september camping: part2

Early sunday morning,
the girls were tree climbing and
playing hide and go seek.
We turned around and they were up on this one...
Erik going to get them.

walking to the bouncy tree

it's the bouncy tree,
how fun!

maya bouncing kalia

maya & kalia bouncing
at one point, maya did a full face plant in the sand,
it was kinda funny.

kalia facing her fears and walking the bouncy tree,
you can't tell from the picture, but it did go off the ground
a bit and she was nervous, but in the end after
several falls off, she did it. She faced her fears!

In other news- Kalia is Hoku (star) of the week at school and she is soooooo excited! She gets to sit in the special desk, be the line leader, pick the kids that are being quiet to get up from rest time and we are so excited because we get to go eat lunch with her. She had to color this paper person to look like her and it will go on the Hoku board with pictures we will bring in tomorrow. Of course, we had to add a skirt and longer hair to her paper person.

I got to do the kindergarten bulletin board and
going for a non-traditional fall theme (Erik's idea)
we chose football. The kids all colored the helmets,
I wanted to take everyone's photos to go with the helmets,
but Kalia was sick that day- next time.

september camping: part 1

Me & my girls!
We had planned to go camping two weekends ago,
in celebration of our anniversary,
but we were all sick. So we were determined to
go this last weekend. We needed a getaway!

Maya

Kalia

Riding some little waves onto the beach with daddy.

Relaxing

Maya helping Erik build the fire

The girls getting the kindling

sunset

kalia putting some wood on the fire

I just loved the clouds in the background,
really beautiful at sunset

sitting by the fire, waiting for dinner

our champagne toast,
the girls had juice.
maya drank hers right down,
kalia saved hers for to drink with dinner.

We had a really fun time camping, it was a lot of work as usual, especially since we were there only about 24 hours. But we had a great time. Lots of water time, Kalia body surfed and caught some little waves on the boogie board, Maya went out on the boogie board. Maya took a nap! While she was napping, Kalia & Erik found a bouncy tree, we had a great fire, played with glow bracelets, made smores and the girls and I were sleeping by 8:30pm (did I mention that I drank 1/2 a bottle of champagne). Maya would say, "I can 't believe that we're really camping!" She's been crying to go camping lately.

catch up

Maya started swim lessons last week and this is her singing the "I'm a little pancake" song that we sing during floating. But she keeps singing the same line...

She had a great 1st day of swim class and I can't wait until the next one! Although, just like a good big sister, Kalia mentioned over and over before the class that Maya would be going under the water. Nothing like trying scare your little sister on their 1st day of swim class.

So Kalia was sick...again. She missed school on Friday with a fever, again. But this time we were finished by Saturday and I kept saying, "how are your ears?", but they were fine. We had planned on going camping and hopefully will be able to do that this weekend. We definitely need a little get away. But on Friday, Kalia really wanted to go to school, she cried.

So I completely embarassed Kalia's 8th grade buddy, I so don't know teenagers. I got to meet her the day after we got our incredible letter from her and she was so friendly and chatty that the next day Erik & I both dropped Kalia off and I saw her and introduced her to Erik, right in front of her friends. Holy mortification Batman! I am so not ready for 13, I think I will be perfectly happy with 5 and 2. She handled it well, but yes, complete embarassment, but I think she forgave me by the afternoon...

Since we couldn't camp this weekend, on Saturday we BBq'd outside and then had a picnic for dinner on the grass. I think our neighbors think we're crazy.

Kalia is having her 1st field trip tomorrow to the Library.

Maya's Favorites September 2011:
Book: The Jolly Postman and Other People's Letters
Song: Hush Little Baby

I have had this copy of the Jolly Postman and Other People's Letters since 7th grade after Mrs. Showalter used it as an example for a class project. I loved that book. I kept it all this time and Kalia just started looking at it last year and still it remained in perfect condition. Last week, Maya discovered it and now all the envelopes are ripped from little letters trying to go back into their envelopes. But it is well loved and maybe wasn't supposed to be kept in mint condition. She calls it the "mail book". We started looking at this nursery rhymes book that I brought back with me last time I was home and Maya loves the "hush little baby" song and we sing it all the time. But what a push over this parent is- so if your mocking bird won't sing, your gonna buy your kid a diamond ring?

