Sink Or Swim

A Final Homecoming

Reb — Thu, 16 May 2013 06:00:14 +0000

I received word from a fellow military spouse about Air Force Captain Reid Nishizuka who, along with three others, was killed in a plane crash in Afghanistan. Nishizuka was a local boy from Kailua and would be coming back to the island to be laid to rest at Punchbowl.

My friend and I took our kids and lined up along with hundreds of others to welcome him home and to thank him for the ultimate sacrifice.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/22213745/hundreds-line-hickam-streets-for-fallen-airmans-final-homecoming

Holy Crap, My Daughter Can Play the Piano

Reb — Wed, 15 May 2013 06:00:30 +0000

Miss Mckenna has been taking piano lessons for a few months now with a private teacher who we just LOVE. Her teacher got together with some other music teachers in the area to have a mini recital for all the kids.

Mckenna was SUPER nervous about playing in front of people but I thought it would be really good for her.

She was so nervous she didn’t even smile the entire time. It didn’t help that this was the first time she had played on a grand piano! She is used to a keyboard at home and an upright at the piano teachers! She did great!

All the kids who participated also received a certificate which I thought was very sweet. I am looking forward to attending many more recitals!

Mama’s Day

Reb — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:10:49 +0000

So I kinda hate Mother’s Day. It’s kind of like Valentine’s in that there is this big set up on what SHOULD happen… you are supposed to get pampered and spoiled and what have you and if you don’t then you are resentful and disappointed. It’s just weird. Honestly the only Mother’s Day request I ever have is that I just don’t want to cook or clean. And that pretty much never happens because I can’t stay out of the kitchen if someone else is poking around in there!

This year I ended up having a pretty great day. I invited a few of my fellow spouseless girlfriends over for brunch. I guess I don’t really mind cooking THAT much! Everyone brought over food and wine. Oh yes. Plenty of wine…

You know it’s going to be a good day when all three of you supply Moscato.

Silly kids (I get the giggles every time I look at Omar’s pepperoni eyes)And even sillier mamas…

(I am seriously SO blessed with the friends I have far and especially near to keep me from going crazy during this deployment!)

Mimosas were had. And had some more. Oh one more wouldn’t hurt…

And I even managed to snap a picture with each one of my crazies on Mother’s Day.

(and yes my ELEVEN year old is almost as tall as I am. Scary!)

May Day!

Reb — Sat, 11 May 2013 06:00:48 +0000

May Day is a holiday in Hawaii to celebrate Hawaiian culture. The schools embrace this by having the kids learn a hula and elect a royal court. The Royal Court goes back to the Hawaiian monarchy and is a pretty big deal. So we were proud of Omar for being elected to kindergarten prince. (Even if it meant after school practices for WEEKS!)

So this proud mama was super excited to see what the kids had been up to!

I found Mckenna waiting for everything to start, as usual gossiping with her friends!

The entrance for the Royal Court

The conch shell blowers signalling the arrival of the Royal Court

Guess who was up FIRST?! Prince Omar and Princess Sienna representing the island of Kaho’olawe. (I was in the perfect seat!) He didn’t even see me he was so focused.

They were SO adorable walking down all by themselves. I was so proud of them!

The rest of the court did the same thing, one pair from each grade representing an island. Then came the crown bearers for the King and Queen.

And the Kahili bearers

And finally the King and Queen

Here is the assembled Court.Each grade then did their hula which was great, they all did an amazing job!

And of course I have Mckenna’s recorded for your viewing pleasure!

Then the Royal Court performed their own hula. Omar did so well!

And here is Omar showing off his lei that his princesses mom gave him (how sweet is she? I totally failed at parenting that day!) The volunteers did an AMAZING job decorating!

My cuties that did an EXCELLENT job!

Follow that Banana!

Reb — Mon, 06 May 2013 10:05:09 +0000

Saturday some friends and I ran the Jamba Juice Banana Man Chase 5K. This is a super fun race held in Ala Moana park in downtown Honolulu.

I was super excited. This was my FIRST 5K and something I have been wanting to do for years. It was also pretty cool that they were doing a keiki run (kid’s run) as well so the kids could participate. Running has NEVER been something I’ve liked to do, but I would love for my kids to grow up thinking that running in races is a common event.

I was very happy that I had some friends to do it with so I wasn’t all alone. I could see myself bailing out because I was nervous!

First up, the grown folk!

We got a good spot at the head of the pack where I prepared myself to get passed by a million people. My two girlfriends I ran with are WAY faster than me but are such good motivation!

