Turkey Recap

What I learned at school #6...I was in charge of the Mom and Tot group this past week. We met on Wednesday instead of Thursday and had a pretty big group. It started out slow then more and more came. Here's the stats:

Activity: Mom & Tot Turkey Trot and Holiday Recipe Exchange- 9 stations around the gym of different exercises to do with your keiki, with one of the stations being the "Bead Station" where you got beads for completing the lap to make an Indian Corn Necklace. The beads were just dyed salad noodles. I also gave them "Thankful Feathers" to write what they're thankful for and put on their necklace. We also had each mom bring a recipe that is a family favorite used especially during the holidays or special occasions.

Who came: Margaret, Nia, Wesley, Kaelene, Kiara, Maka, Alanna, Salote, Koa, Lia, Lana, Hereti, Melinda, Aislin, Oliver, Mel, KC, Misako, Minochan, Marlise, Joseph, Clara, Nancy, Sage, Courtney, Lucy, William.

The kids/moms didn't really team up like I was planning, we all just ended up going around once as a big group (it got too big toward the end) but it was fun going around together. Then, I guess most everyone was done. I had also brought Wee Sing, so the kids danced around to that as well. Moms brought lots of yummy treats today! It was fun to see all the recipes!

Our Thanksgiving was fun...pretty relaxed, which is exactly what we wanted. We had dinner with our neighbors, the Le family, who have two kids the same age as ours and they're good friends. Rebecca did the turkey which was really good, and mashed potatoes, yellow rice (I need to get the recipe!), garden veggies, and pistacio pudding dessert thing. I made rolls, yams, asparagus, and a pumpkin cheesecake. I really didn't make too much- I forgot the stuffing! It was a really good dinner! I followed this new recipe for the yams, and it was simple and good, I have to say I'm a fan. I doubled the brown sugar and 1.5 times the spices (actually I didn't have pumpkin pie spice so I made my own mix. Pumpkin pie spice is basically nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice...basically. I went heavy on the cinnamon and nutmeg.) We also made muddy buddies and I made some spice cookies with pumpkin dip. Friday morning I unconvinced myself to get up early for the doorbusters. We realized there was nothing we really wanted. We ended up going to Kapolei with Jeremy who had to do some things at work. I did go shopping while we waited, so all in all we did get the good sales- we both got a present I guess you could say: a new flash drive for Jeremy and a Crockpot for me. Hope you all had a great holiday!

3D Paper Snowflakes

So, we had our enrichment holiday social tonight. I was helping with decorations, and wouldn't you know...no pictures! No pictures to show off my work. Not even one for my cute Grandma who should be proud that I used her Christmas gift at this event. Anyway, we did a snowflake/silver and blue frost kind of theme. I made 8 centerpieces of miniature "trees" (branches with the leaves pulled off) and spray painted them silver. The trees were set up in a plantar covered with silver cardstock and a wide blue and white decorative ribbon, complete with cotton ball "snow" around the base of the tree. I was glad they turned out.
Another little treasure I found amongst this work, was this paper snowflake. Isn't it cool?! I was quite impressed with the easiness and how cool this little was (I know that was a bad sentence, btw). The girl in charge of decorations Lana, told me she was having a hard time making a snowflake. And it made me think, hmm, how do you make a cool snowflake? I think this snowflake is pretty cool- check it out! Cheap holiday decorations!

Just an update...

Willie's first tooth is coming in, the bottom right one. He has a few more bumps too.
Lucy had a scary experience yesterday. We were coming out of the elevator in our building. I had Willie in the stroller and was wheeling him out backwards, Lucy was still waiting in the elevator. She usually slips out while I'm pulling out the stroller, but this time the timing was late and the door starting closing with Lucy still inside. I had to jam my arm in the door, hoping it would make it open, but it just jammed with about a 3 inch opening. Lucy started screaming at this point. I think she actually thought I was getting hurt rather than worried about being stuck inside. I kept trying to reassure her and tell her to just wait why I fix the broken door. It took a little while trying to get it unjammed and the door did a few little half-open shut glitches, which freaked Lucy out more. Finally, she was safely able to get out. I paused outside the elevator and gave her hug and asked if that was scary. She nodded her head and said, scaried. It was one of the first times she's ever clearly told me her feelings, which was kind of neat despite the bad experience.

Thankful for the Service Men & Women

Happy Veteran's Day! Of all the parades that my mom was in last year as Mother Of The Year, I thought the Veteran's day was one of the most meaningful, touching, and relevant to a reason for a parade, that it kind of took a soft spot in the "holiday folder" in my heart. Anyway, tucked that in the back of my mind for a year. I didn't take time to think about my graditude for the service men and women today, until we went to Dole Plantation and there happened to be a little historical display of army vechicles in the parking lot. It was really cool. The Armed Forces Perservation Society (or something like that) had been asked by Dole plantation to come over after their parade. They had a dozen vechicals...WW2 and Veitnam era vechicles...motorcyles, supply runners, jeeps, I can't remember the names of all the cool looking army vechicels, but they were fun. And here we had just came for the pineapple ice cream. Only pics on my cell phone...we couldn't resist to put Willie in the drivers seat of these big army tanks, Lucy was asleep.
On top of that, I came home and got an email from a friend with the following pics. A friend from our playgroup at the nearby park invited us to go to the Fire Station with another preschool group who was getting a tour. This was a little while ago, but I'm so glad my friend had a camera and was willing to send me some momento pics. These guys were awesome! Firemen really have a sense of humor! I actually thought it was really thoughtful of them in the way they presented to the little kids. They were all about making the kids have fun and really like firemen so that if the kid was ever in a situation of danger, and a fireman came to rescue them, the kids would recognize the fireman as someone who can help them and not be afraid. "Cause sometimes with all the gear on, firemen can look a little scary." says one of the men. I thought that was a great thing to teach the kids. Anyway, these guys were a lot of fun, Lucy was sad to go when we left.
Thanks firemen!! And all those who serve society in these noble ways!!

Group pose for a special "fireman's eye view" picture! Don't drop the camera! Would you believe it-- he did!! Okay, the first camera was not real, but we all totally bought it and were surprised! He did take a real picture too!

Firing the fireman's hose!


Who let the dogs out...woof, woof, woof, woof, woof....wahoopwhoop!!

100lbs of gear...in about 30 seconds. We'd be happy if our kids could just get their shoes on in 30 seconds, that'd be great! :)jk, my kids don't even really put their shoes on themselves yet. ;) But these guys have to be pretty strong!