New Stuff???

This weekend Paul asked me if I wanted to go over to the NEX just to check out the Memorial Day Tent sale and see if there were any good deals worth looking at. So, we went over there and looked around. Paul kept getting drawn to the electronics section of the tent event. We decided to go look at the furniture blow-out sale and see what was in that section. I couldn't believe the unbelievably low prices they had on some of the furniture. We asked about the furniture and if they were getting more. They said once it was gone..it was gone. We found a tan micro-fiber sectional sofa that we loved. After talking it over for a few minutes we decided to go for it. The furniture that we had was at least 10 years old, the movers (yes, the ones that we loved so dearly) broke our love seat, among other reasons. We managed to get the furniture home without having to pay for delivery too. Thanks to one of Paul's old submarine buddies that let him borrow a van.

Then, for some unknown reason, somehow we ended up back in the electronics section. After looking at the TVs and the prices we decided to go ahead and get a new TV. Our TV that we had is about 7 years old and we decided to upgrade. Luckily we had a nice Ikea bookshelf that worked perfectly as a new TV stand.

Next stop...Target. I wanted some fruit strips, so we went over to Target. We got me 3 boxes of fruit strips...and the are delicious. But, we also ended up with a fire pit that can double as a charcoal grill.

After a shopping trip like that I think it's VERY safe to say that we won't be making anymore big purchases for quite a while.

Weekly Review - May 23-29

Sunday, May 23 - After church Gabby was in a very grumpy mood. I put Kaylee and Gabby in time out and Gabby told me she was grumpy because she was just tired. I told her that her options wre that she could finish her time-out or she could go take a nap but she had to stay in her roomquietly for an hour, or finish her original time-out. She was in her bedroom for probably about 5 minutes and was completely out. I guess she was gbeing grumpy because she was so tired. woke her up a little while later and she was a much more pleasant person. After Gabbys nap Paul fell asleep on the sofa for his Sunday afternoon nap. So, Gabby tucked him in with her special fuzzy ducky blanket.

Monday, May 24 - The kids LOVE playing with playdough. They make all sorts of pretend things for us from ice cream, to cookies, and a variety of other things.

Tuesday, May 25 - Kaylee reads to me everyday. Sometimes it's simple books such as Bearenstain Bears or Clifford, other times she likes to read me chapter books. Lately she has been going through the Magic Tree House books.

Wednesday, May 26 - I was cleaning up for the day clearing off the table. I was putting Kaylee's notebook away and was looking at the page before closing it to put it on the bookshelf. She had done a few math problems, wrote out her plan for the day, and drew a picture of our family. Here's what her plan for the day says: "Homework and then play and then have dinner and then put on pajamas and then brush teeth and then go to bed and then go to sleep"

Thursday, May 27 - Paul really wanted to go to the beach. So, we went to a beach about 15 minutes from our house, and then went over to the Ala Moana Shopping Center (a HUGE mall). We went to the Lego store and played for a little while. I LOVE the lego store and I can't wait to go play some more and maybe find some fun treasures to bring home.

Friday, May 28 - Kaylee, Gabby, and I walked to the library for storytime and then had plans to babysit in the afternoon overnight for a friend. Well, I'm glad that it was in the morning that we walked to the library. By the afternoon it was POURING buckets and buckets of water. Usually it's just a quick downpour and then the sun comes out again. This time it was quite the downpour for quite a while.

Saturday, May 29 - This weekend Paul and I went to "Check Out" a Memorial Day tent event over at the NEX. we didn't have any plans of buying anything. We just wanted to look and see if there were any good deals worth looking into. We wandered around in the electronics department, and then over the the furniture blowout sale. We couldn't believe the prices some of the furniture had been marked down to. Well, our looking around at the sale resulted in a new tan micro-fiber sectional sofa, and a new tv. Wow!!! What a weekend!

