February: Love and Chocolate, Finish Work, Soccer and Bad Haircuts

February flew by with house construction, a short month, and of course Valentine's Day.  Brady took the ward picture and we snapped these girls walking to class.  

Owen getting snuggle time with Daddy.  He was so sad after his late nap, and curled up like this for fifteen minutes.

We played a lot of games in February.  The kids love Speed Scrabble and Scrabble Junior lately, as well as Chinese Checkers, but Twister will always get the most laughs.

Owen went from barely sitting still for stories to asking for books five times a day.  His own renditions of the animal sounds and expressions are so cute, and I love hearing him mimic my singing for "Personal Penguin."

Science Project Time!  Kate did her project on the conditions that melt chocolate the best, including white (yuck) and semisweet.  She worked meticulously, wrote her conclusions in detail, and was excited to feel so official for her first real science project.

Science projects complete!  Zac built a shake tower to evaluate the relationship between height and stability.

Kate has soccer in Lihue twice a week, rushing there straight from dance in Kalaheo.  It is a little much for a 6-year-old, but her schedule loosens up in March with less dance and fewer practices for soccer.  In the meantime, Owen and I kill time in the parking lot of the high school.  I thought it might be a drag, but it turns out this is my favorite time of day with Owen, cruising around with him as he points out and chases "tickens," stray "kitties," and bugs ("Wook Mommy, Ewwww!").  We throw and kick balls into soccer nets, bike in the rain and wind, and sometimes just read books and pretend drive in the car.

We all cycled through colds, and I caught mine the evening of the Valentines' Dance.  The kids were so excited to go, so even though Brady got home late from the house, we made it over.  It was a highlight of February.  Zac charmed little kids in the musical chairs game and cruised around to the music with a jump rope made of glowsticks.  Owen ran laps and danced in Brady's arms, bobbing his head, jumping up and down, and waving his arms.  Kate showed off every move she knows, grooved with friends, did the splits, grabbed hands with adults and danced, and flipped her hair without inhibition.  My favorite moment of the night was when she requested "The Greatest Show."  No one really knew how to dance to the song, but she danced confidently as a near-solo act and at the night's end commented, "I bet everyone is happy I requested such a good song!"

Olympics!  The kids were obsessed with snowboarding and Kate of course loved the figure skating.  We watched for hours a day during week one, and not at all for week two with too many decisions to make for the house combined with losing our access to the channel.  The kids are excited about the possibility to take a snowboarding trip next year.

Owen's TV pose:

Owen and Brady competing in the Pairs Skating.

Brother bonding on the couch.  I love having the rocking chair where it is used constantly.  The kids played with Owen on that chair every morning (in the new house, it is is upstairs and has barely been touched).

My third time with a flat tire on this car.  I feel like this only happens on days that it is really inconvenient, but when I think of when I'd rather the tire go flat, there's very few times that come to mind.  The best part was when my friend Heidi heard, she rushed over from painting the exterior of her own home to change the tire for me.  I did not let her, but seriously examined my lack of handiness after the experience.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Owen rocking his "Heart Breaker" jammies.  Zac was so sad to leave him on "the day of love" to head for school.  He has asked me repeatedly if I would homeschool him so he could have more Owen time.

Valentine's Fondue: I love Kate's tongue sticking out, Owen's chocolate-covered face, and Zachary's care picking exactly the right pieces to dip and covering them completely.

Nic and Heidi finished their house and we celebrated with a movie night and fondue.  I loved that we ate the fondue at their old house.  Breaking in a new house is painful.

Play dough re-emerged along with slime.  I think slime exists to remind us that play dough is awesome.

Owen sick day.

Owen better day.

Kate gets a solo park date with Owen--a huge deal to her.

Owen loved the tub for 10 of 12 months we lived here, but the last two months, it terrified him.  He screamed "POO!  POO!" and freaked out every time he was dipped in unless he was joined by Zachary or Kate.  

It is hard to pick my least favorite part of this house, but if I had to pick only one, I'd say the cold showers.

