The Ever Talented Nalani

Nalani loves band! Have I mentioned that before? She is very dedicated when it comes to practicing her trombone, and band is one of her favorite classes. She even likes her teacher, Ms. Kaminsky!

Nalani wanted to try out for the Jazz Band. She needed to practice some bars of jazz music with tricky rhythms. I played them for her on the piano so she would know how they should sound, and worked with her on how long to hold some notes. Nalani went to the audition and made it in!

Next, Nalani decided that Jazz Band wasn't enough. She wanted to try out for the Symphonic Band. Otherwise, next year she would have been in the Concert Band. Nalani needed to learn all of her scales plus arpeggios. She auditioned for the Symphonic Band and made it again! She is so happy and proud.

We are also proud of Nalani, and we're happy she loves music and playing the trombone.

Hokulani's frizz

April 27, 2011

Hokulani likes to make small braids in her hair. She also likes that her hair gets frizzy after taking the braids out. So last night I told her that I would make braids for her with all of her hair. She was willing, even though it took a while. She had 23 braids in all!

Hokulani with all of her hair braided:

The back of Hokulani's head with all the braids:

This morning Hokulani took out all the braids and her hair was definitely frizzy. It was also much fuller than usual. (Hokulani has very thin hair.)

Here's Hokulani before we decided what to do with her hair:

We ended up putting a hair clip on both sides of her head. Cute!

By the time Hokulani returned home from school, her hair was still frizzy, but much more relaxed. She looked so pretty!

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!