From That to This

I made some scans of old photos back in May, so I came across these when I was working to update the blog. How did my little guy go from this...

To this (I LOVE this photo... he's not too fond of Santa)...

To this (Dana Carvey?)? Love my little guy. He's the best. 

Mermaids and Fairies

Here are some of my favorite of Elsie's artwork from the spring. I was going to include some drawings of non-magical creatures, but there weren't any. 

One of my favorite things about Elsie's style is her infusion of curls and swirls. She even adds them when she writes his name. 

Cam doesn't draw very often, but when he does, it often borders on self-reflection. Here is a comic of his states of being. It reads: 

Hi my name is Camden

Leo don't stick your tail up

Ana!

Very scary

Camden do your home work (My dad) Ooooooo ok!

Look I am a clown

Rar!

I'm not squshed

I have a secret

I am tired of making comics

Youth Group Photo Shoot

We had a fun Young Womens activity when Ana and I set up a mini-studio in the Primary Room and did a photo shoot with the girls. Then we printed out their photos so they could give them to their moms for Mother's Day. I didn't want to put photos of the other Young Women on the blog without their permission (besides the one above to show how Elsie sticks out like a lightning rod here in Hawaii), so here are the ones we took of my kids while testing the lighting conditions. 

She can do ugly too! So versatile. 

I have to trick him to get him to take a normal photo. Grrrr. 

Elsie will pose forever though. She's very good and being still. And loud. At the same time. 

And of course, Ana hates  the camera. 

Anyway, incredibly fun and easy activity if you want to try it with your group. We just set up white butcher paper on a moveable chalk board and I used the flash off of my Canon T1i, but used my trick diffuser (three sheets of white paper held in front of the flash to point the flash upwards.). It would have been better to have some light boxes as you can tell from the shadows on Ana's face, but I didn't have time to set up any (fake) boxes, so I think what we had worked fine, especially considering the flourescent lighting throughout the church. Make sure (as at anytime you have people standing in front of a wall, board, sheet, screen) that the subject stands at least 18 inches in front of the screen. You don't want to be able to see the shadows on the back wall. Also, if you want a more invisible look to your back screen, use a well ironed white sheet or do a better job taping up your butcher paper than I did!

The most important thing we tried to teach the girls is the "forehead forward and down" trick of photos. I was trying to get them more comfortable with having their photos taken and teach them to increase the likelihood that their photos will look like themselves. I just found a website and video that teaches you how to do it: Forehead Forward and Down Time for you to love your photo taken too!

Skaters Take Over

The invite. Made by Cam. 

Whelp. Cam's birthday was back in January... but since we had guests every weekend from his birthday until the end of April, we asked if he could wait. And he did. He waited and waited and waited. FINALLY, in May, we had his birthday party. It was an easy one: skating at the skate park, pizza at Costco, and donuts to cap it off at Krispy Kreme. Boys are awesome!

Cam was nice and let Ana come with a friend. (Look at Ana's face and remember the blog post from yesterday...)

Cam's friend Ethan is a darn good skater. Cam aspires...

Elsie was able to make up for not going to the party by making a trip up the road to the Catholic church's annual festival. She and  Sophie don't even have to wear matching outfits to look like twins!

Happy birthday (again and late!) Cam!!

Swim Meet and Grammy and Grandfather Come to Town

Grammy and Grandfather came to visit a few weeks ago, ending our long and glorious stretch of visitors that has lasted almost non stop since October. We love visitors, so it is somewhat sad to think we have no more coming until after summer vacation. 

Ricky and Linda were only here for about five days, so we made sure to pack it in. We spent much time at the beach, of course, and then we dragged them to a swim meet out in Lahaina. I just read somewhere that Lahaina means, "Land of the merciless sun" or something like that, and I believe it, but it is still such a great place. There are places on earth that are alive, breathing and teaming with history and from the after shadows of some many souls living in such a small area. For me, the greatest and richest place like this is Jerusalem. London is another... well, actually, most of Europe fits the bill. Boston... New York... New Orleans almost audibly breathes, its so alive with history--it's even sticky with history. And luckily so close, there is Lahaina. It's charming and hot and dense with humanity all at the same time. And yet it's just a small little town. I love it. I would also especially love it if I wasn't constantly sweating, but no great historically rich city has great weather. Seriously. Humans don't like to make history when the weather is perfect. 

Anyway, the kids did well in their meet. They aren't the top of their age groups, but they both improved their times and had a fun day, so that's a success in my book. 

Po is a little flushed in the heat, can you tell? She's probably especially flushed from all the running she does at swim meets, trying to escape me and giving me aneurysms with all of her near fall-ins. Seriously. How much longer until she can swim too?! 

Coach is giving Cam some pointers. 

