Anuhea's Mary Lyon Project

April 25, 2011

For Anuhea's U.S. History class she needed to complete a project on a woman who made a change for the better. She chose Mary Lyon who helped to get a better education for girls at a time when education was optional or not desirable for girls to receive. Anuhea wrote a short report on Mary Lyon

Anuhea also needed to make a bust of the person she chose (Mary Lyon) out of some sort of material. The medium she chose was clay. It was Pluffy clay, which is similar to Crayola Model Magic clay. She could mold it and leave it to continue another time. It wouldn't dry out. Then we baked it and it was hard as rock. Here are pictures of Anuhea and her project, before and after. We think she did a great job!

The bust before it was painted:

Anuhea's painting the bust (and listening to music):

Anuhea's painting the bust:

The final product plus a picture of Mary Lyon:

The final product:

Happy Easter!

April 24, 2011

It's Easter! We were so excited for this special day to celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We were also "blessed" for this Sunday to be Fast Sunday. How difficult it was to fast for almost the entire day when we wanted to eat candy from plastic Easter eggs, and we were preparing our meal for dinner. Nevertheless, those of us who held out until the end were blessed.

We read some scriptures about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. You can also read a wonderful message from our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson.

For our Easter feast I wanted to have ham, but some members of the family didn't want ham so we voted between ham and roasted chicken. Roasted chicken won, and you can click on the tab 2011 Meals: 4/18-4/24 to find the recipe link if you're interested. To the chicken we added fresh green beans (boiled), and Hawaiian sweet rolls. Delicious!

Roasted Herb Chicken & potatoes (in roasting pan)

Roasted Herb Chicken, carved, with potatoes around it

Fresh green beans

Hawaiian sweet rolls

Leiohu got a beautiful green dress with pink bows from her sister, Anuhea, and Anuhea's friend, Heidi. It didn't fit yet when they bought the dress so we had been saving it for Easter Sunday. It was so cute on Leiohu. Unfortunately, she didn't want to look at the camera.

Easter Party

April 23, 2011

We were invited to Scott & Dina Roberts' home for an Easter party. Many families from our Oviedo Ward were also invited. We had a great time visiting, playing, and eating.

The Roberts recently had their pool remodeled and it's nice. The children enjoyed it almost the whole afternoon. Anuhea wasn't with us, because she went to the beach with a friend and her friend's family.

Look at this cool slide! Of course, the children also loved jumping off the "mountain".

Leiohu didn't want to put her feet in the water at first. After a little while, she would stand in the water. Later in the afternoon, Leiohu finally put her body into the water as she played with Hokulani.

Hokulani had no trouble getting right into the pool. She loved going underwater, trying to see how long she could stay under or whether she could sit on the bottom of the pool.

This is a limited view of the lake at the back of the Roberts' home (and their boat/dock).

The children were able to go on an Easter egg hunt. All of the families brought a dozen filled plastic eggs for each child who wanted to hunt for eggs. Therefore, each child got to come home with 12 eggs filled with something possibly different than what they took.

The children went searching at brief intervals. The youngest started first, and the oldest went out last. Here's Hokulani waiting for her turn.

Hokulani hunts for eggs:

Leiohu hunts for eggs--with Jason's help:

Nalani's reaching for an egg she found:

I didn't get any pictures of the food, but we had so much to eat, and thank goodness, because tomorrow is Fast Sunday! We had ham, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, rolls, green beans, fruit salad, vegetable platter, and many more. We took the vegetable platter and surprise cupcakes. We also took some of the bunny buns I made the other day. Mmm!

Rainbow Jell-O!

March 25, 2011

We love Rainbow Jell-O!

I have been wanting to make Rainbow Jell-O for so long, but never had the chance since the process takes a while. FINALLY, I decided to make the Jell-O. It was still a crazy day. There were so many things going on, but the Jell-O got finished. The children were so excited to see it coming together, and they were even more excited to eat it!

Check out this blog for the directions on how to make Rainbow Jell-O. Your family will love you for making it! :)

[If you use the directions from the link, then please note that the blogger did not use purple gelatin. If you do use purple, then you'll need to use more unflavored gelatin and condensed milk, or you'll need to use it sparingly. Good luck!]

New Smyrna Beach fun

March 24, 2011

Fun at New Smyrna Beach

Anuhea and her friend, Kristina, decided that they wanted to go to the beach. I took a while to decide whether or not I wanted to drive all the way out there, let alone have to be responsible for all the children and provide food. I finally decided to go. The children would love playing at the beach, and this (Spring Break) was their chance to go.

Nalani had already planned to have her friend, Kayla, sleep over that night so we invited her to come earlier and hang out at the beach too. She jumped at the chance to go to the beach. Therefore, we had 6 instead of 4 children for me to be responsible for. Crazy? Definitely. But it was worth it. Normally, Jason would be at the beach with us too, and he would help with the driving (I'm not good with driving long distances/periods of time), but he was out of town.

We packed sandwiches, drinks, snacks, and fruit. The beach was beautiful and definitely worth the trip out.

Photograph by: Anuhea Chen

A lot of people were at the beach, but we were able to find a decent spot to park. Phew! I didn't even get to wear my swimsuit and enjoy the water, but I was happy to sit in the shade anyway. At least I got to put my feet in the water to get water in the bucket for Leiohu.

Kayla and Nalani enjoyed the water and the sand. They even got to use the boogie board.

We brought along our buckets and sand toys. Leiohu loved playing with the water in the bucket, because she doesn't like being in the ocean. Hokulani played in the ocean and on the beach, but joined Leiohu (where we were by the car) in the end. We were excited to see a pod of dolphins swim by so close to shore while we were at the beach too!

Anuhea and Kristina didn't even go in the water (except maybe with their feet)! They scoped the beach for friends from school (and may even have been checking out the guys). Anuhea failed to put on sunblock and got a bad sunburn. Hope she learned her lesson.

Photograph by: Anuhea Chen

Anuhea's friend, Kristina

Photograph by: Anuhea Chen

(Somehow I didn't get a picture of Anuhea while we were at the beach.)

On our way home we stopped at Wal Mart and bought a bunch of snacks. Everyone had fun!