Back to Reality! The End of Summer Vacation!

Oh how I wish it was summer! Today makes 2 full weeks of work for me. To give you an idea of how exhausted I am...for the last 2 Fridays I have taken a nap from 4pm to 6pm! I guess it's a combination of waking up twice a night (at 1am and 4am) to nurse Kaleohano, waking up at 6 am everyday to get ready for work, not being able to take a nap, taking care of the 4 childrens' various needs after-school, and going to bed every night at 10:30.

Since no one wanted to cook dinner tonight, after I woke up at 6pm, we decide to go to town to buy dinner. When we got home, I decided to take a few pictures of Kaleohano since most of our pictures of him are taken when he is asleep. He was finally awake for a long time since he slept for 5 hours for Matt today while I was at work! I wish he would sleep 5 straight hours at night so I could get some rest!

Kamalei loves to hold his baby brother!

Look at that face! Adorable...yet...Rascal!

My chubby cheeks! And double chins!

Like night and day! In color and personality!

Kamalei is about 3 and 1/2 years old and Kaleohano is 3 and 1/2 months old.

I couldn't get Kaleohano to smile for me at the camera...

But he was getting very excited kicking his legs and waving his arms around so much...his skin started getting all sweaty and clammy.

I wish I could stay at home and spend more time with my cutie pie!
I miss him so much when I'm at work. At least next week is only a 4 day work week. Yay!

Cub Scouts 100 Year Celebration!

After swimming graduation, we went home to rest a bit and then we went to the 100 year Boy Scouts of America Celebration and Kukui Grove Center for a Light Ceremony.

They opened with the Flag Ceremony and the Pledge of Alligence.

While people were speaking and the video was going on, La'akea looked pretty bored poking at his balloon. The event was an hour and a half...too long for little ones!

The younger ones were pretty bored so it was a good thing that there were balloons to entertain them and cake and juice for afterwards too!

Ryan and Kamalei were getting into mischief. Luckily Leonard is in Young Mens and Ryan was there to keep Kama company.

Say cheese! I finally got Kamalei to stay still so I could get a shot of him with the balloon.

We had to tie the balloon to his wrist so it wouldn't fly away.

Kaleohano...once again sleeping through another activity! He is such a good baby!

The momentous occasion of father and son at the candlelight ceremony celebrating 100 years of scouting. We will definitely not be around to see this event again in another hundred years!

Finally...

The moment we've all been waiting for...

we get to light the candles!!

La'akea's cub scout leaders...Aunty Nora, Aunty Eileen, and Grandma Linda. Our ward brought the old timers back to revive our scouting program and I think we have the best pack on the island now! They sure know what they are doing and the kids are really enjoying it!

This was the best part of the night. To see all the candles lit down every row of chairs.

Happy 100 years Boy Scouts of America!

2010 Swimming Graduation

On Saturday, July 31, 2010 was Swimming Graduation. We decided to sign up La'akea and Makaio for Beginners swimming lessons...again.
The classes were 3 days a week for 3 weeks in July.

This time La'akea was the first one to swim across the length of the pool...freestyle to get his graduation medal! I think he'll be ready for the Advanced swimming class next summer!
Makaio, as usual said it was easy so we hope he is strong enough to handle swimming two lengths of the pool with 2 different strokes next year so he can be in the Advanced class with La'akea. We want them both to be in the Advanced class so we won't have to stay at the pool for 2 and 1/2 hours to wait for the both of them in 2 different classes (Beginners AND Advanced).

Kamalei was ready for swimming lessons from last year! Little does he know he can't take lessons until he is 5! 2 more years Kamalei! He thought he was part of the class and wanted to sit with his big brothers at the edge of the pool.

He is definitely fearless as he kept going down the stairs to go into the pool and hold on to the sides... he has no idea how to swim. Ugh! Scary!

The lessons are free and every year all the county asks you to do is to provide $10 worth of prizes per child, to throw into the pool AND to bring food for the potluck at graduation.

People bring bubbles, beach balls, capri sun juices, ice pops, and this year Aunty Amber put 20 $1.00 bills in ziplock bags! The kids love it! They swim for the things they want while the parents wait on the side with plastic bags for them to collect their little prizes. La'a went for a plastic sword first and Makaio went for a beach ball and some kind of floatation device...basically the biggest thing in the pool!

And here's Kamalei...who still thinks he can swim all by himself and is not afraid to go into the pool all by himself! He freaks me out! I was on deck carrying Kaleohano and taking pictures...hoping Kamalei would not drown!

Sailboat Regatta Cub Scouts

On Wednesday, July 28, 2010, La'akea was awarded his cub scout Wolf badge. He also got his Bowling belt loop and pin, and his Outdoors and Achievement ribbon for the 100 year BSA celebration on the same night. He has until December to attain the other 3 ribbons to get all 5. He was also awarded his Gold Arrowpoint and 2 Silver Arrowpoints for doing 30 different things in the elective program. We are so proud of him for this accomplishment! In a couple of days, he will be turning 9 and its on to working his way towards earning his Bear badge in the next year!

He got a free 100 year celebration t-shirt and a bunch of awards and certificates. I don't know if i'll be as good as Grandma Linda was at saving all of this things in a organized fashion. She recently gave Matt all of his awards from cub and boys scouts in a binder from 25 - 30 years ago!

La'akea's fellow cub scouters!

I think this was the Makahiki Participation Badge awarded by Grandma Linda, his Cub Master.

Aunty Avis Kaona is La'akea's den leader and this project fulfilled a photography elective and they were able to put the pictures they took in a home made scrapbook.

Here is the scrapbook with wooden covers La'akea got to decorate and paint.
On the same night, after all the awards were presented to various cub scouts, they moved on to the Sailboat Rain Gutter Regatta Race!

Here is La'akea with his Masterpiece!

He was very excited about his boat winning a few races.

But as time went on, I don't think his lung capacity could survive racing over and over again against all the participants!

Blow gently La'a! Not too hard!

I think La'akea had lots of fun..even is he didn't win!

And the winners are...from Right to Left...Gage 1st place, Jordan 2nd place and Levi 3rd place.
The refreshments reminded me that summertime was slowly coming to an end and that made me sad...it was nice staying at home with my kids through the summer...can't wait until fall break!
Kamalei loved the refreshments most of all....ice cream!

Kaleohano slept through it all!