Category Archives: Kids

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!

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Eleven years old already! Time has flown by. I still remember bringing you home from the hospital! Your first few years we spent so much time together, just the two of us. We stayed busy and explored much of the fun things Virginia had to offer. I think that is why you are always up for an adventure now! Sometimes I look at you and I am amazed that you came from me, this gorgeous, smart, artistic, talented girl. Then we butt heads because we are SO much alike and I think, yep, this is my daughter. mckennaIt’s been an adventure for sure these past 11 years and I am so glad I am lucky enough to have been your mom!

I love you!

 

All Soccer, All Day

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This past weekend this kids officially started their soccer season.

Omar was crazy excited, this boy LOVES to play soccer!

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Kickoff time… Even though he only had one practice he still did awesome out there. He just loves being on that field.DSC_0014

 

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There was a point in the game where his cleat came off his foot… he picked that bad boy up and went running after the ball. The coach had to blow a whistle and take a minute to get him to stop playing. I love it.DSC_0018

 

 

He sat out the third quarter and was PACING the sidelines to get back into the game. Someone got tired so back in he went… and proceeded to tie up the game! Goooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllll!

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Mckenna had her first game as well… MUCH bigger field!

DSC_0051Mckenna played left forward and did pretty well, it’s been awhile since she played so I don’t know that she was 100% ready for the speed of the game again! Her team is coming together though!

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(Remind me to get her some bigger shin guards, those look ridiculous!)

On the sidelines we weren’t as prepared as some (no tents, coolers or umbrellas for us!) but we did have Safeway donuts!

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Then she got put in as goalie which drove me crazy because she has NEVER played or even practiced as goalie. She did a good job and stopped quite a few shots. I think only one got past her.

DSC_0093It’s going to be a crazy season for me… MANY of their games overlap so I am going to have to ask for help from other parents to make it work. No one is happy with that but it’s the best I can do!

 

 

“Winter” at the North Shore

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Winter in Hawaii is a pretty laughable thing. I must confess I am enjoying the hell out of this winter! I can totally live in flip flops year ’round.

Well, some of my lovely FRG wives and I decided that we needed to take a day trip up to the North Shore. Some of them had *gasp* never been. I just ADORE it up there, I like the scenery, the vibe and most of all the FOOD!

So we loaded up all 16 of us and headed north.

First stop, as always, Turtle Beach.

DSCF1006aThere were only two little guys braving the crazy surf to find food. The North Shore in winter is when all the crazy waves are here, there are surf competitions going on all the time right now!

Then we grabbed a friendly Turtle Beach volunteer to take a picture of our tribe.

317982_10200418815494741_1481297519_nOnward to our first meal of the day, my favorite North Shore eatery, Ted’s Bakery. We all grabbed our food to go and hit up the beach to eat lunch. I was so bummed, my bbq chicken combo was a bbq chicken sandwich. Same chicken but in a bun and with fries instead of rice and mac salad. First world problems, right?

We headed to the lovely tidepools at Shark’s Cove where the rocks around kept it pretty protected and gave the kids somewhere to play.

SCWe all played and ate and played and talked. The weather was overcast and about 78, not a perfect beach day but man, it’s better than what most people are getting right now!

Of course after all that playing it was time for dessert. Oh did I not mention I picked up a Chocolate Haupia Pie from Ted’s? Can I say I don’t think our kids will EVER forget this pie. This is how we do it here, pie on the beach. Grab a fork…

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After dessert we spent more time playing (kids) and gossiping (moms) making plans for our awesome ship’s Family Readiness Group. By this time we were famished! Time for dinner! Off to Haleiwa for some shreeyump. Shrimp trucks are everywhere and they all are a little different. I think I may have found my new favorite after being disappointed by the famous Giovanni’s.

shrimpGreat selection, Lemon Pepper, Garlic, Original, Coconut and Spicey. $12/plate. I ended up sharing with the kids and then regretting it because they were SO good! We were all peeling shrimp and licking our fingers. So ono! (See me dropping some local lingo?!) So if you see this truck stop and order some yummy food!

Time to finally head home after a looooong day, the kids were tired:

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And the view on the ride home wasn’t half bad…

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Great day with friends and the kids, just wishing my husband had been able to be with us… Counting down the days. Four months done so far!

 

 

 

 

 

And there goes my week…

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The kids have both started soccer. And it is going to be just as bad as I imagined it would be.  We’ve never had both of them in a sport at the same time. I was hoping and wishing that their schedules would work out because I don’t have a back up in case I need to be in two places at the same time. 