The race went really well, I’ve only run a 5K on a treadmill before and running outside is so different. My only real goal was to run it without stopping which I accomplished. I wasn’t a huge fan of this course, while it was beautiful along the water I hardly paid attention and there were quite a few places where we had to run on a sidewalk all squished together.

I ended up running in 36 something which was right about where I thought I would be… My speedy friends were done in about 30!

The kids were up next and were doing a 500 meter run along the water. They had them grouped by age which was great. Mckenna got to go first with the 11-13 year olds, look at her go (she is in blue)!

When she was done she was a little bummed she didn’t run faster, she thought it was going to be longer than it was so she was pacing herself. She says next year she is going to be faster!

Omar ran a couple of heats later, and ended up running the whole thing as well! I was so proud of him!

Best thing? We all got smoothies when we were done and the kids got medals!

Can’t wait until Omar is back home and we can all run in races together! It was great to get a congratulatory phone call from him later that morning!

Eat the Street: Bacon

Reb — Fri, 03 May 2013 06:00:27 +0000

Okay, disclaimer here, we don’t only eat and go to the beach though it may seem so from my recent postings. We just haven’t done too much other exciting stuff!

One of our favorite activities is Eat the Street, and this months theme was bacon. Yes, I know, could they have picked a better theme?! It was amazing to see how many ways the vendors were able to incorporate bacon into their dishes. Once again I wish we could have tried everything but it is just not possible! There was SO much food!

Our first stop was the Whatcha Fillin’ truck for some filled waffle cakes, we went with the bacon mac and cheese as well a s’more. Delish! Should have tried the beer goggles flavor!

Next up their favorite two stops, Waffledog and the thai chicken skewers. No bacon involved!

We split the bacon wrapped shrimp plate lunch. They were insanely good. Great seasoning to them, and my kids don’t like mac salad so it was all mine!

Just an array of signs from the night, mind boggling the amount of bacon!

Time for bacon dessert! Maple bacon cupcakes and bacon walnut brownies! We found out the next day that one truck had chocolate covered bacon. Don’t know if I would have tried it! I prefer my bacon savory!

May Day is Lei Day!

Reb — Thu, 02 May 2013 07:37:52 +0000

May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii, and it’s all about celebrating Hawaiian culture. I love it! Everywhere you go people are wearing fresh flower leis and it is such a fun celebration! We weren’t able to get downtown to see the festivities but we will for sure get there next year!

One of the traditions is to elect a royal court with a King and Queen and princes and princesses. We didn’t go see them but we have our own royalty in the house, Omar was elected to Kindergarten prince which is quite the accomplishment! The school is having their big May Day event later in the month and we will get to watch all of the grades dance a hula and the royal court will be dancing their own hula as well! I can’t wait!

But to celebrate lei day, the kids got to make some fresh flower leis themselves. Gotta love it! The plumeria are everywhere around here and Mckenna wants to start making them more often!

Judd Trail and Ginger Jackass Pools

Reb — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:15:39 +0000

Do this. Seriously. If you live on this island you MUST do this. Let me show you why.

First off, super easy hike, a little muddy after some rain but still totally doable. Mckenna and I wear wearing slippers (flip-flops) I don’t know if that makes us seem more like locals or more like stupid tourists that I make fun of all the time when I see them wearing flip-flops/heels/sandals on hikes.I do love walking through bamboo forest! Judd Memorial Trail is a great hike even on its own. It is a loop and is great for beginner hikers. It goes through groves of bamboo forest and Cook pines. Really lovely. When you first get there you can go left and loop around the long way or take a right and get right to the action (after a half mile or so of hiking that is) There is a stream crossing at the beginning of the hike that necessitates hopping from rock to rock or just jumping in and wading across. I jumped in and helped the kids climb across.

Oh yes we were hiking with kids, 1,2,3,4,5,7 and 11 year olds. No excuses!

You will be able to see the pools from the trail, it is a bit of an incline going down and was a bit slippery/muddy but we all made it. We weren’t 100% sure it was the right place because there was NO ONE else there. (Awesome right?!)

This is the upper pool, great for kids. Pretty shallow great for splashing.

This is the lower pool… Big and deep and absolutely wonderful to swim in.

The best part? The awesome natural waterslide that goes into the bottom pool. It is slick and covered with algae so you fly in there! I didn’t touch bottom at all, and later in the day some guys were jumping in off some of the taller rocks (10-15ft) so the pool is pretty deep in the part closest to the falls.

First things first, as I was poking around the water I slipped on a slick smooth rock and went ass over teakettle into the pool below. THANK GOD I didn’t hurt myself, I was more concerned with my dog as I was falling. Of course my friends, what is the first thing they do? Take a picture.

