halloween 2013

Halloween this year was a mellow affair.  Since selling our townhouse and moving into our rental in the ghettos of Lower Pearl City, added to the stress of trying to find a new home in our desired neighborhood (that we can actually afford), Halloween costumes and decorations have been the furthest thing from my mind!  

So, poor Seavey kids had to make due with whatever I could muster together in a very limited time frame.  But, then again, when all is said and done...it's really all about the candy anyway, right?  Right.

 We DID managed to carve our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch this week! Yay!

The quality of the carving may be a little lacking...but the kids each got to choose their own designs and Daddy graciously carved their desired jack-o-lanterns.  

And since we live in Hawaii, they were carved ON Halloween day...and will be thrown away the day AFTER Halloween to ensure we don't get bombarded with flies and roaches and any other pesky creatures we'd rather not invite onto our doorstep thankyouverymuch.

 Poor Kaden.  He totally got jipped on costumes this year, but since he is NOT one for extra clothing and random accessories, we kept it simple.  Mitch cut out a "steering wheel" out of cardboard and painted it black.  I drew on a little stubble (that smeared and just looked like a dirty face after 5 minutes) and we called him a truck driver.  I know, not my best work, but he was happy so we called it good.

 Anna and Jolee both wanted to be monarch butterflies.  

I bought these wings and fuzzy antennae off the internet, and dressed them up in all black and we were good to go.  Easy and simple!  Sure, I could have done better with some make up and or sparkles here and there...but I didn't.  

Please remember: We just moved.  And are living in the ghettos.  And frantically searching for a new home.  

Halloween costumes were number 99 on our list of important things to do.

 Kela was a cowgirl.  She actually kind of looks like a sheriff (probably because the costume package said sheriff on it!) and I had to FORCE her to wear that bandana scarf, but in the end, she was content to be a girl cowgirl/sheriff.  

 Kela with her cousins Hugo (Obiwan?) and Luke (Gohan).

Happiest of Halloweens to you all!

And hope you got just as much candy as we did.  Which was a lot.  

anna, our lavender dolphin

The great thing about AYSO soccer is...that they let anyone play!  Regardless of experience, skill, or whatever.  Everyone plays.

The bad thing about AYSO soccer is...that many times, this leads to unequal disbursement of experienced/skilled players.

This season was painful for Anna.  Excruciatingly painful.

Anna may not be a stand-out star soccer player, but since she's been playing for about 5 seasons now, she has developed some skill on the field.  She knows where the goals are, how to guard an opponent, and how to find the opportunity to shoot.

Out of the 8 players on her team this season, I'd say less than half of them were equal to Anna's skill level.  A couple were above, but most were below.  Far, far below.

While Jolee's team didn't really know better...Anna did.  

She felt it.   And saw it in the score card at the end of the game.

One painful game, Anna scored 4 goals all on her own.  Her team still lost because only one other player managed to score a single goal.  They lost by 1 point.

Like I said...painful and frustrating.

But if this taught Anna (and us parents) anything, it was that life isn't always fair....but we still try our best and work hard.  And we still get rewarded with frozen yogurt for our efforts.  :)

Here are a couple of pictures from Anna's final game since I can't seem to find any from the other games.  

 Anna with her coach, Christian.  Who was a TROOPER and worked super hard with these girls  And the girls really did try their best.  It was just unfortunate that so many other teams had really tough players.  Not to mention the fact that our girls were almost all 6-7 years old (younger than most other U-8 teams).  Okay, no more grumbling!

Regardless of their track record, we were super proud of our Anna for always trying her best and giving it her ALL every Saturday on that field! 

Good Job, Anna!

jojo's first (and quite possibly, only) soccer season

On a whim, we decided to enroll Jolee into soccer for the Fall season.  She entered at the U-6 level, even though she's only 5 years old.  I still don't quite understand the way AYSO distributes their players...seems a bit lopsided and unfair for most teams, but that's just my opinion.

Anyway, Jojo seems to enjoy playing soccer!  

She also enjoys playing with her friends, skipping across the field, and picking flowers by her feet during practice and even the games as well. *sigh*

That being said, by some miracle, she managed to score several goals throughout the season!

And per our usual bribe agreement, when a child scores a goal in soccer, we all get to celebrate with some frozen yogurt.  Here she is enjoying one of the fruits of her labors.