As of right now we are good but our entire week is taken up by practice, me on Mon, Mckenna Tue and Thur and Omar Wed. I actually have Tues/Thurs as well but I don’t think I’ll be making it for awhile…

Of course I couldn’t have a nice easy practice week could I?

Mckenna’s coach had left directions to the field on our group page, I’m thinking, I know where that is, through that gate, yeah there is a field over there… Well silly ol’ me decided to be fun mom and go to a movie after school on Tuesday (whoo-hoo $6 tickets on Tuesdays!) because of this we got home with enough time to get to practice on time, not early but on time. Well to the location where I thought it was. Coach’s directions say MAKALAPA gate, so guess which gate I go through? The Makalapa gate… Well from there on the directions DO NOT make sense. I am stressing, it’s getting later and later, Mckenna is CRYING, I am SWEATING! I finally look at the direction and see she wrote a street by the gate but that is not the street the gate is on, ugh. So I drive over to that street and whaddayah know, I was supposed to go in a totally freaking different gate on the total opposite side of the street. I could have cried.

So we follow the (now perfectly sensible) directions and get there a mere 20 minutes late for her FIRST practice. Parenting FAIL. She runs out onto the field while I walk over to this cabana thing to see if there are any social parents there. (At this point I am just hoping you can’t see sweat stains through my shirt) I do mention offhand that we got totally lost with the directions, so everyone doesn’t think we are just late people (no that realization will come later in the season!) But no one is chatty. One couple in their own little world, one dad doing homework with his son and then one table of moms who already know each other and just talk away. So whatever, I do what any other semi-socially awkward person would do, hop on my cell phone and call my sistah to tell her my ridiculous tale.

Then. THEN! After practice the coach is giving her little talk to the parents about the upcoming season and she mentions that all the girls need to make sure they are wearing shin-guards even to practice and I swear I got a pointed look. Damn it! Okay listen, we have sports equipment coming out our ears over here! I could NOT find Mckenna’s other stupid shinguard! I know it is somewhere in the house, we’ve seen it floating around but aren’t exactly sure of it’s exact location.

So off to the exchange, new shin-guards and even a new ball because we had no size 5 and Mckenna would look insane out there with a size 3 of Omar’s!

(AND after all that mess of getting there Mckenna is upset that all the girls already go to school together and are friends. Oy. PLEASE let these girls be nice girls!!!)

Oh can I offer up this comparison of our cleats?

photo (9)Omar’s, Mckenna’s, mine. I can fit her cleats! And yes we do like flashy cleats!

Omar had his first practice today after an afternoon phone call from the coach saying he sent me an email Monday. Uh, no you didn’t! All the way across town in rush hour traffic, kill me. And everyone lives on the same street in this housing area except for us. Weird. I don’t know why they put us on this team. Coach seems nice, only one other mom was there and she was chatty! Like REALLY chatty! It was fine, better than being ignored. (Just because I can’t help myself… I am the only person who thinks it’s weird to wear nylons with a sundress on an 80 degree day in Hawaii? No I’m not the only one? Good, cause that was… odd.) She invited us to a party at Chuck E. Cheese so Omar will like that, get to know his team a little better. Thankfully the ride home is opposite traffic and is very fast!

Fingers crossed that they both have an awesome season, go Lava Warriors and Sharks!

(And may my little odd kids out make some good friends!)

Jinxing myself

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So yesterday morning we had the ideal get ready for school morning. I mean perfect. The best one since school started. I don’t know how it happened or if we will every be able to repeat the performance!

I was actually pretty worried because our ‘schedule’ over the past two weeks has been laughable. It’s pretty much stay up as late as you want, sleep in as late as you want. We were a mess. I tried getting the kids to go to sleep earlyish on Tuesday but didn’t really have any luck. So last night I put Omar to bed a little early because I figured he would have trouble going to sleep, nope. Right to sleep by 8:30. Mckenna on the other hand could not fall asleep! I don’t know if it was a combination of excitement and lack of a set bedtime lately but she was awake until about 10. So I was extra worried. I did have them pick out clothes before going to bed because that is always a crazy last minute “I don’t have matching socks, where is my other croc?” disaster in the morning. 

