Summer Fun

Take 7 children ages 6 and under, add 1 Slip 'n Slide and 1 inflatable pool on a Saturday. Mix in pizza, juice, strawberries and whipped cream. Blend and bake a few hours in the sun. Let cool before serving - yield: 7 long naps!

Beach Bums!

OK, everyone is worried about the tough economic times ahead. We all need to curb our spending and pinch those pennies. So how can a young family keep the rugrats entertained at a reasonable cost? At the beach, of course. If we play our cards right, the kids knock out by 6:30 p.m. and we get an evening to ourselves. Only drawback - gotta wake up early to cook rice and make Spam musubi that morning!

A Great Season!

Check out this slideshow of the past baseball season - Big K had a blast!

Baseball Action Shots

We had our first game last Saturday - lots of fun for the team! They took their team photo too. What a hoot!

Batter Up!

We signed Big K up for baseball - he's on the Dodgers team. (Yeah L.A.!!!) Games are Saturdays at the beach park - play ball!

Characters!

Big K found a new use for his Pokemon pillow - as a mask! He had quite a ball this evening jumping around the house, pretending he was the beloved electric Pokemon named Pikachu. Miss M always enjoys her brother’s antics...we then later caught her in the act of attempting to kick a toy off the bureau. As you can see from these two - we have our hands full!

Conquering the World!

Don't be fooled by the feminine outfit - even though she's pretty in pink, she's a BULL!!

Miss M

Quite the little character! Uncle sent this picture from Christmas Night - so typical of her, notice how she's double fisted with candy canes! Her first taste of peppermint, oh Lordy!

Back to the Grind

Sigh....the holidays are over, as is school vacation. Went by much too quickly...the kids had a fun Christmas but it is good to be back in our groove again. We purchased an artificial tree this year. It was surprisingly easy to set up and prelit so not having to deal with stringing lights was a plus. It should be an economical investment, since we typically spend over $ 100 per year on trees, and we got this tree for about $ 120. However packing the darn thing up and getting it back into the bag that came with it...what a pain! I keep threatening Dad that one year we'll go to Dubai or some country that doesn't celebrate Christmas so we can escape some of the holiday madness. I know...Momma Scrooge!

Big K and M

From the first day of school, Big K and M became buddies. Their mutual interests in Kikaida and Transformers help cement the friendship, even though two years have passed and they are in separate schools. When the two get together, it's still wild and crazy times!

The Kids Are Alright

Big K got a digital camera for Christmas from Aunty C. He started clicking away and I suggested we create a blog for him to post his images. The resulting site is live and online.

Check it out!

Classroom Fun

Last day of school before a THREE WEEK holiday break. We had a classroom party with lots of fun activities, a "feast" of snacks and gave presents to the teachers. The kids had a blast!

Meanwhile, we parents are groaning about 21 consecutive days with the kids - how long until everyone is bouncing off the walls and overdosing on eggnog - with extra shots of rum. Calgon take me away!

It's a Miracle!

We enjoyed an evening Christmas performance at school about the Nativity entitled "It's a Miracle!" They did a really good job and it was lots of fun seeing the entire school in action.

On another note, Big K discovered that the shopping center close to school has a baseball/trading card/toy store filled with lots of Pokemon, Transformer and Star Wars toys. Talk about kid heaven! When informed that good behavior could result in Santa delivering toys from this store, Big K gave us his trademark rascal smile - can you see the tilted halo above his head?

Choo Choo

We had a field trip to the Hawaii Railway in Ewa, and it was pretty cool going on the open air train and learning a bit about the history of this railroad (though admittedly it's tough to hear much when you have 20 kindergarteners close at hand).

The neat thing is that the ride gives a very different perspective of the City of Kapolei, which is undergoing massive construction since this will become Hawaii's "Second City." (Traffic, pollution, crime and other urban hassles at no additional charge.) All aboard!

...and more from the Doting Parent

Big K copied the cover art of the Peanuts DVD he got from Grandpa and Grandma. I have to say it's nice to see a departure from the mayhem and destruction that he usually depicts (Godzilla, Transformers, etc.).

Holiday Cards - Sneak Peek

We're ordering photo cards online from Sam's Club again this year (yes, I know - the evil affiliate of Wal-Mart!). As usual, we don't have a decent shot of both kids and since we are so NOT the photo studio types, I resorted to a collage again. Attached is a preview of the two monkeys in all their glory!

First Haircut

Miss M has curly hair - we're still not sure where she got that from - and it was growing like crazy and getting into her eyes. We took her to a "kiddie salon" for her first haircut.

Decorated in bright colors, with chairs in the shape of fire trucks and airplanes - these salons provide "kid-friendly" venues for haircuts. Sesame Street blasts in the background and the stylist has an arsenal of animal crackers and lollipops to soothe ruffled feathers.

All went relatively well - we purchased the "First Haircut" package for $ 24.95 (kid friendly ain't cheap!) and got a lock of her hair, photo and card. Miss M is sucking on a lollipop, which was the only way we could get her to sit still long enough to snap the Polaroid.

Star Wars Mania

Lately we've been crazy for Star Wars, watching all six episodes and discussing the ramifications of Anakin going to the Dark Side of the Force, the relationship between Jengo Fett and Boba Fett, and the language of the Ewoks. So imagine how lucky we were to catch a Star Wars exhibit at the California Science Center in Exposition Park, Los Angeles.

The exhibit included lots of "hands on" activities, correlating aspects of the movies to various scientific principles and technologies. Of course there's an extensive gift shop with all the toys and trimmings at the exhibit exit. We are happy to report that we only had to witness (and not experience) kids throwing fits and tantrums because they could not get what they wanted!