Monday, October 22, 2012

The things we do to stay cool!

Hawaii's temperature is usually in the mid 80's, which is perfect beach weather!! Plus we usually have the nice trade winds blowing. But this past month, they went away. So add that temperature to a lot of humidity and trying to just deal with every day life while you're sweating profusely can be really hard to function. (I know, I know, there are worse places). We don't have A/C in our house or in our car so we are always trying to be creative on how to stay cool. Besides Costco, Walmart, the Mall, or any other store for that matter (because they have A/C), we have tried the following:

The aquarium is a blast! Small and perfect for little kids.
 McDonald's ice cream was a hit!

 We needed a better way to water our lawn, so this rotating sprinkler has been a lot of fun!

 Laying on the cold tile eating apples!
 We have spent a lot of time at Barnes and Noble! 
I always think of "You've Got Mail" when we do this

 And the beach always works too!




Fortunately the trade winds have returned!

Pre-school

It was my turn this week for pre-school at my house and I was slightly nervous to have that many kids over to entertain and teach them something. It gave me more admiration for teachers because I probably spent 7-8 hours preparing for my two days of only 2 hours. But I was glad to know that I over prepared and we didn't get to all the activities I had planned. And the only kids I had to discipline were my own kids. I had a blast teaching them about the number 9 and the letter I. We made Islands, I froze Insects in Ice and we made maracas because they are an Instrument. We did some exercises and stretches, had some playtime, story time, and snack time. It was really fun!

Curly was really proud of her #9


Afterwards I decided to try a craft I found while surfing the web. but didn't want to try with 6 little kids, so Curly and I worked on it while Lou Who slept. You glue (I used Mod Podge, but you can just water down the glue) strips of orange tissue paper to mason jars and then cut out black construction paper to make Halloween designs. Then you put a candle inside and enjoy!





So that you all don't think I am super mom, the "crafty bug" only comes out every couple of months and I think I only got upset at Curly 4 times. But I thought they turned out super cute and Curly is really proud of the one she made. She did it almost all by herself. Hers is the small jack-o-lantern. We made daddy's with a mustache. And Lou Who's is the witch one. Whenever Curly comments on my BOO she raises her hands up like she is going to scare me. Apparently she can't say BOO without using hand signs.

Then because I wanted to make something to send to my Bedstemor and Bedstefar (grandparents) we made these spiders from their hand prints  Just trace hands and cut off the thumb and glue on top of each other.


Tomorrow our pre-school is going to the pumpkin patch! Happy Halloween everyone! 
Eat lots of candy!

Names

Not to sound like a paranoid mama, but because this blog is public, I now have blog nicknames for my girls. 

This is "Curly"


 And this is "Cindy Lou Who" or "Lou Who" for short!


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

State ID

Living in Hawaii and getting a state ID gives us the perk of getting the Kama'aina (local) discount at a lot of places, like the Zoo, Aquarium, Sea Life Park etc...

Anyone 3 and older living in Hawaii can have a state ID, so we got Curly one too. She LOVES to look at her picture and laughs hysterically when she sees it. I don't think she really needs one, but it makes her happy and maybe she'll need it someday.

When we went to get our state ID, this is the building we entered. Does anyone see anything peculiar about the title of this building? The building we entered to receive our STATE ID?
 Last I checked, Hawaii switched from being a US territory to a state in 1959 :-) 
It's a beautiful building though!

This was a cool looking Banyan(?) tree that lined the parking lot.


Conference Weekend

This is how we spent our General Conference weekend. Sitting around in our jammies (of course) watching it on our laptop. Because we are 4 hours behind Utah, Haans and I got up at 6 am in hopes of watching as  much of the morning sessions before the girls woke up. But alas, Saturday morning, Curly heard us at 5:45. It was fun to sit with her and Haans in the pitch dark watching and listening to our beloved prophet, the Lord's mouth piece here on the earth. We got to also enjoy watching the sky get brighter and brighter.

 Notice Haans has a blanket on, it is cool in the morning! Yes, relief from the hot humidity of the day.

It never ceases to amaze me how both my girls have to sit on my lap at the same time!!!


After Saturday morning's session, we took Haans to school since he has a few Saturday's during the semester where he has class. And since most people with little children know how hard it can be to watch conference, I took the girls to the beach and got to enjoy the afternoon session during naptime. 