So I’m getting some internet time in after the kids go to bed and see this crockpot oatmeal recipe on pinterest. I love love love my crockpot but I have always been a little nervous about cooking overnight with it. I know they are safe but I just always feel like I am going to burn my house down while I am sleeping. But apple cinnamon oatmeal ready and waiting in the morning just was too tempting to resist and I had all the ingredients on hand! Amazing!

So around 11 I am making oatmeal crossing my fingers that it is going to turn out okay and I hear the pitter pat of little feet on the stairs. Now Omar is up. Seriously? So I tell him to go back to bed I am going to bed myself in a minute. Well I go upstairs and the little bugger is in my bed. At this point I don’t care, just want to try and get some sleep myself before the alarm goes off (I had drugged myself with NyQuil and was just waiting for it to kick in. What? I needed to sleep!)

Come 3 or 4 in the morning little miss Mckenna feels the need to wake me up to tell me she can’t get back to sleep. Really? Pretty sure I mumble-yelled for her to go back to bed. These kids are killing me!

Then at 6:18 she is back in my room exclaiming that she just got ready in 3 minutes, isn’t that great and now she is going downstairs for breakfast. I tell her there is oatmeal but then get up myself so I can go see how it turned out. Omar hears us but snuggles in for a few more minutes.

Mckenna tells me its good, then proceeds to tell me she didn’t really care for it. Why does she do this?! If you don’t like it, it’s fine! I liked it, I would just make it with less water next time so it is a little thicker. I like to add a lot of milk but this was already pretty soupy so too much mil would have been a disaster. I pop upstairs to tell Omar I have oatmeal ready and he is awake. And cheerful. That NEVER happens. This boy is my grumpy teenager in the morning who is the WORST to wake up. So he gets up and eats a bowl of oatmeal (and actually likes it) and brushes his teeth with no prompting.

At this point I am kind of feeling like I am in the Twilight Zone. But hey, I am going to go with it! Lunches are packed, hair is styled and we are out the door a few minutes early.

Then, I actually managed to leave the house in workout clothes so I go to my community gym and actually exercise! What in the world! Ran a mile straight plus warm up and cool down it was almost a mile and a half. I was super proud of myself and am going to stick with it. There is no reason I can’t go to the gym that is 1/4 mile from my house and run for 15 minutes 3-5 times a week.

So yeah. Best morning ever. I even am working on cleaning out my house. I didn’t just clean and stick stuff in closets. I cleaned SO much stuff out. My garbage can was full tonight when we took it out. Filed, sorted, and have a massive stash of stuff that needs to go to Goodwill.

Now let’s see how this morning goes, I have to say I am kinda digging a two day school week!

Honolulu Zoo

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DSC_0130aOne of our last ‘fill up two weeks off of school with fun’ fun days was to hit up the zoo. Of course when I suggested it you would have thought it was the meanest thing ever. They were turning into mole people in the days after Christmas, blinds closed, eyes glued to tv and video games. I finally dragged them out of the house and made it to the zoo all on my own, no gps needed. What a great feeling that is! Also bonus #2, I found a parking spot in the lot right next to the zoo. $1/hour parking, heck yes!

Let me go ahead and get my flower photos out of the way here. Can I just say that I love how well landscaped this zoo is? It is so beautiful and lush.

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First up, the Keiki Zoo, or petting zoo (keiki means kids/children in Hawaiian). One of my favorite parts is the koi tank that the kids can crawl through. The koi are huge and beautiful. The first time we came here Omar refused to go in so I am happy he actually decided to do it this time. Don’t my kids look like they like each other in that picture? False!

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It wasn’t too crowded which was great, we took our time and walked and walked and walked. One thing that drove us crazy was the lions! You could hear them calling from all over the park but we could never catch a glimpse. I know some new cubs were just born so maybe they were still inside but I wanted to get some pictures of mom or dad making all that noise!

We saw pretty much everyone else though. Thanks for cooperating zoo animals!

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The meerkats were cracking me up, they looked like three little old men on a park bench. And the baboon was mid-yawn, he just looks menacing but was in fact being very sweet, although look at those canines! Yikes! The lemurs and turtle were having a standoff which was quite amusing, they couldn’t get to their island and he was very contentedly sunbathing. And Ms. Rhino, well she was posing pretty!

And of course the awesome trees that are all over make for a perfect backdrop, I love the banyan trees!

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If you live here make sure you take a trip out to the zoo, they have military and kama’aina discounts! We paid $8/adult $4/kid. Not bad! Also you are allowed to bring in your own food and drinks so pack a picnic lunch and a blanket!