Buck up and do the right thing

Major mommy guilt going on over here. Have to let it out somewhere (so yeah, internet it is!).

I had to give up on going back Paleo. Turns out it didn't work so well for me (gave me the WORST BREATH). I actually had to try NOT to talk to clients directly. So carbs have come back into my life, though they are non-gmo and as organic as possible. Overall, I am feeling great myself. However, the guilt I'm having is over what's going on with Ryenne.

I've been a bad mom. With the day to day business that is life, I have handed over the reigns of 2/3 of her meals to the State of Hawaii. Everyone wakes up grumpy (seems the only morning people are Peter and Cruz) and it's a hurdle getting out the door to school and breakfast at school. Then it's lunch at school. Seeing what is going on with Ryenne's body is completely my fault.

The obesity in our children is 100% related to the food that they eat. The food provided to kids via school is crap. The milk is crap. And I've let it happen. My beautiful girl has a taste for food that is terrible for her and this is going to be quite the battle to reverse.

I was doing great for a while making home lunches, but the kids have a hard time putting the lids on their box after lunch and then I have a huge mess to clean up after school. So here's the plan...

New easy clean lunch-boxes. Prepping for the week on Sundays. NO EXCUSES. There is no excuse for my laziness. If the kids don't want to eat what I've made, then they don't eat until they're ready to eat it. I can't do it. I can't watch Ry get bigger and bigger. I just can't it's killing me it's my fault.

Summertime is a few days away. This is my opportunity to start planning more, start making these changes for all three of them. Buck up and make the time to cook more, prep more, organize more.

That laugh

I miss Ryenne and Kai terribly when they're at school. More so than I ever thought. They are gone from 7:20 to 2pm daily and then it's hustle bustle of homework and then usually off to the babysitters and then I pick them up at 7pm and it's bath and bed. I hate it. Seriously hate it. I miss them so much. It feels like weekends aren't enough.

I am so happy that Cruz has another year at home. I am actually happy he's not in preschool because I get to see everything he does. He loves to find silly videos on Youtube and asks me to sit and watch with him. His laugh is amazing. He still wants to nuggle (their word for cuddle) me all the time. I don't ever want to let it go!

Holoholo to Honolulu!

4 days, 3 nights in Waikiki -- no emails, no computers - just the family. It was fantastic! LOTS of pictures to load.... totally unedited...

 Above: Kai Boy excited to get on the plane.
Below: First thing we did was head to Magic Island so I could scope it out for a shoot in June. The kids loved running around after being on the plane!

Magic Island is a pretty cool spot! We had meant to head back to swim, but a south swell was coming so we stayed in Waikiki and swimmed our butts off! We have water babies for sure! I was so proud of Kai actually for getting in all the way. I didn't bring the camera on the day the waves were huge, kinda wish I did, but it was SO MUCH FUN!

We surprised the kids with a trip onto the Hawaii Pirate Ship. Kai freaked out and refused to go. Peter took him off the ship and took him on a boys date while I stayed with Ry and Cruz. It was so amazing. The crew was fantastic and the kids were really into it!

 The kids got their share of the treasure chest!

 Our favorite part was shooting a ship with the water canons!

Then it was back to the beach!!

We got the whole family together for a dinner to celebrate Jean's graduation! YAY JEAN! 

It was a fantastic trip - the time with the kids without work was so perfect for all of us. We came back home to Maui on Sunday night and it was back to school much to their dismay. Only 2 weeks left though... can't wait.

In other news, we traded our Honda Fit for a Honda Pilot! So now we can go on adventures with family and not have to take two cars!

This is Perry the Pilot!! He's pretty cool!

Cooking Dinner with the boys

They love helping in the kitchen!

Stuff and Mother's Day

First a few random things...

After 7 months of planning to touch up the white bed (and it being in the car port) I finally went ahead and just touched it up and swept out the entire carport and cleaned a bit. Felt nice to power that out myself. 

So we went to our neighborhood Ace (love that store!) and check out what I found!!!! I am SO EXCITED because it's way more compact than hanging a line across the yard. We just need a bag of cement then we can put it in and start using the dryer only when we have to. 

 There is a tiny noodle factory in Paia that makes these amazing noodles. They supply Sam Sato's and I thought I'd take a crack at making my own dry mein. It was SO GOOD (green onions from my yard) and the kids ate it up.

So on to Mother's Day! I told Peter I wanted to go on an adventure with the kids for Mother's Day. He was scheduled "on call" so we had to wait until noon to see if he'd be called in to work. We decided to take the kids out to Nakalele Blowhole and drive all the way around the head - I've been wanting to do this for a while now and it was the perfect opportunity.

We were nervous how Kai would do. It really could have gone either way - total shutdown or total excitement. Lucky for us, Kai took to hiking like a natural. He was so in his element and I'm stoked to have found an activity that he loves so much (he doesn't really like going to the beach). We hiked all over the rocks and the kids were troopers hiking back up to the highway from sea level. We had a few little slides and the kids were good and sweaty at the top. Then we went to Honolua Store for ice cream.

We went to lunch and then walking back to the car a man gave each of the kids a lauhala fish, rose, and canoe. He just wanted to give them out to be nice - it was really awesome and the kids were stoked. We finished the day until Sunset at Baby Beach swimming and splashing. It was such an awesome Mother's Day!