Another year older, and another year cuter!

Six years ago, this enchanting ray of sunshine entered our family. Happy birthday McKenna!!

McKenna is known for her cheeks and her radiating smile that lights up the room. She is the baby of the family and is treated like a princess. You can't help but give her whatever she wants when you look at you with that baby face! Luckily, she hasn't figured out how to use that for evil....yet.

McKenna is full of personality. She makes friends easily and loves to giggle. She is always ready to make us laugh.

This year, she has embraced living in Hawaii. She loves the beach and is always on the prowl for beautiful flowers to pick for her mommy. Being 5 has been an eventful year...

McKenna learned to ride her bike in the spring. It took only a few tries, and she was ready to go! Hayden was a big help, taking her down the street and giving her instruction so that I could take important pictures.

She also learned to swim this summer...two sessions, and she's a fish! She has stood on a surfboard, and her favorite is jumping off the diving board. For her birthday, she was torn between having a party at the beach (where else will she get a birthday party in October at the beach?) and at the pool. The lack of sand at the pool won her over. She still doesn't like to get dirty.

She played her first real season of soccer recently, and she LOVED it. She is ready to do it again.

She has moved up to a mixed-age intermediate gymnastics and, I think, would rather tumble than walk. Back bends, cartwheels, round offs...

She is learning to read and is a wonderful student. She still listens well, and thinks her parents are the cat's meow. (If only that would last forever!) I love this "obedient" and innocent age. She looks up to Hayden and Sabrina, absorbing all she can from them. She is truly a joy to our family.

On her birthday, I took her after school to the beach to take pictures. Then we went to dinner at her favorite: McDonalds. For a small party, she had some friends to the pool after school on Friday, where she picked a cake made of cupcakes. She ended up so pooped from the week, she fell asleep for the last 1/2 hour at her own party. Such a cutie! We can only hope that being 6 is as good to her and us, as being 5 was. WE LOVE YOU!

Had a ball at the ball...

It's been several years since we have gone to an Air Force Ball, so this year, since we had friends going, we decided to venture to downtown Waikiki to celebrate the 63rd birthday of the air force.
I happened across a great dress the day before the event. I was glad to be going before this, as Dennis and I don't get a lot of date nights. But, now I was excited. Every girl loves a new dress, right? So, after getting dressed, and made up, and walking down the stairs to Hayden trumpeting a "horn" to announce my "arrival," I felt a little bit like a princess.

Remind me though...if we ever again have the opportunity to drive into Waikiki at dinnertime, to turn around and run the other way! It took us an hour and 15 min to drive about 10 miles. By that time, we were so frustrated and just glad to find the place. It was a beautiful room, but way too crowded with tables and people.

The program was nice, sat through some goofy tradition stuff, and not quite what I expected for something so landmark as 100 years of flight in the pacific, but nice. They had a really powerful POW/MIA ceremony where they set an empty table with several symbolic items, and representing all of the services of the military.

We sat next to friends of ours from Dennis's work. Unfortunately, our seat was next to the kitchen...literally...one of the entrances where they were coming in and out serving dinner to nearly 1200 people backed up against our friend.

Following the dinner and program, we got up and did some socializing. We had a friend playing in the air force band. They did a great era show. Funny to see guys with AF haircuts in those wigs. Dennis doesn't dance, except slow, and they didn't play anything like that. But, I had friends that got down and boogied...(is that a word?) Anyway, "come on and ride the train..."

But, all in all, there were about 12 of us LDS couples from the Halawa ward at church there. With that many people, it was hard to get around to everyone. But, we tried. This took awhile to gather up, and we still missed a few.

We just hung out in our finest, laughing with friends, and taking pictures of a night to remember. It was also fun to see pictures of friends at their balls in different parts of the world. With only a few years left in the military, maybe we'll try it again next year.

BFF on the island...

Pam has been one of my longest friends. We met on the steps at UCLA over 20 years ago. She was approachable, and I was lost. Fast friends, we ended up in each others' weddings. In fact, since living overseas, her wedding was the last time I had seen her. Her visit to Hawaii was probably one of the most anticipated things this summer. Yet, it has taken me two months to post pictures and celebrate the fun we had.

I could say that it was just too much fun...that I'm still recovering from all the fun. But, the truth is, that after the golden time of vacation-- and fun-- and laughter, real everyday life gets in the way. So, I've been amiss to share the joy she brought into our home during her short stay.

