Thankful Feast

 Last Wednesday, Rebekah's class had a cute Thankful Feast...


 Complete with homemade butter that the kids all had a turn to shake, bread and soup that everyone helped prepare. Each child needed to bring in veggies to share, Rebekah chose potatoes.


 




















I must be funnier than I thought the way she's laughing at me here. I love spending time in her class. It's so amazing to me how quickly the kids learn and soak up the German language. Just 3 months ago most of them had heard very little, if any German and now they are listening and responding to stories and conversations in a foreign language.


 I keep feeling like I'm missing out on special occasions in the older girls' classrooms, but I think it is just that they need less parent help as the kids get older :-(

On a funny note, Dave only worked a half day and came with me to the party in Rebekah's class. Seeing that there was more than enough parents, he walked down to Emma's room because he knew they were having a party in there at the same time. He was the only parent there, and Emma met him at the door with the eager announcement to her entire class, "This is my dad, he's trying to grow a moustache!" {more on that tomorrow} Her comment was met with lots of giggles and wild eyed stares from her classmates. Poor Dad was a little embarrassed.

Gratitude

I think that gratitude naturally leads to greater happiness. Gratitude makes the small blessings that much sweeter and the big things much more meaningful. All month long I've been keeping lists of the things I am thankful for, some I've written down, others have remained mental notes. It's always interesting to me how when I concentrate on one specific thing I end up noticing things I may have paid little attention to previously, and I'm always challenged by it.

As I thought about how thankful I am for both our little family and our extended families, I feel so happy and blessed that our girls have Grandparents and Great Grandparents that they know and love so much.

This week I am very thankful for great family time over the Thanksgiving weekend. Even if it did go by too quickly!
 
{Hey Rebekah, I remember when walking on Grandpa's sore back used to be my job :-)}


I'm so thankful that the girls still get excited over the simplest things.
 




















They were very funny and giddy when we pulled into Home Depot and told them we were there to get a Christmas tree. As Ka'iulani pulled the two smaller girls around the tree yard on the cart you would have thought we were doing something much fancier and exciting than Home Depot shopping.


After tree shopping we just about blew the lid off their entire morning by going across the street to get doughnuts.
 Enjoying, with closed eyes, the sweet goodness that is Krispy Kreme. On second thought, the sleepover she just came from may have had something to do with the closed eyes.


 Her doughnut was gone in an instant. The only remaining evidence: all the little glaze crumbs on her face. She's the messiest eater.


 I don't think I've ever seen her finish of a whole one of anything before, but she came real close with this sprinkled treat. With one bite left she handed it to Emma and told her, "Here, my tummy is getting too sugary." (Me too!) I'm thankful for these girls and the tiny things they find joy in everyday.


I'm thankful for all the pretty Christmas lights being put up here at home, in the yards on our block and downtown. Even the Christmas tree that toppled over in our living room about one hour after we finished decorating it.


I'm thankful for our season tics to 1st Stage Children's Theater.
 We've seen two out of the six mainstage shows so far, and they have been great! At the intermission the girls have walked around the hallway of the theater admiring the posters for the upcoming shows and commenting how excited they are to get to see all of them this year.



I'm thankful for the ministry of Steve Evans who visited our church in October. He and his wife live in Africa setting up wells in communities where clean drinking water is not available. The mothers in these villages often have to walk several hours each way to provide their families with clean water. I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of the concerns these mothers must have for the health of their children. It reminds me how often I take simple things for granted. Which is something I should never do because I don't have to look to the other side of the world to see the impact of illness and disease. I'm thankful for the ministry of Steve and the many others like him who are willing to leave home to meet needs in another part of the world.

Over the last weeks and months the topic of thankfulness has come up a lot in Bible Studies, services, and conversations with friends. I'm sure the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons are part of the reason for this, but I always love hearing people talk about how being grateful for something was completely able to transform their perspective. It's pretty hard to concentrate on being thankful, while at the same time feeling worried, mad, or any other range of emotion that stands in the way of gratitude. Circumstances change quickly and tomorrow could be a lot better (or worse) than today. So whether it's a lot that I have to be thankful for, or whether it's just a few doughnuts ~ I hope I'm always able to approach things with a thankful heart.

