Pool time

2nd graders all in a row waiting to pass the swim test

1-2-3 JUMP!!!

The first parent-invited field trip for Lucy's class was swimming at the YWCA pool.  The Kindergarten class goes for 9 weeks straight and invites another class to go with them each week.  Sept 7 was the 2nd graders turn.  We had a great time (and a friend tended Cole for me) but it made me a little nostalgic for the Kindergarten days.  What really struck me though was how much easier it was to swim with three children as opposed to two years ago.  Hard to believe that next year it will be Elise's turn!

planning the next jump
view of Kaneohe Bay in the background

pencil jump

not wanting to be outdone

The Star

Lucy was the "star of the week" and got to tell her class all about herself.

Day 1 - Share her big poster (mainly favorite things).  She spent a lot of time on this.  A few notables:
I am a star because... I am kind.  When I grow up I want to be... a teacher and a mom.  Write three super-cool facts about yourself.  1.  My favrite subect is reading!  2.  I have lived in 3 difrint states!  3.  I was born in Nebraska!  Favorite thing to do in school... centers.  Favorite thing to do at home... read.
Day 2 - Share her favorite items (show and tell).  She was adamant about bringing her rock and shell collection and specifically wanted to show her "L" volcanic rock from the Big Island.  She also brought her stuffed dog in a purse and the mini-books she has written/illustrated.  {Three Little Pigs and When I grow up book}
Day 3 - Read her favorite picture book to the class.  We read about 20 books before she narrowed it down to Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox.  Her teacher told me that all the kids thought the book was SO funny - exactly what Lucy was hoping for.
Day 4 - Share your favorite snack.  This was supposed to be something healthy, but Lucy and I had a hard time agreeing on what would be good.  She settled on a bag of chips and frozen grape-scicles (grapes on a kabob).  Didn't totally fit the "healthy" criteria, but whatever.
Day 5 - Class wrote notes to Lucy and her teacher gave them in a book on Monday.  It was really cute to hear what they had to say.   A few favorite snips:  "You are a good reader and speller and you are good at math and you know your doubles facts and your a good friend of mine and by the way your brother cole is cute." (Ezekiel) "the snak was good and healthy and very delicos."  (Kaukaweli) "And you are a good jumproper.  And a good firend.  And you lets me play with her." (Alana) "I have fun plaing four scur  your a good sport to me and sydnee I hope you and me and syd and halle are BFFs fevre and evre." (Maya) "You're so smart cause you know fast 9, fast 10, adding, subcracting." (Sydnee) "your smiling face in the morning it makes me want to smile back at you when you smile at me. You are a beatiful sweet girl Lucy and good manners." (Rachael)  "Your a good friend becuse you always let someone play with you.  Your a good reader you don't skp word or sentense's. (Kapua) "Your good at halping pealepey your family is nis thank for bean a frind and God love you." (Kalanikapu) "Thank you for being such a good friend to me even I am new here." (Emalia) "You are smart and you are never meen or bose or bule pepole." (Jacob) "We are going to mess you and The hole school is going to mess you." (Malachi)

A boat ride on the Yangtze River with Ping

making the wise-eyed boat

For my preschool week, we were still studying Asia (we study a continent per month & pick our own country to focus on), the letter Dd, numbers 1-5 and "malama" (Hawaiian word for "to take care of"). We hit it all by using the book:  "A Story about Ping".  We learned about ducks and the Yangtze River in China.  (As we were driving along the coast about a couple weeks later, Austin called out, "Hey!  This ocean is like the Yangtze River in China!"  ha!

eating Ping's favorite foods - fish, rice cakes, snails & worms and blue water
(also made blue yellow cups with peeps on top)

We practiced walking, swimming, and quacking like ducks.  We also learned about the special oil ducks have so their feathers don't get all wet by squirting water at an "oiled duck" and a paper one.  (from the great book, Have You Ever Seen a Duck in a Raincoat?).  Our last science experiment was a favorite!  (idea/printable from this website) We talked about what sinks and what floats (because in the book, they tied the little boy to a barrel & tossed him in the water).  We threw all sorts of stuff in the pool - balls, pencils, blocks, canned food, scissors, etc.  It was great fun!  Then we invited all the siblings of the kids over for a backyard swimming/sprinkler party!


It was also my week to plan a field trip.  (we have one per month)  This was our first time to break out the Gummy Bear Preschool shirts and the kids were thrilled to show off their creations!  :)  We attended Honolulu Theater for Youth's "Five Chinese Brothers".  It was done in the traditional Chinese Opera style, which was explained beforehand (ways they represent travel, singing the lyrics, signs for each character, etc.)  It was well done and the kids laughed a lot!  During one part of the show, the sea dragon runs down the aisles and the all the school kids screamed and screamed.  I wondered how our preschoolers would react.  Elise jumped in my lap, but everyone else did fine.  However, at the end of the show, Nachelle and I asked the kids what they thought was funny and the only thing anyone could remember was the sea dragon!

After the play, we opened our China flag take-out boxes (made at school the day before) filled with Chinese goodies!  Fortune cookies were a hit.  Austin's favorite thing was the 1-5 stickers (for each brother) and as he put them on his shirt he tried to remember each of the brother's super power.  It was pretty funny, but he actually did pretty well.

race to the cars!

