Märia

Free and Cheap Stuff to Do With Your Keiki

We got to go with Seporah on Friday to The Children’s Museum with Seporah’s class. It’s super fun, we go there all the time. We were surprised to find out we were the only ones who had been there out of her class. It was the same when we went to the zoo, no one else had gone. Not exactly sure why no one else is going there, but thought I’d make a list of free and cheap things to do with your short stops, especially on Oahu:

FREE
-Mondays at the Mililani Town Center at 10:30am, Bungo the clown comes for toddler time.
-Tuesday mornings at Pearlridge Mall and Wednesday mornings at Kahala Mall there’s toddler time at 10:30AM.
-Tuesdays at 10:30AM at Mililani Library there’s story time with a craft.
-The beaches, KoOlina, Aweoaweo and Waikiki are the 3 that we’ve found that have the calmest waters for the keiki.
-Parks, parks, and more parks.
-Free movies this summer at Regal Theaters, check out http://www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx for more information.
-Bike rides, the girls LOVE the bike and it’s good exercise too.
-Walks/hiking. Depending on where you go, this could cost some for admission or parking, but very minimal. There’s Wahaiwa Botanical Gardens, Waimea Falls, Manoa Falls, Diamondhead.
-At least once a month there’s a Family Fun Fair somewhere. Usually free admission with crafts for the kids and entertainment. They happen downtown and at the colleges and universities and just all over.
-You have to be on the lookout, but quite frequently Museums have free days.
-Tutu and Me. This is a traveling toddler time that’s all over the islands.

Cheap Stuff
-Annual passes to the zoo are $25 for the ENTIRE family! Passes get 20% off gift shop and eatery.
-Annual passes to the aquarium are $60 for the family. Plus 20% off at the gift store
-Annual passes for the Children’s Museum/Discovery Center are a little bit more at $200, but if you average it out it’s sooo worth it. Plus 20% off at the gift store and cafe.
-Annual Passes at the water park are also more expensive, but right now if you buy them online they’re $70 each and they’re good for a whole 12 months, the place doesn’t close for the winter. And they do special events all the time.
-Jamba Juice, we always find these buy 1 get 1 smoothie free coupons. Then we have them put part of each of ours into a keiki cup and we end up getting 4 drinks for the price of one.
-McDonald’s, really for the price of a happy meal you get food, a toy, a playground, and a little peace and quiet. Not bad I’d say.
-The Baby Expo comes around twice a year in May and October. It’s called the BABY expo, but it’s got activities for up to about 6 or 7. It’s only $4.50 for adult, kids are free. There’s always snacks and stuff to do.
-Baby Hui, you have to sign up for it, but it’s Mommy and Me playdates that’s pretty cool. They hook you up with families with kids about the same age.

There’s ALWAYS stuff to do, you just have to look for it. And really this list doesn’t even touch the touristy stuff you can do here on the island. Maybe it would be different if we lived in a huge house with a huge backyard, maybe then I wouldn’t feel the need to do something. But we live in an 800 sq ft place on the 4th floor and we have got to do something everyday.

Under the Sea

I sent this photo out to a few people today via postcard and I was gonna not post it here so they would be surprised. But I find this picture utterly adorable and I really wanted to show everyone my little cutie patootie. We got 4 sets of snorkels and googles since the girls had been expressing the desire to see the fish under the water. Of course we get to the ocean and do you think they put their heads underneath? No way. Do you know where the snorkels are at right now? In the bathtub toy box.

BTW, I’ve been sending out postcards by cardstore.com. They’re really amazing and easy to use. My one complaint, is when you find out Mother’s Day is in 3 days (not 10 days) and you’re really scrambling to do something since you’ve been running around like crazy, they do not let you have the option of changing the Mother’s Day cards to “We Love You Grandma.” And then you get multiple calls asking why it says, “We Love You Mom” with a picture of their grandkids/nieces/children of other people in your life. So the postcards were really “Hey thinks for being part of our life, sorry I forgot and I sent them out in a rush. If it makes you feel any better, I worked the night before and of on Mother’s Day.”

Felicity Didn’t Want to Be Out Done By Seporah

One Good Man

When Mormons starting making movies a decade or so ago they were really good. Then they started mass producing them when they realized the loyalty of the market base – making the majority of them really, really sucky. I haven’t seen a good LDS cinematic film in a few years. Steven and I watched One Good Man last night and I’ll tell you what, I loved it. It was just a good movie about a man trying to do the best he could. It’s market base is specifically the LDS population as a large portion of the dialect is written in Mormonise (the movie didn’t even try to explain stake presidents or the MTC or any of a number of different common place things in the LDS world). I’d also like to say the lighting and cinematography deserves a nodding at least, it was very well shot. Steven’s complaint was he didn’t like all the piano pieces in place of action or dialogue. I thought it was fine, but then I get into mushy drama movies where everyone starts crying and the music gets louder.

Busy Busy Busy

So much has gone on, I think I need to do bulletin style:

– We got a new car! Well a new to us car. We’ve been a 1 car family since I was pregnant with Felicity and I was over it. We’d been looking for about 3 months for something that would fit into our budget and life. My very first car was an itty bitty Ford Festiva and I have been in love with itty bitty cars since. So it was AWESOME when Steven found an itty bitty Chevy Metro for just the right price. We’ve had it now for a couple of weeks and I am in love again. I parked in this parking space that had a huge truck on either side with both of them having wheels on the line and I fit right in with plenty of room. Plus the gas mileage is amazing, it gets like 38miles to the gallon. I told Steven it was worth the gas money alone to switch out the Neon for another Metro.