This next picture is for my dad. When my parents were here they spoiled me and bought me a beach chair and umbrella since I had to sell all my beach stuff back in CA. They are from Costco and I wanted a matching set. But the Costco we went to didn't have an orange chair, so after calling another Costco, checking online and Craigslist, I finally found my orange matching chair at an Overstock place in the middle of an industrial neighborhood. My dad and Haans just didn't understand why I HAD to have a matching set. Well dad, this is why.... doesn't it look good?

Lou Who enjoyed playing with my hat which she put on herself and squawked at me when she wanted to sit in MY chair!


Sunday morning, Haans and I got through most of the morning session without having to play the circus ringmaster when our girls awoke! But I do love to see how excited Curly gets when she sees the Prophet on the screen.
 After the afternoon session, (well for us it was the 10 am session), we painted nails. In theory this seems like a fun mother/daughter bonding time. But in reality, not quite! A lot of "don't touch it yet." "Stop moving." So don't look too close. :-) But the girls LOVED showing their daddy afterwards. This was Lou Who's first time and she loves pointing to her toes. My girls are all girly for sure! (And I trimmed, well accidentally cut off 2 inches, of Curly's hair).




I hope you all enjoyed watching Conference however or whenever you got to. I truly love hearing the latest counsel on how to be better and more like our Savior. During one of the talks, I was shedding some good tears when Haans leaned over and asked, "Did you call ahead?" I just laughed. I had prayed for three topics to be addressed during conference, three different issues I am personally struggling with and Heavenly Father always delivers. So grateful to know He knows me personally and knows what I am going through. Now to put into practice what I learned.

For anyone who wants to learn more about General Conference click here


Monday, October 8, 2012

Parents Visiting

My first few weeks in Hawaii were quite the adjustment and I may have cried a little :-) The day after we arrived though, my mom called to ask if they could come visit us already! So I cried tears of joy and and had something exciting to look forward to. They came on Sept 27 and we had such a FUN week with them. As my sister said, when visitors come, Haans and I really get to feel like vacationers too. Everything goes on hold and we get to act like tourists.
Our welcome signs



Haans was laughing at me as we drove to the airport to meet them. I was so giddy to have them come!

Waikiki beach their first day!

The girls made sure they got up early every morning, no sleeping in while on vacation!

This beach was in Kailua and it was pretty windy, which made some fun waves to jump over.


We laughed how we spent some of our late evenings together. We each had our own computer!

 Our beautiful Honolulu tabernacle, where we get to attend church (Elder Hallstrom talked about the tabernacle in his April conference talk).


 My dad is reenacting Tarzon on the big Banyan tree in the front of the tabernacle!

One day we headed over to the West side and swam at Ko Olina which was super pleasant. My girls had so much fun playing in the water with Gramps



Then we drove up the West side till the road ends. Fun fact: on the maps it says there is 5 more miles of road, when in reality it's not there. Someone might want to tell the state government.


 Shark's cove is up on the north side and is supposedly the best snorkeling place. It was really low tide for us, so we have seen better snorkeling, but it was still fun! Curly even got to use her snorkel and is getting pretty good.
I love Lou Who's muscles!


We went to Punchbowl cemetery, a veteran cemetery in a huge old crater. It was really neat and felt very sacred. In ancient times it was where the Hawaiians buried their royalty and also a place for human sacrifice. In 1949 it became a cemetery. It seems fitting that it is now a place for those who sacrificed their lives in the military.



Our last day together we were going to go to Hanauma Bay, but it was full, so dad decided on a plan B and took us to Sea Life Park. A scaled down Sea World, but still really enjoyable. And because we now have our state IDs, we got a good discount.

 Three month old sea turtle!
 I loved seeing the dolphins! My FAVORITE animal!
 These sea turtles were huge! 

After Sea Life Park we went to this beach on the east side of the island (it's just down from Magnum P.I.'s estate) and miraculously saw three sea turtles in the wild. It was so fun, Curly even got to see them.

 We took mom and dad to our neighborhood park a few times to watch the sunset.

 My girls were troopers and took several naps like this while we had fun seeing more of the island.

But they weren't the only ones apparently! Mom and Dad rented a mini-van so it was fun to be all together.

The last night, my parents treated us to our favorite restaurant, PF Changs!

 Needless to say, we had so much fun having my parents here and they sure spoiled us! We are going through withdrawals. Curly asked the other day when we were headed to the beach, if Gramma and Gramps were coming with us. I wish too! Please come again!