Rain Dancing

Yesterday the girls spent the morning dancing. To the same song. Over and over again. ('Take a Bow' from Glee) It was so cute we had to take some pictures. They were checking themselves out in the TV reflection.

When I think about it now, I realize that they must have been doing some kind of rain dance. Because this is a little while later......


It rained so hard that it made a huge puddle behind our building and I guess they couldn't resist. They played in the water for quite a while and I took a lot of pictures, but here's just a few.

They would say they were in the 'bath.'
Do this little cheer together

Then run for the 'shower.' Which was the edge of the pavilion we were sitting under.

ask if we needed anything, and then run to the 'bath' and do it all over again.

They had such a great time playing in the rain. I think whenever it rains from now on, it's going to be pretty hard to keep them out of the giant swimming pool type puddle.

Soul Sisters, BFFs and Best Buddies

Have I mentioned that we have great neighbors? Well we do. Jenni and I joke that we are Soul Sisters, Hadlee and Maili are such cute friends they even have a Best Friends Forever Hand Shake. Calvin loves Max, I know that because he knows his name, and let's face it he doesn't know that many names. He just started calling me 'mom' all the time instead of 'peepah.' Reef is 14 months old and so cute. So naturally Hadlee and Maili came up with a plan to make their dads Best Buddies. We went to dinner with their family the other night and the girls had their plan rehearsed. Once we got there Maili held Sterling's hand (her dad) and Hadlee held Tyler's hand and this is how it went:

Hadlee: Tyler, this is Sterling (motioning with her free hand toward Maili's dad.)
Maili: Sterling, this is Tyler (also motioning while both smiled hugely at their amazing plan.)

I wish I had it on video. Even though it must have felt like they were being introduced on a blind date rather than the start of an amazing best bud friendship, they were both really good sports about it.
The cutest partners in crime.

Tent'n It

Calvin has a hard time sitting through primary (I know that's a shocker, right) but he has been doing a little better lately. Better meaning he wants to be in there by himself, so he yells and waves bye to me numerous times until I finally leave. I don't really ever leave though, I always wait out in the hallway because I know he will run past all the primary leaders and be gone in less than a second. He didn't disappoint yesterday. The best part was during sharing time, they used a baby's sunhat that was red with white polka dots and a bow on it during their lesson and at some point Calvin ended up wearing it. So when he came darting out into the hallway, we was wearing a baby girl's hat. He ran straight out the door and right into the chapel. The next sacrament meeting was a few minutes away so luckily there were quite a few witnesses. He ran up to the front and right to the pulpit where he was going to just make sure the microphone was working for them. I gave people my apologetic smile as I grabbed him and escorted him out. I am going to estimate 15 more people toward my goal.

Today he was outside playing and decided that a couple that walked by was nice enough looking and he started following them. He was across the street when our neighbor, Max, came to tell me where he was. When I got to him he was walking up the stairs, ready to go into their upstairs apartment with them. Luckily they weren't serial killing, psychopathic pedophiles, (I don't think anyway) but still probably not a good practice for him to be getting into.

These moments are few and far between, had to get a photo. It was before his haircut though. I wish I had a photo of the baby hat wearing rampage, but I don't take my camera to church.


Hadlee is loving living here. Mainly thanks to our great neighbors. We really aren't lucky people, Tyler and I, so you would think we would be in the slums of student housing with the worst, cockroach breeding neighbors ever. I am starting to wonder what the catch is. We are in one of the newest buildings and our neighbors couldn't be better. They have a little girl named Maili, (sounds like Mylie) who is also 5 and Hadlee just loves her. The other day we were sitting in front of a mirror and we had this conversation:

Me: (looking at Hadlee stare at herself in the mirror) "Have you ever seen a prettier girl, Hadlee?"
Her: "Yes, Maili."

I really think it has made all the difference for her to have friends here already. She was so sad to leave her friends back home and I think it made the transition easier. She can barely contain herself during the day waiting for time to play.

