school year 2010-2011

Beautiful Veda on her first day of second grade.

And this one was the toughy - my little Eve starting kindergarten! Can you tell she was a little excited? Where I was holding back the tears (unsuccessfully) she was beaming from ear to ear.

summer mainland trip

It's hard to believe we spent 2 weeks in Las Vegas and Utah and these pictures are all I have to prove it. Despite that, we had a splendid time and got to see lots of family and friends. The cousin time was the best!

We got to see my rockstar nephew Liam compete in a swim meet. He killed it in the backstroke and won his heat. The girls wanted pictures with him like he was a celebrity! Go Liam!

story time

Brawk!

Last day of preschool

After months of anticipation and counting down of days my brother and his family came to visit.

The girls were bribed with ice cream for breakfast if they slept in until 8:30. Not the best parenting approach, but at least we got some sleep.

You can't have a house full of girls without a spa day.
A night out for us thanks to our friends M and B for staying with the kids.
I love this guy. Thanks for coming!!

May Day 2010

One of the things I've come to love most about living in Hawaii is the May Day celebration each Spring. In Hawaii May Day is a celebration and display of native Hawaiian culture. The school kids work and rehearse for months to prepare and perform dances, chants, songs, and Hula for this event. Parents, Aunties, Uncles, grandparents come early in the morning to save a seat and watch this event.

This is Veda's second May Day performance. All the first graders made their own Ipu - a gourd Hula drum. They did a dance and chant while drumming on their Ipu.

My kid was the cutest one. :)



Veda's fabulous 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Kakinami

Next year we'll have both of our girls performing in May Day! I can't wait.

There's not much that can make the stomach flu tolerable. But puppy snuggles come close.

Captain Veda's pirate party... Aaaarggh!

Veda's request was for a pirate themed birthday party, and deliver we did! Here are the invitations.

Captain Veda with some of her mates. 23 kids in all!!

The kids at the start of the treasure hunt.

Travis and I reading the next Treasure hunt clue.

I should have taken a picture of the house before the wind blew off some of our flags. You get the picture though.
The pirates coming back for their next clue.
X marks the spot! Now we dig!
The booty!



Some of the roughest toughest buccaneers we know.
Pirates are starvin! Time for cake!
Happy Birthday to you...



Cap'n Filthy Scar Knockboots and his sidekick Girdy Joe Rose
Some pirate-ettes taking a little breather in the sun.
What is any pirate without a parrot? This was an honored guest - Bonzai. She was a very social sweet bird who flew from shoulder to shoulder, even taking samples off our plates. She was the hit of the party.
This is the cutest little swashbuckler I've ever seen. Great idea Veda!

Happy Birthday to Veda

I'm still in denial that my little girl is now seven. Seven sounds soooo old! Can it be? Thankfully I really LIKE this seven year old and the girl she is becoming.

In school she is learning to tell time, so we thought an appropriate gift would be a watch. She loves it and has already gotten so much faster at reading the time.

Who knew that idogs are actually pretty cool! Way to go Dad. Good gift. I would have never thought of it. Now she can listen to her ipod without headphones.



We had a birthday party a few days after the actual birthday. photos to come soon.