August 26, 2010

It is official. She is 7. As if her party with her friends wasn't enough she had an action packed 7th birthday. We took the day off of school. Who wants to go to school on their birthday anyway? We started the day making pancake men. I think it will be our new birthday tradition. As soon as breakfast was over we headed off on a birthday adventure. We started the day by feeding the fish at the lagoon at Kauai Lagoons in Lihue. We then went to the mall where Kyleigh got to pick out a few things at her favorite store, Claire's. She choose a pack of two necklaces and a headband to match. She also got a package of silly bands. She was introduced to silly bands by some of the girls at primary and soccer. She shared some of her silly bands with Katelyn. We then had a yogurt at the new frozen yogurt shop at the mall. We had snickers and apple/banana yogurt with cookie dough, grandmas frosted cookies and gummy worms. Kyleigh wanted to make sure me and Katelyn got to pick a topping also. We then went to Costco just so Kyleigh could heelie up and down the empty aisle. We found a dead bird in one aisle. That was weird. Dead bird and all you have to love Costco and a pair of heelies. We headed to Koloa after Costco and Kyleigh had lunch with Daddy and Uncle Mikey at Keoki's. She then had piano lessons (as a side note Kyleigh's piano teacher had her baby that night, so he was born on Kyleigh's birthday). We went straight from piano lessons to the Humane Society where we played with the puppies and kitties. We got home just in time for Kyleigh to change for soccer practice. When they got home we had her family party. She chose dorito casserole with strawberry lemonade for dinner and ice cream sandwich pie for dessert. We couldn't have packed anything else into that day. For her birthday we gave her a sewing basket. She started asking for a sewing basket when she was about 3 years old. We blew it off as being silly for a few years. What three year old wants a sewing basket for her birthday? It seems the request wasn't a fluke. She loves to sew and was so excited to fill it with all of her supplies. She also got lots of fabulous gifts from all of the people that love her. Thanks to everyone. Happy Birthday to our 7 year old sweetie.

Kyleigh's Birthday Party

Kyleigh had a super fun mad scientist birthday party for the big 7 year birthday. I have to say I am in denial of her being 7. When we were making beaker shaped cake I wrote "6 mL" at the bottom. She asked me why and I told her for her age. She looked at me like I was crazy and reminded me she was turning 7. Oops. We were able to correct my mistake. Her mad scientist party was inspired by her cousin Ben who had the same party for his 7th birthday 4 months ago in New Mexico. (Thanks for the great idea Ben!) We did alot of the same experiments that he did at his party. We started out by each of the girls putting on their lab coats (white t-shirts cut up the middle) and safety goggles (Rusty rounded them up from his collection). They made molecules out of marshmallows and toothpicks while we were waiting to get started. Our first experiment was magic snow. You added water to the powder and the powder overflowed the cup with "snow." It's the same stuff they use on movie sets for fake snow. The girls played with their snow for quite awhile. We don't get much snow around here so even fake snow is fascinating. Our second experiment was color fizzies in test tubes. We took combinations of the three primary colors and created new colors in test tubes. The third experiment was water gel. The powder is similar to that used in baby diapers. It took 1/2 tsp. of powder to 1/2 cup of water and after about 5 seconds the water is a gel. The girls played with the gel and added color fizzy tablets to the gel for even more fun. The next thing we did was the tornado tube. Two bottles connected with a special connector. You fill one bottle 3/4 full of water then rapidly shake the bottle in a circular motion. It creates a tornado in a bottle. It is addicting to watch the tornado and the girls had a great time trying to create the phenomenon. We then played with magic sand. Magic sand is regular sand that is coated with a waterproof coating and colored. We put it in a big bowl of water. You reach into the water and pull the sand out. The water doesn't affect it and you pull dry sand out of water. It is so fun to play with and is totally reusable. Not done yet. Next we shot off a coke/mentos fountain outside. Always a fun experiment. We came back inside and played with orbs. Orbs are tiny balls that are about the size of sprinkles. When left in water they grow to about the size of marbles. They are all kinds of squishy bouncy fun. Our last experiment was flubber. We have made flubber before and posted about it. Each girls got to make their own batch of flubber. Then we put each girls favorite experiment in a test tube with instructions so they could take it home and show their families. They also took home their lab coats and their flubber. We ate cake and had presents and I think everyone went home having had a good time. One of the neatest things about Kyleigh's 7th birthday party was how intent she was on making sure Katelyn and Naiya got to participate. What a cool 7 year old.

