Hawaii Day 2

We spent the morning snorkeling at some tide pools. Amazing! I had a little panic attack--I'm not the best swimmer and my hose keep getting water in it. I felt like I was going to die and would panic. It was so deep, so close to shore! Bedums and I stuck together after that while the others went for a long, long time. Between them, they saw an octopus, a bunch of eels, butterfly fish, moray, needle nose fish, coral, sea urchins, sea anemone, and much more. Later in the day, we went to McKenzie Park. There are steep lava cliffs that are beautiful, but dangerous (stay back from the crumbling edges). It's interesting--is like a rain forest in that area, yet there are lots of pine trees type trees. We also drove to the end of the road. About 20 years ago, the volcano erupted and covered the road. Vegetation is coming back through, but there are lot of big, black rocks still. We saw a man scaling up a coconut tree and knocking a coconut off. Fun! 

Hawaii Day 1

Travel to Hilo...
We flew all day long. Or so it seemed. The kids did really well. The two teens were at the back of the plane and the rest of us were toward the front. I packed some sandwiches and snacks for lunch, but it wasn't enough. As we were boarding,  a lady asked Buggins if he would hold something for a minute. I thought she was trying to dig out her boarding pass or something, but she was trying to sneak 3 carry on items on. The attendant caught her and got mad, making Jarren give the yoga may back. That was weird. We had a layover in Honolulu. Everyone was tired and hungry by then, but we were entertained by birds in the airport. We made it to Hilo and found they were out of vans, so we had to rent 2 cars. We're staying at the Triangle House near Pahoa.  We can see the ocean from the windows. It's beautiful and will suddenly rain, so that's probably why it's so green. There are two geckos living in this house with us. Cute!

The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

Buggins class has been working on puppet shows for almost two months now. The kids wrote their own fractured fairytale scripts, recorded them, made puppets, and performed the. It was so much fun to see!  Buggins was a wolf. He had a lot of fun with this project!

Chinese Parent Night

It's been a super busy time of year! The school had a Chinese parents night and Bedums and her grade did a musical about little tadpoles looking for their mothers. She was a tadpole and had a lot of singing and speaking parts. They all did so great! This has been an amazing program for the kids to go through.

Arrow of Light

Buggins got his Arrow of Light on his birthday. They had him walk across a bridge, symbolizing moving on. Afterward, he went back the other way and said he was staying in Cubs. Haha. He's been working really hard!

Happy 11th!

Buggins turned 11 three days ago. He's such a funny kid--he dies not want to grow up. He told me if he could stay any age, it would be 3 or 10. Jon was out of town all week and missed his birthday, so we did Skype to open gifts. He wanted a ton of presents, so we were wrapping anything and everything. He got two books, so we wrapped then separately. He got a new shirt and shorts--yep, wraps them separately. He got a scooter two beyblades, and some other fun boy toys. He wanted homemade spicy chicken sandwiches for dinner and a peanut butter and chocolate cake. I think he had a good day.

My mother's day

I love my family! My day was chocolate covered fruit (grapes are surprisingly good coveted in chocolate), breakfast in bed (omelets), beautiful flowers, and cards/candy. Bedums was so full after breakfast. She put a balloon in her robe and propped her card on her belly for me--haha. Jon did all the cooking, cleaning up, etc. I got to read and relax with the kids.