Keeping in Touch

Technology makes is so much easier to stay in touch.  The kids to love to see their grandparents on Skype (when it doesn't freeze!).

My mom just got an iphone so she and Abby were face timing and Grandma Lori read her some bedtime stories.

  Andy just sent me a new picture of his place.  I wish I could see it in person.  I am so excited for him!

Baby Sitting Co-op

When I was younger, my mom belonged to a babysitting coop that basically traded babysitting with a group of families.  We don't have anything so formal but we are lucky enough to have a big group of friends with kids to swap with. 

Now that summer is here, there have been lots of occasions to swap. 
We had Jackson come over for the day and sleep over.  The kids had a blast all day long!  We went for wagon rides and they ran all over tiring themselves out.

Our kids went to the Hoffman's while we went out for date night.  They loved Makaela's toy room!

 

Gavin and Dylan came over for an evening so Mark and Steph could go out to celebrate Mark's birthday. 

A Snapshot of Zack at 14 Months

In the moment, watching the kids grow up, it seems that I could never possibly forget a single thing. Then, I try to think about Abby at Zack's age and picture what she was doing I can't remember.

It just reminds me how much I rely on this blog to capture the kids lives since I have never been a very good baby book keeper:).

Zack has started walking although he still prefers crawling. He loves animals. Some of his favorites are dogs, elephants, monkeys and dinosaurs.

He is a great snuggler and is precious when he hugs stuffed animals. He doesn' t have any that he is attached to but if he sees one around he will grab it and give a nice squeeze.

He has been sleeping fabulously. Now that he is home for summer he usually takes 2- 2 hour naps and goes to bed at 6:30 and is up around 6 unless big sister gets him up earlier.

He currently says: Al duh ( All done), dada, mama, A-ba (Abby), Aboo (peekaboo)- a favorite game.  He also loves planes and trucks and makes sure to call attention anytime he sees one.  He gives great kisses (still open mouth slobbery ones) and just started puckering up and blowing kisses.

More of my favorites that are in the video clip below. He says, "no, no, no". This is what we tell him if he is doing something we would rather he not i.e. tossing his food, eating rocks (or anything off the ground), climbing up the stove etc. He loves to clap..usually for himself. He has a pretty good repertoire of animal sounds (dog, cow, dinosaur, tiger, elephants, cow, monkey). He is getting pretty good at sharing and has the most adorable giggle.

Here are some clips from the last few days.

Abby's First Movie

It was a gloomy day and I was antsy to do something but not exactly sure what since beach and pool were off the list.  Matt and I tossed around a few ideas and I ended up taking Abby to her first movie!  We got dressed in cozy clothes, picked up a snack (lollipop to keep her occupied!) and got to the movies just as it was supposed to start.  It turned out that  Rio, the movie I intended to take her to was not playing ( I guess I misread the show times:(.  Since we had built it up so much I couldn't bear to turn around.  Kung Fu Panda was playing at the same time Rio was supposed to be playing so we tried it out.  Abby liked the Panda and laughed at the appropriate times.  She as really cute and really attentive.  She actually did better than I imagined.  Towards the end there was a fighting scene ...very mild but she looked at me and said, "can we go?"  We got up and talked about all the funny parts and how much fun it was.  I didn't want her last impression to be movies as scary.

All dressed up for the movies. 

SUGAR

& SPICE!

Another Packed Saturday

The kids stayed at Jenn's house and we picked them up in the morning.  Luckily, we got a good night sleep because we had a super busy day planned.  

We got some tickets to a benefit luau in Kaneohe that sounded pretty fun.  The forecast called for rain but we chanced it and it was beautiful!  They had bounce houses, face painting, balloons and great Hawaiian food!

The butterfly and the tiger:)

GRRR!

Sweet Buterfly

 

 

 

On the way home she crashed but NOT long enough.  She didn't go back to sleep when we got home so she was overly whiny for the second half of the day:(.

 

 After we went home to regroup, we headed to the dual birthday party for Jackson and Brooke.  The kids swam and ran around all afternoon. 

If only this lasted longer than3 seconds it would have been great!

The girl loves her sweets!

The big hunt

After a very fun but ling day the kids were ready for bed ( and so were we)!

SOLD!

The house finally sold.  There were so many times in the last 4 months of the drawn out drama that we thought it may never happen but it finally did. We know years from now it may seem like nothing but we certainly were overwhelmed by it all when we were right smack in the middle of it.

Thanks to superwoman Jenn, Matt and I went out to celebrate.  We made it down to Indigo's for some martinis and a great dinner.  It was First Friday so we popped in a few art galleries after dinner and walked around town before we saw the Hangover Part II- hilarious..  It was a perfect evening to celebrate closing on the house and starting a new chapter in our lives. 

Date Night!

Yum!  Chocolate martinis at Indigo's!

Check out Jenn's blog to see how the kids enjoyed their evening with the Hoffman girls.

It's That Time of Year Again

Being teachers, our years are ruled by the school year and not the typical calendar year.  This unfortunately means that at the end of each school year more people leave the island.  On Sunday, we had two aloha parties.
Kristen, who I started teaching with at Ilima 8 years ago is headed to Europe to travel and back to New Jersey where her family is at the end of the summer.  It is sad to see her go but it is for the best I know!

The kids loved running around in the park and found there own toys since we didn't bring any...oops!

They played a pick up football game

Boche Ball

And my favorite...beer can chew toys

 After an afternoon in the park we headed out to Ewa Beach for our second going away party of the day.  Cory also worked with us at Ilima.  Matt and Cory worked on the same team for a number of years and Cory has been a huge help with my dissertation since he just finished his PhD.  Cory got a job on the mainland as a professor! They are moving next week.  They had a huge bounce house at the party.  Abby went in and didn't come out until it was time to go.  Zack even gave it a try. 

 We were in the flight path and Zack got so excited every time a plane flew over.