The last month has been full of "end of the school year" stuff. It seems like we had something going on everyday. Haley and Rachel performed with the school band at about 4-5 different events around Oahu, including the 50th State Fair. Lilly just danced in a ballet performance put on by Ballet Hawaii, Isabelle's been shadowing Nana and enjoying the library reading program. Addalie has been cruising along with what she calls "my home school" and is already starting to read and do simple math. She is also learning different countries on our world map. She can point out and name the following countries/continents/states: Canada, Russia, China, Mongolia, Africa, Spain, Iceland, Svalbard (?), Madagascar, Angola, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, India, South Africa, Hawaii, Utah, and Antarctica. I can hardly keep up with her and don't have any idea what I'll do when she's supposed to enter kindergarten but could pass 12th grade. What a handful.
Malia is growing like a weed and just had her first tooth poke through this week. She is army crawling and can get on her knees and rock but can't get the legs to go anywhere. She is a big mommy's girl (shhh... I don't mind), she loves to play with Addie and they have little "jokes" they share and laugh at. She just learned to wave bye-bye and her favorite game is hide and seek. She is so much fun and we love her squishy little face. The girls made her a little "wagon/chair" out of a cardboard box and she loves them to take her outside and pull her around in it. She'll stay there all day if someones giving her a ride and will even fall asleep in it.
We lost a family member this month- Shane decided to go back to the mainland, and now it feels empty. Funny how fast you can adjust to new additions. I'll miss all the "Party in the USA" around here.
The older girls found an old tire by the road and after washing it up and begging Justin to bring home some rope, they rigged their own tire swing and figured out how to tie it to the big tree outside. It was loads of fun until the rope broke. Luckily no one got injured... guess we need better/thicker rope.
The elementary school the kids go to celebrated their 50th May Day this year and all the classes performed dances for the parents and staff. It was a lot of fun to see all the Hawaiian dances and customs portrayed through dance and song. There was even a "royal court" that performed as well.
Haley just finished 6th grade and is sad to leave her favorite/best teacher yet. She's been blessed with some really great ones (especially her 5th grade teacher, haha.. j/k), but this year she had probably one of the greatest teachers in the country. She inspired the kids to be their best and reach their goals and instilled a love of science in all of them. We're sad she won't be there next year to teach Rachel.
