Freaky Friday.....

Well since it was Black Friday and all I felt that since I didn't want to deal with the crowds and drive an hour to get to a store that I would do some shopping online that morning so that is what I did, then we decided after lunch that we would take the kids to Sharks Cove to do some snorkeling. This place is awesome, but bring shoes, it is an inlet that is protected by that large reef and the fish are everywhere. In the middle is Jon, Curtis and Bailee headed out to snorkel. 

 These 2 didn't even want to try so they just played in the water around all the rocks. Curtis didn't last to long because he couldn't get his mask to work so he came back to play with these 2. After Jon and Bailee got done, I went out with Bailee and that is when we ran into the turtle. He was hanging out on the bottom just eating away without a care in the world. We were stupid and completely forgot the GoPro so we will go back and get some great footage of the fish.

 So once we were done snorkeling we headed home to get ready to go to the High School Football State Championship game.

 Kahuku VS Punahou

 Now I don't know how to describe this accurately but this place goes above and beyond. So the right side of the pic is the other team, our team is standing in the end zone

 This side of the stadium is all Kahuku High supporters, and that doesn't include the end zone where we were sitting. Now all of these people are from where we live, and there is only a one lane road getting back home!! Yep imagine the traffic to get home

 Here's the cheerleaders getting ready to have the team come out

 and here they come!!!! You can't help but get pulled into all the excitement

 This picture doesn't show very well what happens when they go to kick off or score-now keep in mind that they are called the Kahuku Raiders (indian head with feather) so everyone stands up and has a white rag and with their arm up in the air act like they are chopping and it looks amazing. And then they have a chant that goes along with it. If you have ever watched Florida State they do that chant

It was one of the best games that I have ever been to. We took state-again with a score of 42-20. Now the ride home, just getting out of the Aloha Stadium took 35 minutes. Normally it is a 15 minute freeway and 45 minutes of a one lane road to home. Well it took a lot longer than that and once we got off the freeway the sides of the road were people with signs and yelling and honking of horns the rest of the way home. We live 15 minutes from the high school and once you got to the high school they had an after party that had fireworks and a party until around 3am. Kahuku football is life for the people here. We didn't go to the after party but heard about it. I have NEVER seen anything like this anywhere-this high school is known to have the best supporters around, and I can honestly say that they do!!

GO KAHUKU RAIDERS!!!!

A Hawaiian Thanksgiving

So this year is the first year EVER that we have not been with family for Thanksgiving-it was weird! We didn't have the traditional dinner either......we had 2 different kinds of shrimp (really good-one was ketchup and the other garlic) now these shrimp were NOT shelled so to eat them you had to take their shell off and that included their legs!! We also had chicken, hot dogs (regular and Hawaiian) and steak. That was the main dishes

 I was in charge of all the sides so I did Strawberry-orange spinach salad (a webster favorite) & rolls

 Sweet Kahuku corn on the cob (picked the day before), funeral potatoes and desserts. I didn't take a picture of the desserts so I did 2 cheesecakes-homemade, 2 coconut cream pies-again homemade and I bought a Ted's Bakery pumpkin cream pie. We also had homemade spring rolls (egg rolls) that our landlord (upstairs) makes. So yummy ;-)

 The steak was amazing-this could become a new tradition for us!!

 After dinner we went to our house, downstairs, and we rested and then we went back upstairs to play some games and eat more!

 It ended up just being our family and the family upstairs and they only have 2 kids so we had enough food to feed like 3 more families. All in all it was a great day, yummy food good company and family. 

We missed all of you that we couldn't be with this year and hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Who's my SUPER STAR?

Every month the elementary has an assembly to recognize students who have excelled at the monthly theme for that month. For Okakopa (October) it was KULEANA (responsibility). I received a letter from Jake's teacher saying that she wanted to pick him for that month, the other kids saw it and were all so excited for him. This is a big deal for this school. Little did the rest of them know that they also were picked by each of their teachers!

Bailee

 Kenadee

 Curtis

 Jake

 All the kids for the month of October

 After the assembly-see I am here!

 It is a tradition to give something to your child when they receive this-some parents go way overboard!! So I got the boys a candy lei

 and the girls some flowers

I had to put this picture because I just thought it was funny. Bailee was the second kid on stage and that was pretty much her expression the whole time, then Kenadee and Curtis came up and you could just tell by their faces how excited they were to be picked. Jake was excited to, but he was last to come on the stage so he wasn't next to the other kids.

I asked Bailee about it after and she just said that so many people were looking at her and she doesn't like that. She doesn't really like to be the center of attention!

Halloween festivities

Let the parties begin, the kids had the chance to wear their costumes to school for the day so here we are ready to head off to school. Here they don't do class parties but......

Kenadee as Super Girl

 Jake a flip flop wearing Ninja-he didn't like to wear his mask but he really thought he was a ninja while he had this on

 Bailee as a Pirate or fortune teller is what everyone thought she was. Either way cute

 Curtis as a hard core Ninja with the mask and swords (couldn't take those to school)

 This is what Hauula Elementary does...a parade and dance party for an hour. It was quite cute to see all the great costumes.

Here is Jake with his teacher Mrs. Florez (also our stake primary president) she is an amazing teacher she has really helped Jake a ton

 Curtis is such a ham walking across the stage

 This is Mrs. Espinoza, she is Curtis's teacher and she really is great also. She challenges Curtis, which is a good thing. I love her costume!!

 Just a happy kid

 Kenadee and her friends hurrying across the stage as fast as they can, pretending not to look at anyone

 Same with Bailee, just get me off this stage as fast as you can

 This costume I just love, for all that have seen Hunger Games you will know who this is "May the odds be ever in your favor" she is in Bailee's class and get this, this is her costume just for school she has another one for trick or treating later that night

 Here's the whole school waiting their turn to walk across the stage and then this is where they did the dance party. They even think ahead and have water to hand out to the kids

 I know this isn't a great picture but this is the gang headed out to go trick or treating. We left our neighborhood and headed over to Laie

We headed over by the temple and there are about 3-4 big loops that practically ever house (remember that there are usually 2 homes on each lot) is decorated and handing out candy. We made it around 2 loops and the kids buckets were full and they were getting tired so we headed back and handed out candy to a few in our neighborhood. I loved that I could wear capris, tshirt and flip flops-no coats this year!!

Artist at work.....

Jake seems to always fall asleep when we have something fun planned...

Curtis and Bailee working on getting there pumpkins open-all on their own

 Kenadee working on hers-she did so awesome she was the first one to have her pumpkin open-although trying to help her is a little tricky for me she does it all backwards, gotta love those lefties

 Bailee still working on hers

 Working on those guts.....she doesn't have any problem with that part of carving

 Kenadee on the other hand, well she does. So I had to finish gutting the pumpkin and then she took over

 Once I had it ready I woke him up and it took him a little while to remember what we were doing

 He loves anything that he can get his hands on

 Once they picked their pattern they started making the dots so that we could cut out

Waiting her turn for the poker, so instead of sitting there and doing nothing she started poking holes with a knife

 Still working on hers, she picked a more difficult one and she said she would do it all and she did

 Same with Curtis

 The finished projects.....Jake with a little help from mom

Kenadee-did it all except cleaning out the pumpkin, I helped a little with that part

 Bailee-took 2 days but I couldn't be more proud

Curtis he worked so hard on this, it also took him 2 days

  These were the most expensive  pumpkins that we have ever bought

but it sure was worth it to see how happy the kids were with their finished projects!! Sure is a different experience when they do all the work now-I am one proud momma