We hopefully have a cure on the way to Calvin's sleeping issues. We debated about buying a crib, thinking maybe if the type of bed was the same as the one at home maybe he would sleep like he used to. We were trying to decide what to do and Tyler was looking online and found this:
from this website http://myreadysetbloom.com/
It's a bed tent that his mattress slides into and we can lock so he can't get out all hours of the night. *** (I am going to start using an * when I know you are judging me. Keep in mind, anyone is welcome to come get Calvin for a week and then pass judgment freely.)
It was supposed to get here Friday and when I found out it might not be here until Monday,....... I thought I might die. Now it's supposed to be here tomorrow (Tuesday). I might make it until tomorrow, we'll see.

We ordered Hadlee a less expensive one so she didn't feel left out, of course, her unnecessary tent arrived much more quickly. It got here Thursday. Tyler couldn't keep if from her any longer and gave it to her last night. She loves it and so does Calvin so that's a positive sign. Her tent is easy to get out of though and his won't be, but I am hanging all my hopes on it.
Hadlee in her tent.

Hukilau Beach

We went to the beach today. Hadlee is getting pretty good at catching the waves with her little board. She wants one you can stand up on, but we told her she would have to master this one first, and probably learn to swim a little better. We also collected a bunch of sea shells today and she loved doing that.

Calvin enjoyed ruining the beach for these boys right here. They kept trying to build something and he felt like it was his duty, responsibility, purpose (whatever other word you can think of) to destroy whatever they were working to build. Then he took off running down the beach and laid down in a giant hole to hide from me. I grabbed his hand to bring him back to where he needed to be and his legs just stopped working. He was completely unable to walk. I ended up dragging him all the way back. I bet there were 20 people around and I am sure at least 10 of them thought I sucked. Mission accomplished for today. I am way ahead of schedule and confident I can add to my numbers tomorrow. I am calling my new goal '365 in 365 then the rest of the world.'

My New Goal

Yesterday we took some movies back to the DVD machine on campus. Hadlee and Calvin were on their bikes and I was walking. After we had returned the movies we headed home. They got a little ways away and stopped by a cross walk on the road. I could see them waiting for me but the car coming down the road thought they were waiting to cross. So Man in White Car stopped and stayed there for what seemed like an eternity. So Hadlee figured they should cross because he was just sitting there staring at them. He could have also been motioning them to go, I can't be sure. They crossed and he stayed, stopped in the middle of the road, and I could tell he was talking to them. By this time another car was coming the other way and seeing Man in White Car stopped, New Driver thought he should stop too because obviously these kids needed to cross the road (which would be going back the way they had just come, but New Driver didn't know that). So now there are two cars stopped just sitting there for what seemed like another eternity. I am crossing the road diagonally behind New Driver to catch up quicker. Calvin thinks that maybe these cars are waiting for him to cross so he starts to cross and then realizes he doens't want to go that way that he may have just given in to some kind of peer pressure. After coming to this conclusion, he stops in what turns out to be the middle of the road. (New Driver and Man in White Car watching all the while from the front row.) Of course I have to yell at him to get out of the road and he does after considering his options. I am about caught up with them when the cars finally start moving again and as Man in White Car passes me, he starts yelling out his window at me that he was telling my kids to stay closer to me. He also kept talking but let's face it, I needed to catch up with my kids which was his point, right? So I just said thanks and kept walking. I am sure he finished his speech to himself in his white car. It's pretty clear that he also thinks I suck and possibly hates me. My new goal is, to make at least one person hate me per day. Check for yesterday!
~

On another note, I noticed today that my kids have gotten in the habit of saying 'sorry' a lot. I realized that almost every time we pass someone on the sidewalk, it seems they are chancing death sharing the same coordinates even if for a brief time, so I end of apologizing for them having to dive out of the way of my kids and onto the grass. So now almost every time we pass someone, at least one of my kids says, "Sorry." Saves me some trouble anyway. My favorite thing though is when I say sorry to someone on the sidewalk and they look at me like, 'Why is the white girl so uptight right now?'

PCC, choose your own adventure.

I am thinking of making my blog a ‘choose your own adventure blog.’ I sometimes feel like I am sugar coating things too much for my blog, but also feel that sometimes it makes people uncomfortable to hear the truth. So if you are interested in the sugar coated (seriously so blessed) version, check out the first section titled, ‘my awesome life.’ If you are interested in the real and maybe sometimes too negative version, you need to scroll down to the section, ‘Are these really the best times of my life?’ Maybe I will make this a permanent thing, we’ll see.

