Twins

While we were getting some new back to school shirts, Julia happened across one that she really liked and begged to get one for her best friend, Hailey, so that they could match on the first day of school.

This is what they look like about 95% percent of the time--cracking up over something.

A shout out to family and friends

First Day of School

I can't believe I have a girl old enough to go into 5th grade!

And my little 1st grader!


3rd grade already?!

Preschool begins on Thursday...not quite ready to let him go yet.

"Enough pictures already, Mom!"

Breakfast to go--chocolate chip muffins! Yumm-o!

And I'm thinking the sugar went to his head cause he was just crazy hyper the whole way to school and the whole way home. Or maybe he likes the idea of just him and me. :)

So some cool things about the new school year:

1. The kids will have spelling. It's not required here and so they haven't had it since we moved here. We're VERY excited. Spelling tests every week! (truly, the kids really are excited!)

2. Part of homework is reading a minimum of 20 min per day. "Yes!!!! All right!" was Julia's reply. She's halfway into the second Percy Jackson book and is given a legit excuse to finish it (like she needed an excuse!). Jacob and Evelyn are excited about weekly trips we will make to the library to pick out new books to read. Oh, and no skipping out--they have reading logs to fill in and for me to sign each night. :)

3. All first graders will have a resource day every other Wednesday. The kids will circulate among the seven first grade classes (yeah, it's a big school). Each teacher will be teaching one of these different topics: art, TRIBES, science inquiry, Hawaiian culture, health/nutrition, and Japanese language..........dude, my little girl is going to learn Japanese! I can't wrap my head around that!

Last splash before school

Last week Jorjann had us over to her apartment for lunch and swimming. The weather cleared up (finally) for just a couple hours and we took full advantage of it. Funny thing--when we arrived at the pool, Marcus was so excited because there was a "little pool". After jumping in, "Mom! This pool is WARM!" He thought it was the kiddie pool like we have on post. :) Funny that there are hot tubs here.

Evelyn has a shark which squirts water at unsuspecting Moms. :)

Julia playing with Marcus's fish.

Evelyn getting a dose of her own medicine. Jorjann had no qualms about dunking Evelyn when she wouldn't stop squirting. Didn't look like Evelyn minded one bit.

And here's the update on Jacob's swimming:

And holding his breath under water to retrieve toys from the bottom of the pool! This was the FIRST time he's EVER done this! I'm so proud of him!

Here kitty, kitty, kitty....

When Ry sent this, my first thought was, "Seriously? Someone shipped their golf clubs? And they're trying to find their lost golf ball?" LOL. Then Ry told me what really happened. These were inherited from the group that Ry and his guys replaced. These two soldiers on trying to track down a Camel Spider which was hanging around--that is twice the size of Ry's fists. :-0!

Swap Meet

Really, one can't come to Hawaii and NOT visit the Swap Meet. The kids were looking forward to the yummy smoothies there (mine is always peach/mango with fresh bananas while they favor strawberry with banana). Here we are at the smoothie joint waiting for ours.

Julia's last Activity Days meeting was about modesty. She came home asking for a pair of long board shorts to wear over her swimsuit so that she could still be modest while swimming. So we looked for some there. We were ALL excited when she found this pair--they're Michigan colors!

Jacob was looking for another hat. He really likes the palm trees on this one.

Of course, Evelyn was ALL about the ear rings! She picked out two pairs. One for when she can finally switch out the pair that she's wearing now (around her birthday) and then when she can remove her ear rings for certain periods of time (around Christmas). It's kinda hard to see, but she picked out flower ones.

Jorjann came with us since she's never been. She and Julia were looking at jewelry.

It was sooooo muggy and hot that day. It rained quite a bit, too. But I think we still had fun. It took about two hours to wander around the full circle. Julia got two pairs of board shorts and a pair of ear rings, Jacob got his hat, Evelyn some ear rings, and Sarah bought a really cool pair of sea turtle ear rings (which Evelyn insisted on cleaning as soon as we got home so that Sarah could put them in). :)

It had been a long week by this time (last Saturday) and Sarah and I needed a break from the kiddos. So that evening we left them with my babysitter and met Jorjann in Mililani for sushi and a movie (Inception....it blew our minds!). Love Girls Night Out!

Surprise!

I really do have the best husband in the world. :) He sent me flowers--just because. They're BEAUTIFUL and fill my kitchen with a lovely aroma. Thanks, Ry!