Ikaika's First Field Trip

Ikaika took his first field trip with Tutu & Me Preschool.  My friend watched Koa so we could ride on the bus (only 2+ yrs can go on the bus).  We went to the Hilton Waikoloa to see animals that lay eggs, our theme for April.

Auntie Kanoe helped him feed Koi in the fish pond.  She also made sure he didn't take a bath.  What a great teacher!

We got to ride on the shuttle around the resort.  Trains are always fun.

We saw Nene (Hawaiian goose, endangered state bird, lives on the slopes of Mauna Kea) and flamingos (creepy knees, I don't like them)

"Look this way boys!"  Shinta and Kaika were both very interested in riding the bronze rhino but not so much interested in taking a picture about it.

At the end, we ate lunch in the shade with a view of the dolphin discovery program.  After watching that documentary The Cove, I could hardly enjoy it and had to restrain myself from ruining it for my kid, too.  Ugh.  Grrr.  Just watch the movie and prepare to never enjoy captive dolphin shows ever again.

Baby Trend Expedition Double Jogging Stroller

 

THANK YOU UNCLE BRUCE & AUNT ALISON!!!

I am beyond excited to get my jog on!  Now I don't have to wait for those perfect (and fleeting) moments when Mr A's free time coincides with my motivation!  There is also a new road that runs behind Parker Ranch and, not only is it exactly 5K to the end and back, it also has sidewalks...ooo!

Mini Vacay at Keauhou

We are spending the holiday (Hawaii schools get Good Friday off) down in Keauhou with our same friends from the Egg Hunt.  They have a time share condo down here so it's like a mini vacation!

We came down late last night after their basketball game and put the boys to sleep (super late).  I didn't think about closing the blackout curtains and, needless to say, we were woken up at 6:15am by two very excited little boys!

Today Karen and I went surfing at Kahaluu where I caught (and stood up on) two - almost three - waves!  After we all took a nap, we went to an all-you-can-eat Indian food buffet.  Now we are relaxing, watching some NBA and drinking some Kona Brewery Koko Brown Ales before we head to the Sheraton for their nightly manta ray viewing.

I am having a blast.  I can not believe how were are only 1 1/2 hours from our home but it feels like a legit vacation!  If I were ever to get a vacation rental/time share/condo type thing, I would totally get it in this area.  The weather is superb, there is plenty of shopping and things to do, the beaches are amazing, and it's so lush and green.  I love it.

Tomorrow morning I am planning to go for an early morning jog.

 The ocean is out there somewhere but the sun is setting now so it's hard to see.

Punishment

This morning I overheard by 2 year old punishing himself.  He was shouting at himself (in a really nasty tone) "you go to your room and think about it", "it's time for time-out", "that is a naughty thing to do", etc.

I know he was just role-playing and that it's a healthy part of development, but it made me sad!  Do I talk like that?!  (I know I say those things, but do I really sound so mean?)  Is that just stuck in his little memory?  What about all the nice things I say, why doesn't he role-play that?!

I would have been happier if he had said quietly to himself in a calm tone of voice, "honey, I can see you are upset and I am upset too.  Maybe you should go to your room and spend some quiet time with yourself for awhile.  that's a good boy.  I love you."

Yeah right.  Apparently, I'm just as much of a nag as the next mom. 

Quik N Dirty Sticky Buns

These sound so good, I don't care if they are totally unhealthy.  I'm probably going to make these Easter morning or some other lazy weekend AM when I just want something that makes my house smell heavenly.  I wonder if there is a way to make biscuit mix ahead of time because the only thing I'm leery of in this recipe is the processed packaged biscuits with their myriad of unidentifiable ingredients.  Although, considering this is a LAZY day breakfast, I'm not willing to slave over dough - no matter how healthy it would be.

Anyhow, on with the recipe...

1 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and thinly sliced into 10 pieces
1 medium banana, thinly sliced
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 7.5 oz tube refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

Heat oven to 375.

Drop a piece of butter in the bottom of 10 compartments of a muffin tin.  Arrange the banana slices on top.  Sprinkle the pecans and brown sugar over the bananas.  Top each compartment with a biscuit.

Bake until golden brown, 8-10 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Place a baking sheet on top of the tin while the buns are still hot.  Carefully flip the tin over, tapping the bottom to release the buns. 

Transfer to a platter, serve warm.

Waikoloa Village Easter Eggstravaganza!

