Fab Five: Flowers, Squirting, and Test Scores

~ONE~

I took the kids to Monsters University on Saturday.  I love Pixar because they make shows entertaining for both kids and adults.  Geo was good enough to stay home with the younger two boys.  Even though the kids used the potty beforehand, I still had to leave with one in the middle of the show and bolt the second the show was over to help another make it.  *sigh*  I needed to get home to feed the baby so we didn't have time for ice cream, but I did give them each a quarter for those lame-o prize machines.  And they came home telling Geo that was the best part of the whole mommy-kid date!  ha!

~TWO~

 The flower garden got a bit of a makeover this week.  Cole was a mixture of dirt and snot by the end.  Gross.  (pics by Elise) But it was a fun morning!  Lucy was an especially big help.  Austin was thrilled over planting something that he was sure looked just like coral.

~THREE~

 A long time ago, I saw a blog post on No Time for Flashcards about a game of writing letters on the wall with chalk, calling out a letter, and having your kid find it and squirt it off.  We tried it this week with lowercase letters, numbers, and shapes for the middle kids and multiplication and division problems for Lu.  It was a really simple game and BIG success - especially for Austin.  :)

~FOUR~ 

Lu got two test scores back this week.  One was for allergy testing.  She usually wakes up sneezey and runny nosed so we thought we ought to check it out.  She is allergic to about 25 things, but some only slightly.  The highest allergies were house dust mites and cockroaches.  ha!

The other test results were for the Standardized Achievement Test she took in May.  She did a great job and we are proud of her and how well she does in school.  The funny thing was that her two highest grade level comparison scores were in Language and Listening.  ha!  She's always been a chatterbox so I wasn't too surprised about the Language.  I was kind of surprised about the listening though.  I feel like sometimes she has selective hearing.  Geo wasn't surprised at all.  He reminded me of how much she picks up when we don't realize she's listening.  She's like her aunty Lacey was... just sitting quietly in a corner, listening to all the conversation so no one realizes she's there.

A side note about Lu:  She has been a big help this summer!  She's learned some new housekeeping skills (specifically making pancakes and doing her own laundry - start to finish), feeds Erik his bottle, and creates lesson plans for the kids to help them practice school stuff (even did a "knot-tying" lesson.  :).  This girl is growing up!  She loves it when Elise falls asleep at night and she can sneak out and hang our with mom and dad.

~FIVE~

Elise is my little binkie angel.  She's always taking good care of Erik and helping him settle down.  Cole actually helps with the binkie too, but in a different way.  He finds the binkie and throws it at me, "Bee-ee.  Baby Ew-ik.  Tie (cry)."

Adventure Club visits the tidepools of North Beach

We were in charge of this week's Adventure Club.  It was low tide, so we thought the tidepools at North Beach on the Marine Base would be fun.  And it was a new activity for almost everyone else, so that's fun too.  George took the day off to help me keep our kids in line.  Plus his "finding creatures" skills are much better than mine!  It drizzled rain off and on, so we had the beach to ourselves.  Favorite finds:  lots of pretty shells, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, cowry shell,  and a Hawaiian blue crab.

Cole demonstrates the versatility of visors :)

 sooo close to a crab dinner :)

We sure feel lucky to have great friends!

Fab Five for Friday: Elise on a bike and favorite faces

I need a new name for this post.  It never seems to get done on Friday.  :)

~ ONE ~

The big news around here... Elise learned how to ride her bike without training wheels!  Geo told her to go get some closed-toed shoes while he took the wheels off and she came back with the red sparkly ones.  That girl has style!  :)

She has a great sense of balance and no fear, so she took off right away!  She still struggles a bit when she turns, but really has picked it up quick.  WAY TO GO, ELISE!

~ TWO ~

Baby Erik is still a string-bean.  He has gained about an ounce a day and is now up to 7lbs 9oz.  We're still giving him a bottle at night and morning in addition to his regular feedings to try to fatten the kid up.  I think he'll come around soon. He is still a sleepy little guy but is awake more and more each day.  He also has baby acne... usually happens to my kids when I am ready to show them off to the world!

Erik's kiss face

~ THREE ~

Austin is NOT a fan of posing for pics these days.  He usually wears his a grumpy face.  And afterwards, he insists on doing a "silly face picture."

~ FOUR ~

And this is Cole's latest face:  the chipmunk.

Here's a few more fun pics at Ala Moana Beach Park (this week's adventure club).

Elise gets a ride from Makela
Austin hanging with his buddies - Kimo, Gary and Kawika
and Cole with his - Kahekili and Charley

Geo was the party dad!  The kids flocked to the guy.  Thank goodness for dad's!  Us women stand in the water and chat while watching the kids, but Geo is great at PLAYING with the kids!  He was a horse, a boogie board puller, and his favorite (but probably Austin's least fav)... the sea monster!!!

We don't go to Ala Moana beach a ton.  Its a nice beach for smaller kids - really shallow and not much wave, but we just don't go into Honolulu that often.  Even though the weather is more rainy and unpredictable, we generally stay on the windward side.  One funny thing about Ala Moana is that every time we go, we see lots of bridal photography shoots.  This cracks me up because people are all over the place, but it doesn't seem to matter to the couple or photographer.  Sometimes they actually want the kids in the photo or pose.  ha!  This day there were 4 happy couples.

