spring break, part 1: kaka'ako park

During Spring Break, with Mitch working so much, we didn't have the opportunity to travel anywhere.
As bumming as that was, it was still nice to relax, sleep in, and hang around with cousins and friends right here at home.

SO, on one fine day, we got together with my sister Airi and her friends and headed out to Kaka'ako Park for a day of bike riding. We would have gone cardboard sledding as well, but I forgot to pack our cardboard boxes.
Plus, the girls seemed content with riding bikes, so bike riding it was.

The great thing about Kaka'ako park is that it's pretty big!
We started out on this shady side of the park...but since the kids wanted a more open space to ride around, we crossed over to the waterfront side for the remainder of the afternoon.

A MUCH better view on this side, by the way.

Also a bonus was this rocky area (that I'm pretty sure they aren't supposed to walk on, but EVERYONE does anyway) that is home to a ton of cats.
A short while after this picture was taken, an old lady came by with tons of cat food to feed the stray cats. She shooed all the kids away saying they were bothering the cats' feeding time. I almost went over and told her how cRazY she is for #1. Feeding stray cats like they're her own. and #2. Thinking she has the right to shoo us away from a public park area just because she is doing #1 above.

Anyway~

Have I ever mentioned how Kaden likes to push things?
He does. Pretty much anything with wheels (or without, actually) that moves, he will try to push. Whether it be Jolee's tricycle...

His stroller...

Or Anna's bike.
If it moves, he'll move it.

Or, ride it.

Here's Anna.
She's gotten very proficient with the two wheeler.
She was riding all over the park.
Yes, I'm a bad Mommy...we left the helmet at home. :/

Did I mention it was a HOT day?
It was.
Hence, Jolee's grumpy face.
But, she still enjoyed riding her tricycle around, too!

Of course, a little bribery of Shave Ice does seem to work some magic...even on tired little girls.

wall art, episode 1

Let me preface this post by stating the facts.
I am NOT an artist.
I like to scrapbook, sew, make cards and do fun things with paper, but I do NOT paint.
Ever.
Because I'm bad at it.
I wish I were an artist. But I'm not.

Okay, and so despite my NOT being artistically inclined (at all), I got this crazy idea to paint some decorative flowers in my girl's room.
I know what you're thinking. Probably the same thing I was thinking when I thought up this brilliant project idea.
Anyway, I saw this cute flower design in a vinyl sticker catalog and thought, "I'm not gonna pay $60 for some stickers! I'm just gonna paint them myself!"

Did I mention that I can't paint?

So, despite my NON-artistically inclined hand, I cut out these flower shapes with my handy dandy Cricut machine (hey, it's FREE! I wasn't about to pay money to buy stencils since those aren't cheap either!) and bought myself some acrylic paint and some brushes.
Then, I got to work!

Here's my palette.
I know, so high tech, eh?

Mid-stenciling...

Ta~da~!
Flowers done.
Those were the easy part.
Next was the hardest part for me...the stems.
Which I painted FREE-HAND!

So, here it is.
Taking into account that I have NO artistic bone in my body...I thought it turned out pretty good!
Of course, you have to look at it from far away. Preferably with your eyes squinted.
And maybe the lights dimmed a bit.
But all in all, I was pretty proud of the end result.

Aww... a pretty flower back ground for my little princess.

35.

It's my birthday.
As much as I'd like to avoid getting older...I'm actually not too freaked out that I've officially hit my mid-thirties.
I'm happy.
I have a loving husband, great kids, wonderful family close by...not to mention a home of our own with all the creature comforts...and more blessings than I can even begin to count.
Yes, I am very happy.

Mitch's brother and sister-in-law graciously gave us a gift card to Roy's restaurant.
We've never been...so thought that my birthday was a great opportunity to check them out and enjoy a quiet evening, sans kids.
Yes, as much as I love our kids...an hour or two away from them is also quite nice.

Roy's was...great!
Except for the annoyingly loud birthday party going on right next to us, we had a fabulous time with a beautiful view of the ocean and Koko Head Crater.

For appetizer, we had a roasted beet and heart of palm salad.
SO Yummy!
You can sort of see it in the first picture...Sorry I didn't get a better pic, but oh well.
We were hungry!
Ha, and then came our sushi rolls.
Also very yummy.

Mitch decided to get a small portion of the Wagu Beef meatloaf.
I thought it looked really small... but he said it was perfect after all the appetizers we ate.

I had a shellfish trio of scallops, shrimp and clams.
Wow, it was yummy!!

And just as good for lunch the next day since I could only eat about half after so much sushi and salad!