This morning we went down to Waikoloa for the 10,000 Easter egg hunt.  Literally 10,000 eggs.  I know because I was part of the stuffing committee the other weekend.

 The "hunts" were actually just eggs in an open area and the kids would scramble around to collect them.  They had multiple age divisions and then an "open" division at the very end with the eggs that were leftover.  It was nice because every kid got lots of eggs and there was free shave ice and a raffle at the end.  Ikaika's number got called first for the raffle and we won a $10 Target gift card!
  

 the field was cleared of hundreds of eggs in a matter of minutes

I secretly pat myself on the back for remembering to sunscreen the kids before we left the house

 checking the eggs for something mom will let him eat...

The Eggstravaganza was hosted by Abundant Life Ministries, which is the charter church of my MOPS group.  Most of the eggs were donated (leftovers) from WalMart last year and all the candy, stuffing and raffle prizes were donated.  The event was totally free and open to the community.  It was awesome.
 

 thanks, Mom, for the basket - I'm sure this isn't what you intended

I refuse to participate in the materialism of buying my kids presents every holiday.  But I'm not a total Grinch (Frugal Frannie, maybe), so I'm glad that there is an event like this available for Ikaika to experience a more contemporary Easter thing without me having to compromise what I think is important.

 we are trying our best...

to keep life fun.

Pretty Things for Sale

Round Bazillion of trying to sell my cratfy stuff...GO!

Lexi and I had a craftacular night this week where we just went nuts with the sewing machine, the glue gun, etc.  It was really fun. 

I posted it all HERE on my Facebook page so you can go nuts and reap the rewards of a Wednesday well spent!

A Daughter?

It occurred to me today that if I had a daughter I would dress her like Chelsea dresses her daughter on Teen Mom 2 (animal print explosion) and top it off with super ridiculous headbands.  The world is a better place with me just having sons.

Water Baby

Koa doesn't like the water.

When he was born, the amniotic sac was partially covering his head.  One of the Aunties told us that meant he was spiritually connected to the water.  Apparently, they forgot to pass him the memo.  He will sit on the beach and eat sand for hours but if the ocean touches his foot - look out!
He doesn't even seem to enjoy baths.  Despite the fact that Ikaika is in there playing around, he will just fuss and cry and try to stand up/get out.  I usually have to wash him quick and be done with it.  This might be my fault because I didn't bathe him all that often when he was a newborn (three times a month, maybe?)

Because I was promised a "water baby", I'm a little disappointed that he's not splashing, laughing and having a blast down at the beach, in the tub, etc.

In the Mood for Crafts

I went nuts with the crafts tonight.  The annoying/frustrating/predictable thing about me is that even if I have things that "need" to get done (for example, the taro quilt or my mom's Christmas afghan), when I get into the mood (the crafty mood) I rarely make progress on any of that stuff.  Instead, I spend hours and hours working on other - less consequential - things. 

Tonight I started with another headband (see previous post).  These little rosettes are super cute but were kind of a pain to figure out how to make and I'm still not even sure I did it "right".  I want to make some and post them onto alligator clips - that seems more versatile than headbands. This purple band is "girl" sized so I'm obviously not going to be wearing this.  What the hell am I even going to do with this thing?  Why did I even make it?
Sigh...  Whatever, it's cute.

I followed that up with some gauchos.  These could not be any easier to make.  I used a 2XL shirt from Mr As give-away pile/my fabric hoarding pile.  I'm getting my comfy on at this very moment.

Then I covered my travel wipes case with fabric (from Ikaika's first bday shirts).  This is so much better than the boring ole plastic Huggies thing I've been rocking for the past 3 years.  Why has it taken me so long to do this?  It literally took me a half hour. 

Then I made this eye pillow stuffed with flax seed and lavender.  I made one of these for a care package last week and felt like I added too much lavender oil - but that didn't stop me from dumping a ton of oil into this one too!  I could put it in the garage and still benefit from the aromatherapy while laying in bed.

Crafting some Headbands

Glue gun fun!  I've been scoping out the scene over on You Seriously Made That!? and - although I went there for the rosette tutorial - I got all into these crocheted headbands.

I've never used my glue gun this much.  Gotta say, I love the convenience.

Ikaika begged to model one of the headbands and then made a mockery of his responsibility.  Wouldn't sit still and kept giving me all the wrong angles.  Sigh...two year olds...