– With school and work and 2 crazy children our house is never quite as clean as I would like it. And I suffer from sleep deprivation on a daily basis making losing a little bit more sleep to sweep up the number of messes pretty much impossible (not to say I don’t clean, just our house always looks “lived in”). I had also got a little tired of that, so we now have people coming to clean our house. I am not ashamed to admit that, it makes me that much more sane at the end of the day.

– This actually happened about a month ago, but I didn’t want to say anything since I didn’t want to jinx it… deep breath… SEPORAH IS POTTY TRAINED!!!! Holy Cow you have no idea how excited I am about this one. She had been completely pee potty trained for about 8 months, but she had NEVER gone poop in the potty and we had gotten in the routine of washing out underwear everyday (multiple times, as she poops 2-3 times a day). All the while praying and trying out every method I could think of, heard of or read with no results. Then there was a contract aide at work who had 10 children, surely she had an idea I hadn’t though of. Indeed I was right. One day, one day was all it took and she was potty trained. Now on to Felicity…

– I’m reasonably sure my children are in a diverse enough area they have no idea about skin color. Case in point: Felicity had a little Einstein’s ball and was pointing at Leo saying, “Quincy! Quincy!” Seporah looks over and says, “Not Quincy. He Leo. Leo has glasses.” LOL, That was his distinguishing physical factor? I would have said something along the lines of, “No, Leo’s white and Quincy’s black.” But what do I know?

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– I really am enjoying the Spring time Hawaii. April, May, and June are the most beautiful, just right weather months here.

Seporah’s Face

As you can see I was completely at the wrong angle to take any good pictures of Seporah, but thought I’d put them up anyways just to show you her super cute expression. Kind of ironic part was I was like in the perfect spot to take pictures of another little guy in her class that I’m friends with his mommy. So I got like the most perfect picture of him doing the hula (but not my own daughter). Course I had to send it off to her.

This one was before the performance when I came to tell her good luck. She was shocked that I was at her school (she is every time, you’d think she’d get use to it, but no). This is her asking, “You are here?”

Some of Seporah’s classmates. They were all so adorable in their aloha wear and handmade leis. Her best friend is the one to her right. Seporah and Felicity adore her.

Seporah’s teachers Mrs. VanTresse and Mrs. Nicole. Can you tell how super proud Seporah was?

Luau in a Box Because Cancer Sucks

Only about a million years ago, Kayla Yearsley was my Maid of Honor at our wedding in Washington. She is now Kayla Stoker with 3 little rugrats of her own living in Washington. She and her husband Jeff are doing a silent auction to raise money for cancer research. If you are of the very fortunate small percentage to not know this, let me tell you what, cancer friggin’ sucks monkey balls. And in a lot of ways the treatments are even worse than the disease itself. Yucky, yucky. So they are trying to collect baskets from all 50 states for this auction on June 18th for the Franklin County, Washington Relay for Life. I assumed I was the only person they knew in Hawaii, so that means I had better make them a Luau in a Box. Yeah for touristy stuff, hopefully it’ll help in a small way to help find better treatments for cancer.

Please go here for additional details on the auction.

Hehehe

Mommy- …8, 9, 10! Ready or not here we come!

Daddy- Hmmm, Where could Seporah be?… *Looks around and then goes to open the bathroom door where Seporah is actually hiding.*

Seporah- SEPORAH’S IN THE KITCHEN!!!

Facebook Updates (Cuz It’s SO Much Easier Than Writing a Real Post ;)

3/23-My husband is currently taking apart ANOTHER laptop. I don’t even know how many operating systems he’s taken apart since we’ve been married just to fiddle with the insides. I am definitely married to a geek.

3/29-It never ceases to amaze me that as soon as my children are having a meltdown in public, I always end up running into someone I know. Why can’t I see them when my children are acting like angels?

3/30-Steven and I were TRYING to watch a movie so we told the girls no swimming. So they went into their room, put on their own swim diapers, swimsuits, floaties and slippers. Felicity even brought me the “scumscream.”

4/14-Seporah quote, “How ‘bout chocolate milk! Chocolate milk is SO good!”

4/20-Dude, Seporah actually pooped in the potty! Could we be almost done with this whole potty training the first child?

4/25-Felicity quote “Teacher help ‘licity color on a paper.” That’s a 7 word sentence, she’s 2 1/2. Wowsers. AND she pees in the potty consistently.

4/26-Bit of Advice: Do NOT accidentally wash a pull up with the rest of your children’s clothes, the results are really, really gross.

5/2-So…when your 4 year old dumps the sacrament bread on the floor, do you put it back into the tray or what?

5/6-I told my husband this week had our anniversary, Mother’s Day and Nurse’s Day in it. His response, “May is Zombie Awareness Month.”

Random From the Past Couple of Days

The girls have been painting like crazy lately.

This is what happens when you put cold water on a hot stoneware. Do not try this at home as they cost too much for experimentation. Don’t worry though we have another pizza stoneware.

Cute couple.

Can you tell she’s mine?

See I told you he hid from the camera when I take pictures. This is him peaking to see if I’m done.

Being a fussy monkey, whining about something or another. She IS two incase you forgot.

I bought 7 tops and 13 skorts at Walmart for $27. Tell me that’s not the deal of the decade. The skorts were only $1, so I bought a bunch in multiple sizes for Seporah to grow into.

The girls in their new swimsuits. Last year’s had gotten a little small. Seporah picked hers out. She liked the flower, Felicity didn’t care much as long as she got one. Her’s says Sunshine.

Seporah being a good big sister.

Steven receiving an award for being the best chemistry student in all of University of Hawaii West Oahu. His history instructor laughed when he found out, “It’s always nice to see our History majors dominate other fields as well.”

Us all dressed up for the banquet with the award.