Zucchini Bread

Ella is so proud of our garden and loves the show off what we've picked...

Vegetable Garden

Our progress since May...

Happy Father's Day

Dear Daddy,

Thank you for everything you do. You are the best Daddy and I love you "with all my heart". I can't wait for another year of fun, learning and growing with you and I hope you know that you are my hero. Mommy thinks your pretty special too :)

Love, Ella xoxo

To our Dads... have a great day, we wish we were there to celebrate with you...

Birthday Party Burnout

Ella had three birthday party appearances yesterday: a bowling alley, Chuck E Cheese, and a BBQ. We were gone for 10 hours and ate too much pizza and cake but thankfully the BBQ at Manny and Christina's was a good way to wind down the night. Of course Christina's cooking was amazing so we came home with left overs - YUMMY!

“I sometimes wake in the early morning & listen
to the soft breathing of my children & I
think to myself, this is one thing I will never
regret & I carry that quiet with me all day long.”
~ Brian Andreas

Aloha Friends

Manny and Christina had a gathering for John and Maikou who are leaving for San Diego on Friday. The 6 of us were all originally neighbors up the street and we have all since moved into new houses. The kids have so much fun together and we're going to miss them when they leave. They guys had the Lakers game on, surprise, surprise, while we chatted and the kids ran wild. Such fun to hang out with good friends :)

Slip N' Slide

Our Little Ariel

It's been 4 days and Ella's mastered putting her head under water... so much so that now we can't get her to stop playing around and dunking herself. All the kids in her class are older 5-6 and Ella's always the one who volunteers to go first and is usually chosen as an example -her swim instructor, Samson, is her favorite and I think it goes both ways :) She even went under and retrieved a swim ring off his foot with little help - shocking! We can't wait to go to the pool with Daddy and show him how much we've learned!!!

Swim Lessons

Ella's begun her first swim lessons down at Pearl Harbor. She's so excited about learning to swim but the entire 30 minute class, I was nauseous with fear. There are 6 kids to an instructor, there are 2 instructors as there are 12 kids under 6 years. They had all the kids line up and enter the pool, the ones who could swim were to go to the opposite side, the ones who couldn't were to use the wall to make their way to the end of the pool. It was the first time Ella was left to her own devices in a body of water. She did great and held onto the wall and listened to the instructor. There are 3 in her class that cannot swim at all, and of the 3 she's the only one who is willing to blow bubbles, put her face in the water and even dunked her head under.

My fear was that in typical Ella fashion, she would get hyper and forget to hold onto the wall while the instructor was with another kid and I'd panic and jump in fully clothed. The other two moms of the kids who couldn't swim seemed as nervous so I tried be as calm, cool and collected as possible. :) Ella was great, she had so much fun and can't wait to go again today. She even went on the slide at the end of class - but only those who would get their faces wet were allowed so Ella was the lone non-swimmer to do it. I seriously can't wait until she can swim... or at least float!

Waimanalo Beach

We headed out this morning to the Shriner's property at Waimanalo Beach. Ron helped restore the breakwater by re-piling rocks that had been washed out from some winter storms. It was a gorgeous day, at a gorgeous beach, complete with a BBQ.