Kai's 7!!!!

Happy 7th Birthday to the boy who marches to his own beat, fills the room with giggles, the boy who's imagination runs wild and the boy that will give his mommy snuggles whenever I ask. You are the most beautiful orchid I've ever experienced, my biggest challenge and my biggest win, a boy that I'm so proud of every day. Happy 7th birthday Kai Boy!!!!

Happy 9th Birthday Ryenne!!!

It'll be the last year of single digits - we got here so fast!!

Ry is one of the kindest people I know (unless you need to brush her hair). She goes out of her way to help others and questions everything that doesn't make sense to her. I'm so thankful that we have such an open dialog when it comes to things that she questions. I really enjoy our deep conversations about the world and what she thinks of it. I try hard not to imprint my own thoughts on everything but let her make up her mind for herself. I love that about her.

She continues to be an avid reader. Sometimes it feels like we can't keep up with the amount of books that she reads. She loves to collect them, and now we have boxes of books that she's read. I think that we need to get her a library card, but I know she'll be sad when she has to give the book back. I love that books are like treasures to her.

Third grade has been amazing - we are at a school that she'll get to stay at until 5th grade and I know she's looking forward to staying put.

We're heading to Hana as she requested for her birthday - lots of swimming and running around. Hopefully there will be lots of mangoes like last time. We walked to the top of Fagan's Cross and ate wild mangoes. We are both hoping to do that again. 

For her 9 year old pictures, we headed down the street to a bougainvillea plant that's blooming and then over to Requests Music for their awesome mural. We love Wailuku! I loved getting her to laugh at me - those are some of my favorite images.

Happy birthday my sweet Ryenne. You are such a ray of sunshine in our day! We love you so much!

May Day 2015

Aaaaand we've finished out May Days for both schools! We missed May Day last year because we were off island so it was really special to have Kai Boy's first official May Day ever and Ry's first at her new school! It's a little hard to see them in the videos but they're in there! Kai boy is wearing rainbow shorts and Ry is on the stage slightly right of the middle.

Kai's May Day performance was to Kolohe Kai's "Good Morning Hawaii" and it was so cute because he has been practicing for weeks. Whenever I asked him what song he was performing to, he always said he couldn't remember but that his favorite part was "You are the empress of my heart" and then I'd get a hug. It was really hot and really crowded so we actually walked back home after the Kinder performance (we're so bad!).

Kai's Video (must open on actual web)


Ryenne's May Day was really unique in that it had a theme! The theme was Na Wai Eha, the Four Waters, and each grade did a performance about returning Mauka to Makai water flow for the four streams of Waikapu, Wailuku, Wai'ehu, and Waihe'e. It was incredibly well done, nicely thought out, and turned the entire thing into a political education (bonus that County heads were there to hear the kids demanding water back to the community!). 

Ryenne's Video (must open on actual web):

Hold My Tongue

Just a little note to hold your tongue sometimes..... we just got done buying cleats for the boys and Ry was holding the boxes in the car on her lap. She had a pencil and started writing on the box and I thought to myself, "What is she DOING? The boys are going to be so mad when they see scribbles on the box" and I was trying to think about how I would handle the situation that I perceived happening when we got home.

But what happened instead caused me to take a deep breath and take in the moment.

She hadn't scribbled on the boxes. She had written each of them a note for their first day of flag football tomorrow. For Cruz, "Good Luck!" and for Kai, "Be A Team Player!" .... so I guess that was a little lesson for me not to always assume that they'll fight and to slow down and hold my tongue sometimes. I'm glad I did in this instance!

How did I get here?

Just blink. And time passes so quick. Here we are at practically the end of May already. I feel like I just blink and weeks pass. Day to day life, work, all of it.... seems like the older I get the faster it passes.

I haven't been writing as much or reading as much. I've been  focusing so much on the various hats that I wear... trying to find a balance with all of it (not an easy task).

It's been a really amazing few months. Truly. We had a visit from Pops, Uncle Jeff's wedding along with lots of family visiting, tons of photography work, school work, evenings at the beach....

In my last post I wrote about feeling tethered to this little piece of Wailuku - and boy do I ever. Peter and I love this place so much. Actually we've already started on a few of our plans to restore it, and I have to say, that it's pretty cool to be on the same page when it comes to our ideas. We just picked out wood floors that are going to start in the kids' rooms and the hall. The living room is an entirely different project altogether, as there's some lead paint under paneling that needs to be dealt with before we tackle the flooring. I am so excited to do Ry's room while she's visiting Texas this summer. She's going to come home to quite a surprise.

I've been sharing DoTerra oils a bit and it's been really amazing to see the oils benefit others as well. The kids love their oils and our routine every night. I've found the changes in mood and attention span to be phenomenal.

We're looking forward to Ry's May Day this week and the last day of school on the 3rd. We have a quick trip out to Hana scheduled for Ry's birthday before sending her to the mainland. The boys are looking forward to Summer Pals program and a flag football league! 

Silly Monkeys with me in our yard

I rented a lens to test out since one of mine broke and Kai asked me to take a portrait of him. It's rare that he won't give me a crazy face. This was a really special moment for me.