Hehehe, like my birthday hat?

Dinner was great!
We both agreed that Roy's deserved two thumbs up.

And for dessert, they gave me a complimentary lilikoi pudding (I think it was lilikoi...but either way, it was DIVINE!) with some fresh diced fruit, and we added a chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream to share.

It was a perfect ending to a great dinner.
Yay!

And the hat?
Found someone who could really appreciate it.

(*note: look at Kela's face in the background-far right. he he he, I could have cropped it out, but I just couldn't stop laughing long enough to do it...)

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Okay, so technically, the dinner out at Roy's was the day BEFORE my birthday.
ON my actual birthday, we had two soccer games in the morning and then dinner in town with my family. To celebrate both me and my niece Rumi's birthdays.
On the menu?
Sushi.
And fried chicken.
Both my faves!

Here's our spread.
Fancy, eh?
It was all very yummy.

And then after dinner it was dessert.
Cake and ice cream.
Airi bought a german chocolate cake...

...and Elika baked some cupcakes.
Mmmm...lemon cupcakes with two different kinds of frosting.
So much LOVE! :)

It's always fun to share a birthday with someone.
I really like sharing my birthday with Rumi.
She's cute and sweet and Kela's best friend.

Hooray for one more year!

great aloha run

President's Day 2012
When most people are sleeping in and enjoying a day off of school and work...I was up earlier than usual with my niece Riho and nephew Jonas.
For the second time, we ran the Aloha Run together.

It's my 4th time running it and their second.
I think this time around, all three of us were better prepared!
Here we are getting ready to start the race!

Another one of us. Actually standing in line to the bathrooms.
hahaha...the extremely gross bathrooms, might I add.

No pictures of us running.
We ended up getting separated through the race...but managed to find our way to each other at the end.

The results?
I finished in 1 hour 15 mintues.

Jonas beat me by 6 mintues.
I beat Riho by a mere 1 minute.

Next year...I'm afraid they'll both leave me in their dust!!

But for this year...all I know is that I wasn't too sore, while these two?

Required a bit more stretching to get back to normal.

And since the photos they take during and at the race are SO ridiculously expensive, I've resorted to copying the samples from the web only.
Good enough, right?

short visit from grandma

Mitch's mom was here visiting for President's Day weekend.
It was only a short 3 day stay...but the girls LOVE their grandma, so they had a lot of fun.
Not to mention the fact that grandma always brings lots of gifts for each of them.
Who wouldn't love presents, right?

I know, I should have taken more pictures...but I didn't.

Except for this one at a park on Hickam Air Force base.

And this one...that Kaden did NOT want to pose for.
This is our family's go-to park when the in-laws are visiting.
Much nicer than any park outside of the base.

This was Sunday after church.
The Seavey's like to take pictures on the front porch a lot.

Note to self: Clean porch more often. Especially when in-laws are coming over.

feeding ducks and looking for bugs.

This past week, I headed out to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe with my two sisters.
We decided to head out for some exercise (pushing our strollers through the winding and hilly roads are a great work out!) and then at the pond to let the kids feed the ducks there.
I've been there before. And the ducks there are pretty aggressive! And hungry!

The only bread I had was some of the fresh bread I had made the night before (see previous post!) so all I have to say is...lucky ducks! ha ha ha...

Jolee loves feeding the ducks. I made sure she stayed on the benches because, as I mentioned before, the ducks aren't afraid of people so can be pretty aggressive in getting some food!

One even flew up onto the bench next to Jojo when she accidentally dropped a piece!

Kaden wasn't too thrilled to be stuck in his stroller so I pulled him out for a bit.

But had to keep a firm hold on him the whole time since he kept trying to jump off the bench!

Kaden and the white duck having a stare-down.

I know, I should have taken a better picture with Jojo and her cousin Justus.
But I forgot. But you can sort of see him in the background, right?

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

And then at Jojo's preschool, we spent the morning outside searching for bugs with a magnifying glass.

Albeit a toy one...but good for kiddies to go a-bug huntin'.

Kaden...didn't want to be held too long.
But I managed to snap this picture before he...

...started wandering away. Like he always does.

Jolee, however, liked the magnifying glass.

And delved into her search for some bugs.

This is her "stop taking pictures of me!" pose.

So, she didn't find too many bugs to look at.
But she did find some seeds!

While Kaden started wandering the other way...

Jolee discovered these seeds.

After bug (and seed) hunting... the kids played with bubbles.
Which Kaden LOVED.

I mean, who doesn't love bubbles, right?

This girl does!

As well as snacks.
Kids love snacks too.