Always My Baby Girl

My Na'ulei turned 4 on November 26th. She has been counting down the days especially since throughout the year she had to watch everyone elses birthday come and go. Earlier in the month I said to her,  "Na'u, I don't want you to grow up. I want you to stay my baby forever!"

Na'u with a serious look, "Mom, you want me to wear diapers and drink chichi again like Loli'i?"

I just had to laugh. 

 She wanted a Hello Kitty themed party.

These were the invitations.

When the day finally arrived, Na'u was SUPER excited!  She kept on asking when her cousins were coming over.  She didn't even want to take a nap because she was scared that the party was going to start.  I assured her that it was HER party and that we wouldn't start without her.

We are so happy for the turn out.  It's so much fun to have lots of people over.

We had some coloring pages, pens and crayons out for people to get their creative juices flowing.

 It was kinda fun watching all the grown-ups coloring Hello Kitty especially the guys.  They were really into it.

Cameron got a bouncer (aka the babysitter) for the kiddies.  It was a HUGE hit!

A big thank you to Mama for the fabulous meal.  We had rice, ribs, shoyu chicken, potato salad, green pasta salad, and noodles. 

The best part was the leftovers :).

The day that we had the party, was the worst weather day that we've had in a while.  It was raining and very windy.  At times when a big gust of wind would come, the tent felt as if it was going to fly away. Just to be safe, all the guys would stand up and literally hold down the fort :).  It was hard to keep the kids from getting all wet and muddy.  For the most part, they weren't too bad....except one.

My Iwi Boy was loving the rain! He was SOAKED and had to take another bath.

The birthday girl requested (of course) a Hello Kitty cake.  I tried to make a 3D Hello Kitty figurine cake topper but that was an epic failure.  I did this instead--a flat Hello Kitty made from fondant--and I LOVED it!

The surprise was inside....it was a rainbow cake.

It took a LONG time to dye and bake each layer when I only had 2 pans to work with. I had to wait for each layer to cook and cool before doing the next. You might not notice but I need to document the REAL story.  My cake is actually crooked.  It looked REALLY sad before putting on all the decorations.  I tried to make each layer even by cutting off the cake tops but apparently they weren't even AND my frosting was way to soft.  My mother-in-law did the best she could frosting the cake (thank you so much) but it was practically sliding off the sides.  I knew it couldn't be helped so i just put the cat and flowers on.  If you didn't know what was going on underneath, you couldn't even tell :). I'm so glad it turned out though.  My girl was happy that she got her Hello Kitty Rainbow cake and that's all that matters.

Na'u was spoiled with gifts from her cousins.  As you can see, she was quite tickled because she got exactly what she wanted....barbies and Hello Kitty stuff.

Happy Birthday my girl!  We LOVE you soooo much!  I hope you had a wonderful time.

No matter how old you get, your are ALWAYS going to be my BABY GIRL!

The Simple Things in Life

My poor kids are almost always cooped up in the house.  I stay at home cause competing with cars and people are not my thing.  But, I don't really take them in our yard because it's usually always HOT and cars drive REALLY FAST through our road.  I'm always scared that the kids will venture onto the road if we turn our head for a split second.  The kids have stepped off the curb before (very scary) but for the most part, are pretty good about it. 

Last week after Na'u got home from school, she asked if they could stay outside for a little while.  I said it was ok and sat down on the bench to watch them.  They were literally chasing each other in a little circle that was probably 4 or 5 yards across.  It was so funny because they were laughing  and getting a kick out of it.  They were having the best time ever. 

When running in the circles got old, they went and got some "chopsticks (=chalk)" (for some reason, Na'u always gets confused and switches chalk and chopsticks all the time) and bubbles.  What kid doesn't like chalk and bubbles?!

Na'u started off with a flower that had a stem that kept going and going and going. 

Flowers are her specialty.

 Iwi got into it too.

 

How-to-Blow-Bubbles

1.  Dip  2.  Blow Carefully...

...3.  Watch in awe.

My kids could blow bubbles ALL day!

I love my happy, chubby baby!

This face makes me smile :).

 Playing outside, giggles & laughs, keikis playing nicely, chalk, bubbles, and cute & gummy smiles are some of the simple things that make us happy.

Finally...Some Food

Last week we fed Loli'i some rice cereal for the first time. 

"Hmmm...I'm not sure how I feel about this."

  "Which tastes better? Food or fist?" 

"Ah, Mom?!  More please!"

 "I like this stuff."

I just wanted to throw this picture in because you can see how long his eye lashes are.  I love them!

 By the end of the feeding, it seemed as if Loli'i couldn't get enough.  When he saw that spoon coming, he grabbed it and shoved it in his mouth.

We were so excited to start feeding Loli'i food and he really started getting the hang of it.  

By the 2nd time feeding him, I would say "ah" for him to open up and he did.  I think this boy was soooo ready to eat. 

But then....

 ....my poor baby broke out in hives a day later.

Loli'i didn't seem different in behavior and he didn't have a fever (thank goodness) but he had hives all over his arms and legs.  They pretty much lasted the whole day.  I thought it was weird that he broke out a day after we started feeding him.  I figure that if someone was allergic to something, they would react soon after eating or getting into contact with it.  But, this was the only thing that I could think of that changed.  Doc said hives could last up to a week and in the mean time to just stop feeding him rice cereal.  She thought it was also weird that he mostly got them on his limbs because in most cases hives would show up on the torso too.  As of now, his hives are all pau.  I hope we don't run into any more bumps in the road. 

