television rots your mind...

but a few caillou episodes on youtube don't. at least, i am pretty sure they don't count. not when you watch them like this...

sort of proud of myself

i made wearable dresses for the moffat monsters this week. i have been saying i wanted to make them dresses for a long time now and finally did it. miss adelaide's 3rd birthday was today, it was polka dot themed and it actually motivated me to turn a sweet sheet from savers into some little dresses. and i copied a headband that my friend jill had made also.

for the record, i am not a fan of matching, but i was not about to try and make up two different dresses. and unlike me as a child, these two really like to match. since velzy is a little weed and keeps growing out of her clothes, i can't wait to make them some more- i have a lot to learn about sewing i have learned this week! in the mean time, anyone need any polka dot fabric?

after the party we walked out to goat island with the girls on our backs. it was so fun. we swam in the little bay, walked around the island and cruzed the tide pools. oh, and laughed at what velzy and ivy had to say. i wish i could remember all of them, but the two that stick out in my mind are:

ivy was going #2 in the sand and she looks at me and asks "do you have a leaf for me?"

then there was a girl walking by in a g-string. luke asked velzy if she liked her bathing suit to which she replied "nice buns!" we had a lot of laughs today. hope i can remember more of them, but i am sure i won't.

this week the girls have been wearing cowry shell necklaces that i strung on some hemp. they are so much cooler than princess jewelry. we got some more shells to make stuff with- scored in the shell/ crab pincher department today:

thank you goat island for the lovely day.

the time difference

luke has been waking up at 4 in the am. he is slightly crazy. anytime you call waking up at 5 am "sleeping in" you know there is something wrong. it's actually nice, because he gets home from work early and we all get to play together. the downside- he likes to turn in for the night around 9 some days and i am left alone to squander away the hours of the night. unfortunately, this evening i got my second wind around eleven. i was on my way to bed when it hit. i made the mistake of not working out today so if i did go to be i would have laid there with restless leg syndrome. the worst. anyways, my sewing machine just happened to be on the table so after i put together some "B's" for happy school tomorrow (steph's post adequately describes happy school), i worked on a polkadot dress for a polka dot party we are going to this weekend (i struggled), and made some bows. i have this problem, when i start making something that i am excited about i tend to make a whole lot of them- 11 in this case. but they are so cute in velzy's hair. and yup, that middle blue one is mushrooms. coolest old garage sale fabric ever.

so yeah, it's late. my sewing machine is put away, most of my mess is clean and i just noticed my battery is going to die. time for bed. nighty-night.

easy-peasy whole wheat bread

it's been rainy here off and on for the last week. staying indoors means you eat more, at least i do. i noticed an "easy" recipe on the back of my flour package the other day and gave it a try. it was pretty tasty, especially warm from the oven with a little butter (just a little, mom). although i think am the only one that really likes it, it might be too healthy for the rest of the crew here. but it was a fun, easy recipe to try that made some tasty sandwiches. no-knead 100% whole wheat bread recipe here.

waimea falls

tuesday we meet up with some friends and walked up to the falls at waimea. it's so beautiful up there. while we were walking up i just kept thinking how lucky i am to live here and be surrounded by so much natural beauty.

the pool at the falls was a little cold but it was so nice. the kids had to wear life vests, which were actually quite nice it made swimming out to the falls a lot easier.

velzy, who loves to make faces for the camera these days, is the worlds best 4 year old walker. the kid can walk and walk and walk. it's awesome, not one complaint the 3/4 mile up or down. makes up for the fact that she was so bad sitting in the stroller when she was a lil tyke.

and ivy, she is really good at sitting on my shoulders. whole way up, most of the way down- not complaining, i like packing her around. she did get down and play for the last part of the walk down and right as we got back to the bottom she fell pretty good and skinned her knee. a nice lady happened to have a huge band-aid and neosporin in her fanny-pack and gave it to her. one of the sweet ladies that worked there gave ivy and velz peacock feathers (there are peacocks running around there) which helped the hysterical child calm down a bit.

and what is this? i am not sure, but i think its awesome.

the rain is pouring down right now. the sound of the rain is one of my favorites. can't wait to lay in bed and listen.

good night and have a great weekend!

last friday...

we had the place to ourselves and it was great.