It's been fun to keep a written record of blessings, and I'm going to do my best to keep up with it. I still maintain that I'm terrible at journaling. I think it's my handwriting, no matter how pretty the paper is, it's just not pleasant to look at...

It's a few days late, but Happy Thanksgiving!!

Little House on the Prairie

Although on any given night it could be, this is not a re-enactment of a scene from Little House on the Prairie, and I don't usually make Emma do her homework by candle light.
 Recently a lamp in this room broke, but just a few feet away there is a perfectly well lit table and chairs, not to mention the desk and small ikea table upstairs, set up for just this purpose.

Little Em, is a flashlight over your shoulder really the best way to do your homework?

an attitude {of gratitude} ~ week 3

This week I am very thankful for time spent reading with the girls. A few of our favorite books that we have enjoyed in the last week are Fancy Nancy Poet Extraordinaire!, A Bad Case of Stripes and Little Women. I highly recommend the book The Oak Inside the Acorn by Max Lucado. Especially if you're in the mood to get all choked up by a story, so much so that your seven year old has to finish the last few pages.
 It's the best and most relaxing way to end the day. Even when someone decides it's funny to place an ear of indian corn under the arms of their sleeping sister. She has the best laugh (the mischievous one smiling in the back of the photo). Another thing I'm thankful for.


I'm also thankful for two new foods I tried this week, edamame and bibimbop (the one that is served hot!). I didn't make up either one of those names, and they are both delicious. Thank you so much for lunch, honey!

I am thankful for my new infinity scarf. So soft and warm and the color of sugar plums. I love it!!

I'm thankful for the girls teachers at school.

 I'm thankful for living room theatrics.


I'm so thankful that Alyssa enjoyed a great birthday. As the girls get older, I always worry that they will lose some of the child-like excitement over cupcakes and birthday songs and decorating the living room for the occasion. Not Alyssa! :-) She kept referring to it as her "Birthday Week" because there were multiple mini~celebrations. Last weekend we celebrated with my parents, then the day of her birthday we had a special dinner at home just as a family, then Tuesday was her birthday treat day at school, and Wednesday was her treat day at church... It was special for her to be celebrated in so many ways, and I am grateful for all the family and friends who went out of their way to send sweet birthday wishes! Thank you!!

I'm thankful for Miss Jessica, one of Alyssa's teachers at church who saw me struggling to carry all the teaching materials for my class and the cupcakes for her class, so she lightened the load taking all the cupcakes.

I'm thankful that the girls were able to stay for open gym on Friday. This is something they had been asking to do all Fall, and every week we had some kind of activity going on that prevented me from being able to say yes. Later in the weekend their coach told me how excited and happy they had been to stay late in the gym.


I'm thankful for the sounds in our home. Earlier today while I was making brunch Dave was talking to his sister on the phone, I overheard Emma reading a book, Rebekah was simultaneously singing a duck song and "reading" a book about dinosaurs, and Alyssa was in the bathroom speaking with an English accent while carefully watching her facial expressions in the mirror. I had water running in the sink and the oven was making the whirring noise it makes when set on "convection bake." I think football was on TV too. Although no single one of those things was very loud, put together it was noisy, and I had a terrible headache. It occurred to me how sweet all these unrelated noises were and how much it sounds like home.

Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:18

Bekah's zoo field trip

Yesterday, Rebekah's class took a field trip to the zoo. Each of the children whose parent was going with were asked to pick a partner, and Rebekah picked Patrick.
 They walked around the zoo together like they were best buddies :-)


For the purpose of easy identification, Rebekah's teacher made them all field trip shirts that say "Hier Bin Ich!" (Here I am!) on the back. The shirts had to be over-sized so that they could fit over winter coats. All the kids looked like little marshmallow people wearing them, and Patrick's shirt in particular was really snug over his puffy coat.
 




















At one point Rebekah looked over at him and said, "You look like a... Muscles!" I kept waiting for her to add "man" or "guy" but she just left it as "muscles." Followed by lots of giggles then the realization that Patrick wasn't laughing with her. So she added, "Oh, it's cute!" Lots more giggles.


