This and That of April

empty box = lots of entertainment

took Lyssa's Flat Stanley to the mall playground and gave him some Aloha wear

bath time

Cole got sick of it and bailed and then the kids turned out the lights and had even more fun.  This big 'ol tub doesn't get a lot of use (because I hate to clean it), but it's fun when it does.

Sunday dinner w/ Storms, Toms, and the Elders

recognize one of those missionaries :)

breakfast date at Cinnamon's
I had the carrot mac nut pancakes w/ cream cheese
icing and Geo had the red velvet.
Desert for breakfast... yum!!!

One Sunday morning, Austin was determined to paint his wooden car.  And of course, the girls had to paint something too.

I was hauling Cole and his buddy Charlie in the wagon one day and had to stop and snap some pics of these mountains.  I love them!  We don't have a beach view, but I think this view is absolutely beautiful.  (And you can't beat that walk to Ross, eh?)

Austin explaining the game of Life to me:  "And see look.  You can win the Piston cup a lot of times.  And when you win the game, you end up at the temple."  (the temple in Laie - not a bad resemblance :)

Another Sunday morning activity... a parade with instruments and a balloon "walking dog"

 Lucy and I keep a little mom & me notebook that we pass back and forth under our pillows.  She likes survey stuff the best ("Name your 5 favorite animals", etc.) and games of tic-tac-toe lately, but this little entry came up randomly.  Apparently George has been teaching her base math.  We're doing our best to raise a nerdy posterity.  (I had to ask for a refresher lesson to do this one.  :)

The oldest three play school a lot.  I thought the F in P.E. was so funny, especially since it was Lucy giving the grade to Elise (the most athletic kid in our family).

Elise and I were discussing at what ages she'd be able to make certain choices for herself and she was getting a bit sassy.
me:  "Well, when you are 16, I'll trust you enough to make that choice."
Elise:  "Well, when I am 16, I won't know ANYTHING.  Even less than I do now."
 (I thought I should get that in writing. :)

Dino Dig at the Bishop Museum

We have a membership to the Bishop Museum and got an evening sneak preview of their dinosaur exhibit.

Our first stop was the actual exhibit.  The dinosaurs were robotic and Lucy and Elise were scared to death! Lucy finally dared to at least go close.  But even the tame exhibits (like the baby dinosaur eggs hatching) had Elise really worried.

We headed outside for activities like the dino dig (found eggs with dino stickers inside), 

animal crackers & punch,

holding fossils, 

entering the dinosaur roar contest (I think Cole would have been a good contender with his whisper roar :)

and standing in line forever so Austin could
get a balloon bow & arrow.

By the end, Cole and Geo were
getting restless.

 

Elise going back and forth between feeding her poodle to the T-rex and grabbing it away "just in time".

Fun way to spend a Friday night!

Lu's Art Fair

Every year, St. Mark's does a "school-wide" event.  Every other year it is May Day (Lei day) which is by far my favorite.  This year, it was an art fair.  We waited until George got home from work and by that time we almost had the place to ourselves.  Austin thought it was pure torture, but the rest of us enjoyed ourselves.  Even Cole pointed some of his favorite animals - sharks and fish.  Lucy had two individual entries and a group entry.

Awesome adjectives that describe me

Lu, Alana, and Elise give their critique

Eric Carle art

K-2 kids - rainbow of color

Nice job to our budding artist!

Later she created her own art gallery in the hall.  Lucy loves to be creative.  She is not a perfectionist when it comes to art projects.  She can crank out a lot of good stuff really quickly.  Sometimes I think she should take a little more time to do things (like she'll still draw quick stick figures, etc), but I love that she's comfortable with her work and is a finisher.

Bird Catching

One day, I noticed my laundry dumped on the floor and the baskets missing.  This happens often when the kids play "boats" in my room, but I couldn't find anything there.  Elise and Austin had taken them outside to use as "bird catchers".  We have a lot of birds around the yard because they are well fed.  The kids often eat on the lanai and there are plenty of scraps around.  Once I saw a bird trying to drag a whole pop tart away.  Anyway, the kids were throwing the baskets at the birds trying to capture some, but the game soon ended because (surprisingly) we didn't have any more birds in the yard.  However, Cole found new ideas for the baskets.  

Works much better as a brother catcher!

Like the backwards shorts and underwear look?
This particular week, Austin carried a plastic blow-up sword in
 the back of his shirt every day "in case someone attacked".  :)
It was a sad day when that popped!

Then Lucy wanted to take over (usually happens :)  

She found ribbon, tested out different sticks, and got some help from her dad.

Lu came home from school the next day with more ideas:  bait for the birds and two ribbons tied together (so she'd be sitting farther back and not scare them).

She woke up early the next morning and tried again before breakfast because her sibs "kept being loud and scaring them" (which was true. Cole especially loves to bird chase).  However, when she "caught one and it escaped through the holes," (ha! :) she gave up the whole idea.

Other exciting "birds" in our yard:

Our bird of paradise hasn't bloomed in over a year.  I re-potted soon after I bought the plant and according to the gardening lady, they like to be root-bound.  Boo.  But finally... look how pretty!
And here's a few other yard lovelies:

anthurium

plumeria smells even better than it looks!

Elise, Austin and Cambrie created this little display so my "house would look pretty too!"