Kalia's Favorites September 2011:
Books: The Rainbow Magic Fairy series, we are working on the petal fairies right now
Song: I don't know if it's her favorite, but on Sunday, Erik & her were working on learning the music & lyrics from Willie K's "slippah's" song. Erik was playing on the ukulele and Kalia was accompanying him on vocals.

Wednesday, Kalia gets out of school early, so last week we went to the pool for a couple of hours to get a little swimming in. We will try again tomorrow.

Good night.

phone photos

puzzles, we like puzzles
I have to make Maya's challenging now, by mixing the pieces from 4 different puzzles.
Kalia's has 6 different sides and she must match the common animal/side color.
i cannot get this photo to face the correct way

me & maya
on the big girl bed

two cool things from kalia's school today:

1. a letter from her 8th grade buddy, Krystal to us, Kalia's parents, introducing herself and talking about being Kalia's buddy. So cool.
2. Her homework today. 7 weeks into kindergarten and they are learning sight words. Of course, Kalia had to color the picture on the page too. Math homework was writing 3's and doing a connect the dot with numbers.

weekend

kalia & scarlett
running around the kapalua maze

maya making a stinky face
there has been quite a bit of that this weekend

however the last couple of days,
after we had to do some tough love
with the going to sleep for nap & bed
she is much happier

my very good sleeper started
to not want to go to sleep,
but (knock on wood)
the last couple of days have
been much better.

omg
look what we found
the remnants of a ...wedding

it's like the coolest stage- ever

sunday
baby beach
planting a garden
the seeds are being carefully laid
then watered

there is just something about a big hole at the beach

that is so fun

happenings

two mermaids
found on kapalua bay
labor day

maya in a hole

kalia dutifully getting
water to fill the hole

and pouring it on her sister,
this is fun.

Kalia & her 3rd grade reading buddy, Ariana

picture day
say cheese

waiting for the bell to ring,
kalia carrying maya

kalia wanted to do a craft this weekend,
so we painted color on paper,
i was going for fall colors, kalia did rainbow

then cut out leaves for these fall mobiles
maya

kalia

So Erik taught Kalia a joke the other night. She's really into jokes right now, especially since there has been new ones on the popcicle sticks. Well, she's not particularly good at making up her own, but she likes to try.

This was Kalia's new joke:
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Lion
Lion Who?
Roar

This is how Erik changed it:
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Lion
Lion who?
I'm not lying, are you calling me a liar?

So you can imagine my surprise when I came into Kalia's room after putting Maya down and she said, "I have a new joke for you"

Knock, knock
Who's there?
Lion
Lion who?
You calling me a liar? (with full attitude)

Ok, but I have to admit, it's made me laugh several times now, after the fact. She is NOT allowed to tell that one at school.

Last night before I put maya down, they were fighting over a book and to appease maya I told her I would tell her an extra story in bed. So I told her the story of a little girl named Maya, but basically it was the same story as Goldilocks and she went into the forest and then into the three bears house. Anyway, when we got to the whole eating all baby bears porridge and breaking baby bears bed, she stopped me and told me how it really went. Maya unlike Goldilocks did not eat all of baby bears porridge (because he was soooo cute), she left some for him and then after she accidentally broke his chair then she fixed it and cleaned up the mess and then they had a playdate. then end. Much better version.

7th anniversary

7 years ago
Koga Family

7 years ago
Hendrickson Family

This morning at Duke's for family anniversary breakfast

Me & Maya

The very, very long walk from Duke's to the Royal Lahaina, Cottage F
We decided to re-visit where we got married 7 years ago.
Erik also drove us past the little ohana we used to live in.

7 years ago on this very spot, I married my best friend.

Look it's cottage F, where we had the reception!

Kalia took this photo in front of the Cottage F sign

It was a very long walk from Duke's to the Royal Lahaina, several times I think we were both thinking about turning back. On our own it would have been easy, but a 5 and 2 year old in tow, was definitely challenging at times. It was hot- as Maya told us many times and legs were getting tired- but we did it! And it was so worth it, seeing the cottage brought back such great memories. I can't believe it's been 7 years. 7 amazing years, 2 kids, lots and lots of sleepless nights, happy times, tough times, lots of laughter and of course so many memories!