She arrived on the kids' first day of school, so I had planned some fun things for the mornings and others to include the kids after school. Right off the bat we went up to the PCC, Polynesian Culture Center. We had a great day soaking up the sun and island culture, catching up just like old times.

The next day, we went kayaking in the morning at Hickam Beach. It runs alongside the airport runway, so it's isn't unusual to catch air departures in the background.

That same day, after the kids were out of school, we took advantage of Hayden's recent sailing instruction. He took both of us and the other kids out around the harbor, showing off his mad skills. Pam said it was one of her best memories.

Dennis went with us one day to Waikiki, on an underwater adventure in a submarine. We went nearly 100 feet down and saw some cool sights...turtles and fish.

Since Pam had been to Hawaii several times, I tried to show her some things she may not have seen before. We took her to Pali lookout, where it's always windy, but an amazing view of the east side of the island.

On her last day, we made it to the Arizona Memorial. It was the first time our family had been there. It was an amazing place to spend a morning. We watched a historical video and took the boat out to the memorial. (I think this was McKenna's favorite part!)

These five short days meant so much to me. Unable to live close to family, for a short time she brought memories and a sense of "home" that we have missed being away from those we love.

Sweet Pam is a kindergarten teacher, and she embodies that in every sense of the word. She is the most sincere and open person I have ever met. She engaged my children, treated my husband like an old friend, and won over my friends from church.

My only regret from this visit is that it wasn't long enough, though she left promising to return next year. With some of the tourist stuff out of the way, I'll look forward to more long chats and enjoying each other's company. Because over all, she definitely wet my appetite for more. We welcome our visitors. Book your tickets now!

Back to school and back on track...

It seems strange to be writing this now, since the kids' first quarter of school is done and they are starting fall break tomorrow. But, it works to post their First Day of School pictures and update how their first quarter has gone.

Hayden and McKenna started school on August 2nd this year. We re-used backpacks and mostly have the same clothes as all summer...check that...all year long. This is Hayden's last year in elementary school, 6th grade. And, McKenna started 1st grade.

We transferred Sabrina to a hybrid format charter school. It is an online K12 program, but she has face-to-face classes for each of her core classes once a week. She has her own teachers, which makes my role a "learning coach" to keep her on track. My friend also has her daughter in a different, but similar format school, so we spent our first day going out for pastry.

I have the most precious scrapbook page of Sabrina's before and after pictures on the first day of school in first grade. She walked out the door in school-girl perfection and came back with hair a mess, shirt untucked, and even a huge gaping hole in her tights. McKenna is a lot like her big sister. Plus she came home tired. So, this is the best picture I got...the others were of her backside as she cried on the stairs... But, Hayden came home and set right to work...setting up to work on his homework right away, even with his friend. Not like when I was a kid...when I did more talking with the friends than work. He's started a good pattern that has kept him excelling all quarter. He's a responsible, smart kid, top of his class. Thank goodness for that!

I say that, because this quarter has not gone as planned in other areas. Last year, I worked out several times a week...had lots of peace and quiet, stuff done around the house, and fun with friends. I tried to get back into that pattern for a couple of weeks, letting Sabrina work at her pace, keeping track that she was getting lessons done. I thought she'd get done with her schoolwork early, and we could do things together.

But, a couple of weeks in, I realized she wasn't doing too well on tests. So, I started watching her work. I found that although she worked slow, she was doing well on quizzes. It took me a bit of study and investigation to realize she doesn't know how to study. She also hasn't learned how to take notes.

So, for the next 2 weeks, I sat next to her while she was doing her lessons, helping her study for her tests, proof-reading her work before submitting, and double-checking her work. I even went lesson by lesson through some of her classes. We have been staying up to 10pm, midnight on weekends, doing work. Her grades had all come up 1-2 letter grades, but I was exhausted.

I couldn't keep it up, so this past week I backed off. Pushing her through the lessons, but not re-creating the wheel when it came to studying. One of the biggest challenges has been having to familiarize myself with the material again after 25 years. I was directed to sample questions in the mentor guides to help her study. This worked much better, and I think we're in a place now where we're not playing so much catch up. We plan to use this school break this week to get ahead a few lessons.

Other than that, although she was sad that she wouldn't be going to a regular high school, she's making friends and enjoying where she's at. She's in the Glee club, attending early, early morning seminary (5:50am!) and loving it, and her blood sugars have been so much better at home.

Next quarter we'll have the holiday programs and parties to look forward to. I know this year will fly by, and my babies will be a year older and one year closer to pushing me out of a job. I'm trying to re-focus, not get too stressed out, and enjoy it before it's gone.