Magic snow.

Water gel.

Tornado tube.

Magic sand.

The beaker cake started to run almost as soon as we frosted it. Thanks alot humidity.

Kyleigh loves her frinds.

Preschool begins...

Katelyn had her first day of preschool. She LOVED it. She was nervous when we got there and I had to make a quick escape. When I went to pick her up 2 hours later she was mad because I was the first one there and she didn't want to leave. I am doing a cooperative preschool again. It is the same program (with a few changes) and basically the same group of moms (4/5 are the same) that did preschool with Kyleigh. It is a fabulous group. Everyone gives 100% and the kids have the best time. I am so excited to be doing this again and I am thrilled for Katelyn who is already saying things like, "One time at preschool." She has only been twice. She goes for two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. Three of the moms live less than 3 minutes away so it doesn't affect Kyleigh's school day much. We will have to make adjustments when it is my turn to teach but we are flexible. I just can't believe that Katelyn is old enough for preschool. I never looked far enough ahead to picture this day coming, let alone already here. She is such a neat little girl and so full of life. Her drive is unbelievable. When she decides she is ready for something she gives it everything she has plus some. The catch is that you have to wait until she is ready. She was ready for preschool. In the last week we also tried snorkeling and ballet. Those are two things she wasn't quite ready for. We will wait and when she decides it is time she will be a master in training of those things also.

Yesterday we went to Poipu beach park to swim and play at the park. A monk seal swam through the water which is always exciting but not too unusual. It always causes a stir. The lifeguard always yells at everyone to back away from the seal, and people always ignore the lifeguard and crowd around the seal anyway. This seal must have decided there were too many people because he started to beach then turned around and swam away. We continued playing in the water. Ridge got restless so I took him up to our chair and the girls kept playing in the water together. About half an hour later the lifeguard said something over his megaphone. You can never understand anything they are saying. You have to look at where he is pointing his megaphone and look for someone breaking a rule or some kind of animal in the water. He was pointing his megaphone at baby beach where the girls were playing. I looked away from the lifeguard and toward the girls just in time to see the monk seal swimming right toward them. Monk seals are generally mild but will attacked if provoked. I jumped up and started yelling for Kyleigh. She turned around, saw the monk seal, grabbed Katelyn and ran to the shore. The monk seal had swam right between Kyleigh and Katelyn, who were standing together, and a mom with her daughter. They weren't more than eight feet apart and the monk seal went right up the middle. We watched the monk seal swim around baby beach and back out to the deeper water. We laughed about it and kept playing. I didn't really think anything more about it until we told Rusty about it that night. Kyleigh then told me that she was just getting ready to turn and dive into the water when she saw the seal right behind her. She had been diving into the water "like a mermaid" all day. That means she flips around and throws her whole body into the ocean then swims as fast as she can under the water. Then I got a little nervous and a lot thankful that she saw that monk seal and didn't throw herself on top of him.

Today Kyleigh told me she needed hair spray because her hair felt frisky. She meant frizzy.

Barbie Adirandack chairs

The girls and I made barbie adirandack chairs. GG found the craft idea in a magazine and left the instructions for us to give it a try. We had a great time making them and they turned out cute. I think the girls like the painting more than anything else. We didn't have any wooden spools for the legs so Daddy cut a dowel up for us and it worked just fine. We finally have some barbie furniture on the barbie house lanai.

Another first.

Kyleigh fed Ridge. The pictures say it all.