~ FIVE ~

We've had three recipes from Our Best Bites this week...

The Storms' invited us over for Southwest Burgers on Saturday.  Delicious!

George requested Thai Peanut Noodle Salad for his Father's Day dinner.  The funny thing was that Randy Storms told us that's what he requested for his FD dinner too!  Pretty random, right?  So we just joined up and ate it together.  According to the boys, extra sirachi sauce = extra yum!

And we tried a grilled chicken with pineapple-avocado salsa (from the recipe book).  That  one was actually the easiest of the three.  Geo cooked the chicken and I made the salsa (and added some fresh mango).  Three cheers for OBB!  :)

He's the BEST dad we ever had!

typical Cole face after church - chocolate!
The "before church" pic would look a lot different -
Elise is usually crying because she can't find the "right dress" after changing 5 times and
Austin is crying because he doesn't want to go and/or get dressed in church clothes

One of the kids' favorite books is Froggy's Day with Dad by Jonathan London.  Froggy makes his dad breakfast in bed and then they spend the day at a mini-golf course.  At the end, Froggy gives his dad a mug with the words, "To the best dad I ever had".   The kids repeat that phrase often now... and its true!  They DO have a wonderful dad!  (Austin also repeats the negative version when he's mad "You're NOT the best dad I ever had because you made soup for dinner" {That happened while I was gone in Feb and Austin still hasn't forgiven him for it.})

Tracing of a car by Austin * oxo measuring cup :)
charcoal chimney * pic of Kaneohe Bay for his new office

Because of Froggy, for months Austin has REALLY wanted to go golfing with Geo for Father's Day.  On Monday night, George took all four kids to the Ko'olau Mini-Golf Course.  They had the place to themselves and had a ball!











Happy Father's Day to the BEST dad they ever had!

Fab Five: Outings with Dad

~ ONE ~

Erik and I attended an hour of church on Sunday.
This cute little tie onesie is from Aunty Lacey.

  Erik continues to be a sleepy little guy.  George took him in on Friday to check his weight:  7lbs 1 oz.  :(  (12.5% down from birth weight at two weeks).  We were just kind of going by his wake-up schedule to feed, but now we're going with the wake him up and feed him every two hours hoping he'll gain an ounce a day by his dr's appt on Monday.  Geo is going to add a bottle feeding too.  He was giving me a good stretch of sleep at night (from 11-4).  Its always tough to wake them up when everyone is so tired.  But you can see skin folds on his little legs.  Sad.

~ TWO ~

While the kids were at the last day bible school, Cole and I started a tape road.  We didn't get very far, but when the older kids came home, they took off with the idea.  They created an airport, library, pizza hut, mall, dance floor, hospital with helicopter landing pad, fire station, and places for summer and regular homes for each kids.  The handicapped parking spots are in blue tape as well as some special features (like a fish pond created by Elise). Its been a week and they play with it every day.

~ THREE~

George has this week off as part of paternity leave.  (Love the benefits of the Airforce).  Almost every afternoon, he has been giving the kids swimming lessons.  The girls enjoy this more than Austin and have really improved.  He has taken the kids on daily outings.  Sometimes I go along too, but Geo does most of the work.  Monday was to a playground by Queen Emma's Summer Palace.  This was part of Adventure Club.  They had a scavenger hunt, played "Four Corners" and played on the playground.  The park was beautiful and completely shaded by three HUGE trees.  They probably covered the area of a football field.

Elise wanted to eat lunch with Aunty Ashley.
She was even a great sport when a bird used her head/lunch as a dumping ground.

~ FOUR ~

Lucy was such a great helper in cleaning with Grammy Cindy that she earned a trip for the fam to the Children's Museum.  This is one of her favorite places to visit here!

 We picnic-ed across the street.  Rain caused a sudden exit.

~ FIVE ~

One of the things Geo wanted to do was take a trip up to the North Shore and check out Turtle Beach (not sure of the real name).  Austin was NOT happy about this.  He says, "I like the snow better than the beach!"  Ha!  This is from the kid who FREEZES when the temps drop to the low 80's.  The weather channel said 10% chance of rain before 2pm and 0% chance after on the North Shore.  But it rained off an on the whole time we were up there.  ha!  You win some and you lose some.  The beach is up by Haleiwa so we stopped at Matsumoto's beforehand. 

 There were three turtles on the beach. We joined a bunch of tourists and checked them out.  Most of the time was spent in the water though.  Cole is a big fan now.  Gone are the days when he would sit on the beach and play with trucks in the sand with me.  Now he wants to climb all over Geo in the water and jump the waves with the kids.  Even with a life jacket, it makes me nervous.  Geo even sent him on the boogie board for some small waves.  He did okay but the last one he got rolled pretty good.  This happened without a board earlier and scared him pretty good, but not the second time!

Checking our the spear fishermen
Can you see the rain starting to come in?

Erik was a trooper

Geo went out snorkeling and saw a couple big turtles.  Meanwhile, the kids and I played in the sand and then really got poured on!  By the time he got back, we were ready to go (and then warmed up with yummy fries from Kahuku Grill).  It wasn't quite the beach day we were expecting, but still fun to go on outings with dad!