Easter!

Easter1These probably need no explanation. There was basket hunting. (Does everyone not do this? I always did this growing up… You have to find your basket!)

Easter2Fun treats from Mimi like the hatching dinosaur and the wierdo marshmallow rabbits. Because my family is really weird, these bunnies may have had a cameo during our Skyping. Along with Dove rabbits… The marshmallow rabbit tragically met it’s end in the microwave. Wow this sounds really demented as I type it out, but it entertained us all!

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Full disclosure… the egg hunting and dying took place on Monday, the day after Easter! I know! What a holiday fail! But the kids were happy and we just ran out of time during the weekend! Also, I just filled the eggs with candy they received ON Easter. But they REALLY did not need anymore candy!Easter3That picture in the lower left corner, she was just cheesing and had NO clue the egg was right next to her head. Walked past it TWO more times after that!

We had my awesome friend Cat over for dinner with her three darling kiddos who we just love!

Easter5I was making a big dinner anyways, I cannot cut my holiday meals down in size!

Also my wonderful friend brought me the bestest hostess gift! (Please ignore my goofy face and grainy ipod photo!)

photo (13)I have a new favorite wine. Seriously. Yum.

Wonderful Easter Sunday with some pretty great people!

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Break is here! Day 1…

It’s that time again where I trade in the drudgery of early mornings and packing lunches  for the drudgery of keeping my children entertained for the next week and a half.

Day 1, we started off Spring Break with a bang. Dave and Busters for lunch and games. In hindsight I should have probably held off on this one as a bribe until the end but oh well. They have actually been fairly decent to each other lately.

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Look they are even sitting on the same side of the booth, that NEVER happens!! I love Dave and Busters Military discount, especially since I have banned them from drinking anything but water when we go out (I am sorry, $3 for a soda or juice that is hardly touched? No thanks!) Our lunch ends up being quite the deal… Of course I took NO pictures of us playing games, the lighting up in the arcade is horrible anyways. We didn’t hit any jackpots on anything but we had a good time playing.

As we were headed out to the car I decided to take a little detour and hit up Menchies.

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Seems like we are one of the last to hop on this new trend of building your own dessert… There was nothing like this in Spain and we really don’t go out for dessert much. The kids LOVED it and can’t wait to go back!

menchiesIf you haven’t been to this type of FroYo shop before, you get to pick your flavors and topping and add whatever you want to your bowl. Then you pay by the ounce. Needless to say, keep a sharp eye on your kids so they don’t fill up the entire bowl! I went simple with cheesecake flavored frozen yogurt with fresh strawberries, while the kids had some interesting combinations. Mckenna got red velvet and mint with red velvet cake chunks, Omar got mint, ice cream sandwich and coffee with sprinkles.

We will be back! Must try everything!

 

Eat the Street: Mililani

 

This is something I’ve been wanting to do for ages, before we even moved to Hawaii I saw some pictures from this event and was sold!

I love to eat and one of my FAVORITE shows is the Great Food Truck Race. Finally was able to make this happen!

First off, some advice. Get there early, as close to opening as you can. Park at a shuttle stop, no worries about finding a spot. Come hungry and with plenty of cash.DSC_0144

 

We did a quick sweep of the trucks (there were SO many-spread out over two parking lots!) to get an idea of what was out there and what we wanted to try. ets

 

foodWaffledogs, delicious! Especially drizzled with maple syrup. The kids were VERY skeptical about these but ended up loving them! ($3/each) Next up Xtreme Tacos, smoked chicken taco. It came with two tortillas and I was able to split up the filling. Because there was pico de gallo in it Omar didn’t want to try it and Mckenna didn’t love it. They were good to me though! ($2.75)

food2Our splurge of the day, wood fired pizza from Kiawe Pizza. So good. ($10) Pop pop donuts ($3.50) Aloha Pops ($3)

fairycakesAnd one more dessert to share, Death by Chocolate from Fairy Cakes. I really wanted everything on the menu! Mckenna was eyeballing the Maple Bacon Cake but it was just too weird for her!

We had a great time sampling lots of goodies. I am going to have to branch out and try some things I didn’t get to next time, Fried Musubi, octopus balls and Malasada burgers are calling my name!

More food truck dates and locations for Oahu:

http://www.streetgrindz.com/

Do you have any favorite food trucks or know of any food truck events?

 

 

 

Breakfast with a view…

 

Omar had soccer pictures on Saturday morning over on Hickam, when he was done we had some time to kill before his game so we popped over to Wright Brothers for some breakfast. I LOVE eating here, it is priced really well ($3.25 for a kids plate and that includes a drink) the food is good and it comes out quick. Also the view is pretty great, right across the entrance to Pearl harbor. The outdoor seating is really beautiful although hard to come by, I was stalking tables waiting for someone to leave!
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It’s a great spot to take pictures (which is why soccer pictures are done here I assume!) Lots of pretty trees and a lovely backdrop. I’ll have to bring them back in something other than soccer uniforms!pose

 

There is also a seawall right by the restaurant that allows some great fish watching, lots of FAT fish from all of the bread people feed them. I even saw some yellow tangs which is crazy because we haven’t seen them ONCE while snorkeling.fish

Anyways, get over to Wright Brothers, have some breakfast or lunch and enjoy the view and breeze!

 

 

 

“Winter” at the North Shore

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:

DSCF1042Well one was anyways…

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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!

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Party!

I invited my football team over for a Christmas party this week. I was a little nervous ahead of time because people are TERRIBLE r.s.v.p.ers these days. So up until people started showing up I was really only sure of two or three ladies. Thankfully more showed up. I made a giant 8lb pork butt in the crock pot and turned it into bbq pork sandwiches. Of course I had told everyone to bring sides or dessert and every. single. person. brought a dessert. Really? So I made some mac and cheese really fast. But there was plenty of food in the end. We all had a really good time, the kids had a great time, so it was pretty much a success!

Mah Girls

 

Group shot with some of my girls. Don’t worry, the pregnant one doesn’t play, she is one of our assistant coaches wives!

We ate, drank and were merry. Can’t ask for more than that.