Paul and Hawken started running the Sleeping Giant trail and loving it. I love that they each love hiking as much as the other does, it gives them another special thing to bond over.
Stella grabs pictures of us at church sometimes. This is us with Diane Paleka, she is the Primary President, and she loves Solace.
Sometimes after church, we have to wait for Paul while he's in a meeting. We love playing this Head Up game while we wait.
Sully got a haircut, and WOW, it was a very different look.
Beach day, yes please.
We saw our Prius driving around the island when someone had rented it on Turo. So fun.
Mousey got pregnant and got extra cuddly, and a little bitey. I don't know why, but she stopped after she had the kittens.
We spent some time at the public pool. It's right near the library where we pend lots of time anyway, so it was fun to head there for a bit too.
Relief Society meeting at Stella's house. We ate and chatted and had a great time. I wish all our meetings were as fun as this one was.
While doing her schoolwork, Mousey came to cuddle up under Lullaby. She loves Lullaby the best.
She loves Swishy second best. He does not want anything to do with her though, despite how much she tries.
Curiosity Kids fun in art class with me, and other classes. For art we worked on some illusions. The kids loved creating them.
Family game night is always fun. Solace is always charged up during games.
We did a double birthday party for Lullaby and Matix at the beach, and it was a perfect day. Lots of food and friends and great waves. Their birthday are in September, but it was a busy month, so it made more sense to do it in October instead.
Doing Lullaby's hair for church is my favorite.
Sully and Lullaby make us laugh, and love to sing us silly songs.
Snow Baby loves to cuddle in the silliest places. She found a backpack and curled right in.
Haircut for Hawkie. He loves growing it long, but then it gets too long! Here are the before and afters.
We got a Buddha's Hand fruit and it looked WILD. I had never seen it before. It smells lemony but tastes more mild.
Hawken had to write a poem for school and let me record his silly self. I love him.
We went to Kalihiwai but parked on the other side of the river. The kids and Paul played while I read, and met a stray dog who came for a cuddle. What a great spot!
We took the missionaries out to Bobby V's, one of our favorite restaurants. Yum!
Look at all the sea beans I found! I love treasure hunting at the beach.
Early morning temple trip for the kids. They flew to Oahu with their leaders and spent the day in the temple and then flew home that night. It's a cool experience to have to fly to another island to go to the temple, but I would rather have one here. Maybe some day.
Sully boy and I had a date day, all day, and it was great. He's such a lover. Then I picked up the bog kids plus a friend and brought them home.
Solace and his friends from church volunteered at one of the retirement homes and sang them songs and then did crafts with the residents. It was so fun to watch.
Hawken needed bamboo for his project at Na 'Āina Kai, so we headed to the bamboo forest and harvested a few stalks for him. We had to cross the river and hike a little ways to get there, but it was worth it!
Lullaby needed driftwood for her project, and that was a lot easier to get.
Solace used clay and cookie cutters to make the shape of leaves and then used sticks to make little leaf prints on each of them. Cute!
Lullaby had to spray paint some in the yard too. We wanted each spooky plant model to be black light sensitive for the Haunted Garden.
The big boys went up in the attic to get all the costumes out, plus the Harry Potter wands (for a future surprise that they didn't know about...)
Matix finished his plant with poison dripping down each leaf. We used hot glue and it was a group effort. Glad it got done!
Lullaby's finished plant. The little balls are eyes now! Spooky!
Solace's plant had ghosts hiding in it that showed up really well in black light.
We went to Hanalei for an afternoon of swimming and surfing and book reading and it was so nice.
On our way to dinner we watched some of the kids friends in Battle of the Bands on Big Island. We were so impressed!
While waiting for our food, the kids found a flyer for the event at Na 'Āina Kai! So exciting!
Morning snuggles with some of my favorite people.
Tracking the bus while on the phone with Matix. It's scary for a mom to send your just turned 15 year old on public transit, but he did great.
Beach day for this boogie board boy, and sand castle building girl, and book reading mom. Yes please.
Silliness at church. Not sure why, but it's funny looking back.
Silly baby kitty. She sleeps in the weirdest positions.
Matix starting buying rc cars and taking them apart to use parts and rebuild them. So fun to see.
Out to Kenji burger with the missionaries. These ones weren't very chatty, but still nice to take them out when they're so far from family.
Up to Hanalei because the surf started to pick up on the north shore. Lullaby got some god jumps off the pier.
I parked in a weird spot and told them we were going to do a fun surprise. Both Solace and Matix missed one of their favorite friends each that couldn't come to their birthday parties. I set it up with their mom and they came to Fun Factory and we had the best time. Matix and Sully were so surprised. They played forever and won a million prizes. So fun.
I love FaceTiming with Jolie. We usually just call, but it's fun to see her Halloween decorations all set up.
We went to Na 'Āina Kai to set up for the Haunted Garden. The kids all did such a great job! It was really fun to see it all come together.
Solace got caught cheating on his spelling test. Stinker. The funny part was that he got it right on the test anyway, before peeking at his hand.
I made a fun game for the kids in the art class closest to Halloween. After they finished their project, they could punch into one of the cups and get a prize. They loved it.
I gave them these little bath toy animals and they decorated them as something that would be scary to that animal. An owl covered in snakes, a pig covered in bacon, a fish with a scuba mask... they were so creative.
Date night with Paul and they had this mural made of the TINIEST pieces of tiles. It was really amazing. The date was lovely as always.
