Claire's 3rd birthday

We celebrated Claire's 3rd birthday today with several of her friends. It's a bit early, but our good friends are moving next week and we wanted to make sure they could make it. We had a luau (figured we'd still be in a Hawaii mood) and she requested chocolate cake with strawberries. It's pretty safe to say that she had a good time. Our house was CRAZY until all of the kids sat down to eat cake. You could have heard a pin drop while they gobbled it up. It's hard to believe that our little Claire-Bear is three years old!

...or click here to see the slideshow with videos.

A meteorologist wedding

So, when meteorologists get married what happens? We found out this weekend: rain, floods, lightning... an exciting weather day and a beautiful ceremony. Sam and Cindy were married last Sunday in Hawaii. They quickly changed their outdoor plans to a semi-indoor venue to protect everyone from the rain. The bride was beautiful, the ceremony was touching and everyone had a nice time. Click the photo below for more photos.

Happy Halloween!

After dinner this evening all of the youngsters got dressed and went trick-or-treating around Susan's house. Halloween in Hawaii is so fun! The girls were able to wear their princess dresses without coats and we were in shorts. It even sprinkled a little and we still weren't cold. Lots of people sat outside on their porches to hand out candy. It's so different from the chilly winter-coat Halloweens in the Midwest that I experienced as a kid.



The biggest surprise of the night for us was how much Maddie enjoyed trick-or-treating. She insisted upon walking around all by herself and she dragged her pumpkin bag on the ground as she went, refusing to let us carry her or even her bag. The bag is absolutely filthy now because of the dragging, but she really enjoyed herself. She followed Claire and Ethan up to as many doors as she could, hollering at the people who lived there (hopefully she was hollering, "Trick or Treat!" and not, "Give me some candy!" but I really couldn't decipher it for sure). She finally tuckered out when we were about 3/4 of the way through and asked to be carried, but she did much more than I had expected.

When we got back to the house everyone got to pick a few pieces of candy to eat. Mike & Ike's then Sweet Tarts for Claire; Maddie had a 3 Musketeers bar. Claire was very intersted in learning the names of all of the candy. She'd ask us the name of each piece and then repeat it. I'm pretty sure she's storing all of that knowledge for the next time we're in the supermarket check-out line. They bounced off of the walls for a little while and then were coaxed into bed. It was a very busy day.

Sea Life Park

Susan (our friend we're staying with) suggested we go to Sea Life Park on the other side of the island for some fun. It's a really neat park - sea lion show, dolphin show, lots of aquariums to looks at, penguins, sea turtles... We had about three hours of fun and then all of the kids seemed to tire out at once.

They slept nicely on the way home and then all continued to sleep in their beds when we got back. How often does that happen? I seriously didn't know what to do with myself with BOTH girls napping. I need to learn how to make a mei tai. Anyway, it was a good thing they rested a bit because they had an exciting evening of trick-or-treating ahead of them!

Waikiki

OK, so what's the first thing you do when you get to Hawaii? Well, if you have kids you install carseats into your rental minivan. And if you have our complexion you slather on a bunch of sunscreen. But the next thing you do is get on a swimsuit and enjoy the warm weather! We hit the pool at the Hale Koa in Waikiki and then tested out their beach. All of the kids seemed to enjoy the pool. Claire really liked the ocean once she got used to it; Maddie really had fun in the sand and wanted nothing to do with the ocean. Lots of fun.

Pumpkin patch

Today Claire's preschool had a field trip to a local pumpkin patch. Of course we woke up this morning to pounding rain instead of our usual misty rain. I bundled up the girls and got ready to get wet. Fortunately the rain stopped before we got there and didn't start up again until we were walking back to the car. Great timing!

There was a maze:

...and lots of animals to pet:

...a hayride around the farm (OK, it was straw but I'll play along), and of course, pumpkins. They got to run around in the mud and pick out a pumpkin, and if they could carry it they could keep it.

It was pretty darned cold, but we were just happy to stay mostly dry.

(Clicky photos!)

Cookies and "Dat"

Claire has been begging to make "star cookies" for several weeks. Phil made chocolate chip cookies about two weeks ago and she was so disappointed that they weren't stars. Not disappointed enough to refuse to eat them, but disappointed nevertheless. So during Maddie's nap on Monday we made sugar cookies and rolled out the dough and cut out stars, bats, pumpkins, and flowers. Then Claire got to decorate them (her favorite part, after eating them). It's the first thing she asks for in the morning and now they're Maddie's favorite food too.

And Maddie's favorite word this week is "dat?!", which translates in grown-up English to "what's that?". She's pretty proud of it and loves that she can elicit a different response by simply moving her finger a few inches in any direction and repeating the word.

Sunny day

It was a beautiful sunny day here today and that's so uncommon this time of year that we just had to get outside. I packed the girls up and took them downtown to play around the waterfall and see the totem pole. Claire can see both of those things at the Capitol campus every time we go to her gym and she always points them out to me. She was really excited to be able to get out and get up close. And Maddie had fun tottering around. She didn't seem to mind an occasional fall on the concrete or wet grass. After that we went and watched the fishies jump (the salmon are still swimming upstream). It was a nice, fun day!

St Joseph our helper and some videos

We put out a statue of St. Joseph two days ago to help us sell the house. Claire helped put him into the ground (she's pictured here standing next to where he is). Hopefully he'll help!

And here are two little videos of the girls to help get that "cat, kitty cat" song out of your head:

Funny

I know funny. And this, this is funny.


This catchy little tune has been bouncing around our house the past few days. I can't imagine it won't stick in your heads either!

Maddie's on the move

Last Friday Maddie really caught onto the idea of walking. On Wednesday when I took that video she was getting confident. By Wednesday evening she had stopped crawling entirely. She has been walking everywhere ever since (except for a brief period first thing each morning when she forgets that she knows how to walk!). It's really fun to watch. She has also given up her baby food. She refuses to eat moosh and insists on eating whatever we're eating. She especially enjoyed beef stew tonight; she took down three helpings! It's as if she turned into a big girl overnight.

Speaking of big girls, Claire completed her homework this morning. Yep, they had homework. She had a little paper pumpkin picture that she was supposed to decorate. She prettied it up with a bunch (and I really mean a bunch) of stickers and seemed very proud of how it turned out.

And Phil says I should put GO BEARS!!!

By popular demand...

OK, maybe not "popular demand" as much as grandparent's request... Anyway, we present to you a gratuitous cute movie of Maddie walking: