84 Days of Summer, Week 1: Na Aina Kai Gardens, Mommy/Daughter Date, Gak Disaster

 84 days of summer--including weekends.  Go.  My goal this summer is to teach my kids to work around the house and do something meaningful with them every day.  I also want to document it a little more.  Now that Zachary is into school, I'm realizing just how fast life is flying by and I want to capture the time.

Kate's last day of Tutu and Me Preschool was a field trip to Na Aina Kai Gardens on the north shore.  They have a children's section and it turned out to be worth every second of the 57 minute drive to the north shore.  I don't make treks like that without Brady usually, but I learned from this outing that driving to the north shore, even without hubby, is totally worth it for the staggeringly beautiful views and to help get rid of traces of island fever.  Sometimes, I find myself isolated to a very small section of the island (my own doing), and getting out past my typical radius of Poipu and Kalaheo makes the island feel bigger.

The gardens featured a gecko maze, 

...several tree houses and playgrounds,

 ...new swings,

 ...a rocking horse,

 ...more fun things to climb,

 ...an airplane that moved back and forth (and terrified Kate),

 ...a lot of pretty flowers,

 ...ample room to run,

 ...and best of all, a Jack and the Beanstalk themed water feature.

 Love this sign:

 My favorite part of this outing was that Kate chose to play with Zachary over all of her friends for the entire time.  She loves "her bwotha," and introduced him to all of her little preschool friends.

 The kids ran and played for three hours straight before we headed out for Banana Joes pure-fruit frosties.  Yum!  I would say this is a must-see for people with kids visiting the island, but it's $20/kid and $35/adult.  We got in basically free with her preschool.  That was totally worth it.

Another day, we went with Evelyn, Dallin and Elizabeth to Lawai Baby Beach.  This is the most active I've ever seen Kate at the beach.  The girls chased each other up and down the sand hills and into the water at least 50 times.

 I worry about taking Zac to baby beaches without waves, but he finds ways to entertain himself.

 He thinks Evelyn is as much his friend as she is Kate's.

 Other outings for the week: biking with the Hadleys, several visits to the park, and a few trips to town.

Friday night, I took Kate to a ballet performance put on by her ballet studio, and then took her to dinner.  It was fun Mommy/Kate time, and Zac lived it up at a birthday party (and Brady went on a long run).  Good times for all of us.

In my "make summer meaningful" quest, I created a chore chart with incentives.  Each item earns a fake dollar bill from Kate's cash register toy, and Zachary can save up and earn rewards (Kate participates but is more along for the ride).  I already knew that teaching kids to clean and spending time with them doing books, preschool, etc. took time, but it actually takes a LOT of time.  I keep reminding myself that it's worth the commitment.  I also remind myself that it's valuable for the kids to work and not play all day long.

Zac earned 21 "dollars" this week.  It took 20 "dollars" to earn a special craft with Mommy.  He had one in mind--making Gak.  Gak is Elmer's glue, combined with food coloring, water, and a cleaning agent called Borak.  It makes a play dough like substance.

Zac made some at school two weeks before, and it dried up from so much use.  He's been super excited to make this stuff, and could hardly wait to earn the money for it.  He cashed in and we did the project on Saturday afternoon.

 The kids both made a batch and played with it a full hour.  I was in the kitchen, making a menu for the next few days.  They were playing at the bar, right in front of me.  Kate said to me, "Mom, I made a hat!"  

"Made a hat?  Hmmmm..." I said, distractedly.  Then I suddenly looked up, alarmed.  Made a hat?!?  That didn't sound good.

It was not good.  Kate took her entire batch of Gak and had mashed it into her hair.  It was only about an inch from her roots.  I tried pulling it out, and couldn't.  It was solidly stuck.

Panicked, I called my hair friends.  There are three girls I know that do hair professionally.  I didn't want to make the situation worse, but I wanted to see if there was any way to salvage her sweet little locks.  I also googled it, and found there weren't many happy Gak stories around.  Most people ended up cutting their child's hair.

For the next one hour and 40 minutes, Kate let me tuck at her hair, strand by strand.  I'm happy to say this has a good ending, and the Gak came out.  

Here is the pile that came out of her hair.

I think this is funny enough, but today after church, Zachary was playing, again at the bar. He said, "Hey, Mom.  Should I make a hat?"  I looked up, wide-eyed.  "NO!"  He giggled and giggled.  Of course he knew better, and was only teasing.

Kate's pretty hair today:

The other fun part of the week was participating in the Haena to Hanalei 8-mile race Saturday.  Brady passed this year, committed to spending his extra time with the kids since things are nuts.  Zac had a football game that morning, too, so it worked out nicely to have me go up early in the am with a few other friends.  I was nervous about this race because I have tendonitis in my left knee.  I had it last year, too, at this exact time, and it kept me out of this gorgeous, north shore race.  I didn't want to miss out again this year, but my knee was hurting pretty badly over the previous couple weeks.

I decided to go for it, and drop out if I needed to.  Brady made me promise I would be smart, reminding me of the scar tissue in my SI joint from last time I ran a race on an injury.  I hadn't run the entire week, and instead opted for (awful) training on the recumbent bike in the garage.  That must have saved me because for the first time in a month, I had almost no pain.  The race was smooth and I felt like I performed better than I expected.  I pulled in 7:13 miles, with negative splits the last three miles.  It's a hilly course and harder than the Koloa course in November, and I was really happy with my time and the way the race went overall.  It was crazy beautiful, too.  Last time I ran this a few years ago, all I could think was "I'm dying," and "When will this hill end??"  This year, I focused more on the waves crashing and the tropical foliage.  Loved it, loved it, loved it.  I think I enjoy racing more and more every year.  Now, I'm committed to cross training on the bike more each week (ugh) and getting my knee healed up completely.

Week 1 of a meaningful summer: check.