My Awesome Life: I woke up yesterday and it was such a beautiful day, I started singing. Outside the birds heard my amazing voice and started harmonizing. The whole family soon joined in as we all got ready for the day together. The kids were singing and dancing in unison while putting their clothes on. Hadlee loves for me to comb her hair and make it all pretty for the day, which I can totally do because I am the coolest. I am a beauty school drop out, you know. After finishing our musical morning, we were ready for the day and Tyler (the best husband ever) suggested that we do something magical on his day off of school. You know, strengthen our relationship as a family. I reminded him what a difficult task that would be. How do you strengthen relationships that are already as strong as possible? So we set off to accomplish the impossible.

We are very cultured and enjoy learning new things all the time so we decided that the Polynesian Cultural Center would be a perfect addition to our already perfect day. We are also very environmentally conscious, so instead of driving there and putting about 8 billion more holes in the ozone layer, we walk everywhere. It felt so wonderful to be outside and frankly just to be alive. My kids were so perfectly behaved on their bikes. They stayed so close to each other, and never fought. They stop at each cross walk and wait so patiently for us to make sure it’s safe before they cross the road. The beautifully amazing stroll was really just another component of our wonderful day, an adventure in itself. We arrived at the PCC and Hadlee and Calvin were so excited. They are both practically fluent in Hawaiian so I wasn’t sure they could learn anything new, but appreciated their enthusiasm. As we walked through the park and took pictures I couldn’t help but be so proud. I had more than one person stop me and comment on how amazingly well behaved my 2 little angels were. I tried to be gracious, but was really thinking, “I know, right.?” We watched a presentation about Fiji and learned how to play some bamboo drums, which my family was better at than anyone else’s. Then we sat beside the river and watched the Canoe Pageant the happens once a day. As we sat waiting for the pageant, I looked over at my perfect angels and held my head high as I scanned the crowd, frowning at any parents whose kids weren’t up to par. I think they knew by the look I gave them that I was a superior parent.

When we arrived home, I felt nothing but refreshed. What a great time we had as a family!!! I spent the rest of the day playing with my kids and talking about all the things they could have learned there if they didn’t already know them. When I reflected on my day last night, I couldn’t help but be so thankful for my awesome life.


Are These REALLY the Best Times of My Life?: I don’t know about anyone else, but it really is easier for me to lock down the house and not go anywhere., but I end up being bored and wanting to see they sky and stuff. Tyler didn’t have school and we were thinking of what we could do to take advantage of the day off. We decided on the Polynesian Cultural Center. We have been wanting to go and heard that you can get an annual pass for a pretty good deal with student I.D.s. We don’t have a car, so we walked there, and on the way stopped at McDonalds. We took some pictures, ate and continued on to the PCC. When we go there, we went inside and got to the counter to buy our annual passes. When Tyler went to get his ID out, he couldn’t find it. We both had to have IDs to get the passes and he didn’t have his. So we walked back home and got his ID and walked back to the PCC. By this time, I was already pretty tired, not so much from the walking, more from the trying to teach Calvin to stop before he crosses the road so we can check it’s safe. We had taken his bike away numerous times and made him walk, while bawling, until we felt like maybe we could try again. He would be good for a few minutes and then end out in the road again. We have to keep running after him to make sure he would stop when he was supposed to.

We got there, bought the passes and got inside, finally. We decide to go see a show that was starting right away, but when we got to it, it was really full and there weren’t any seats left. We decided that we would see it another time and go find the show that was supposed to start in a half hour and get a good seat for it. Calvin apparently really wanted to see the show we just left because he threw himself on the ground and started crying. I coaxed him off the ground and got him to come with me, but then decided to hit this random kid who was crossing the bridge at the wrong time. Have I mentioned that parents of other kids hate me and think I suck? Yeah, they do. I was surprised by the events, I am not sure why, but I was, so I made Calvin say sorry and took him to sit down on a bench for a time out. I didn’t look those people directly in the eye because I couldn’t do it, I just apologized and looked for a bench. I don’t think it hurt the kid, it was more of a love tap with no love. We found the place for the Fiji presentation and walked around a little to wait. We said, “Calvin, put the rocks down.” 3 thousand times and a few times had to take them out of his hand. We went and looked at the river and said, “Calvin, don’t throw rocks in the river and put them down.” 2 thousand times. Finally one of the people who worked there taught us to say the phrase in Fijian just to break up the monotony.