Bellows Beach & Roasting Marshmallows

Today after church we decided to head to our favorite beach...Bellows Beach. I forgot to grab my camera so I snapped a couple pictures with my phone. Sorry for the terrible quality of the pictures. Gabby played for a while in the sand, and right near the edge of the water in the waves, but then she was cold, so, she wrapped up in not one, or two...but THREE towels and was still saying she was cold.

Kaylee has been having so much fun going to the beach and really playing in the ocean. She got out in the break of the waves and was having so much fun bodyboarding. She was having so much fun riding the waves all the way into the beach.

We had a dinner picnic at the beach before heading for home. After we got home and cleaned up from the beach we roasted marshmallows out on the back patio. While we were roasting the marshmallows Marla (my little sis) told us we should try roasted starbursts with marshmallows. Paul tried it and he said it was absolutely amazing, and it has forever changed his life. I think now whenever we get ready to roast marshmallows we're going to have to make sure we have starbursts on hand as well.

North Shore - Sunset Beach & Ted's Bakery

Yesterday after cleaning the house and washing the car we decided to head up to the North Shore to play at Sunset Beach. It was a rainy day but the phrase "If you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes" is especially true in Hawaii. Everytime it started to rain it would scare of more beach goers...but overall it was nice and sunny with a few scattered showers.

While we were there I discovered an unusual sand creature. It was covered from head to toe in sand:

We found quite a bit of coral on the beach:

Then there was the sand crater. It started out small, and just kept growing, and growing.

Kaylee was getting cold from the water, and the sand was so nice and warm they made a sand bed, and tucked her in.

Paul found a big rock in the ocean and brought it up to the shore. Kaylee wanted to pick it up and take it to their crater. She had some pretty good, but unsuccessful attempts.

My Sister, Marla, requested some pictures of beach fishers. She saw them while she was here and tried explaining it to someone...so, here's how people fish at the beach. They anchor their poles in the sand, and then go cast out the line and put the pole in the anchor and wait. There is a bell on the pole so they know when it's being tugged at.

The beach fishers didn't even get a chance to anchor their poles before they caught a Trigger Fish (or in Hawaiian it's a Humuhumu-Nukunuku-Apua'a) which is the state fish. The guy was really nice and let me take a picture before throwing it back in the ocean...then his son caught one too.

When we were done playing at the beach we headed a little bit further north to Ted's Bakery for some delicious food, and AMAZINGLY YUMMY Chocolate Haupia Cream Pie.

Weekly Review- May 16-22

Sunday, May 16 - We ran out of bread, and I thought it sounded good with dinner, so, I whipped up a nice loaf of fresh bread. (not only did I make this loaf, but I made another loaf on Tuesday...and it turned into a yummy baking week)

Monday, May 17 - It was a Monday. The worst kind of Monday...the kind that you wish would just end. My kids ended up in time-out more times than should have been necessary, juice got on my laptop and made my left mouse button not work, and on, and on. I did NOT get my camera because I was not in a very pleasant mood.

Tuesday, May 18 - We did our normal daily stuff, and then I made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. It worked out so nicely that Paul got home right as I was ready to pull them out of the oven.

Wednesday, May 19 - What an insanely crazy day. We started out babysitting for my neighbor. She has an adorable 4 month old little boy. Kaylee wanted to babysit, so, she fed his his bottle, pushed the stroller on our walk, entertained him, and made sure things stayed quiet around the house while he was asleep. After we were done babysitting we went over to one of my friend's house to play a song for her to sing at a relief society dinner. Then we went grocery shopping, and just as I started putting away groceries Paul called to say he was ready for me to pick him up from work. I finished putting away groceries and Gabby was being really grumpy about her chores so I told her to either take a nap or do her chores...she chose the nap. After she woke up I gave the girls a quick bath and threw them in the car so Paul and the girl's could drop me off at the Relief Society dinner at the church. Paul took the girls to Chili's for dinner and then had to be back to the church for a meeting. The RS had a child care room so the girls played in there until Paul and I were done. We went home and put the kids to bed an hour past bedtime which resulted in a lot of emotion, and an upset girl in time out before actually going to bed. Wow!! What a DAY!

