Amazing August

I love August.  Normally we plan to go on our family vacation or our anniversary trip, but this year we just hung out and enjoyed our month off before school starts again.  (we end homeschooling in July and start again in September)

this is my little model! 

 she is in love with this dress and the pigtails.  Like her self cut bangs?

 this is our favorite park - Vicker's Park

 Joe lived!  and V did make it across and then….

 down the slide, multiple times!

 don't ask me about the greenery that Eve kept around - it was just there in every pic!

 Evie found a leaf bug.  Not amazing unless you think about how Evie is my girlie girl and hates bugs.

 this is the closest she's been to a real bug.  She even liked it!

 This is part of the playground that they love.  Yes, it's hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.  In this case I would think it actually says, "hear no parent, see no parent, etc".

Ally becomes a Receiver/Quarterback

 So daddy has been Joe's PeeWee Football coach for the last little while and Ally really wanted to try it out.  This is daddy practicing football with Alexandra (and Vaughn).  It was so totally cute and Al did a great job!

you can see V watching in the back ground

 Ally tackled daddy, V had to join in!

V favorite position: daddy's belly

Vaughn is so Polite

This cracked me up and I totally had to record it!

This kids also made sure I saw this little guy next to our piano.  Down here these little visitors are wonderful.  Whereas mosquitos, ants, and cockroaches are unwelcome guests who always stay just too darn long, this company is treated with love and respect at a distance.  (that's because they eat the univinted guys!)  We LOVE our geckos.

Eve and Joe: the bedroom sign

Joe: why does the sign say only mommy allowed and only daddy allowed?

Evie: I just don't like you guys barging in.

Joe: barking!  What?

Evie: no, barging.  It means just coming in my room without permission.

(She's so smart!)

Atlantis

I know that I'm really blessed to have a husband who agrees with me on continuing to work on our marriage.  We have always made a point of having regular date nights.  We've had some who balk, and some who are surprised, and even some who were a bit envious.  We have a date night EVERY Friday night and I love it.  

Last night's date was at a new restaurant in downtown Waikiki.  We so love to try new things and I love to try new restaurants, especially new places without the kids. This one is called Atlantis and is right next door to one of our favorite places, Jimmy Buffet's.

It seemed casual, but the food was so much better than just casual.  It was more along the lines of gourmet and we loved every bite.  We got beautiful drinks, crab cakes and coconut shrimp for an appetizer, and I finally tried the Mahi Mahi.  Of course it was macadamia nut encrusted, coconut Mahi Mahi so it was amazing!  Chris' dinner was good too.

So anyway, fun date night!  Love my honey.

 not my best picture, but I'll go with it

Nighttime Conversation

At 10pm

Joe: dad
Dad: yes, Joe
Joe: Lizzy, um, put all of my blankets on my bed and all of her blankets on her bed. And it's too many.
Dad: Ok Joe, go back to bed
Joe: Yes, sir

Another Tooth!

Evie is so excited that another tooth has come out.  It's actually kind of funny.  Her two permanent teeth came in a while ago right behind the baby ones making her remind me of a shark with its rows of teeth. Anyway, so her first fell out several months ago.  Chris was so happy for her when he saw it wiggling the other day and really encouraged her.  I, myself, giggled.  It finally came out today and he finally realized it wasn't one of the teeth that NEEDED to come out.  It was too far to the left.  Cracked me up.  Evie is still pleased as punch and looking forward to the Tooth Fairy's second advent with much anticipation.  I wonder what she'll bring this time?

Mommy and Me Date

So as the kids get older we (Chris and I) are trying really hard to get one on one time with each child.  For the smaller ones that can be wrestling on the floor or cuddling while we watch a cartoon.  For Joe and Evie it means something with a bit more planning.

Every month I go to Costco for our family.  It usually takes a few hours so I began to invite Evie with me to give Chris a little easier time at home.  Thus began an opportunity to have a "date" with one of the older kids.  Now I really play it up.  We eat Costco hot dogs and sodas (they get their very own - huge deal!), shop for our stuff while we giggle and laugh (they get to ride the giant orange cart - we have a big family and I only go once a month), and after loading all of our stuff into the car, we go get a treat.  They usually get home just after bedtime, a treat in itself, and tell everyone who might be awake what treat they chose.  It's been a good experience.  Now they trade off each month.

Well this month's Costco visit was Joe's so I had to find something else to do with Eve.  Recently for her birthday a fantastic grama gift arrived.  It's a book of tons of ideas for Mommy and Me dates.  It was wonderful.  Last week we spent an hour going through the ideas and picking one.  Then we spent a little time planning the activity that Evie chose.  This time Evie chose to do a Mommy and Me Movie date.  We listed about 25 movies she wanted to watch together and today we picked one.

She chose:

It was so funny!  We already had seen it, but to do it with just us was really fun.  Evie even invited Lizzy to join us.  Joe was at football practice with dad and the little ones were napping this morning.  We had a great time and every time Evie or Lizzy wanted to rewind and watch a part again we did (well to a certain point - I did want to finish the movie).  By the end their bellies were full of BBQ potato chips, chocolate pieces, and Dr. Pepper soda.  I got to spoil - it was fun.  We also had a great moment when Evie was cuddling with me and Lizzy was cuddling with Evie.  It was so cute and brought a teary moment up.  I love my girls!

So glad Chris made the special time a priority.  I would have eventually, but it's best to start young.  Great Daddy thought!

National Night Out

I love our base!  This is a great place to live if you have kids.  I have a dead end street safe for my kids to ride their bikes during the day.  I have seven parks within a five minute drive of my home, four of those are within a two minute walk.  I have a pool that is free to use every Thursday for my kids and a beach on base that I can use everyday.  The library has a reading program during the summer and a regular story time with craft every two weeks.  The arts and craft center offers inexpensive classes for kids and adults and the military even offers sports for kids as young as 3 and karate classes.  It's amazing!

I know that not every place we go is going to work so well for us, but I'm really glad that for now, it is.  So tonight was our base's version of National Night Out.  We had to RSVP before hand and it was wonderful!

We were given tickets for a huge dinner at their buffet and POG of course!  We got tickets for a special ride and a door prize.  But the best tickets were for the ice cream we had at the end.  The kids got free goodie bags with treats to eat and to play, a lot of time in a bouncy house, cool balloon animals, and air brush tattoos.  And you know what?  It was all free!  For a family as big as mine to have so much fun for free is extremely rare.  What a fun evening.

We also got to meet some new friends today.  They moved in across the street.  Caleb, Laura, Caden, and  Lily are great!  We hope to spend a lot of fun time with them.  Wish us luck!

Hope you all had a great Tuesday!