Pre-School Graduation

Kyleigh is officially a preschool graduate! We had so much fun doing preschool this year. The name of the preschool was Keiki Preschool (Keiki in Hawaiian is children, pronounced kaykey). It was a rotating preschool with myself and 5 other moms. One of the mom's created the program when her older kids were small and it was fabulous. Kyleigh went to preschool 2 days a week for 2 hours each time. We had a group of songs we sang at the beginning of each day including "there are 7 days of the week," "What's the weather," and "here we are together." A rotating trifold display board highlighted jobs for the day, birthdays, the current weather, and a calender. There was a theme for each preschool day. Each theme had ideas for circle time, books to read, crafts, activities, songs, and snacks. Themes were widely varied from doctors and dentists, to amazing ants. We had four field trips toward the end of the year. They included a train ride, trip to the police station, trip to the fire house, and a morning at the botanical garden where the kids were scientists classifying seed types. Everyone was sad to see it end but most of us have younger kids and it will probably be close to the same group doing preschool for the next bunch of kids in a year or two. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

The graduate with her candy lei's.

Marching in to pomp and circumstance (yes, they actually played pomp and circumstance).

Receiving her diploma.

Throwing her hat in the air.

The whole family.

Rise and Shine

My favorite time of the day is morning. This particular morning both girls slept in and looked so cute I had to take pictures of them. When Katelyn wakes up I pick her up out of bed (she is usually in her own crib, not my bed) and she always hugs me and pats my back like I am her baby. Kyleigh wakes up and asks if it is a preschool day. Both of them like to snuggle and play in bed before they get up. How could it not be my favorite time of day?

What's new?

Rusty and Kyleigh had fun cleaning up the yard in preparation for ......


Holly and baby Naiya's shower. We had a book shower where everyone brought books as gifts (among lots of other fun gifts). The shower was based on Holly's favorite children's book, Streganona. It is about an old witch who has a magic pasta pot. We had chicken alfredo pasta and garlic bread for the food. We also had books for prizes for the winners of the games.

I even did my best in an attempt to make a "book" cake. This is two full size cakes with color copied pages from Streganona that were laminated with contact paper. I didn't want to actually laminate them because I needed them to be more flexible so I could bend them over the cakes. I trimmed the edges of the cakes so they would look like an open book and layed a ribbon across the middle for a bookmark. It was a fun thing to try.

Baby Naiya is getting bigger and bigger. Her sweet little cheeks are filling out and to Rusty's delight she will suck on his nose when she is hungry. (He has always thought this is so funny).

We had a momentous occasion last Sunday. Look closely in the picture and you will see Katelyn's ponytails. That's right, her hair is just long enough for some scroinky little ponytails.

Kyleigh continues to be the best big cousin and quite creative in her endless inventions. This one is a Maya wrap. Holly was given one as a gift and it wraps around Holly just like this one wraps around KyKy. The baby fits right inside and makes for a hands free holder without the baby's legs hanging out the bottom like a front pack. Kyleigh created one out of Christmas wrapping paper and you can see her tiny little doll's legs sticking out in this picture.

Between Kyleigh and Katelyn we hardly stop laughing around here!

Baby Girl Cook

Hello Everyone. Mike and Holly's baby girl miracle has arrived. For those of you who don't know, they got the call Thursday night that their daughter had been born that morning. Because of various reasons, they had not been notified that they were the chosen parents until Thursday night. Friday night they flew to Oahu and on Saturday she was placed with them. They came home Saturday night. I know everyone is dying to see her, and can I just say that she is so beautiful that even these great pictures don't do her justice.
Love to all, from us and Mike and Holly.

Back to Kauai

Before I forget, we also went to the water park on Oahu and had a blast. They had two fabulous kid areas and the craziest wave pool I have ever seen. After our four days on Oahu, my parents accompanied us back to Kauai for eight days. They were happy to get a break from the Idaho weather and adjust to a slower schedule from the previous four days.

Rusty had to go back to work, but one day he took off early and one of the golf cart guys at Kauai Lagoons (where Rusty just finished a model unit and will be working on building two more buildings for Ritz Carlton) took Rusty, Mike, and my dad golfing. Another day Rusty was going golfing with a supplier and they also took my dad with them. He spent several mornings on Kukiolono golf course, which is just above our house. It costs $9.00 per day to golf there. Just a couple of days before they left we went on a hike from Shipwreck beach toward Mahalapu. There is a great view of Poipu Bay Golf Course on that trail and my dad just couldn't resist. He golfed there the next day. Four courses in 8 days, not bad Dad! We also took my dad snorkeling. He even got to see a sea turtle at Lydgate State park. He was pretty excited. It had swam right past him. I think he now understands why I say if I were a tatoo kind of girl, I would have one of a sea turtle. I love them.

Another day trip was up to the Fern Grotto. We took our little inflatable boat up the river and had a picnic. This picture really doesn't do the fern grotto justice, but it is a natural ampitheatre where royal Hawaiians used to get married. There are ferns hanging from the ceiling and water trickling down the rocks. The flowers and greens are amazing. It is a beautiful place.

We spent alot of time at the beach. One day we went to the North shore, hoping the waves would be big enough at Hanalei to surf. They weren't, so we walked down the pier where an unusually large number of people were fishing. Then we noticed that kids were catching fish in nets, and even with their hands. We asked a guy who was fishing from the pier with a net what was going on. He said that a fisherman had come in and fished a large bait ball. To my understanding this is a solid ball of fish that swim together to protect themselves by playing the numbers. The more of them there are, the less likely they will be the one to get eaten. Larger fish come in to feed on the smaller fish and it spirals from there, creating a bait ball. Apparently there is only one fisherman on the island who has permits to fly overhead to spot the bait balls and fish them. He had come in and netted the bait ball. Then he goes through and throws out all of the smaller fish. The ones that were being caught from and around the pier were the rejected fish who were very weak and some were already dead. While we were there a man caught a shark on a pole. It was about a four foot tiger shark and it kept thrashing out of the water. It got off the pole and believe it or not even the people who had seen the whole thing were getting back into the water. The fish had brought the sharks in for dinner. The next day in the paper we read that the whole bay had been shut down after repeated shark sightings. The largest shark sighted was reportedly 12 feet long.

We had tons of fun having mom and dad here. We can't wait to see them again. We also can't wait to have more people come and visit us. The invitation is open.