St. Patrick's Day 2010

There is nothing traditional about our St. Patricks Day celebration. No corned beef and cabbage. No Irish stew. No beer. Just a lot of green food coloring.

For breakfast:
Green eggs
Green milk.
Green napkins.

For Dinner:
Green pasta.
Green water.
Green napkins.
Green pudding in our cream puffs.

Usually we put out a special sparkly green box that attracts the leprachans and they leave a treat for the girls. They hide the box full of treats for them to find the next morning. Our green box was missing this year so we decorated shoes with green yarn to attract our little green friends. Guess what... it worked. The leprachans brought a package of M&M's and one dollar for each girl. They had lots of fun finding their shoes with treats inside. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

"Sweet" Saturday

Mike needed some beeswax to make a new batch of MH hippie salve*. He met a bee man at a craft show selling his honey and got to talking to him. The man offered a tour of his operation and said he always had some extra beeswax. We made the trip to the bee place on a Saturday and had a hands on tour of honey production. The operation was very low key. His wife came out of their house and offered her grandkids' toys for the girls to play with. We were going to leave Jake in the back of the truck, but she offered him a spot in the shade on the deck. So, Katelyn and Jake spent all of their time on the deck, even taking a few cat naps together during the afternoon. The bee man taught us all about bees and honey. He let us scrape the wax off the screens from the bee boxes to "break the seal" of the wax. We then put the screens into a centrifuge which separated the honey from the remaining wax. The honey poured from a spout at the bottom of the centrifuge into a five gallon bucket. He poured the honey from the five gallon bucket and strained it a few more times to clean out any remaining wax. He put Nancy and Mike in bee suits and took them out to the bee box in his yard and taught them some more about the bee operation. Kyleigh and the bee man's granddaughter hung out together and even got to make bee wax candles. We all got to taste pure honey straight from the bee boxes. You had to suck the honey off the wax and throw the wax into a waste bucket. I have to admit that I wasn't excited about the bee tour. After all, Rusty carries an epi pen and Mike, who is a little less allergic, carries the pills for bee stings. Anyone who knows Mike and Rusty know that you can't change their minds once they are made up. They were determined to visit the bee man. Thankfully, it turned out O.K. and we learned a lot.

* MH hippie salve is an herbal remedy for topical ailments that Mike and Holly concocted when Katelyn started having bad reactions to bug bites. It is pretty much the best stuff on the planet.

This is how the toy cupboard usually looks. This is how Katelyn packs to play "airplane."

This is what the "airplane" looks like.

I won't show you what I look like when Katelyn plays the airplane game.

Snapshots

A few pics of Ridge experiencing life from the sidelines. It will be soon enough he is joining in with the rest of us.

Ridge all bundled up for a hot dog roast at Uncle Mikey and Aunt Holly's house.

Thursday we always have lunch with Russ. This is our favorite spot just down the street from his office. Ridge in his carseat.

Hanging out with Daddy. They are both so handsome.

Ridge on a Saturday picnic in Eleele. He looks a little mad about not being able to eat the huli huli chicken we had.

Best Friends

As much as we would like to her to STOP, Kyleigh keeps getting older. New accomplishments include:

A budding talent in piano.
Tree climber extraordinare.
Bike rider, minus training wheels and help.
Bubble gum bubble blower.
Sibling story reader.
Recipient of tooth fairy cash. (see later post).

Katelyn has her own style.

Katelyn is always coming up with something original to wear.

She likes to wear Kyleigh's ballet clothes, her own way.

Here she is sporting every headband she could find at Holly's house. Underneath her skirt she is wearing about 4 swimsuits.

She loves to carry her backpack.

And her bike riding helmet is the best. Especially when she is wearing sunglasses underneath.

The Grandma's saved the day!

We were so blessed to have both of our mom's come stay with us after Ridge was born. They came for 12 days each so I had 24 days of help. It was VERY much appreciated. My mom arrived on February 20th. The girls got to go on walks with GG everyday. Mom even made friends with a neighbor down the street while walking with the girls and admiring flowers. She came home with a jar of homemade passion fruit jelly that Rusty is still enjoying. Because of a late plane their visits overlapped by about 20 minutes at the airport. GG had to leave and Nama arrived. Nama brought crafts and activities for the girls to do. They were so well entertained for so long by both Grandmas that boring old mom is going to have to step it up. We look forward to the next visit in May when Grandma's and Grandpa's arrive for a real vacation and a baby blessing.

Ridge's first hike

Ridge took his first hike when he was a week old. These pictures are a bit old now, but I had to put them up. We went on the Kuilau trail, which is always a favorite. It is about 2.5 miles. Ridge rode in the front pack and slept the whole way up. We took him out for some fresh air and fed him at the top. He snuggled with Daddy while Rusty and the girls found shapes in the clouds. He then slept all the way down. The day was perfect. Not too hot and not too cold with just a light breeze. We all needed some time out of the house. Our family goes stir crazy really fast.