Hike on Ka'ena Point State Park

Last item on the Summer bucket list - hike to Ka'ena Point State Park.  The point is the westernmost part of Oahu but only accessible by foot.  We threw rocks and looked at the waves from the Wai'anae side the during the winter a couple years ago but really weren't prepared to hike it.  Someone recommended us trying to come from the Haleiwa side as they thought it would be shorter so we decided to try it out on Labor Day.  Later we found out it was a similar distance (2.7 mi one way) but a lot uglier scenery.  Oops.

Well, let's just say this wasn't the picture perfect activity like the tide pools two days before. We started off with grumpy hikers.  One in particular.

Then Lucy fell flat on her face and got all skinned up.  She wailed pretty hard.  Then she dropped her hat in a mud puddle.  Then a bee? or something like it stung her eyelid.  (The next day it was puffy and red).  More wailing.  Then the same thing (I think?) stung Elise on the back of her neck.  (But no reaction the next day).  At least the boys were pretty happy to be there.  But on the way back, I had to sing every song known to mankind to keep Austin from remembering that he wanted to be carried.  The kids were so dramatic it was comical at the first and less comical by the time we actually reached the van.  The hike was in full sun (Later I found out "Ka'ena" means "the heat" in Hawaiian.  Very fitting.) and we didn't have as much water as we should have.  We heard it was a good place for monk seals and albatross (there is an albatross reserve at the actual point), but the only living thing we saw was a centipede, besides dogs and people of course.  Afterwards, we stopped at Kua'aina burgers in Haleiwa but the avocados weren't ripe (which takes off half their menu).  It just wasn't the day we were thinking it would be.  Nothing major of course, but we were happy to return home and relax under the fans!

Austin checking out the century plant grove

 

Let's go!!!

Searching the Tide Pools at North Beach

We had two last things to check off our Summer Bucket List and decided to do those Labor Day weekend.  Even though Lucy had been in school since July, Labor Day is really the end of summer, right?  Geo thought it would be fun to look at the tide pools at North Beach on the Marine Corps Base.  I  was surprised at how great this was.  It sprinkled occasionally, but still was a beautiful morning and so relaxing.  We stayed for a few hours.  The girls collected lots of lovely treasures. Cole loved climbing in and out of holes.  Austin was just happy to run around as usual, but especially loved the waves crashing over the rocks making "waterfalls".  I went overboard on the pics, but it was one of those mornings you want to burn in your memory.  Here are a few (lots) of my favorites.

The kids were surprisingly good at finding Halloween Hermit crabs.  (They learned how to identify three different types of crabs when we visited to the Living Art Marine Center this summer.)  We also saw lots of sea cucumbers, tropical fish from the ocean, coral, 'opihi (Hawaiian limpets), a seven-eleven crab shell, cowry snails, and lots of cool seashells.

running to show mom her treasures

little ducks in a row

Austin the tourist

One of Austin's favorite outfits

Randoms of August

Austin leading the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

making chocolate balls with dad

Cole's first time wearing shoes - not a fan!

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One night, I reminded Austin to use the potty and Cole tried to follow.  Austin slammed the door in his face and Cole started bawling.  George scolded Austin from the hall and he replied very casually, "Don't worry dad.  I'll be nice tomorrow."

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Geo and I had a great date to the Bishop Museum and Honolulu Academy of Art.  They had this special "visit 3 museums" night where if you were a member of one, you got free admission to the others.  We ate on the lawn at the Bishop Museum while listening to the band singing a song saying how squid are like love.  ???  Very romantic.

I loved the Art Museum!  It was our first visit.  They had some "living art" where people dressed up like the portraits.  The lady really threw me for a loop when she came up behind me and said, "So, do you like my portrait?"  ha!  We loved the Hawaiian art floor.  And this room dedicated to "board shorts throughout history" was cool too!  :)

Elise:  "Mom, let's pretend I am seven and I have a loose tooth too!"

Yummy mango pit!

yogurt after bowling with the Storms and Powells

Elise snapped this pic as we were watching the RNC.  Go Mitt!

too tired even to eat

The kids really look forward to Thursdays so they can go to swimming lessons!  And they've really improved so I'm happy about that.  Elise surprised her teacher (and me) by using her hands as puppets and having them say "hello" to each other in different languages.  ???  Pretty random, but I laughed really hard.

These pics were taken by Grandma Liz.  She came out for an visit when I was in the hospital for kidney stones and a lame infection.  I ended up getting pretty sick and was SO grateful for her help!  Elise was my little nurse before grandma came.  When the whole ordeal started and I was in a lot of pain, Elise came in the bathroom and said, "mom.  You are sick.  I will feel your head...  Oh, Feber. (shaking her head)" and later, "I think I should call dad.  What's the number?"  and "I will take care of you and be your nurse."  She did too - checked on me, got out her doctor kit and shoved a syringe thing up my nose, filled up a water bottle, etc.

Liz's visit overlapped a little with a visit by Uncle Jake and friends.  They were out and about most days, but George did join in a snorkeling trip to Hanauma Bay and had a great time.  We also spent a little time at with them at Kailua Beach.  No pics, but very relaxing!  Thanks for visiting!

All of the kids are big fans of the slide/pool set up.  We get this thing out often!

They were still in the pool when dad came home and decided to start a sponge ball war.  Geo is always so great to play along!

Pets

This is my cat, Crystal, and dog, Trucky.  

Just my kind of pets...