Tag Archives: Hawaii

Spring Break is here! Day 1…

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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

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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?

 

 

 

We are halfway DONE!

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So this weekend we finally had our halfway party… For those not familiar with the Navy, this is a party that the FRG (Family Readiness Group) throws to celebrate the halfway point in a deployment. Basically keep your spirits up. Thankfully I have an absolutely awesome FRG board and we threw an incredible party for all of our spouses.

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I just need to give a huge shout out to Target for their clearance Valentine’s items. This decor ended up costing about $40 for everything!

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We also had a little backdrop set up in the corner where we were recording video messages to send to the ship! Some of them got a little emotional and I was tearing up a little!DSC_0003

 

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I was a little worried that we were not going to have enough food because the RSVP’s had been pouring in and this was going to be potluck style.DSC_0006

 

Well I did NOT need to worry! We had SO much food! Not an inch to spare on the counter!DSC_0009

 

 

Thank you to all of the wonderful families on our ship…. Seriously, if you are new to a sea command, find your FRG! Not all of them are full of drama and catty women!DSC_0036

 

And my board is full of wonderful women… Taking on this position was SO outside my comfort zone, but I have made such wonderful friends in the process. I couldn’t have asked for a better team!

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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!

 

 

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!)

Reducing my grocery budget

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Right now I am just feeding three people yet I have been having a REALLY hard time spending less money at the grocery store. I’ve been shopping a week at a time (we eat a LOT of produce) and I do add household items and food for the dog in that total as well. I would REALLY like to get back to $100 per week and I’m hoping some of the brilliant minds out there could show me where I can do that.

So here is my most recent grocery trip:

DSC_0055The cold stuff… of the bags of chicken were for the dog and the coffee creamer is non-negotiable!

DSC_0054The junk food… disclaimer: the crackers and cereal were a pretty good price, the cup o’ noodles are getting packed off to my husband and the caprisuns were a one time buy because we were going to have some friends with kids over this weekend.

DSC_0056The produce, already the broccoli, celery, pepper, cuke, and most of the carrots, apples and grapes are gone. Produce gets eaten like it’s going out of style around here.

DSC_0057This is what my fridge looks like pretty well stocked.

Maybe I just have to realize that living in Hawaii with two growing kids (my daughter is almost as tall as I am now) that this is as good as it’s going to get. I do plan on trying some cracker recipes, my kids LOVE homemade granola bites, I can’t keep them on hand!