(Bowser is like ‘Oh hell no, I am not going down) The stuff in my backpack barely got wet because I stood up so fast and I even found my sunglasses later in the day.

I am so happy that I am here to entertain my friends.

My camera started not focusing for awhile so a lot of my pictures look like this. I am very irritated. Thankfully it didn’t last the entire day so I was able to pictures like this:

And this:

Waterslide video

Dinner on the Beach

Reb — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:05:15 +0000

The joys of living in Hawaii…

You can get a call from a friend, grab something to eat, and meet up for an enjoyable evening in 80 degree weather.

We have decided that we are going to do this once a week. It was just so relaxing and the sunsets were awesome. Also Mckenna was at a sleepover and missed out so she really wants to go!

It’s hard to eat dinner when your mom is kissing all over your face… What can I say? He is pretty irresistible!

Can’t beat the view… gotta love it.

Splashing around in the nice warm water. 6pm beach days are a bonus…

There were baby fish ALL over the place, these ones clumped up into a heart. Too cute.

Love it!

The Start of a Homemade Pantry

Reb — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:05:15 +0000

So for awhile now I’ve been making much more of our snacks and meals from scratch. I make dinner pretty much every night and I’ve been trying to eliminate as much processed food as we can. This is due in part to trying to eat clean, but also to reduce the amount of packaging/waste I create.

I bought a book last year that I loved, The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making, I was inspired but still, it looked like a lot of work and lets face it… I am lazy!

Well today I got in a mood to play around in the kitchen and make some snacks and had a GREAT time. A lot of this was pretty basic stuff but it was really cool to show it to my kids. And also to show them that sometimes disasters happen in the kitchen, learn from them and tweak your recipe!

Today we managed to make: butter, buttermilk (really by default because it is the leftovers from butter), fruit snacks, granola bites, cheese crackers, potato chips, compound butter, buttermilk pancakes and smoothie pops.

Yes it was a lot. Yes I was in the kitchen for 4+ hours. And yes I still have a sinkfull of dishes I will deal with later!

We had a couple of fails in there, the first batch of potato chips and the fruit snacks. The potato chips burned, the fruit snacks don’t taste like anything. Second batch of potato chips we couldn’t stop eating hot off the sheet pan and I will revisit the fruit snacks with a stronger fruit juice.

Pretty but they don’t tast like much… Mckenna wants me to try them with lemonade. Its a really simple recipe, 1 cup juice with 4 packs unflavored gelatin. Microwave for 1 min and pour into a mold. Pop out when set. Target had this one in the dollar section. I was mad they didn’t turn out because I haven’t bought my kids fruit snacks in probably two years because 1)they are crap 2) they are individually wrapped crap.

Next up potato chips, which were a fail turned into a victory!

First thing to do, borrow a mandolin from your always accommodating neighbor! Then warn your son approximately 8,000 to NOT TOUCH IT!

Easy peasy, cut potatoes, soak in salt water, pat dry on dish towel, toss with oil and salt, cook in oven. The first batch got way too toasty way to fast.

The ones on the left were burned, the ones on the right were delicious. It was a fine line to try not to cross! These would be much easier in a deep fryer but, no, I don’t need one of those in my house. EVERYTHING would be going in the fryer!

Butter wasn’t too exciting I guess. Next time I am going to make him shake it in a jar! Rotten child. Okay it was a little tedious, watching the mixer go isn’t too exciting. When the cream turned into whipped cream that was kind of exciting until I told them it was salted whipped cream. Eeew, not so much. I was wrist deep in butter at the end so didn’t take any pictures of the process. Once the whipped cream breaks you will see the butter solids separate from the buttermilk. Food is magic, I am telling you. Drain the buttermilk into a container squeezing as much out of the butter as you can, I got a cup of buttermilk from my pink of cream. From there keep kneading the butter with cold hands rinsing it under cold water until it isn’t releasing any more liquid.

But no, we couldn’t stop there could we? Got to make it fancy! We went with the compound butter, Omar picked strawberry, Mckenna was vanilla-cinnamon-brown sugar, and I went with pesto. They are all DELICIOUS! The pesto one went right onto some french bread that Omar and I were fighting over!

The other two butters as well as the buttermilk? I had other plans in mind for them. (Oh yeah, I also made a ready pancake mix!) Buttermilk pancakes for dinner with some yummy homemade butter on top. We didn’t even need syrup these were so good!

Tiring but really fun as well. I think the kids had a good time seeing how easy it is to make something out of a few humble ingredients. I am looking forward to making a few more homemade items, especially mozzarella and toaster pastries.