More May Day Pictures!

A friend of ours was able to capture our kids in motion at May Day.

Leigh holding the lei's.

Being graceful with her hula.

Micah showing us his Maori moves.


Au e, kiapaka!
So fierce!

Here come the Fijian warriors.



Surfin' USA, Bar-ber Anne, and Wipe-out, all rolled into one!

May Day

It is a tradition in Hawaii, that in May, the school children here put on a show of cultural performances. Usually, they are centered around the Polynesian Islands. Sometimes they will venture out and do other cultures outside the Pacific Rim. Today was Kahuku Elementary's May Day Program. The children have been practicing hard at school and at home. Randy and I were excited to see their performances. This was also the first performance that we attended where all the children were involved. It was so fun to watch the program without having to chase down a little one. But I digress. Here are the pictures from our fun day.


Leigh's grade did Hawaiian. The whole 6th grade was the Royal Hawaiian Court. Leigh was a Royal Lei Bearer. See the two girls who are standing together in blue, Leigh is on the right.

Leigh is on the left of this picture in the back in dark blue. She is the one on the right again. The girls performed a couple of hula's. They did a great job!

Some more of the 6th grade girls. The boys did a performance as well.


Leigh in her costume.

Micah's grade did Maori. Those kindergartners did an awesome job with their haka and their poi balls. I'm going to have to find some footage and put it up later.


Tyler's grade did Fiji. He loved every minute of dancing. He really got into it.

Kara's grade did a "Local Boys and Girls" theme. The choreography was really GOOD! I was so impressed because it was a really good performance. We found out that Kara can DANCE!


All the kids after the program was done. Time for lunch!

We went to Papa Ole's and grabbed some plate lunches and then headed down to the nearest Beach Park "Kekela". The boys climbing trees while the rest of us finish eating.

We went for a walk on the beach afterwards.

They look like turtles digging holes for themselves. It was such a fun day. I can't wait for next years May Day!

Scramble Hill

We had a spare Saturday today. What does that mean? Well, we didn't have any where that we HAD to be at. I decided to check out a hiking spot that I want to take my Cub Scouts on. So after morning chores, we grabbed some water and headed out.



This hike is actually Laie Falls hike, but the very first 10 mins into it, you hit Scramble Hill. The kids had a lot of fun when we got there.



They wanted to go farther, but we weren't equipped for that. Next time.


Randy and the kids found some good sticks to use for walking sticks. When we got home, Randy helped sand and smooth out everyone's stick. It was kind of cute to see. Now the younger ones are ready for the next hike. We just have to make sure that we don't lose the sticks. We spent the afternoon just relaxing, then ended the night with a movie --- "Marley and Me". Another good day.

She's found her sport --- Gymnastics!

Kara finally decided to try out gymnastics. Turns out, she LOVES it! I have the hardest time getting her to leave. I know she won't do this in person for anyone else, so I caught it on video.

Lucky 13!

Today was our anniversary! We celebrated 13 years together. We have been so busy with church, school, work, and home, that I didn't make any real plans for our anniversary. I woke up this morning and and was disappointed in myself for not making any plans. I looked up and there was my oldest, with breakfast! She had made Randy and I breakfast in bed. Usually I know when the kids are doing stuff like that but this time, I was truly surprised. She had made pancakes (from scratch), ham, toast and fruit. It was delicious!!
After breakfast I was telling Randy, "I should have had you take the day off and we could have done something together while the kids are at school. (Big sigh). Oh well." Randy looked at me and said, "You want me to? OK." I looked at him wide-eyed, "What?!" "I'm taking the day off." I was so surprised that he was serious. After the kids left for school, he explained that he had already planned to take the day off and surprise me. Well, it was a surprise. As soon as the kids were gone, so were we. We did a little shopping for me, I needed some swimwear.

We headed back to the North Shore, grabbed our bodyboards and headed to our favorite surf spot (at least my favorite). Randy and I surfed out there for almost 2 hours. It was so fun to be out there with him, on a beautiful day at the beach.

We quickly grabbed lunch from the nearest plate lunch place. I was starving. I couldn't eat my food fast enough. It was such a great day!!
I am truly blessed with a great husband and children. Thank you dear, for the last 13 years!! I look forward to eternity!

P.S. Today is also my brother Joe's birthday! Happy 25th!!!

FHE - Reverence

For a while, it seemed like we were slacking with the quality of our FHE's. Lately, we have been doing much better. Tonight, Tyler was doing the lesson. I'm trying to make all our FHE's for the next 6 months center around the talks given during General Conference. I figure this way, we won't forget what was said to us and hopefully remember to do the things that were taught to us. Anyhow, one of the talks was on 'reverence'. When I listened to that talk, I felt like our family needed a review on reverence. Our kids are a little older, and I feel there's more meaning to be taught, it's not just sitting quiet. Tyler prepared his lesson. In trying to complete requirements for his Religious Knot, he created a story about reverence that he shared during his lesson. He did such a great job with it.

He explained the meaning of reverence, shared a story and then had everyone color a picture that portrayed it. When we were done coloring, he put them on the door so that we can see the pictures and be reminded to be reverent when we leave for church. He did think of this lesson almost by himself. I did help him a little. The Spirit could be felt. It was one of the moments that as a parent you say, "Ok, it is worth it." While we were coloring, the kids were singing primary songs. It was a moment I had to blog about. Mind you, our FHE's are NOT like this all the time. We are just as imperfect as everyone else out there.



We ended with refreshments by Kara. She chose s'mores. If you don't know what to do with left over chocolate from the holidays, here's what I did. We took all the chocolate eggs and used it in the s'mores we made. Worked just perfectly! Just wanted to share our FHE ideas.

Makahiki 2009

Makahiki is pretty much a big scout jamboree that they have here in the islands that is for the whole island. This year they had it at Sand Island. Randy had a scout camp over there so he took Tyler along with him since he had to be there early for the Pinewood Derby Race.
Tyler didn't win districts but he placed 7th out of about 15 boys. Good job Tyler.


Watching a demonstration with attack dogs.

Randy's troop.

The rest are pictures of all the cool stuff they had there. The kids and I joined Randy and Tyler later on Saturday. We were there in time to watch cousin Jett's Pinewood Derby Race. He placed 15th in his district. Good job Jett. It was fun to be with most of the family. Of course Jan & Aaron and his family were there, along with Julie, who braved coming by herself with her two little ones to support her nephews. We love you Julie! And Aunty Jill and Corey who even came early to watch Tyler race and stayed till Jett was done with his. You guys are awesome!
After touring the grounds, checking out all the cool stuff, we headed home.

It had been a hot day so we stopped in Aiea to find shave-ice. Well, we randomly found this place.


The shave-ice there is yummy!!!!!!!!!!! They put all kinds of stuff in there shave-ice. We will definitely go back, because there are other combinations I want to try.


I had the strawberry shave-ice with mochi balls, azuki beans and ice-cream on the bottom. So good!!!!!! We went home to dinner waiting in the crock pot. It was a nice family day.