The show started, there was a lot of yelling/screaming, dancing and singing/chanting in Fijian and the kids loved it. Calvin was laughing a lot and Hadlee was taking mental notes on the right pitch for the scream one of the girls kept doing. When the show was over, we went to another place in the Fiji Village and they taught us to play Bamboo drums. Calvin and Hadlee both loved that part. We had to bang the bamboo on the floor and chant and yell. The last song we did, at the end we were supposed to yell the greeting of Fiji “booloo vananca” or something that sounded like that. Calvin had his bamboo in the air and yelled louder than anyone in there. Everyone looked at us and laughed.

We then went to watch the canoe pageant and spent 20 minutes trying to keep Calvin out of the river. And of course, to “PUT THE ROCKS DOWN.” They guy behind us was laughing when Tyler had to grab Calvin before going into the river.

I was ready to leave after the first show. There is so much more to do there but we have an annual pass, so we have plenty of time. I think we just need to learn that small doses works best for us. Hadlee was such a good girl during the whole thing I really was proud of her. On the way home Calvin went out in the road right in front of a truck and for a split second I was sure he was dead. So then we took him off his bike AGAIN.

By the time we got home about five, I was done for the day. I told Tyler when we were almost home that we were going to put on a movie for the kids to help us make it through the rest of the day, and he immediately agreed. Last night I couldn’t help but keep thinking about what people say all the time about these being the best times of my life. I hope that’s a big fat lie. I want days where I am completely glad we took our kids somewhere. There were some fun times yesterday, but there were also times I thought we all would have been better off staying home. And then I ate some chocolate. (I think that might be my new ending to every post.)

Picture time.

One of the weirdest looking McDonald's.


They don't have a play land, but they do have a water feature.

The PCC: When Calvin saw this guy, he screamed and wouldn't stand any closer to it for a picture. funny




Pretty sure he has some rocks in that clenched fist (below).




This is before the Samoans danced so furiously they threw their driver in the water.
This was after. Ü


We stopped on the way home to get shave ice. And no, I didn't forget the 'd'. That is what they call it here, shave ice.

P.S. Today Tyler, Calvin and I were walking to the store. Calvin was on his bike and took off. He got almost clear across campus and crossed about 4 roads before Tyler could catch up to him, sprinting (it seemed he was on his way to McDonald's again). I think tomorrow we might put the training wheels back on.

The Bright Side.

Some pictures of our huge apartment. It's so spacious we really don't even know what to do with it. Not really, but the good news is, we can clean the whole house in like a half hour!!

There's been a lot of bike riding lately.....

Our first bus trip, waiting in Mililani for the bus to come back home

We bought Calvin a ring pop but instead of a ring, it had these Mater teeth on the outside.

Calvin is such a sweet boy sometimes (Dr. Jekyll). This is his 'I am so sweet face.' He uses it quite often, but watch out because Mr. Hyde can show up at any moment. dun dun dun.
We are waiting for Tyler to get us some food in Mililani and playing with the camera, Hadlee loves to have her picture taken.
We built a train city one day. Calvin loves trains and is very into Thomas the train right now.
Calvin learned to ride his bike without training wheels on Saturday, here's a before picture with the wheels.
After...



He has done really well with it. We knew he was ready because he rode Hadlee's bike this summer while we were camping across a field by himself, but every time we took his training wheels off with cement around, he didn't want to do it. Saturday we tried again and he went for it without much help really. He is even starting by himself already and standing up to pedal. I love to see him have things come to him easily. There are things that he doesn't have to struggle with, that he is right there with everyone else his age instead of bringing up the rear. Hadlee is such a good big sister. She is always trying to help him and is so understanding and forgiving of him. We made her ride her bike back and forth behind our apartment building so Calvin could practice and have someone to ride with. She was happy to do it and excited for him to be learning to ride his bike. There are moments it's so easy to see the bright side.