 




















We went into the education center where the kids learned a lot about turkeys and got to make one of their own. It's really cute to hear a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds saying words like herbivore, carnivore, polt, snood and wattle.


On Thursday nights while the big girls are busy at gymnastics, Rebekah and I head over to the Germanfest offices for this:
 Kindergruppe German Dance. She's learning some traditional German dances and some of Emma's friends who have been part of the group for a few years have taken her under their wing.


 She loves it, and it's so fun that she has a little activity that is all her own.

an attitude {of gratitude} ~ week 2

A few things I am thankful for in this past week...

We are beyond thankful that Dave's grandfather's surgery went well. We are so grateful that even though the procedure took longer than planned, the doctors feel confident that it was successful. We have been thinking about you and praying for you constantly, Granddad!!
 A photo from 2008 with Grandmommy, Granddaddy, Koa, Kanoe, and Kaliko. We love and miss you all!



I am thankful for the time I spent with a friend last Friday. She is one of the funniest people I know and we work together to plan a fundraising event at school. She recently had a surgery to remove cancer and is doing great. Just to sit with her and chat and hear her make jokes was amazing {even if it was just a school meeting}, and it did my heart good.

Something else of much less consequence, but for which I am still thankful, is that ever since we turned the clocks back about a week and a half ago, the girls have been waking up so early since it gets lighter earlier. It is incredible what an extra half hour or so can change in our morning! A couple of the mornings the girls actually had time to play before school and a couple other mornings we did a devotional that we usually do at night, in the morning. What an awesome way to start the day, and I'm enjoying it because I know this extra morning time won't last forever, their sleep schedule will soon regulate.

Also this week I washed {and put through the dryer} one of the girl's Hershey Factory Worker badges. It's only a piece of photo paper encased in plastic and hanging from a lanyard, but it's a very special vacation keepsake. Despite going through both machines, it was completely unharmed! Recently I have also washed various coins, a tube of Bonne Belle chapstick, and four pieces of gum that were in someone's pocket with no harm to any of the machines or objects. Clearly I need to be checking pockets better!

I am also grateful for the time we had with the girls to start this project:
 




















I borrowed this "Thankful Tree" idea from someone who had theirs hand-painted on a woven tapestry so it could be used year after year. It was beautiful and I loved the idea. However, since that sounded like a project I could probably finish by the time my girls are about 50, I knew I needed to do something on a smaller scale. I talked it over with a friend who suggested I just draw ours on either poster board or butcher paper. Thanks, Tanya for the great idea! We will write things on construction paper leaves and glue them on the hand print tree branches. I also told the girls that for each leaf they put on the tree, they can add a feather to their hand print on the bottom to make a turkey. I think it will be fun.

Dear Sweet Alyssa,

Eleven?!?! {11}
Really?


 How is it even possible? Gone are the birthday requests for Barbies and My Little Ponies, the toys are being replaced by Taylor Swift CDs, clothes and perfect accessories. When did you get so grown up?



 




















You are a sweet and generous girl. Especially with your sisters I never have to ask you to share. You always buy them special surprises at the church's MPact Mall and even share your reward treats with them. You are also very careful, kind and motherly with them. They couldn't ask for a better big sister. You have a near constant shadow, they love you so much!



I'm always so proud of how hard you work.
 




















At church, you do something I could never do ~ sing in front of people! I'm not sure where in your gene pool you are pulling this from, but you have never seemed hesitant to get up and speak or sing in front of a crowd. More importantly you are learning to share your faith using the gifts that God has given you. If you can do that at this young age, I can't wait to see how He continues to use you for His glory as you grow up.


 At school, 5th grade has been the first year that has really offered a lot of challenging assignments and projects. You always do your best and are learning so much as you have become increasingly busy with other commitments that demand a lot of your time.


