April is the second craziest month for us due to all the birthdays this month. For Haley's birthday we invited friends over to play games and have heath cake (otherwise known as BTS cake). She is excited to be in YW's and experienced her first YM/YW activity last night where they had an etiquette dinner. She wasn't so crazy about being paired up with one of the boys but the rest was lots of fun. We're not sure how we got a 12 yr. old all of a sudden, it seems like it snuck up on us and we're afraid the next 12 years will go even faster. Haley is an amazing young lady who is self motivated, fun, beautiful, and a great example to her sisters and everyone around her. We love you Haley!
Rachel wanted to have some really crazy brownies for her birthday that are the richest and best things you'll ever eat... recipe courtesy of Pampered Chef. We invited friends over to help us eat them so we wouldn't all gain 10 pounds. When Rachel gave me a list of ideas for what she wanted for her birthday, I wasn't surprised to see 30+ items on there. The best part about the list was that everything was numbered like this..... 1., 1 1/2., 2., 2 1/2.,..... she is so funny. Every 1/2 numbered item said iphone. Needless to say... she didn't get an iphone, but it was a good try anyway. Rachel makes us laugh all the time with her fun sense of humor and always a good prank up her sleeve. She is so inventive and fun to be around. She is working hard at school and loves playing her clarinet. Rachel, we love you!
By the time my birthday came around cake and brownies were at the bottom of my list for birthday desserts. I decided to try a new creme brulee recipe that Shelley gave me. It didn't set up right, so we ended up with chocolate haupia pie, not a bad trade. Justin took the day off work so he and I went on a catamaran ride out of Waikiki. We'd never done anything like that before and we both really liked it. It was so relaxing and beautiful and fun to see a different view of the surfers and waikiki. Justin kept saying how he didn't think he'd felt that relaxed since we've been here. We both got soaked and were glad we gave up the very front seats where we would have been totally drenched. It was a great birthday and probably one of my favorite ones ever.
We've hit the beach a little more lately than we have been, and its been nice. I miss the days when we used to go everyday. Now that we've lived here a while, have more responsibilities, and the girls have a stricter school schedule with homework, we don't go near as often as we'd like. This past weekend we had a great time at a beach west of Hale'iwa where we always get to see turtles. This time we saw close to twenty of them out feeding on the rocks. The kids tried unsuccessfully to get close but at least they got a good look at them through their snorkels.
I've decided to use furlough Fridays as an outside day for the girls so this last one we spent some time at the lagoons in Ko'Olina. It was a beautiful day and we all wished we could have stayed longer, except for Malia who demanded that we go home where she could sleep in her own bed.
We're excited to have Justin's mom and brother staying with us for a while and hope and pray everyday that we don't drive them crazy; afterall, there's a lot of estrogen and hair around here coupled with an overdose of squealing and screaming. Hopefully they'll come out of this without going too looney.