Cam ready for backstroke. 

Ana's favorite stroke is the fly.

Afterwards, we walked up and down Front Street where I think Ricky and Linda explored every single shop. The kids were in heaven. They know where all the best samples are, but they had never gone down Front Street with someone who actually bought anything! They all ended up with a multitude of treasures thanks to Grammy and Grandfather's generosity. 

And their whole stay was incredibly generous. We've never eaten out at so many great restaurants in such a short amount of time. Many great talks too. We were all nourished both mind and body. We were sad to see them leave, but I'm 100% positive that they will be back soon. I'm actually surprised they don't just move here for the winters. Come on... you know you want to!

And finally, here is Ana capping off our Lahaina adventure with a leap from the Black Rock beach cliffs.

We love you G&G. Come back soon!

Crazy Hair Day

 The kids had Crazy Hair Day at school. Even the two bookend kids who don't go to that school decided to participate. I found the idea above on Pinterest... post from non other than my sister-in-law Shawni's blog. Jonah and I always tease that we are going to make her a bumper sticker that says, "I'm famous on Pinterest".

Anyway, Elsie loved her hair do, and it stayed in all day... even through PE... thanks to my 1980s hairspray skills. Since she is only one of five or six ultra-blonds at her school, she especially stood out, and she loved it. She also loved that I told her to keep the method of the hairdo a secret... She loved having such a valuable secret all day.

Po's Crazy Hair Day-- no hairspray required.

Crazy Face Day!

Cam opted for the "Kind Of Crazy, but Still Cool" hair do.

And I don't think Ana released that this is how I wore my hair every day in 5th grade. Well, except with a scrunchie instead of a bow. Oh, and we had big poofy bangs back then too. 

We are already making big plans for next year.

Hoshmonger Comes to Visit

Jonah has some funny nicknames for his siblings. He calls his older brother Hoshmonger Shrine. His other brothers are Tam, Nobie, and Piglet. His sisters are Sabrina, Shas, and Licker of Chesternuts. I'll have to have him explain some time. 

Anyway, Hoshmonger came to visit! Josh is a school teacher in Arizona, so he doesn't have a lot of free time to travel, so we were so happy that he decided to come see us for spring break! He doesn't have any kids of his own, but he makes up for it by being the best uncle he can be. The kids climbed all over him, pestered him, played with him and learned from him every single moment of the day, and they still couldn't get enough. He has amazing patience and really gets along well with kids... which are great traits for a teacher!

Our friends came over and Josh helped all the kids reach some amazing heights on the trampoline. 

The kids were also on spring break, so we spent much time at the beach, in Lahaina, diving, hiking and exploring the island. We all went ont he Bamboo Hike, but the little girls and I stayed back at the second waterfall so the older kids and Jonah and Josh could do the rest of the hike more quickly. While there, we carved some ginger root dolls and made them a river rock house.

After the hike, we enjoyed some of our new favorite treat, peanut butter and carrots. Mmmmm.

Unfortunately, my memory card in my camera got corrupted, so I lost the rest of the photos from Josh's stay, but I have to say that we were very sad to see him go. We tried and tried to get him to move here, but he's got a great thing going in AZ, so it was a lost cause. Hopefully we at least convinced him to visit more often!

When Josh left, we realized that in the last five months, we had had seven of Jonah's nine siblings come visit, plus his parents! It's great to live on Maui.

And just because I have no where else to post them, here is a photo from Cam's Cub Scout banquet. He was the clock in the skit. You have to love those cute Cub Scout skits. 

And here is Elsie's lovely little PlayDoh mermaid that she made me keep in a ziplock bag for a few weeks before I smashed the Doh back into the cans. Wow. She loves mermaids, doesn't she?!

Mores of Daily Life

Cam was taking a belly slap for fame. In an attempt to reenact Po's favorite scene from Nacho Libre, he  ended up with a stinging midsection. Go Cam!

We do put forth much effort to tend, entertain, and teach Po. She is quite fortunate to have five people living with her who are all devoted to her well-being. And good thing, too. She's more two-year-old than we've ever have, so we need all the help we can get!

 

We have learned that Po stays out of trouble when she's actively involved in a good cause. So, we have been trying to get her involved in the daily chores. We've tried to teach her to unload the silverware, for example. 

She still has some work to do, but at least they are all in the drawer. 

What she really wants to do is help me feed the chickens and help ana collect eggs, but after finding huge piles of expensive chicken feed scattered around the yard, or hearing, "Oops! I dropped a egg!", we are moving away from assigning her those specific tasks. 

 

She's also been trying to learn to brush her own hair...

Baby steps, Po. Eventually you will be knee-deep in chores like the rest of them, with no time for any more trouble making.