A ti leaf outside... another test with that lens.

Beautiful Arlito on a visit to my house

Getting organic Shave Ice with Pops and Uncle Koa

Emmy hurt her back. It really sucks. She is confined to her cat crate for a month. Her best friend Mitz likes to sit on the crate and look over the top.

Saying Aloha to Pops again. I swear those visits just go by too fast!

Mother's Day lunch with the Dagupion 'Ohana at Nana's favorite restaurant!

May Day boy - Kai in his kindergarten class for his first ever May Day! (video coming)

Quick overnighter at the Hyatt for some much needed R&R. 24 hours was WAY TOO SHORT! Ry the mermaid

Cruz is pretty awesome with his merboy skills

Kai tackling the waterslide in true local boy fashion

Gypsy

I'll admit... I had some boxes sitting in the corner of my dining room that have basically been in boxes since Texas. I have a problem... I'm a bit of a gypsy. I guess it's not a problem, but it has taken me quite some time to feel tethered to one specific place. Maui - yes. Tethered and never moving again in the foreseeable future.

When we sold our condo in Napili I took down some pendant lights that I loved before it went on the market. They were boxed up and followed us to Haiku where they remained boxed. Then they followed us to Austin - and even though at the time I thought that was my dream - they remained boxed and hidden away. I collected more treasures that were important as the kids were babies and those items were added to the boxes that were never unpacked.

When we moved home to Maui and got the rental in Makawao, I had visions of unboxing everything but hesitated. When that went sour and we fled as quick as we could, the boxes were again moved into our Wailuku house and stashed and have been sitting there in the corner of the dining room looking at me for the past year and a half.

Tonight Peter helped out a friend by switching shifts so he got a weird late-night shift tonight. For some reason, when he's not home I feel more inclined to get things done (I feel super lazy when we're both home!) and so I tackled those damn boxes! It was liberating!!!

I feel so connected and yes, tethered, to this little plot of land in Wailuku town. I finally have visions of being settled down, hanging my pendant lights, and actually putting things away...dare I say "organized"??

The dining room is now looking pretty kick ass. 

Easter Weekend

By  now you know how we do it... we slide holidays. The entire weekend became Easter as we got together with all sides of the family (minus Koa who was working).

 The post-chocolate comatose Ryenne getting in on a picture with Nana

 We did an egg hunt in the front yard too!

 Then we were on for some bike fun with our neighbor, Zerieh. Auntie Jean got in on the action...

 Then Dad decided he wanted a turn too!

 Nana liked checking out the garden.

 We got everyone on the front stoop for a family picture.

 Grandma and Papa brought Easter goodies for the kids too!

Then we headed out to Tavares Bay for an awesome afternoon with Pickle guys and Uncle Jeff. We stayed until the sun went down and the kids were playing hard to work off all that sugar!

Easter Sunday itself was actually pretty hard and not the best day. So I'll leave you with this one happy moment with Ryenne and a donkey (she knows how much I love donkeys!)

Spring Break 2015

Spring Break was spent quite a bit at the beach... in the water... until it was dark. How could life get any better?

Multiple days at the beach.... a little Staycation at the former Maui Prince. Snuggles and fights sometimes moments after each other. 

Here's what happens when Baby Arlo visits

Abra came over a couple weeks ago with Arlo - it was nice to hang out while my kids were all in school so that Abra could have some adult time. She had costumes in the diaper bag so an impromptu photo shoot on the couch with Arlo-ha ensued...

ENJOY!

Turtle costume!

Baby Fox

Puppy Dog! Awwwww

Happy Birthday Cruz!

Cruz is FIVE!!! What the heck? How did this happen?

Cruz is an amazing little human. He’s smart, funny, sweet, and super cuddly. He reminds me a lot of Christopher Robin from Winnie-The-Pooh – a tender heart that’s discovering the world. He's at this amazing stage where he's still a roly-poly little boy but with complex thoughts and questions. He still hasn't figured out that he outweighs his big brother by nearly 10 pounds.

He wants to go to school so badly. He can't wait to start Kindergarten and talks about it all the time.

Cruzey is always ready for adventure. He loves to fly, loves to travel, loves to climb on rocks and LOVES swimming. He'll stay in the ocean until it's dark. He is a magic little boy.

It's storming today and I'm so glad we went out yesterday afternoon to take him on some adventures. We went to the Tropical Plantation coconut shack for shave ice and coconuts and then out to the lighthouse on the Pali to whale watch (until it started raining).

Uncle Koa cracking a coconut

Aunty Lucy making Ry a Shave Ice

Nom Nom

I think Cruz liked his shave ice!

Peter was having fun too.

Off to the Lighthouse to watch some whales and rock climb.

And pretend we're an airplane.

"Cruz show me how many fingers you are!"

Rock Adventures

"I want this one right here." he says

Typical Kai Boy

Ry found the rock she likes!

Starting to rain so back to the car we went.

But first he wanted to pick a special rock.

Happy birthday beautiful boy!