Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkin yesterday. Ella was totally grossed out with the seeds and mush inside the pumpkin. She loves dirt, mud puddles, rocks and gravel, but she won't put her hand inside a pumpkin. Go figure!

Halloween Party

We took the kids to a Halloween party at Ford Island. It was pouring rain for the most part, overly crowded and completely unorganized - sounds like a typical Halloween to me. Ella and Emmi loved each other in costume and had more fun playing amongst themselves. Ella had her first taste of cotton candy and I painted her face but it didn't last very long in the rain and on a 2 year old. We're going to try the playgroup Halloween party on Wednesday and hopefully it's more organized and less wet.

Manoa Falls Hike

We picked up Christina and Emmi and headed to Manoa Falls in Paradise Park just north of Honolulu. Lush rain forest made for a beautiful hike but it was a bit muddy and slippery for the kids. Christina and I ended up getting pretty muddy from the kids shoes when we picked them up to keep them from slipping on their butts. The hike was great and Ella did it on her own, holding my hand most of the way. I had to help her up and down some pretty steep parts and over mossy rocks but she loved it and had no fear of the trail. Emmi...not so much the hiker and a bit to "dirty" for him.

Erin & Christin - this is why you have to come back. I've found at least 5 new things to do in the past couple of weeks!

Supporter

My Obama/Biden car magnet finally arrived...yeah!

Magnum PI

We went to a BBQ at the Shriners property located next to the estate where Magnum PI was filmed. The property used to house the cast and crew during shooting breaks and is right on the beach. It's a gorgeous area of the island. The estate itself is completely hidden by fences and foliage so you really couldn't see anything. It was a nice day to enjoy a beachfront BBQ anyway.

Shopping Law of Attraction

I love to shop... when I have money (don't we all). I hate window shopping especially since I don't have enough pocket money to buy everything I would like and it usually just reminds me of how much I don't need anyway.

However, some things just fall into my hands... I call it my shopping Law of Attraction. Last Christmas I decided to get Ron a gaming system. I had no idea which one or how much to spend and on a random trip to the Navy Exchange, picked up an XBox 360. It was while I was looking at it, reading the specs, wondering if it was the right one, I realized that I had grabbed the last one on the shelf and 3 people were waiting for me to put it back. I put it in the cart and cast an apologetic smile to the onlookers while I made my way to the teller. Of course the whole way home I second-guessed myself, but it turned out to be exactly the one Ron wanted... and I didn't have to drive all over town looking for it. Nice!

For Ella, I've always wanted to get her a dollhouse for when she's a little older and this Christmas have settled on getting her a play kitchen. She can play dolls and "cook" in the play kitchen at play group the entire time. She loves playing pretend. We stopped at Costco on the way back from Gymnastics this past Tuesday and while entering I saw a lady with a wooden dollhouse. My thoughts were only that they must already have their Christmas stuff out. When we walked past the display, there were 6 dollhouses left and 2 women looking at it. I put one in the cart... some sort of instinctual thing I think, and finished shopping. Of course I questioned myself the whole time and had decided to put it back... there were none there and a staff member was looking to see if they had more. (They only got the shipment in that morning and we were there an hour and a half after opening). I bought the dollhouse at half the price other stores are selling it for and we've put it away until next year. It's got an elevator, comes with doll furniture and is about 4" tall and 3" wide.

On our way home today, I stopped, randomly, at Toys R' Us. What would you bet that they had the wooden play kitchen, on sale, only 1 left?? The box was damaged and re-taped so I asked if it could have been a return. The lady had someone bring me the nicest box out of the 3 in the back. Yes, it's true, I have some sort of luck that if I spend time looking on the net and finding exactly what I want, it somehow appears in the store (yeah no shipping costs) and on sale. Now seeing as I've bought a dollhouse AND a play kitchen this week, we'll see how lucky I feel when I explain to Ron why there's a substantial dent in our bank account... :)

Blow Dry

After Ella's bath I used my straightening blow dryer to blow out Ella's curls. I was just bored and curious. I'm also totally jealous! :) Her hair has so much volume and the big curls would take me hours in rollers...Ella only 5 minutes. She's also become quite the poser... :)

Happy Thanksgiving, Canadians

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving back home. We won't be celebrating until the end of November but I am looking forward to a big turkey dinner as usual... hope you all enjoyed yours! :)
It is however, Columbus Day here and Ron had the day off, a long weekend for him which was a nice treat. The weather wasn't all that great so we went for a little hike up Kolekole Pass.

North Shore Drive

We headed out to the North Shore to see some waves... you can't tell in the photos but there were tons of surfers out riding some huge waves.