Victory!

When Lucy gets home from school, the activity she chooses most often is playing a game. Its usually "Mancala" or "Guess who".

I pretty much got creamed in this game.

Yummy Mango freezer Jam

This is a pretty standard recipe for Mango freezer jam. I've always wanted to try it but never have until this week. It is yummy! I found some big, fat HI mangos at the store and thought I'd give it a shot.


Mango Freezer Jam
3 c. mango pulp-mashed (about 3-4 mangos, depending on size)
1/4 c. fresh lemon
5 c. sugar


3/4 c. water
1 pkg. regular pectin

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Cut and mash the mangos. George cut the mango into large chunks and gave the pit to Austin to suck on. The child was in heaven for a half hour straight. I was the fruit masher and used the Veggichop my friend Wendy gave me. I like my jam a bit chunky and it worked perfectly.

Put the pulp in a bowl with the lemon juice and sugar. Stir well (or have your oldest child do it). Let sit for 10 minutes.

Put the pectin and water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over the mango mixture after the ten minutes has passed. Stir for 3 minutes or so until the sugar is dissolved.

Pour into freezer containers, leaving 1/2 inch at the top. Elise was my inspector.

Leave on the counter for 24 hours, then move to the refrigerator or freezer or spoon directly on Pop-up Pancakes. That's the choice we made and it was devoured without ANYONE saying "No", "I done (before a bite is eaten)", "Do we have to have THIS? Can't we have PB &J?" or immediately dumping the plate upside down. Now that is what I call dinner success!

Now that is what I call...

... a fabulous "visiting teaching" treat. Can I tell you how happy I was when the ladies brought these babies by? I'll take avocados over cookies any day! Delicious!

Nine

Happy Anniversary to us!
It was an "odd" number of years to be married, so that meant the date ideas/planning was up to me. Thanks to great baby tenders, we split the date in two. We went snorkeling together on Saturday morning at North Beach on the Marine Corps base. George saw "the coolest eel he's ever seen" and thankfully, I did not see it. I'm sure I would have freaked. Not sure why that makes me squeamish, but it does. Its all Flotsam's and Jetsam's fault.


Tonight (our actual anniversary) we had dinner at a place sort of near our house, Haleiwa Joe's. Its in the building by our heads. The Haiku gardens are below and rents out as a place for wedding receptions. Naturally I thought we should take as many "engagement" posed shots as possible (you know, the ones with the girl's left hand placed strategically on the boy's chest). George didn't love the "stopping at every photograph location" idea. Hmmm...wonder why? :)
So this shot will have to do. And here is the view from the restaurant, looking down at the gardens. Pretty, huh?
The fish was delicious! I think our favorite restaurant in SA has some competition!



We finished off the night with a walk by the beach.

Thanks for a great 9 years, hubby!

A is for Austin

Austin loves to sing the ABC song. Unfortunatley, he does it at random times and I never have my camera ready. Sadly, I can't give the credit to "good mothering/teaching"... it goes to Big Bird. I used my Netflix monthly video as "Big Bird's ABC's" for a new movie to play on the plane trip to UT in June. It was such a hit (and the only thing that kept the babies attention for 30 minutes straight) so I kept it through most of July. Austin caught on to the song pretty quick. But he gets easily distracted with a camera in front of his face. So, I have lots of dumb video clips with me singing the ABC's. I took this video a few weeks ago hoping I could get a better one, but no luck. Its a bit long but I couldn't crop it. I thought the kiss at the end was so cute. And you can definitely tell what his favorite things to play with are!

Looking for Lizards and other randoms

"Gecko spotting" is a regular family activity. Its not a hard thing to do. Everyone is pretty good and almost everyone thinks it is fun. I've seen enough inside the house to make finding them outside not as exciting. I don't really welcome them on my walls, but when we came home to a BIG, FAT cockroach in my sink, I changed my mind. I'll take the geckos.

