Happy Birthday to me

I had such a fun birthday! I barely sat down at the table that morning when Evelyn came in with an impish, knowing smile and announced it was time for presents (this was after Ryan had served me my awesome bday breakfast: spam, rice, egg, and langanesa). I informed the kids that I probably needed their help opening my gifts.


A new phone! And I had just told Ryan the day before that I probably need to upgrade mine (it's been dropped a few too many times...oops!)

Ryan knows how much I love ice cream cake--we certainly had fun digging into this one!

So do I feel old? Nah, 31 isn't very old at all. Maybe I'll feel different when I reach 40.

Do I look 31? Well, I was hoping that I could pass for near 30, but some people I just met told me that they thought I was only 20. :P

Girls being girls

Julia and Evelyn came up to me earlier today to show me what they'd been up to for the past half hour--apparently, they were getting their "dresses" just right (if you couldn't tell, they're actually lava lavas).

Notice what's hanging from Julia's dress? You can read about it in the previous post....

New Obsession

Ever see a certain toy or trend out there and think to yourself "dude, not my kid, never gonna happen to us". Yeah, well, hmmmm. It happened to us since we've arrived here. Probably just 3 weeks ago even. My kids did what I vowed would never happen in my family. They've discovered, started collecting, and LOVE........................pokemon.

It all started with an innocent family night out and a trip to Burger King for dinner. In their kids's meals lay the dangerous obsession : Three pokemon cards and a card holder. Next thing I know they're trading, battling, and exclaiming how excited they are to get some MORE. (Say what? What was that last line?)

Next thing I know, friends in the neighborhood are bringing their cards over to battle, trade, play. Apparently, it's a huge thing among all the kids. Well, I gave in and unbeknownest to my kids I hopped on ebay and found a huge lot that sold in packs of 100 and had free shipping--the price was dirt cheap too (with no duplicates in each bundle). So I picked up 3 and they were delivered today. The kids were sooooooo excited when they realized what a treat we had for them! They were so stoked that they totally forgot all about our FHE dessert (dude, and it's their favorite too--Hershey chocolate pie!).

It was quite funny to sit in the background as they looked at each individual card.

"OOooooooh! It's so cute!"

"Mommy, LOOK!"

"Dude! This one is STRONG!"

So they're now spending the rest of the night battling it out amongst each other (under threat not to take advantage of Evelyn). Because they have so many cards now, I brought out the small paper lunch sacks and put their names on them. They now have a place for their new hobby.

Pokemon.....huh. Just goes to show that you can't always think "It'll never happen to me."

Dole Plantation

For my birthday, we visited the Dole Plantation (something we've been wanting to do ever since we arrived here). We thought it'd be something fun to do as a family during the day (Ryan and I went out later that evening for some delicious dinner and a movie).

We decided to stick with just doing the maze...Marcus showing us the rules to follow.

Ryan found a miniature map--dude, talk about a bit complicated! There are certain points that are to be found (and colored in on your ticket). They also time you if you want to try and beat records that have been set. Some crazies were able to find their way around to all the points in just 8 minutes! I really think they cheated....

We decided to split into two groups. Here's Ryan and Jacob mapping out where they're going to head to first.

And we're off!

Wait, you go that way and I'll go this way...

I went with Julia and Anya (a little girl we were babysitting that day).

Ummmm......is it this way?

Hmmmmm, maybe through here?

Aha! Found one point! And it's the sun! Now we just slip in our ticket and color the sun in the labeled box.

And we found the train logo too....

After searching a bit more (and getting lost quite a bit), we decided to call Ryan and meet back up (thank goodness for technology, huh?).

I don't know my way out!

Oh wait! Here it is.

In the very center of the maze are these very pretty plants and gorgeous flowers. Evelyn went around to each flower to investigate.

Marcus was enjoying the scenery too.

Who's ready for ice cream? MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Julia enjoyed a really yummy pineapple ice cream in pineapple juice.

Pineapple ice cream cones all around.

I was watching the kids outside while Ryan was in getting all the ice creams. He came out with this tower of ice cream for me. !!!!!! Pineapple ice cream swimming in strawberries, pineapples, and all sorts of other different fruits. Oh YUM! It took help from Jacob and Evelyn just to finish half of it!

What do you do when you can't go to the beach?

You buy a bag of 50 water balloons at the commissary for $1.23, spend 10 minutes filling them up, get the kids in their swim suits, and then tell them to have at it outside!

Well, then I had to enforce a rule of "no throwing at the head--just at the feet" as it got to be a bit brutal among the older siblings.
Gotta love that slip 'n' slide! It's been warm enough that we've been bringing this out a couple times a week. And when the water balloons were gone, but the kids still wanted to get wet...well, problem solved!

Quick note here: I NEVER ever, EVER, imagined that this blonde haired, blue-eyed kid would ever tan (his pediatrician always warned me about his extreme fair skin and the sun). Well, being in the sun every day has changed that! Or, at least while living here. Can you see his farmers tan? (Along with every bone in his rib cage? Dude, the past few days he's done nothing but non-stop EAT. I'm wondering when some of that food is going to stick to his body!)

Sunset at Sunset Beach

Ok, actually, this first pic is somewhere up on the North Shore--not Sunset Beach. About 4-5 miles away.

Daddy and Marcus enjoying the view.

Here we are, at Sunset Beach now. The waves were quite large--and it was FREEZING outside. The thermometer in the car said it was 79 degrees...but the wind made it seem much colder.




We really were only there just to watch the sunset...but everyone got distracted by the beautiful waves and the crazies who were surfing those said waves.












Look closely on the left--you can see a surfer getting ready to ride the wave. It'll give a bit more perspective on how BIG these waves were.

The sun went down...officially time to go home--after Evelyn finished picking up some seashells for her collection.