Time for the night at Na Āina Kai. I was a spooky fortune teller, Hawk wore his rasta squid hat, Sully wore his snowman costume, Matix was Oogie Boogie, but got too hot and took it off. Paul was a hotdog and Lullaby was a panda. All the kids enjoyed hunting for the different spooky plants hidden in the dark, using their black lights as beacons to find them.
Whiskey brought us a rat. She does this pretty often, and I've heard that is meant as a gift, when a cat brings you it's dead things. If that's true, she really loves us. Paul had to get rid of it, and then later that same night, we had a huge cockroach, which he also had to rescue me from! Yikes! The joys of living in Hawaii.
The kids went straight away to the next project after the Haunted Garden was finished at Na Āina Kai. We went to the Humane Society and walked around the grounds with the volunteer coordinator. Thank goodness we didn't leave with any more animals. 4 cats and 1 dog is plenty. We got to see some areas they needed help with, a wall that needed a mural, toys that could be made for the kittens, and lots more. We left and talked about all the ideas, but in the end the coordinator quit working there, and our friends who we were working in the Design Squad with moved. So we stopped completely. It was down to just Sully and Lullaby anyway, as the workload of this volunteer group wasn't as fun as we had thought in the beginning.
I found a pup with one eye like Sakina. I miss that puppy. And another who loved his belly to be rubbed.
One of the things I really love about homeschooling the kids is the amount of time I have with them. Childhood is so quick.
Matix got his costume and had to try it all on right away, despite the heat. He was a plague doctor.
We went to the airport to say goodbye to the big brother of one of Hawk and Matix's friends. Austin was going on his mission to Brazil, and we made some signs and said our goodbyes. We asked the Lopes' for some ideas about what to put n the signs, since Daniel is from Brazil and Melissa served her mission there.
Time for a trip! The kids had no idea. We love surprises. We flew to California and stayed with the Pobst family for a couple days and then drove to Utah for SnowBird and trick-or-treating in our old neighborhood.
First flight to Oahu, then n to California.
We found Maui!
We got in late and went right to sleep at the Pobst's house, then straight to Disneyland in the morning. Woohoo! Everything was decorated for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween. We saw a ton of characters, rode all our favorite rides, ate the best foods and enjoyed really nice weather the whole time.
The Star Wars area had been made since we had been to Disneyland and this was our first time seeing it all. It is amazing. The attention to detail!
Lots of treats and then on to more rides. We love going to Disney.
What are the chances?! We ran into our friends from Kauai while we were there! The Sarme family!
We got to bring Aubrey with us on a ride, and it was so fun having her with us. She is the nicest girl.
We grabbed a group shot with the Sarme family before breaking back apart into our own groups.
The Haunted Mansion was set up with Nightmare Before Christmas and so fun to see.
One more churro for everyone before heading to the shops for a few more treats and then to the car and back to the Pobst's house.
Bright and early to Universal Studios to check out Nintendo World and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
We headed down a three story escalator and the kids only had a vague idea of where we were going, until they saw the PIPE! To Nintendo World! So fun! Each kid had a bracelet that they used to collect points and play games, it was all very interactive with the app. So much fun.
We did a few more rides before getting to the Harry Potter part. It was a long day, and so tiring, but worth it! We brought their wands and went on a few different rides than they have in Florida. They tried some new spells, ate chocolate frogs and drank butter beer until it was dark.
On the way out, we grabbed some Voodoo doughnuts for breakfast for us and the Pobst family. We love this place! We've been to a few different locations now and always love it.
Late night cold plunges for the brave few. Hot tubs for the rest.
After church with their family, we made some fancy candy apples. I showed them how to make spider webs with marshmallows and then we started our drive again. The kids didn't know where to, and we kept it a surprise as long as we could.
We left California and drove to Las Vegas. We always go to the same hotel. It's super cheap and the rooms are huge. We love it. This time it was still warm enough to have the pool open, yes please.
The kids still didn't know where we were going... So exciting! I love surprises. We ate at a diner and Hawken rated it in his top 5 diners... He has a running list with Ken's still at the top.
They are such good travelers, everyone with their own activity. Lullaby read most of the time. Matix listened to music. Hawk and Sully played iPad games.
Some place near Provo our smart kids started using maps to track where we were going and figured out we were in Utah and heading to SnowBird. They were BEYOND happy.
Very wiggly tooth on the drive, and the new smile when it came out!
We went straight to Snow Bird and the kids were so excited! Lots of cousin time, late night games, family dinners, talking story with Great Grandma, baby cuddles and pool time.
The kids made bleach spray shirts, one of the favored activities from Snow Bird.
Saying good bye to Grandma for trick-or-treating in the valley, while she stayed in the mountains. Then checking to see if he's taller than her yet. Not quite yet, but close!
We had a great time at Snowbird! Here is the video for all of it, but there were more pictures from November too. So I'll get to that soon.
We went to the Hunt's house for trick-or-treating and had the best time. Lullaby ran around with some of her friends, mostly Sofia, and the boys ran around together. We stayed with them for a while, but then the adults headed home and they joined us at the Hunt's house when they were done.
End of the night, I picked up Lullaby at Sophia's. She's taller than Sophia now, and loves it.
We did the hot tub, which was all fun and games until it was time to get out into the freezing air. Even after a hot shower, I was shuddering.
Breakfast the next morning was all hands on deck. Yum!
The kids got onions and potatoes from one of the houses, which was really silly. Jonny bit into an onion, and tossed it into Hannah's room as a joke but then he couldn't find it, and then forgot about it. Hannah smelled onions all night and the next day, and finally found where it had rolled behind her mirror.