Hanalei sandcastle competition 2010

We spent last Saturday at Hanalei bay amidst a group of sand castle builders. Our friend Jeff was the cofounder of the first annual Hanalei sandcastle competition. He and another guy put together a family friendly competition with lots of prizes without a lot of pressure. Jeff camped at Hanalei the night before and built the ALOHA sandcastle below. The detail of each letter was truly impressive. The competition was free to sign up and the beach was covered with participants. Kyleigh competed in the keiki (childrens) division and won a free ice cream at cold stone creamery (as did all of the kids). She really worked hard on her sandcastle and was pretty proud of it. We signed up for the family division but did not work very hard. Our "castle" was mostly a pile of sand by the end of the day. The guy who won the competiton built a sand sculpture of a guy surfing on a shark with the wave coming up behind him. Other awards went to a sculpture of the mountains behind Hanalei bay and the kids favorite, the fire breathing dragon below. However, they were distraught that the fire was coming out of it's nose and not it's mouth. Mike tried to use body boards strapped together to form his base. It was looking good until he unstrapped the body boards and it fell to the ground. He then built a huge spearfisherman laying on his stomach. That was pretty cool but people had a hard time deciding what it was. For those of us who weren't serious builders we had a great day playing in the water. Rusty has a new waterproof camera that he played with all day. He can even take videos underwater. We can finally have beach pictures.

We will be looking forward to the second annual Hanalei sandcastle building competition.

New Suits...

Thanks to GG and GPa for the new swimsuits! The girls love them.

Parent Prom

A few weeks ago Rusty and I went to the prom. I bet you never thought I would go to the prom with my baby. Or maybe you did. A girl at church planned the "parent prom," and we had a great time with it. Bishop even reminded all of the men to make sure and ask the girl of their choice or someone else might ask them. Oooh, scary. A bunch of us planned a "group date" for the day of the prom (kids included. Who can afford a babysitter all day?) We had a beach afternoon complete with supposed Johnny Depp sightings. They have been filming the next pirates movie on Kauai and everyone is pretty Johnny Depp crazy. Yours truly not included. I haven't even seen the last two pirates movies. After the group date, a few of the girls met up at Dawn's house to get ready for the prom together. I even let them paint my toenails. Genevieve brought supplies to make boutineers for our "dates." Rusty dropped the kids off at the babysitters (we had to bundle babysitting due to the limited number of babysitters) and came to pick me up at Dawn's house. He honked the horn when he pulled up in the driveway. Jeff (Dawn's husband) informed Rusty that no one would be picking up a date at his house with a horn honk. Not that he ever has to worry, they have three boys. Rusty thought his honk plan was hilarious. I got a picture of all the girls with their dates except Genevieve who went home to get her honey. John won the tenderness award when he showed up with a corsage for Wendi. The music was supplied by everyone who brought their ipods, so we got plenty of country music to dance to. We were asked to bring pictures of ourselves from our high school proms. Neither Rusty or I wanted to bring pictures of ourselves with our high school prom dates. Rusty took both of our pictures and color copied them. He cut us out of our pictures and taped us together. He did a really good job and had a few people going until they saw the red yarn remnants from a craft project that were stuck to the tape. Last but not least, Ridge went to his first prom with an older woman. Macy has him by a good 4 months.

Me, Russ, and Ridge.

How does my first boutineer look, Mom?

Mike and Holly.

Jeff and Dawn.

John and Wendi. Look at that corsage. Way to go John!

Ridge and Macy. Does it get any cuter than that tie?

New niece (that is already getting old)

BRYNLY BETH OLSEN.................................
My sweetest little honey of a niece arrived March 17th, 2010. Her parents Rissie and Tyler, and brothers Tucker and Payton couldn't love her more. She weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 19 3/4 inches long. My sister already has a bigger hair accessory collection than I do and my girls are 6 and 3. Rissie has been sending me pictures of this cutie since she was born, but all of them to my phone. Me, being the phone illiterate individual that I am, was not able to get the pictures off my phone. Finally Rissie sent a picture to my computer so I can now post her arrival with a picture. Just last week Rissie texted me a story. In her words, "Brynly got shots today. Tucker punched the nurse in the leg and yelled, you no hurt my sister! I laughed. Nurse didn't."

I can't wait to hold sweet little Brynly for myself.

Exersaucer

Ridge's favorite toy and the best $10.00 I've ever spent at a garage sale.

Puppet fun

This is the kind of random fun that makes we want to have the imagination my kids have... A puppet with a cracker taped to it's mouth. "He was hungry Mom."

A large pot and a blanket for the puppet show stage.

Fourth of July Treat....a better late than never post.

We spent a very quiet Fourth of July. I was sick the whole weekend (and for the next three weeks). All was not lost... we were able to make some red, white and blue fruit pizzas. The girls had a great time. Half the fruit was in their stomachs and the other half on the fruit pizzas. We were also able to set off a few fireworks with the Giles family and shared our fruit pizza with them.