Speaking of school, look where you got to go today for a field trip:
 The Survive Alive House. It's an awesome community resource that teaches kids how to escape home fires. But, for a child who dislikes fire the way you do, it didn't seem like the most appealing place to visit, especially not on your birthday. {Happy Birthday, go ahead, get in this house that we will pretend to set ablaze and let's see how fast you can get out!} You did just fine :-) I'm so proud of your good behavior. Not only at the field trip, just in general. Spending time with your class {who are mostly really nice kids} made me count my blessings that you are my child.


 You have come so far in a short amount of time at gymnastics, and I couldn't be more proud of how hard you have worked to get there!


 
Happy Birthday, Sweet Princess Ka'iulani. Thank you for being the Best 1st Little Daughter, Big Sister and Sweetheart we could ever dream up. We Love You So Much!!

Laterne, Laterne

Last night the girls' school held Laternennacht, an Autumn tradition in Germany that is similar to a combination of our trick or treating and caroling traditions. Everyone gathers in the school gym to sing German songs like Laterne, Laterne and Der Herbst. As the songs conclude everyone parades around the park adjacent to the school with their beautiful lanterns glowing. It's really an awesome sight that I've never quite been able to capture photographically.

 




















Some of my favorite laternes {paper lanterns} are the handmade ones that the kids get to make in their classrooms, each one comes out so different and unique. I always look forward to the girls bringing theirs home. These ones shipped in from Germany are awfully cute though too!


We finally got to see the Hand Chime Choir in action tonight:
 




















I now understand better why Alyssa loves it enough to skip out on recess every day, it looks like a lot of fun and suits her interests so well.


 Here's one of Alyssa's friends, Martina playing with Emma and Rebekah. She's always so sweet to the little girls!


 For the first time ever at Laternennacht, some of the 5th graders were invited to sing up on the stage. Alyssa loved it!


 A photo of all the kids making their way around the park and back to the front of the building to collect their treats. I love the parade of tiny glowing lights making its way around the park, every year I'm struck by the simple beauty of it.


 The wind kept taking the paper light lanterns and blowing them all over the park. Countless kids were screaming and running in busy pursuit of run away laternes.


 Here's Kamele feeling a little sad that her paper plate lantern was ripping. The cookies and apples she got a few minutes later helped dull the disappointment :-) It was a really fun night!


A video of the Hand Chime Choir and singing:

Scamps Fall Invitational

Last weekend the girls had a gymnastics meet. We told Dave's dad we would record their next meet and I think we still owe him a good video taping, as the quality of these videos here are not the best. There were a lot of obstructions of our view of the gym, and even moving around to get a better angle didn't help much. Ka'eo had to zoom in really close on the girls just to avoid poles and such. We'll tape the next meet too, but until then...

Emma's routines: Seeing this video reminded me just how little Kahiwa is. In the warm ups right at the beginning of the video she knees herself in the nose {pretty hard!} and it doesn't even phase her. Also after one of her vaults she forgets where the judge is, and has to be reminded by her coach to salute. Cuteness that makes me wish they could stay this little forever.

Something that very few people will even notice {but I know there will be a few} is that they had two gymnasts doing floor at the same time, with two sets of judges. I've never seen this done in a meet before, and it was so strange because they couldn't use the floor boundary lines properly. It didn't seem like a great set up.

I think all her scores were shown on the board. A and E were in two different rotations and although there were glitches all around with the electronic scoreboard, they somehow kept up better with the scores for Emma's rotation. This was Emma's best all around score so far.




Alyssa's routines: She had an awesome meet today, but did not do her best beam routine. I could tell even before she saluted the judge to begin that she was flustered, she didn't seem to know where on the beam she wanted to do her mount. Alyssa is such a thinker {!!}, she wants to plan out every tiny movement and step, and it's really hard to do gymnastics that way. I should know, I tried doing things just that way for over ten years. Despite the wobbly beam routine, she had her best all around yet!

Because of the issue with the score board not all the scores were flashed. Alyssa had a 8.8 on bars, 7.6 on beam, 9.0 on floor, and 9.15 on vault. When the scores for Alyssa's group were actually shown, we kept missing them because they were flashed long after her routine was done.


 Rebekah meanwhile made herself very comfortable in the gym during warm ups. My gymnastics coach from when I was growing up would be happy to know that I didn't pass on my irrational fear of the foam pit to her.

