Creative Ideas

I just love when I find these easy to do creative crafty projects. I see them and I think to myself, "I can do that" and I never do. Well I found a project in an old scrapbook magazine that I thought was super cool and easy. With money being a little tighter this year, I was trying to find crafts that I can do as Christmas presents, so I no longer had the option of not doing the project, I had to try. I was so glad that I did, this project not only turned out great, but it has meaning, and it was SUPER easy. All I did was buy some very inexpensive candle holders at Michael's, found a picture that I liked and printed it onto a transparency, used my Xyron sticker maker, and there you have it folks. For this first one I found a picture on the Internet, and created this for some wine lovers.

This next one was a picture that I had taken at a beach where we played for many summers in Maui. I really like this one because right where the sun is, will be about where the flame will hit from the candle. I then added some sand and some little shells, and it was PERFECT!

This last one was another photo that I take while on our trip in Hawaii. It's a Bird of Paradise, and for this one I printed it in black and white. I think for this one I may use three tealights instead of just one.

Christmas in November?

When I returned to work the Monday after Halloween, I was EXTREMELY annoyed that the Christmas decorations were already up on The Row . Really, could we at least get through Thanksgiving first? I was twice as annoyed when my office received the flyer letting us know that the Tree Lighting Ceremony would be held on November 18th. Are these people serious? Well guess where I was last night? After hearing about all the fun things they were going to have out here, I thought it would be fun for Noa and I to hang out on the Row for the evening. I'm so happy I did. Kainoa had a blast, and it actually got me into the Holiday Spirit. Here are some pictures of Kainoa enjoying the festivities.


Here is another picture taken from my lobby. I couldn't believe how many people were here. It was CRAZY!

Crazy weekend catch up

This weekend started off with me taking Friday off so that I could chaperon Kainoa's field trip to the fire station. He had a blast learning about the different tools, and all the different items that need to be put on before entering into a fire. He also loves field trip days because I will take the day off, drop him off at school, join him on his field trip, and then he gets to leave with me. Look at my happy boy.

After we left school, I took him and his little buddy to see Madagascar, I think I actually liked it more than them. Then we went to the park for some baseball, it was unanimous, mom (that would be me) is not the best pitcher out there, but we still had fun.

Saturday morning was the start of all the craziness. Kainoa's soccer team, the Warriors, had a big tournament to determine who would be taking home the first place trophies. We had one game on Saturday, which we won in the last 5 seconds. The score was 1-0 which gave us 8 points in the tournament because it was a shut out. Whew, one down only two more games to go. Sunday we had to be at the park at 8:20 for our first game. Again, we barely won, score was 1-0, another 8 points. The total of 16 points put us in the championship game. I know I'm just talking about 4 and 5 year olds playing soccer, but you wouldn't believe the excitement and stress that was out on that field. We had an undefeated season this year, so in their little brains, we've already taken the trophy. That was until we met the Snakes. They were undefeated as well, with no ties (we had two) and they were good. We lost, 1-0, we took second. It was so hard to watch him play so hard and not win, I knew he would be devastated. Sure enough, as soon as the game was over he came running through the crowd of people straight towards me and cried. My heart broke. I told him all the reassuring things, he played great, he's still a winner, they still got second place, nothing seemed to work. I decided to pull out a "when I was young story", I told him about the time when I was in a high school cheerleading competition. I told him how hard we worked, and how the other teams even told us how good we were, and that in the end, we ended up in 11th out of 12th place. I let him know that we were all really sad, and that it made us hurt inside. This seemed to help, maybe it helped him realize that I understood. So, here's to getting through one of many heartbreaks. Sometimes I just wish it was a little bit easier.

Where's Halloween?

I just realized that I posted no Halloween pictures on here. What a crazy day it was. Kainoa had no school that day, so my aunt brought him and my nephews to my office for some trick or treating.

After trick or treating, I took Kainoa and my oldest nephew to see Dante at his work. When we got there, there was daddy dressed up like Shrek for all the little kids. This is Kainoa and Logan posing with Shrek and Fiona.

The boys also got their faces painted, and did arts and crafts while at Dante's office.


Once we were done at Dante's office, it was off to Grandma's for Vesuvio's (YUMMY), and Trick or Treating. It's always nice on Halloween to go trick or treating in my old neighborhood. I even saw some parents of old friends from high school.


Once we were done Trick or Treating, Stitch had had a REALLY long day, but we had one more stop to Nana and Avo's, of course they wanted to see how cute he was. Whew, what a day!

Living in a dream

I couldn't let an event like what happened last night, go by without blogging. I feel like I am living in a dream. Some moments it's so real, and others I'm still in awe and amazement. Last night touched me in a way that I didn't even know it could. To hear my 5 year old son, who is half African American shout with joy that Obama won did something to me that I will never forget. Like my husband said last night, you will always remember where you were when the FIRST African American was elected as president. However it was the word's of a five year old girl that touched me the most. A child of some good friends of ours said to her daddy last night, "The Obama's look like me." How wonderful to know that we are one step closer to the day where children will never have to know that because of the color of their skin, they are treated as less than. They live in a country where they can now dream and possibly be the next President of the United States.