplation and observation) decided to take the plunge and head into the tunnel.

I know...these back shots are so cliché...but I can't help it.
I still think they're so cute!

And the kids favorite part of the Keiki Zoo?
Probably this rocky courtyard.
Where Anna and Aya did a bit of rock climbing...

And Justus and Jolee did a bit of raking...

I mean...it's important to leave things in better condition than when you arrived, right?!