happy halloween!

Halloween this year was almost a week-long affair.

We had our Ward Halloween party on Tuesday night.  Anna and Jolee informed me at the end of last year that they both wanted to be peacocks for Halloween the following year.  So, technically, I had an entire year to prepare for this night and I wanted to make it good.  But then...I forgot about it until close to September so I had to frantically search the web for ideas on making a memorable peacock costume without having to break the bank.  

This was the result.  I ordered the peacock feathers online, used a glue gun and stuck them together onto pieces of cardboard cut out to fit their backs and covered the ugliness with teal felt and stuck it all together with a long ribbon for tying around their waist.  I then made teal and green tutus for each to wear over black leggings. The colorful feather boa was a bonus.  

I was pretty proud of myself for this creation.  It took some time, but I thought the result was well worth it.  But most importantly, the girls loved it and that was my main goal.

Then came Kaden's costume.  

Ok, so last year I totally flaked out on costumes so I was determined to redeem myself with his monster truck costume this year.

I bought a cardboard box, painted it, cut it out & taped some pieces together.  Add some embellishments and some suped up tires made from paper plates and bubble wrap tucked inside contractor garbage bags and voila!  Kaden was a monster truck driver.  

Seriously, SO proud of this costume!  I spent way too much time on it, but it was well worth it, in my opinion.  And Kaden LOVED it! He kept wanting to put it on and "drive" all over the place, making "VROOM!" noises as we went.  Yay!  Success!!

Here they are in the light of the church gym.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but we got a lot of compliments.  

(okay, okay, totally tooting my own horn!)

And here are all the kids together in the room that I helped decorate.  

Kela took forever to decide on a costume so I had to improvise and buy this ensemble at the store.   It wasn't anything exciting or flashy...just a witch costume with a wooden broomstick. 

And here are the cousins together.  It was such a hectic night and the party was pretty much a blur, but the kids had fun collecting candy outside in the parking lot and playing games inside the church afterwards.  Honestly, I've never been much of Halloween fanatic, so for me, this was more than enough.

 Oh, and did I mention they had a costume contest?  They did.  There was no grand prize, but the kids were definitely in the running for best costume.  It was pretty exciting, I must say.  They paraded around the gym and I could tell Anna and Jojo loved showing off their peacock feathers.  I was simply happy that they were happy with their costumes. 

And then on Thursday night, we decided to finally carve our pumpkin.

Wait, I know what you're thinking.  "I thought there weren't any pumpkins at the pumpkin farm when you went?!"

And you'd be right!  There were NO pumpkins at the farm, but Jolee happened to grab a pumpkin from the Aloun farm when she went on a field trip with her class from school! 

Yay, for Jolee saving Halloween!  Daddy cut the top and the kids got to scoop out the goo.  Jolee then got to decide and draw the face of her Jack o' Lantern and Daddy cut it out.

With this on our porch, it's finally starting to feel like Halloween! 

Friday, Halloween Morning, Kaden had a dress-up and Trick or Treating day at his school.  

I brought his costume and the parents all spread out around the school while all the kids got to go Trick or Treating around to the parents.  It was SO cute and fun and Kaden loved it!  How cute are his classmates?! I'm so happy we found this school for Kaden.  He absolutely LOVES it here and loves his teachers and friends.  Plus, he's improved in so many ways with his speech and language!  

Yay for school!

And then it was Halloween night.  Our neighborhood turned out to be a great place to go trick or treating, with lots of neighborhood kids walking around as well.  Unfortunatly, Mitch had to work, but I had my Mom stay and guard the house and pass out candy while we went around a couple of blocks near our house with the cousins.  

Anna and Jolee were tired by the end of the second block so after returning home, they decided to take over the passing out candy duties from Obachan.  

Happy Halloween!! Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween too!

waimanalo pumpkin farm...minus the pumpkin

It's the weekend before Halloween and we have put off getting pumpkins for the kids because, well, we've been so busy and didn't realize that Halloween was already here! Yikes, where did the time go?!  Anyway, last minute trip to the Waimanalo pumpkin farm turned out to be a semi-bust since there were NO pumpkins left in the fields.  As in NONE.  ZERO.  ZILCH.  

But, the kids got to hang out with cousins and pet some animals and ride the tractor, so...I suppose it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Justus, Jolee and Nixon in the pumpkin.

These cut out signs are so ridiculous, but we can never refuse!

The kids in front of the stinky sheep.  There were also pigs, cows, and a little bunny they let loose that the kids got to pet.  This was probably the highlight of this excursion for the kids.

The highlight for me, however, was this lemonade.  Seriously, the best lemonade ever.

I bought extra to bring home as well.  

The kids on the tractor hay ride.  Squished onto one seat, but they didn't mind.

Me and the girls.  If you're wondering where Mitch and Kaden are at, they were at home taking a nap on this muggy Saturday afternoon.  

And here are the cousins. 