Two more Level 3 meets to go!

The M.I.A. Tooth Fairy

Yesterday Emma lost 2 teeth. One of which I don't even think was loose before she decided it needed to come out. Before yesterday she had lost the top two front teeth and the bottom two front teeth. One bottom tooth next to the new grown up tooth in front had been loose and dangling. As for the other one, she pulled it, I think for the sake of having even gaps in her mouth.

She was so sweet about it, telling me that maybe the tooth fairy would leave her $2 instead of just $1, since she lost two teeth in the same day. She's making me feel like maybe our Tooth Fairy is a little cheap, especially since I recently heard one of her friends say that the tooth fairy left her $20. I quickly shielded Emma's ears from that and told the little girl that she's blessed to have such a wealthy Tooth Fairy. Emma's recollection is not exactly accurate though, at our house the Tooth Fairy typically leaves $5 for the first tooth ever lost, plus a small gift like a webkinz. After that it is usually $2 per tooth. Fair?
 Last night Emma had a jewelry box that she insisted the teeth should go inside under her pillow. I made a mental note to put together a few extra dollars to go in the box since her earlier request had been so little. In a very knowing, almost eleven year old voice, Alyssa told her, "You know she can't open that thing...the Tooth Fairy, I mean. She's only about this big {holds out her thumb and pointer finger with about an inch and a half or so in between}. She can't open it!" Emma still thought the box was a good idea, and under the pillow it went.

So this morning I am feeling terrible. Emma came out of the room, box in hand ~ pout on face. She didn't leave me anything!

How could I forget??

Alyssa's suggestion that the Tooth Fairy could not open the box was sounding really really good about now. She sympathetically told Emma, I told you she couldn't open it. Emma shook her head in agreement, she didn't say anything, but I could tell she was thinking she should have listened to her older sister's wisdom the night before. I suggested that we write the Tooth Fairy a letter explaining that the teeth are in the jewelry box under the pillow. And tonight we'll be sure to leave that note out on the kitchen table where the Tooth Fairy just CANNOT MISS IT!

I know how I forgot, I was exhausted. We got up super early for a gymnastics meet on Sunday which pretty much nullified the whole extra hour of sleep from "falling back" Saturday night. It was a very busy day, by 7pm I felt like it was bedtime already and I ended up falling asleep shortly after the girls did at 8:30.

I hope I am not the only mom who has ever been the M.I.A. Tooth Fairy.

an attitude {of gratitude} ~ week 1

I had a post with the same title last year near Thanksgiving, and since our church handed out a 30 Days of Gratitude guide at the end of October it has been on my mind a lot how much I am thankful for and blessed with. And of course there is always the hope that through our actions and prayers we are able to inspire the girls to a thankful heart!

We have been following the guide for the last week, looking up the verse associated with each day's theme. It's pretty simple, but I'd be remiss to say that it's gone perfectly each night. Even Rebekah, who can't read will get in her bid for why she should be the one to read the verse from the Bible each night {and the verse is always quite interesting when it's her turn to read it}. Now that we have a set rotation down I think it will go better :-)

Some of the things the girls have said they are thankful for are surprising, others are just really cute, childlike expressions of thanks which I appreciate very much and love to hear (Thank you that G&G could come up for Bible Quiz, thank you so much that Halle was at church on Wednesday night, thank you for these brownies that don't taste like bananas {?}). All of the girls were very thankful for Saturday afternoon when their friend Alyssa came over and we made these:
 I hadn't made Shrinky Dinks since I was about Emma's age and at one point as they were bubbling up and getting misshaped in the oven I almost panicked thinking I had ruined their projects. In the end, they turned out perfectly and the curling up into a ball during baking is a normal part of the shrinking process. I had no idea how much a simple $5 craft from JoAnn's would make their afternoon. Certainly something to be thankful for, and they were.