Holiday School Festivities

On Halloween day, Na'u's school had some holiday activities.  Parents were invited to come so I packed the boys up and headed out. 

The classroom tables were decorated for their party.

 My pretty butterfly showing off her wings!

Every kid was wearing a costume, most of which were store bought.  Some were homemade but I was most impressed with this helicopter.  Isn't it cool?!

 Out in the courtyard, everyone (about 5 different classes and parents) formed a LARGE circle. Each class went one-by-one singing their favorite Halloween song.  They were all excited to share.  Na'u's class, Aloha Kamali'i, did a wonderful job.

My Na'u is growing up too fast.

________________________________________

On October 29th, Na'u's school had a fall fair. We are required to volunteer a few hours throughout the school year and so this was one of the reasons why we went.  It just so happen to be the same time that Cameron had to work and everyone of our babysitters were busy. This left me with one infant, one very active toddler, and one 'want to explore everything' preschooler.  I knew it would be challenging so I had been preparing myself mentally.  My plan...carry my Loli'i in the backpack carrier, strap Iwi down in the stroller with plenty of snacks to keep him occupied, and have Na'u just be a big helper.  We were assigned to help in the book fair section but Mrs. Cheryl (Na'u's class aid) was a total angel...

...or in this case an alien :). She made it really easy for me.

After, we got a $10 card ready for some fun.

The kids got to play some games and eat some shave ice.

The game in the top left picture was plinko.  The kids needed to place the ball in the tube, let it roll down, and watch it fall into a space below. Whichever slot the ball went into determined how many tickets they won.  I thought this was an easy enough game for Iwi Boy so I let him out of his stroller.  Not a bright idea.  As soon as he had a ball in his hand, he threw it across the room.  I just about wanted to die :).  I was already sweating cause I was still holding Loli'i, trying to help Na'u, and trying to keep Iwi from running away.  I couldn't add one more thing on my to-do list.  One of the other parents was kind enough to help me out :) and retrieved the ball.  Iwi eventually got the hang of it but that was it...back in the stroller he went.

The highlight of the day were these airbrushed tattoos.  A spider for my obsessed bug boy and a butterfly for the princess.

Iwi kept on showing his tattoo to people saying "bug, bug!" or "pider, pider!".  When it started to come off days later, his words changed to "bow-ken pider!"...too cute! 

We actually got a family shot.

I have the best baby ever!

Most times when I wait to do things, I always wait for Cameron to come with me but there are sometimes when a moms got to do what a moms got to do.  I <3 my job!

Cookies, Pumpkins, Spiders, & Ghosts

The night before Halloween I thought it would be a great idea to do Halloween stuff to get into the mood. We invited Megan, Eva and Kanalu and their two girls, Naia and Sarai. 

I had the fabulous idea of making sugar cookies with the keikis.

They had soooo much fun punching out the different shapes, getting flour EVERYWHERE, decorating them and of course eating them.

The yummy results.

When it was time to do the pumpkins, I thought that they would have fun taking out all the goowey "guts" but not really. Iwi refused to even feel the goo and as you can see...

...Na'u tried and basically posed for the picture. Her facial expression in the first and second picture pretty much sums it up---yuck!

Here are the daddys doing their thing. Cameron did the blood-shot eyes pumpkin while Kanalu did the evil looking one.

One of these days, I'm going to do a pumpkin all by myself. I'm usually the one to do the guts part but thats not all that fun when you do it year after year.  Honestly, how hard could carving be?

Earlier in October, we made hand print spiders and ghosts that the kids had a blast with.  What kid doesn't like painting their hands...but of course we had to help them cause I'm sure that we would have paint EVERYWHERE (just like the flour).  When they were all dried, we hung them from the ceiling right outside our bedrooms.

Everyday (even now), Iwi stands under them, pointing and says "pider, pider."  I love it!

All you moms who craft with your kids have inspired me to do so too.  I always mean to do fun things (especially around the holidays) but never get around to doing it.  It's fun to do things out of the norm and I love that we are building memories together.  So thank you other moms!

A "Very Hungry" Halloween

For some odd reason, I feel the need to (1) make our costumes from scratch and (2) have them all matching. Every year I know this is what I want to do but don't actually decide on the theme til I am forced to because Halloween is right around the corner. I decided on the book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" as our theme the tuesday before Halloween. Boy was my plate full. I spent numerous nights staying up way past my bed time but I did it. I'm very happy the way each costume turned out.

Loli'i was the cutest caterpillar ever!


My Iwi boy was the watermelon. I loved that his costume was poncho style with no other accessories. It was perfect for him because I'm sure I would find pieces of his costume all over the ground.


My Na'u was the beautiful butterfly.
I made those wings out of wire hangers which were pretty sturdy. As we were trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, she kept on smacking other kids in the face as she walked by them. I had to keep on telling her, "sideways babe, walk sideways."

I was a simple cotton candy.
We didn't exactly have the book with us to remind us of the actual food that were in the story but I was totally sure that cotton candy was in there. We found out after Halloween that it wasn't but shhhhh....don't tell anyone :). The caterpillar still could have eaten it but just didn't document it.

We hope that everyone had a fun and festive Halloween!


P.S.-Our dad wanted to be grapes but the store was all out of purple balloons. So he ended up being Michael Jackson :).