zerberts

#2 Multicultural

Okay finally back to the countdown...I love the diversity in Hawaii. I love that we are the only white people on our block. I love that it is so normal to my children, that they don't see a difference. And it makes it easy to spot my children playing in the neighborhood too because they're the really pale ones or the blond ones. I've learned so much about other cultures...traditions, foods, languages.

shrimp trucks

Sunday we took an amazing drive up the North Shore of Oahu with my bestest friend and her bestest friend who was visiting from the mainland. Great times. Good conversation. Shopping. Yum-o food. Amazing scenery. If you want to take a road trip on our island, this is about as close as you can get.

 I brought my older munckins and she brought her youngest munkin. They all did great considering how many stops we made. Our first one being a place we'll call the "keyhole"...only because I can't remember the real name for it. All I can say is beautiful and the power of those waves left me a little nervous and a lot in awe.

Then we stopped at the shrimp trucks...yes I did just say shrimp trucks. They actually farm these humongous shrimp and prawns in these little ponds and then steam them or toss them in tons of butter and garlic...either way delicious. I stole these pictures off the internets only because I didn't take any pictures, but these look just like what we experienced.

 The boys loved pealing the shrimp...legs, head and all.

And then we ended up in Hale'iwa town for a little shopping and dinner. Great memories!

catch-up...again

Not sure why this blog thing is so hard to keep up with these days. But finding "free" time these days gets harder and harder to find. So here I go again on a little catch up. We have been doing a lot of our Hawaii "bucket list" things these days and then just some fun homeschooling things too. So here we go.

 The kids and I went to Chinaman's Hat beach to find a little coral. The tide was so far out that we could walk out to this sea wall...my little explorer loved this. They say that on low tide days like this you can actually walk out to the island.

 We found shells and great coral (for a project I had in mind) and purple snails that dyed our fingers.

 And just to document that Lainey and I were there also, we got a shadow picture...which made Lainey look like a giant baby.

 And the beautiful Ko'olau mountains on the other side of the road.

 Then we did our traditional Valentine's day cookies. The kiddo's loved "painting" the cookies and then we enjoyed handing them out to our neighbor friends. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product but you can check back at previous years to get the idea.

9 months old

These were the best photos we could get between bad light and a very active 9 month old who doesn't like to sit still longer than half a second. But you get the idea...she's pretty cute. 

So a little bit about what our Lainey-Lou is up to these days. Besides the usual - lots of smiles, lots of crawling around, screaming when Ansley gets in her space, getting into everything, pulling up and cruising around furniture and eating like a champ; she has also started being a little mimic and repeats things like "uh-oh", "da-da", "ma-ma", "nigh-nigh", "ba-ba". And she has 5 teeth that she likes to use on anything she can get her mouth on...not so fun when it's your finger or shoulder. She still picks up everything she can find on the floor and puts it in her mouth....thankfully I have figured out a better system to keeping my floors clean to cut down on what she ingests...but seriously, I do have 4 children. So I've also mastered the finger swipe when I see her chomping on something too. The boys love to make her laugh and Ansley just loves her to pieces. 

This little girl is growing up fast. We're so thankful for this little squirt.

this girl has spunk

Ansley wanted to put barrettes in her hair all by herself. What I didn't realize was that she wanted to put ALL the barrettes she owned in her hair. And yes, she did go out in public like this because one day it will matter to her how she looks to other people. For right now I can enjoy the fact that she could care less.

And you know all those stories people tell you about what their kids do and you think to yourself "my kid has never done that" (i.e. climb out of the crib, poop in the bathtub, get into the trash can and dump it all over the floor, throwing a screaming tantrum in the middle of the store, etc.). Well we said that until our little Ansley came along. So another thing I can add to that list is that she fell asleep in the hallway for nap time...not once, but twice now.

winter weather

What do you do when you wake up to 70 degree weather here in Hawaii? Pull out your little heater (that you forgot to sell before you moved to Hawaii, but has actually been used on cold mornings like these) and all huddle around it while your feet and hands thaw. Yeah, not sure what we're going to do during mid-west winters when we move.

catch-up

Okay, this post is going to be a major catch up post. So bear with me...

A few weeks ago we did a family hike to go see Pele's chair. It was overcast which ended up being a blessing because it wasn't so stinkin' hot. 

 Lainey's sweet ride....her favorite place to be rather than a stroller.

 Climbing on lava rock, looking in tide pools, collecting rocks/shells/crab legs/plants...you know boy stuff.

 After Ansley fell because her hair was blowing everywhere and she couldn't see, I had to give her my ponytail holder, so Jude let me wear his hat to keep my hair back.

 Then Grandpa and Grandma came into town and we had many fun adventures. We tried to cram in as much Hawaiian fun as we could...the train at the mall...

 Macadamia Nut Farm tour (Ali't tours)...these guys were quite funny...

 Jude enjoying a coconut that the guy just "shucked" (is that what you do to a coconut?) and cracked open.

 Forgot to bring sunscreen for Lainey so a piece of palm tree did the trick to keep her in the shade.

 Our little boat tour around an ancient fish pond.

 Our night out at the Bay View Mini-Putt...which left us adults laughing until our sides hurt.

Such fun times...it will be nice to be able to see family more often once we move back to the mainland.