 Honestly, it is mostly Anna's efforts that allow us to indulge in some post-soccer fro-yo...but when it's Jolee's turn, it always tastes a little sweeter.

She isn't the strongest (or tallest. or fastest. or most skilled. etc.) but she does try hard and seeing her hustle down the field with her tiny little legs, we can't help but feel proud of our little Jojo.

Here's some pics throughout the short season.

 And then all too soon, the season was over.

Here she is with her 2 coaches.  They were super nice and patient with these 5 girls.  Some of whom had never played soccer before (cough, Jolee, cough).  The girls always tried really hard, but ended up with a pretty sad score card (I think they won 1 game?) But despite their struggles, Jolee seemed to have fun and was more happy with their daily treats and the goodie bags and trophy at the end of the season. 

 Oh well. "A" for effort!

waimanalo pumpkin patch

It's Fall. 

And that means we need to get our pumpkins ready for Halloween.

This year, we decided to try something different and hit up the Waimanalo Pumpkin Patch (instead of the HUGE and DUSTY one in Kapolei).  The cute thing about this farm is that it is small, family owned and operated, and relatively clean.  Did I mention it is small?  And that means less walking for me.  Which is a HUGE deal when dealing with 4 kids (plus many, many cousins) without the Daddys.

 Here's the gang in front of the cows and goats and pigs.

See? Baby pigs!

 ....AND another picture in the kids play area enclosure.  

Everything was cute and tidy...

 Except for this huge tractor that the kids were climbing on.  After we took these pictures, Kaden wanted to sit up on the tractor seat like all the other boys.  And then proceeded to cut his heel on the rusted floor of the tractor!  I spent the rest of the day freaking out about tetanus and lockjaw ( I kid you not.  I was pretty freaked out!)   Not to mention Kaden was super unhappy the rest of the day.  boo.

 BUT to make up for all that mess...this cow train ride was a BLAST!  The kids LOVED it and kept riding it over and over again. 

The great thing about this small farm was that since it wasn't super crowded...they got to go back and ride it again and again!  Seriously-they could have ridden it all day long if we let them.  

But we didn't.  

We had to ride the dusty hayride.  Which wasn't really a hayride at all. It was a huge tractor trailer with slatted seats that we all crammed into while farm owner's son played his very own gospel/country/folk song CD.  

Which we did NOT buy at the gift shop on our way out, much to his chagrin, I'm sure.  

 After riding the train and tractor, it was time to pick a pumpkin.  And since this farm is so tiny, we didn't even have to walk far to find the perfect one!

 Kaden had to limp across the field, but he eventually found his perfect pumpkin. 

 And before heading home, we had to ride the cow train one last time....

 ...and bought a yummy souvenir to take with us. 

(p.s. Kaden did NOT get tetanus or lockjaw from his nasty cut from the rusty tractor, Thank goodness.)

fall break: waikoloa!

For Fall break, we decided to do a little island-hopping to our favorite resort: The Hilton Waikoloa.

Unbeknownst to us, this also happened to be the same weekend as the Kona Iron Man competition! So, after a bit of a scare in our flight arrangements, we did managed to make it safely to Kona!  I brought the kids first since Mitch had to work, but we found some ways to occupy ourselves for a few hours before Daddy arrived!

 After a hectic breakfast with me and the kids (future note:  buffet dining with one adult and 4 kids who canNOT get their own food?  Not recommended), we did some exploring around the resort!

 And then hit up the pool.  The kids LOVE the pools and waterslides here.  

 Daddy's here! 

 And so we ventured to the other side of the resort to a different pool!  

 Personally, I love the sandy pool.

Here Jolee sits atop a turtle in the sandy pool.

 The hot tub!  With a waterfall inside! 

 I think the kids' favorite thing about this resort is that it is SO large, you have the option of taking a tram or a boat to travel between the towers.  And if you're lucky, the boat driver will let you ride up on top and "take the wheel!" It was super crowded so only Kaden got to "steer" the boats this time.  The girls grumbled a bit but decided it was okay since they got to steer plenty of times on previous trips.  Kaden, of course, loved it up there.  

And so, after a very short 2 night stay, we had to say Aloha Oe to Waikoloa.  

It's always nice to take a couple days to get away from the hustle and bustle of life at home to relax and enjoy some family time together.  So very grateful for Mitch and his job that allows us to take these short trips off island!