Other random things:

popsicle sharing... yum!

spying on the construction people.
Lucy choice of outfits is lovely, isn't it?

more mischief

scrubbing the colored-on walls

(This didn't really turn out how I was hoping. Both kids thought it was SO fun and were fighting over the scrubber.)

Friday night snack.

Austin: "I dip it! I dip it! YAY (with clapping)!!!"

We took a tour scheduled through the base to show us our new island home. George and I thought it was really interesting. But the novelty of the bus ride wore off WAY too quick for the kids. There weren't a lot of stops ... not their favorite thing.

One of the stops was the Pali lookout. It was a cloudy day, but we could still see our town, the lower half of the mountains, and the ocean. Not surprisingly, it started raining. It rains a lot here, but not for long periods of time. This time it came down hard and fast and sideways. People were screaming and running down the hill as fast as they could. It was quite funny.

When you dream...

Lucy came home from school and told me they talked about what they want to be when they grow up. She said, "a sandwich maker."

Atta, girl! Dream big!

Double Trouble

Aren't these cute faces? I have to think of those sweet, innocent faces when I'm at my wit's end. Yesterday was one of those days. They were full of mischief. I found lotion smeared all over the mirror, two children completely inked with my stamp pads and permanent marker (container WAS put high enough on a shelf, but... they found a stool), toilet paper ripped into tiny shreds (most of it got in the toilet... and some came out again), and realized the TV/DVD player was not working. I had to wait for George to get home to fix that one. I was out of patience. He found about a third of the deck of "Go Fish" cards shoved into the DVD slot. Retrieving the last card took major surgery - unscrewing the whole thing and both of us with the flashlights, tweezers, some medical pincher things (I think originally used to remove Elise's stitches). After an hour and a half of work, all the cards were out and the TV is working once again. Not without some aesthetic damage from the surgery, but none the less, it IS working. All this was in addition to their "normal" mischief. I know, I know. You are thinking, "why isn't your house more baby proof?" Well, I thought it was.

These two rascals are pretty good buddies though and I must say, so far, they are pretty good about taking turns. Here is a favorite activity:

Notice how Elise "helps" the wheels move along with her feet. She does it with regular strollers too.

Here's another favorite daily activity: watching the dump trucks and tractors work on the road in front of our house. Austin could do this for a LONG time. Elise likes to join him but isn't quite as enthralled.


This first little interchange is pretty typical between the two of them at nap time... and the second one is too.

She's 5!

Lucy celebrated her 5th birthday on Saturday. This present was from George. Looks like he wants a snorkeling buddy!

For her birthday activity, Lucy chose to visit the Children's discovery center. Havyn came along too and the girls had a fun time. It cracked me up how quickly they would change activities. It was "throw on the dress up clothes, look at each other, throw the clothes off and run to the next center" the whole time.

Afterwards we ate a picnic lunch at Point Panic Beach park. We watched the parasailers, fisherman, sailboats and the big shipping boats go out to sea, and the waves crash against the rocks. The food just couldn't compete with all that fun stuff.

We ended the day with a trip to the beach with the Jensen's. Well, George and Lucy did. I stayed with the younger two while they napped (4 hours... they were wiped out!). Lucy practiced a bit with her snorkel gear. We had cake and ice cream in Utah, so on the way home they picked up Hawaiian shaved ice for a birthday treat. This was the conversation:

Lucy: That was so fun that I got to see Havyn TWO times today. (pause) She looked so cute in her swimsuit.

Geo: Did she? What did it look like?

L: It was black and while polka dots. Didn't you see her?!?

G: Yes. I saw her. I guess I didn't notice.

L: Dad, I can't believe you didn't notice.

G: I guess because I'm a boy. Boys don't like clothes that much.

L: But Dad !! You wear clothes like every single day!

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Today the kids and I took treats to school. Lucy knew just what she wanted... chocolate covered popcorn. Normally she would have a summer birthday, so it was kind of unique for her to have the first birthday of the school year. The kids sang to her (4 different ways) and made her cards. She was thrilled.

Here's the Hawaiian version:

Elise thought it was so much fun to hang out with the big kids.

