Aloha!

Hau'oli lā hānau

(pronounced How-o-lee Laa Haa-now…Happy birthday)
to one of my favorite people in the whole wide world,
an incredible Wahine

(pronounced wah-HEE-nay…woman),
Laura, my friend and cousin!
To help her celebrate turning the big
3-0,
we threw a luau much to her surprise.
She was surrounded by many of her lovely friends and family from near and far that adore her.
Thank you Lord for Laura and the heart you gave her.
What a beautiful person she is in my life and to the world.
She is well worth making a fuss over!

Isn't this the sweetest photo of Laura and her sweetheart Kasey?

Cooking Up a Great School Year!

We’re just days away from a new school year starting so as tradition has it, we put together Baylee’s annual “Summer Just Because” party. On the guest list were girls from her class that Baylee either knows or wants to get to know better (Hannah, we missed you).

Baylee loves to cook so we figured a cooking party would be the perfect way to cook off a great school year for 2009-2010!

As the girls entered our restaurant, on the white board, I spelled out Mrs. Yeargain’s name, their “soon to be” teacher. Then the five gals collaborated, coming up with an acrostic on what kind of teacher/class/school year they will have.The chefs cooked up a yummy meal. They began with (non-alcoholic) Strawberry Daiquiris, then homemade salsa was next to follow that they named Senoritas Salsa. They jarred it and creatively put a label on it with the plans to give it to Mrs. Yeargain on the first day of school with a bag of chips.
Each girl chopped, sliced, stirred, and sautéed their little hands off to make tostadas and its yummy toppings. They had a blast making faces on the tostada shells, an edible canvas you might say. Then to top off the meal, they each made homemade ice cream and put them in their concoction of yummy edible cinnamon sugar dessert bowls. Ole!
(Chef "Salty" Savannah)
(Chef "Adorable" Abby)
(Chef "Baking" Baylee)
(Chef "Marinade" Maddie)
(Chef "Sauté" Sabrina)

Our three hours went fast but we were able to take a dip in the pool as well, splashing and laughing a whole lot.

Man alive do I enjoy listening to Baylee playing with her friends with glee shining through their excited voices of the school year to come. Entering 3rd grade and a brand new class doesn’t seem like such a mountain to climb anymore for Baylee, now that she has four other girls…I mean FRIENDS to do it with.

Cheers!!!! Here’s to a great school year!

Star Wars Summer Fun

Today was Nathan’s and back by popular demand, a Star Wars theme from last year with Darth Vader (a.k.a. Daddy) as our guest. Teagan and Landon joined us from Nathan’s new class and his buddy Andrew who is in the same program, just next door in classes, played with them as well.
We set up things differently this year, where the boys, Jedi’s In Training, ran obstacles in the home shooting down the Droids that were all around! Their precision was impeccable (and boy, their moves were smooth)!

We made light sabers with pool noodles for the boys to “fight” with when eventually the Dark Side came out with music to introduce his arrival. Oh how the boys loved going against Darth Vader! They could have done it all day if it wasn’t for the 115 degree weather for poor Darth Vader who was of course, all in black!

Jedi Landon

Jedi Andrew

Jedi Teagan
Jedi Owen
Jedi Nathan
Jedi Baylee
This year the boys swam during the party as well and continued to use their light saber/pool noodles as they splashed about. We also dipped pretzels in colored chocolate melts, red and green, for yummy light saber treats as well as drank green Yoda Sodas and red Darth Maul floats.


Because of today, Nathan has two new buddies in Mrs. Runyon's class to play with on the first day of school as well as continue his bond with Andrew, a sweetheart. Today was just the beginning of friendships that will continue all year long, I just know it. And all the boys are eagerly anticipating the first day of school. {Goal accomplished!}