I took the kids up solo to Hanalei with the Stebbins crew on a beautiful Monday holiday.  Brady went out of his way to meet us up there for a couple hours to play with the kids and let me surf, even though it meant he worked until late that night.  I did not realize the sacrifice he was making until afterwards, which made the gesture that much sweeter.

I had to snag a picture of Hilary's home-grown honey.

Ohana Picnic at the school.

Funky Monkey bowls with Meredith, who came back into town for a rainy week.  I hate when friends move away but love when they come back to visit.  I also love acai bowls and force myself to eat them "only" once a week.

Did someone say "disaster?"  This tile that looked so perfect and was color-matched in Oahu in person three times.  It was shockingly awful put up next to our granite.  Goodbye $1500 of non-refundable tile.  ARGH! We took an emergency trip to Home Depot and discovered a backsplash tile that was 1/3 as expensive and so much better.  Lucky!

Ahhh...much better. We are still waiting on a few pieces of cut glass over the outlets.

Zachary could hardly stand that Kate had solo time with Owen at the park days before, so we made the trek with him on day 2 of his fever after he started feeling better.

That Saturday, we went to the dump (note: I am learning from my tire incident and now consider taking giant loads to the dump an acceptable responsibility for a woman) and stopped by the park for a "quick outing" that turned into three hours, miles and miles of roller blading and skateboarding, and content kids.

The kids asked Brady at church if his new kicks were "elf shoes."

Touring the house with a friend one day, I heard Owen say "poo poo" (yes, he says it a lot), and ran into the bathroom to find him attempting to drop a load.

Zachary desperately needed his locks trimmed.  We found a picture that we both liked and had it cut.  He was so upset during the cut when he saw two inches of his hair laying on the ground.  I was proud of him for how courteous he was to the technician even though he had some juicy, angry tears for me in the car.  I told him he could grow his surfer locks out again, although not without conditions that he gets a trim occasionally.

Adventures in paint.  Zachary and Kate ordered 8x10 canvases and went to town creating originals.  Owen was not sitting out another paint session, so we found the washables and he was delighted to join in the excitement for an hour.

Moving is hard on everyone, but Owen made it easier by finding ways to entertain himself.

Kate found the dress up box as we were moving things from room to room and started adding her own touches to soccer and piano.

If the timing wasn't busy enough, Brady caught the stomach flu for 3 days the week of the move.  He had critical deadlines at work and at the new house, so he worked full days and long hours through the pain and discomfort, and even cooked up enough love to read Owen stories.

The move was smooth and luckily timed between bouts of rain all week.  I pulled a muscle in my neck the night before that added to the excitement and Brady also tweaked his back, but I take these as signs that we should not attempt this again for a long time.  We thought taking the kids to to the old house that night after all our things were gone would elicit hilarious reactions from Owen, but he was not phased by our missing furniture and saw the empty rooms as a playground/track, immediately sprinting from room to room.

Speaking of sprinting, Kate tore it up in her soccer game the next morning, scoring the first goal of the season for her team.  At practice, she seems timid at times, and it impressed everyone to see her charge down the field.  The following Saturday, she scored three goals--a hat trick!

Chad and Mary--my original surfing buddy--came to town to hike Kalalau in the dumping rain.  It cleared long enough for a beach bonfire and we took a break from deconstructing boxes to catch up.

It was like Owen was rediscovering sand--he is actively pursuing the role of sandman in our family.  Watch out, Zac.

Love these girls desperately.

Sunday, Zac and I had a fun day with the stomach flu.  Zachary was in pain for 2 days, while mine was only that day.

The kids are loving the new cul-de-sac for biking, skateboarding, and scooters.  Kate remembered how to bike after a year long hiatus and cruises around on her previously too-large purple bike. Owen can zoom on the scooter and his little legs pumping it up and down the street make all the neighbors grin.

Initiating the new house has begun, starting with the hunt for marshmallows in Lucky Charms.  Turns out I need to find a new home for cereal.

Finally, intermixed in the weeks were flat surf conditions which set us up for several bike rides up the canyon.  I've reached a point with biking that I love it as much as hiking.  I wish we had more options, but when the traffic is minimal, biking the canyon is the ultimate adventure with mile after mile of steep climbs followed by coasting through stunning views.