(although we really missed all our friends who ditched us)

i wish i was better at narrowing down pictures but i am not.

every post always has way too many pictures.

here's to hoping tomorrow's aloha friday will be as nice as last week,

but i think it's gonna be a rainy one.

***and thanks for the comments on the last post, i think i know what we are going to do with the school stuff. i feel like it's such a huge decision.***

PAUSE

yesterday evening we went over to our bishop's house for dinner and Family Home Evening. during the lesson we talked about "grumpy or glad" and what we can do this week to be happy. ivy said i could put her toys away for her. perfect. i said "i won't let the small things bug me." to which ivy replied "like us?" she is a jem that little ivy, we all had a good laugh at that one. at times velzy and ivy are the small things, or the causes of the small things that bug me, it's true. but for the most part, they are the small things that bring me so so much joy in life. at least 1,000 times in the last week i have taken a step back and just watched them thinking how great they are. i am not, or at least i don't think i am, one of those "put my kids on a pedestal" moms but, they are pretty great little girls. then again, i am biased- i did birth them.

saturday morning while it was luke's turn to surf went for a walk down the beach. it was simple. it was nothing grand. but i had the best time with them. we jumped, belly and knee sided and tackled each other down the sand bank. we climbed the little and big rock formations- it's amazing to watch them learn. the first time it took a while but after that they were climbing up and down and jumping off the rocks, it was so fun. then we found some crab sheds (ya know, when the crab sheds their exoskeleton) and talked about that for a while, taking them apart and keeping the pinchers for my collection. we found the top of a baby coconut to use as a bowl to hold them, velzy was very impressed by that. then we walked down to where there is a little area protected by the reef that you can swim in and we swam. we found green, purple and black urchins on the side of the reef. ivy was so brave and took one off by herself. their little sucker legs stuck to our hands and we laughed as they "crawled" on our hands and held them by the rocks where they could find good hiding places again. we walked out on the reef a bit and then decided to go back to our starting point (chun's) for lunch and my turn to surf. ivy rode on my back and velzy and i trotted in the sand. it was so fun. i love their little comments and their conversations with each other are even better. i love that a long walk on the beach is fun to them. i love so many things about them.

and this happens all the time- this evening when the four of us went for a walk on the beach to swim and play on the reef before dinner. it was the most beautiful evening, i can't even start to describe how cool the clouds were. we found crabs (with eggs!) and sea cucumbers and shells and sea glass. they have so much fun doing these things and it's go cool to watch them learn and love the things we do.

this summer velzy will start school, which is just crazy to me. but she is ready and she is so stoked. i have been thinking a lot about what i want to do for school. do we send her to the elementary school here, or to sunset? do i keep her at home and home school? she really wants to go to school. when we were talking about it the other day i was saying she could stay home and do school with mom and i could be her teacher, to which she replied "i think i have a lot of friends i have not meet yet." and later said "i think i should go to school and meet new friends and see what i can learn there." i agree with that, and it's cute. but i also don't. ah. it's a frustrating topic for me right now. there are so many options and i don't know what is best. the one thing that i am allowed to complain about here in hawaii is the school system....

anyways, what i am trying to get at is i wish i could press pause. i know we have so many good times ahead, but i really like the life we have right now at this moment. i love the stages and ages of velzy and ivy. they are full of life and curiosity. they are full of laughter and love. and sometimes they are just full of it. but they make my life full and i like that.

so, where is that pause button?

dear roxy-

if you ever run out of cute tiny wahine's, i got one here for you:

taught her everything i know.

stolen

from other blogs. i am too lazy to look thru my own pictures right now but feel like there needs to be a new post here.
so, here are some stolen pictures from some of last weeks beach days... thanks becky and jonna.

life is good. we are so spoiled to get to play at the beach everyday. sometimes twice a day. please kick me if i ever complain about anything.