Maybe we should have snatched up one of these pumpkins on display here...because seriously, how can a pumpkin farm have NO MORE pumpkins left?!  That's just crazy!

pink dragons!

Soccer season has come and gone yet again.

Anna joined the Pink Dragons in mid-August with 9 other girls for her very first season of U-10 soccer.  I'm not going to lie..I was a bit worried for her!  The field at this age level is HUGE!  Plus, the teams have goalies, positions, and did I mention the field is huge?!  

But, she jumped right in and had a great season and we couldn't have been more happy for her!

Here she is with Coach Rehan and her teammates.

This season also happened to be her first season with a new district, in our new neighborhood!

I must say, this district doesn't seem as organized or structured as our previous experiences with AYSO...but all in all, it was a good experience and we sure enjoyed watching her play hard every Saturday.

Or, well...some of us did, anyway.

Here she is on her first game day!

Rather than show all the individual games...I'll just post a few pictures I took of her throughout the season...

She really did work hard and improved in so many ways!

She was one of the youngest on the team, and definitely the smallest.

But she hustled and tried her best every game, and we were very proud of her.

Coach Rehan was a very patient and kind coach, and the girls really responded to him.  

We were glad to play with him and the rest of the Pink Dragons!

Good Job, Anna!!

arizona in the fall

For Fall Break, we decided to fly to Arizona to visit with our cousins in the desert.

The flights were surprisingly full, so we had to fly into L.A and then drive to Arizona, which put a bit of a damper on our plans, but the kids were all for a mini-road trip and we were exited to get off the island for a bit of cooler weather.

Here we are...waiting to board the plane.

Kaden LOVES flying and was so very excited to ride in an airplane!

 We actually flew to Maui first and then flew out to L.A...here we are, keeping busy with some friendly cards while waiting to board.

 After landing late at night in L.A, we headed straight out to Arizona without resting.  

We were a bit naive in thinking we'd have enough energy to do such a long road trip after a long flight.  Truth be told, we were both exhausted and had to switch drivers almost every hour in order to stay awake.  The kids, thankfully, slept the entire time.  Mitch and I, thankfully, managed to drive safely to Arizona WITHOUT any accidents or problems.   Whew!

Long road trips are NOT a good idea when coming off little to no sleep on an airplane.  

Anyway, despite the LONG drive over, we made it safely to Arizona and got to meet up with our cousins.  We had a pretty packed schedule and one of the items on our "To Do" list was to visit Mitch's favorite cupcake shop.  We patronized this cute little confectionary at least twice if not three times.  Cupcakes and cookies were enjoyed by all!

 Since the weather was too cold for any outdoor waterparks, we decided to visit an indoor one instead.  The kids loved this place since it had a good variety of small coasters, tea cup rides, trains, and even bumper cars.  Kaden was in heaven when Mitch took him on the race track course.  

And since they also serve food, we ate dinner and called it an evening.  

We always (always!) have to visit Bass Pro Shops at least once while visiting Arizona.  I'm not sure why, but the kids love this place.  We happened to come right at feeding time, so all the kids got to throw a few fish pellets into the Koi pond.  

And then we headed upstairs for some target practice.  We all tried out a few rounds and realized that Anna was the best shot out of all our kids.  

Jojo and Reina were content to simply "look" like cowgirls instead of acting the part.  Gun shooting wasn't really their thing.

Since the kids had SO much fun shooting at Bass Pro Shops, Mitch decided to bust out Grandpa's ol' BB gun and let the kids do some actual target practice in the back yard.  The weather was a bit rainy, but that didn't deter the kids.  Mitch set up some targets with empty bottles and and even bought a case of club soda so they could shoot some exploding targets.  Seriously, who in their right mind buys a case of soda for the sole purpose of shooting it with a BB gun?  That would be Mitch.

And for the record, it was a blast.

And on our final day in Arizona, we took the kids to the Children's museum in Phoenix.  This place is HUGE!  And since the Arizona public schools were also on Fall break, the place was super packed with kids galore!  But despite all the crowds, the kids had fun and managed to do all the fun activities they wanted to do. 

We were all famished by the time we finished at the museum and so took all our kids + Lynn's kids (because Lynn was working) to Matt's Big Breakfast.  This place is so yummy!  The kids ate their fill of some delicious breakfast (except for Kaden, who fell asleep) before heading back home.

Last evening swim before flying home...the weather was a bit chilly, but they all didn't seem to mind too much!  Although between you and me, they all spent an equal amount of time hanging out in the hot tub as they did the large pool.

All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to Arizona and their cousins.

We stayed for a total of 5 days, which was longer than most of our Arizona trips.  The kids were surprisingly happy to head back home, and so were Mitch and I.  We love vacations, but it's always nice to come home to our own house with our own beds.  

Oh, and the awesome flight attendants on Hawaiian hooked us up with some extra iPads so the kids were fully entertained on their flight back home.