And Austin? Well, no surprise what did. Not even food could entice him away.






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Happy Birthday to our sweet Lucy!

You bring such happiness to our family.

A Kindergarten Lucy

Check out this big girl!

Lucy's first day of Kindergarten was July 29. Too early of a start date for my taste. I thought I would cry my eyes out, but only got a little choked up a couple times. One of those times was when she gave grandma and her siblings a hug "goodbye."

Lucy REALLY wanted to walk all by herself to school. She was disappointed when I told her I was coming for sure. She asked "why" and I told her because mommies get a special "goodbye" in the classroom. She didn't fight me on it anymore, but once we got to the class and she saw all those new faces, she did act a little nervous and seemed to be glad to have me there. We walked around the class to look at the playhouse and desks and cubbies.

And then I left her in the capable hands of Mrs. Gundermann. No tears for anyone, but a big smile on Lucy's face and a little pain in my heart that my oldest is gone for a large chunk of the day. Boo hoo.

Running home to tell grandma everything she learned. How exciting!

After a week, she still wakes up happy and excited to go to school. Although she complained about homework last night. Seriously? Complaining about coloring a picture? This has to be a programmed response, right? Because immediately afterwards, she happily went to work. I guess I just wasn't expecting it from my oldest. Well... school days for our family have officially started!

Aloha!

We made it!

After a month of vacationing with the fam while our cars and junk (I mean... "high quality stuff") shipped across the ocean, we are here! It is beautiful! We always miss our old friends, but are looking forward to making new ones. I've resigned myself to the fact that I probably won't have a "good hair day" for three years. Its a frizzy mess. But the girls' curly hair looks darling. I think George would go to the beach every day if he could. Life is good.

These two are definitely ready for Hawaiian tans.

Maybe now they can get the real thing.

Moving is always an adventure, for many different reasons. No matter how much you prepare, there are always a billion things to do at the end. And it compounds for an overseas move. One lucky thing is that the military contracts someone to pack all your stuff up.

It really is a great thing, but when us military wives get talking, the moving "horror stories" come out. Its kinda like ladies telling childbirth stories...only the wildest ones get told. Everyone always says, "they pack WHATEVER you have in your house, so throw away your garbage, plates of cookies, etc". It also helps to sort of organize things to make sure "like stuff" gets packed with "like stuff". This doesn't always work, but it makes you feel better.

So far, we haven't had many problems. A few broken things, but that is to be expected. Liz has been here the past week and I've been so grateful. She's helped tend children as well as helping me unpack and rearrange stuff. We're making progress. So far, I really don't have many horror stories, but a few that have made me shake my head and chuckle.

One box I was anxious to unpack was the art supplies. Lucy started school on Thursday and I didn't want to buy all new school supplies when I already had them... somewhere. It was all together in a bin (some of my bins were emptied and some were left with all the stuff inside) and originally put with all the toys. Side note: I remember thinking as the people packed our stuff in SA, "I'm glad we don't have a ton of toys." And now on this end, I'm thinking, "WHAT?!? Another box of TOYS!?! We have too much junk!!!" Anyway, Liz and I unloaded "toy" box after "toy" box looking for the art supplies. We took a break with three boxes left. I came back to it later, tearing it open to reveal all bathroom stuff - razors, girl products, bath mat, etc. At the bottom, I found three alphabet letters, which apparently gave the box the "toy" label. :) The next box was similar, this time with books and other odds and ends with a few toys sprinkled on the top (probably found underneath a couch). I did find the bin, in case you are wondering. One of my friends told me not to risk where they pack the plunger, toilet brush, etc. She told me to just throw those away. I forgot to do that in our little half bathroom in SA and found those lovely bathroom items packed with paper plates, aprons, and other kitchen items. Um... really? I found George's tool box with the Christmas stocking holders and a flat basketball. You get the picture, right? And I'm sure more surprises are coming.

However, it is nice to rip open a box and look up to see some pretty amazing mountains.

(This was taken at the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens near our house.)