Talking about gratitude over the last week has reminded me how often I need to be more mindful to put words to the things I am grateful for. Often we're so busy running around and I'm saying silent little prayers that this or that will work out, and praise God, it always does {!!} and I don't often enough say out loud to the girls what a blessing we've just encountered. I might recognize God's hand of blessing in our lives, but how will they do the same, if we don't teach them to see it that way?
 This month I am trying to write down a bunch of the things I am thankful for, along with what the girls share with us that they are thankful for. I am a terrible journaler so we'll see how it goes, but hopefully I'll have something fun and exciting to write about at the end of the month!

Dear Robitussin, {from a child who doesn't like to take her medicine}

 


She also wrote a note of admiration to Kix cereal during the same sitting:
 

Pumpkin Fun at Home and School

A fun pumpkin party in Kamele's class:
 Kamele's teachers set up a pin the nose on the pumpkin game, bowling with a stuffed pumpkin ball, a trick or treat toss, and lots of pumpkin goodies to eat. It was an exciting and completely pumpkin afternoon!

After snack time, one of her teachers handed Rebekah a wipe and asked her in German to clean off the table. She got right to work, but I noticed her missing several crumbs and spots of frosting on the table. I started to help Rebekah, and with her sweet {but stern!} German accent the teacher scolded me, Frau Sachs, (when she says our last name, it sounds like Zaaaahks) it doesn't matter how she's doing it, she needs to learn to do it herself. Something most moms need to hear every once in a while, I guess.


 These pumpkin gooey fingers plus...


 These slippery pumpkin slosh hands plus...


 These seed plucking pointers and pinkies equals...


 A cutie pumpkin face!

Night at the Museum

For Halloween our public museum does an indoor
Trick or Treat night. We love going because with October weather being somewhat unpredictable it makes it so much fun for the girls to be able to run around in whatever costumes they choose, and not have to worry about freezing outside. A bunch of costumed photos from our Night at the Museum...
 




















This is quite possibly one of the funniest photos I have taken in a while. The museum has a freight elevator which is only open to the public one time a year, during Halloween. They call it the Haunted Elevator. As we were waiting our turn, the people who boarded ahead of us were screaming and the elevator itself was making all kinds of scary creaking and clanging noises. I loved this pic because I can see the sheer terror in Rebekah eyes, the confused and a little scared but maybe eager excitement on Emma's face, and Alyssa just loves it, she was so excited! 3 funny girls, 3 completely different responses :-)


 Turns out the Haunted Elevator wasn't so scary after all. Just a spooky {but not too spooky} forest with some howling and boos.


 In addition to trick or treating, there were craft stations set up throughout the museum.


 One of the crafts used black lights, and Rebekah's dress lit up so pretty. She looked like an angel.


 The girls loved running around the little villages in the Mexico and Guatemala exhibits. We visit the museum often, but it's somehow very neat and a different experience to visit the different areas dressed in costume.


 




















Princess Cinderella. She got this pretty dress over the summer on vacation when Grandmommy let her pick out whatever she liked at the Disney Store. Thank you, she felt like a real Cinderella for sure!!


 




















Little Ladybug Girl. There's a tiny story behind this costume as it was also her halloween costume when she was only 4 years old. Rebekah wore it over the summer to VBS on one of the dress up days. Since then in July, Kahiwa as been determined to reclaim this ladybug outfit as HERS! Dressing up for halloween was the perfect opportunity for her to do so.


 




















Sacajawea. Although Alyssa thought she turned out looking like Tiger Lily from Peter Pan, she was going for Sacajawea. I told her she looked great, no matter which Indian Princess she chose. Definitely very high fashion in the gold sparkly fringed dress! The dress was given to her by my grandmother, and when we read a book a about Sacajewea a couple of months ago, she knew right away what she wanted to wear for her costume. Thank you, Nani! She made the head band herself. She found this drum set up for a special presentation and fit right in.


 Happy Halloween.

Thank you so much to G&G who took the girls to "Trunk or Treat" as well and for all the yummy candy they gave the girls ~ the girls tore into the Reese's cups right away! And also thank you to Grandmommy and Granddaddy who sent the girls all kinds of yummy Hawaiian cookies, they have been bringing them in their lunches to school, although Kamele seems to be trying to eat all the animal crackers herself. They loved the pencils and stickers. Thank you, Ku'u for the delicious pound cake too!! XOXOXOXO