Counting down to our move

We are counting down to our move to California.

We finally set the date to fly out of Florida on August 8th. The movers will be packing up our house and loading everything up on August 1st and 2nd. We're lucky to have friends from our ward to stay with until we fly out. The date to close on our house is also August 8th, so we're praying that everything continues to go smoothly and we won't be homeless once arriving in California.

27 MORE DAYS!

Happy Independence Day!

July 4, 2011

Happy Independence Day to all of you in the United States of America! I am so grateful to be a citizen of this country, and for the independence I enjoy here. I am also grateful to all who have sacrificed and are still out there sacrificing their time or possibly their lives for me to live free and comfortably in the USA.

On this Independence Day, we woke up early to participate in the Greater Geneva Grande Award Marching Band. Nalani and I joined the band and were marching in the parade in Geneva, Florida (a very small town). Check out the newsletter and article about the band.

Fortunately, the band had someone taking pictures, because Jason was with the children on the sidelines and wasn't around us to get pictures of us. Unfortunately, the music was difficult--and super fast--so Nalani decided not to march after all. She has only taken one year of band and struggled with the music. I told her to just fake it and march for the experience and fun of being in a marching band, but she was too discouraged. Even I had difficulty with the music and marching and playing, and I have had A LOT of experience with it. I practiced all the songs, but the director led the songs much faster than I had expected. We had only 1 hour of practice before the parade! Also, I had something clipped to my flute to hold the music, and I felt like it was pulling down my flute. It was hard to keep my flute up and keep my fingers on the flute since it was hot and I was sweaty. Overall though, I had so much fun!

A picture of the band before the parade:

The band in silly poses (I didn't know what to do):

Marching, marching... (I'm on the right with a white shirt and jean shorts). We performed 2 songs at intervals during the parade.

Still marching... (I'm second from the right, playing the flute):

I'm still on the right, but my music is kind of blocking my face this time. The band director is in the red shirt with a hat on. He was quite an interesting character.

After the parade we performed many more songs for the crowd who had gathered at the Geneva Community center. Can you find me with the black cap on?

A close-up of me! This was during the "concert". I could barely keep my flute up, because my fingers kept slipping from being sweaty. Ugh!

Later, we ate barbecue pork ribs, rice, and green beans for dinner. Mmm! I also made a patriotic fruit pizza that I found the directions to online (I did the cookie dough version, much easier). It was yummy!

God bless the USA!

Patriotic Bike Parade

July 2, 2011

In our ward for church, The Oviedo Ward, they have started a tradition of having a Patriotic Bike Parade for Independence Day. We attended last year and this year. The children are the main participators in the event, but the parents get involved too. The children (and parents) decorate bicycles, scooters, strollers, wagons, etc. with patriotic decorations. Then, on the day of the event, the children go around the parking lot of the church building. It starts off at a walking pace, but soon the children are zipping around the lot.

Leiohu was on her scooter once again this year, and she knows how to do it a little better than last year, but she still struggles. I helped her by holding on to the handles and pushing the scooter at times. We only got around once, while the other children had probably gone around 2 to 3 times.

We still had a lot of fun, and after the children had had enough (and the leaders said it had been long enough), we enjoyed a pancake breakfast inside the gym. Jason even got to help cook the pancakes this year.

Hokulani is the one without a helmet:

Here are Leiohu and Carmel:

Anuhea (white shirt) and her friend, Heidi (black shirt), were briefly in the parade:

Nalani, the videographer, caught everyone in the parade:

Leiohu's 3rd Birthday

June 30, 2011

Leiohu is 3! She wanted her birthday to come so badly, since we were counting down to Hokulani's birthday. (They celebrate their birthdays in the same month.) Jason came home early so we could celebrate. I had told him Leiohu might not be able to wait to open her presents, but she was very good and didn't even ask about them.

Look at how happy Leiohu is with her gifts!

Leiohu got a Dora the Explorer balloon!

Leiohu has been a Dora fanatic; however, she has recently gotten into The Backyardigans (also from the Nick, Jr. website). Here she got ALL of the dolls from The Backyardigans show.

Hokulani gave Leiohu "Baby Jaguar" from the show, Go, Diego, Go!

Leiohu wanted a Whimzy pet just like Hokulani. She chose a multi-color cat, and Mommy & Daddy got it for her.

New slippers! Leiohu has been using Dora slippers, but they're old and were getting too small. Now she has some new Dora slippers!

Leiohu kind of likes the show Kai-Lan, so we got her some dolls--they were Kai-Lan and Tolee. Too bad she's not really learning any Chinese from watching the show, because she has learned a lot of Spanish from Dora the Explorer.

Anuhea gave Leiohu a Dora blanket and a Disney princesses ball.

Leiohu loves having her own umbrella. She got a Dora umbrella!

Eager to use the umbrella...

Leiohu with all of her gifts:

Hokulani and Leiohu with the Baby Jaguar gift from Hokulani:

When we asked Leiohu what she wanted to eat for her birthday, she said chicken nuggets. We got frozen nuggets and tater tots.

Leiohu also loves corn, so we added that to our dinner.

Leiohu's eating her dinner:

Leiohu requested cupcakes with pink frosting. I didn't feel like making cupcakes, and then we'd have a lot of extras that we wouldn't want to eat. Instead we bought a mini cake for us to eat and Leiohu had her cupcake. (She chose the cupcake herself at the Publix grocery store.)

One, two, three...blow! Leiohu, even at 3 years old, knew to wait until we were finished singing to blow out the candle.

Happy Birthday, Leiohu! We love you, cutie pie!

Fun with Food

June 22-24, 2011

The children have had some fun with food this summer. Nalani and I made Minions cupcakes from the movie, "Despicable Me". We got the idea from this website: Gluesticks. Nalani took the cupcakes to a party some of the Beehives in Young Women attended. Everyone loved them!

One day for lunch we had homemade personal pizzas. Hokulani's friend, Haleigh, was over that day and got to make some too. The two girls decided to play restaurant so they took our orders of what we wanted on our pizzas and made them for us. (I put the pizzas in the oven.) We had English muffins, pizza sauce, pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, and cheese. Fun!

Happy Father's Day!

June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day to all of you dads, no matter what role you play. We love our Dad(s). I'm grateful for my father, Alfredo Bulusan, for all he taught me and for loving me no matter what. I'm also grateful for my husband, Jason, who is a wonderful father to our 4 daughters.

On Father's Day this year we made Jason's favorite meat: STEAK. He loves grilled steak. We also added rice and green salad to the meal. Mmm.

Jason wasn't expecting the gifts we gave him, that's for sure. The children gave him 2 casual polo shirts that he can use at work or any other time. Versatile!

I gave Jason something he can enjoy, and that the children are also enjoying while Jason's at school--a Nook Color! It's not as functional as an iPad, but Jason can still do a lot on this device. The books are the best.

We love you!

The Pretenders

June 18, 2011

Our landlord has decided to put our house up for sale. We have only had a few people come by to look at the house so far. One day, some prospective buyers came and we were all home. Anuhea also had her friend, Heidi Winters, over. The children decided to pretend they were sleeping, and in strange places or positions. Leiohu was the only one who was actually sleeping. It was her nap time. Here are the photos of their efforts.

Nalani:

Hokulani:

Heidi:

Anuhea:

Heidi:

Anuhea, Nalani, and Heidi (left to right):

By the way, the people who came to look at the house actually thought the children were sleeping, and were trying to be quiet. Teehee!