Thursday, May 20 - Back to our basic day, school stuff, chores, banana bread (Yum!) Gabby wanted to sit and watch the banana bread bake. She watched it for 20 minutes. Funny girl!

Friday, May 21 - We walked over to the library for their regular story time. They had a guest for story time and he was very energetic. It wasn't actually story time this week, it was music time. He had his guitar, and ukulele. He had shakers for the kids and he had them jumping up, down, and all around (which is why my picture is kind of fuzzy)

Saturday, May 22 - Our day started out getting things cleaned up...including washing our car. After the car was clean, and lunch was gone we had to figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the day. We ended up heading to the North Shore up to Sunset Beach. After playing for a little over 2 hours (and building a sand crater) we headed over to Ted's Bakery for some amazingly yummy dinner, and even better Chocolate Haupia Cream Pie (AMAZING!!! YUM!!!)

Weekly Review - May 9-15

Sunday, May 9 - Happy Mother's Day! Paul took great care of me today. He brought my breakfast in bread: Crepes with fresh fruit, and orange juice; then he got the girls ready for church. He made me lunch, and then dinner. He cleaned the house, and he got me some nice gifts. I got a nice new chef's knife, a can opener, and a crock pot.

Monday, May 10 - I got some really cool new books for my kids today to use for homeschool. We are going to study astronomy, outer space, and planets for science. I was excited to find some excellent books.

Tuesday, May 11 - There are so many amazing plants and flowers in Hawaii. Here is a Birds of paradise flower. I have these in my backyard.

Wednesday, May 12 - Gabby loves playing with the Think-it-Through Tiles game. She loves making different patterns, and she loves having her picture taken.

Thursday, May 13 - Kaylee and Gabby have figured out that since the library is so close to our house it's easy to go get new books all the time. They sit and read by the bookshleves, and find huge piles to bring home with them.

Friday, May 14 - We went and saw "Letters to Juliet" and it was such a cute movie. Then, we headed down to the Waikiki area for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. After dinner as we were headed back to our car Kaylee was trying to blow the flames out on the tiki torches as we passed them.

Saturday, May 15 - After shopping at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet for a couple hours we went to Hanauma Bay to play at the beach, and have a picnic.

Weekly Review - May 2-8

Sunday, May 2- Kaylee and Gabby's favorite thing lately is legos. They can do anything with them! They build houses, cars, mazes, planes, whatever they are in the mood for on any given day. They are getting a pretty big assortment of legos and are prety creative with what hey build. (in other news...the sister missionaries came over for dinner...and Paul is getting a new calling at church next week. Stay tuned for more details to come.)

Monday, May 3 - We had penne noodles for dinner. The girls don't like sauce with their noodles but they love cheese. Gabby discovered that she could slide her shredded cheddar cheese inside her noodles.

Tuesday, May 4 - Gabby really has been getting into putting together puzzles lately, and is really good at it.

Wednesday, May 5 - I have been homeschooling ever since we moved to Hawaii due to the poor quality of the schools here. A lot of people homeschool in Hawaii and it has been VERY helpful. A lady that just moved out of my ward recommended the Story of the World series for our history. It teaches history in story form and has activities to reenforce what they just learned. I just got it and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!

Thursday, May 6 - I never know what I will find on our chalkboard easle. Here's a picture that Gabby drew that I found.

Friday, May 7 - We discovered that the library here has storytime every Friday. Along with story time they sing songs, have a puppet show, and then make a craft. We almost didn't make it this week because of the rain, but the rain stopped and we were able to walk over to the library for storytime and a HEAVY bag of books that I had to carry home.

Saturday, May 8 - Gabby has some amazing Fashion statements. Sometimes she comes up with the most incredibly creative outfits. Today it was rainbow striped leg warmers, pink skirt, blue shirt, a build-a-bear bow tie, and topped off with a cap and flower clip.