 At least here you can kind of see the knot.  I did this headband in Knox colors (instead of one solid color) and I like the results.

I didn't have ribbon that was wide enough so I thought I would try some elastic instead (thinking the color wouldn't matter since I could wear it with my hair down).  Bad idea.  The stretch in the crochet strings means that this headband needs the adjustable feature of ribbon ties.  The way it is here, it tends to stretch out while wearing it and after awhile gets loose.  Also, turns out this headband would be clutch with a ponytail/messy bun - so the crazy colors are now, in fact, a problem.

Oh well, lesson learned.  Wait until you have all the supplies, THEN start the project!

Log Cabins for Japan

I came across this on Punkin Patterns and decided that it was about time I started crafting for good (not evil).

It's so simple. Make a "log cabin" style quilt square and send it to Minnesota by Friday April 8th (or early next week).  They patch em all together and quilt em into a blanket.  The blankets go to Japanese people who have been affected by the tsunami.

I found a few scraps of fabric and cut them into 2.5" wide strips.  The polka dot one was my first square and I had every intention of making one or two more.  Then Mr A fell asleep while watching the NCAA Women's Bball Final and Ikaika was being so good while Koa took a nap...I ended up going kind of bat-poo crazy.  I only stopped because I ran out of fabric.

I asked Ikaika if he wanted to lay on the ground and take a picture with the squares.  This isn't exactly what I had in mind...

Here's the conversation with my 2 year old about what I was doing
Ikaika: "what are you making me mommy?" 
Mom: "I'm not making you anything, I'm making a blanket for people who lost their homes" 
Ikaika: "I have a home"
Mom: "exactly, that's why the blanket isn't for you."

So, seriously, if you can sew and have 30 extra minutes, please make some squares and send them ASAP to:

Sewtropolis
attn: Log Cabins for Japan
5 West Diamond Lake Road
Minneapolis, MN 55419

Tutu & Me Traveling Preschool

I took the boys to their first day of Tutu & Me today.  Wondering why it took me so long to get them enrolled (esp. Ikaika)...

This program is really cute.  It's held at one of the churches in town (Imiola on Church Row).  They start with circle time where they stretch, sing, read a story and also - gasp - do the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer!  I couldn't be much more excited about that if I tried!  Most of the curriculum is Hawaiian based and introduces basic Hawaiian vocabulary.  Then there are learning stations and the kids have about an hour and a half to go to different areas and play games or do crafts, etc.  They have snacks provided (soy AND dairy milk!) and the activities are both indoor and outdoor.  There is a weekly book borrowing program and a monthly field trip (this month is to the Hilton).

The only thing I haven't quite figured out is how to play with Ikaika and Koa at the same time.  Ikaika is too big and can't go into the infant area.  Koa can go anywhere but it's kind of hard to really play with Ikaika when I'm watching Koa and vice versa.  The kids need to be supervised by a caregiver so I guess I'll just have to suck it up, talk to the other adults, and ask someone to keep an eye on him.

Ikaika...  I don't know about that kid sometimes.  It's probably because he's new to this (and my expectations are way too high) but he struggles with following directions in a group, sitting in a group, etc.  He likes to play and doesn't have any kind of attachment issues (thank God), but he's not used to school-y type learning situations.  We've been debating about putting him into Aha Punana Leo next year (full-time preschool) and I'm starting to feel like, enormous APL tuition aside, I want to just try something small like this for awhile and see if he runs with it.  I know boys mature slower than girls and it's possible that he's not really ready for more structured learning.

I Need A Nap, Too.

Makapia (Eye Boogers)

Koa has some major eye boogers.  He woke up yesterday with a sort of weepy left eye and by 6pm it had turned into this (this is after a warm chamomile pack and an eye full of breastmilk - so this is a dramatic improvement from the post-nap eye).  It's been going around, two of my friend's babies have had it.  There are no other symptoms except major goopy eye.

In a way, I feel bad.  Ikaika had great nutrition when he was a baby.  I made all his food from organic veggies, breastfed him all the way, and he always took Shaklee protein and vitamins.  As a result, Ikaika almost never got sick.  Koa is feeling the unfortunate side effects of having parents with less time and less money.  On the plus side, I also have more friends and am around other people and other children more often.  It's good, but there are more germs to go around.  Poor Koa.  This picture makes me want to stop being so lazy and really make Koa's nutritional needs a higher priority...