Happy Halloween!

Pre-Halloween loot

Both boys came home from school Friday with enough Halloween treats and goodie bags from their classmates that they won't need to trick or treat much tomorrow. Robbie was first home and I snapped this picture while we were looking through it. His haul filled his small pumpkin. Next up was Jacob who - and I'm not kidding - had an entire reusable grocery bag full of stuff. For pre-schoolers?? I spent most of this week in a haze and regrettable didn't have the energy to put anything together for any of the classes. I've got some making up to do as the holidays approach.

Come on over for candy Sunday

No, seriously. Come on over and get some candy. We really, really need to get rid of it. We have two Costco-sized bags and we rarely have that many trick-or-treaters. I begged Noel not to open a bag one night knowing I would just eat it all. He obliged, only to see me rip into it the next evening. Not one of my proudest moments.
Everyone in the family was taken down with a whopping cold this week and we're just surfacing. Colds are miserable on many fronts, but what's especially bad for me is that I'm hungry all the time and all I want is junk food. And there's nothing that tastes better in this state than chocolate. With all the Halloween candy around, October is a horrible, horrible time to have a cold! Who needs post-holiday/New Year resolutions to eat better? I'm making mine for November 1. Or November 2. You get the idea.

Halloween countdown!

Ready or not, Halloween is nearly here. I had thought about making the boys' costumes again, but it just didn't happen. Robbie wanted to be a fireman, and Lord knows I can't pull that off with my sewing machine! At least not for the $10 bucks I spent for the costume, fire helmet included. We also found something cute for Cub at a local party store, so the issue was settled rather easily. We did get to the pumpkin patch earlier this month. A real pumpkin patch, too, on real farm land and not the corner of an asphalt parking lot. We walked through the fields to find and pick our pumpkins. (Who knew you could in Hawaii, huh?) It was a fun, quick, and surprisingly not-so-dusty morning at Aloun Farms, complete with a hay ride. Well, it was really just a small tractor pulling some passenger carts. But that's what they really are and it counts, right? Woo-woo!

Black Pearl at KoOlina Marina (Part 1)

The Pirates of the Caribbean film shoot may be over and the production teams have left the islands, but the Black Pearl remains. It can currently be found back on the Leeward side of Oahu, in a semi-secure marina adjacent to the area where it was first stored earlier this year. One of Robbie's classmate's parents tipped me off last week to its location - the KoOlina Marina. It's right there where everyone can see, facing mauka at the back of the harbor, among all the other boats. You can walk around the perimeter of the marina and get a somewhat up-close-and-personal look. While I was taking these shots this morning, I saw a tourist catamaran cruise enter the harbor, come up right alongside it, and then pull away and exit the harbor.
Not sure when it got there, or how long it will stay, but seeing that it is less than a mile from the construction site of the new Disney Aulani Resort Hotel scheduled for a soft opening in August 2011, one wonders if they will keep it around for an attraction?

Black Pearl at KoOlina Marina (Part 2)

Here are two close-ups on the front. Note the detail! I'm sure if you watch the final production when it comes out next year, you'll see a pan or two of these areas. Lots of skeletons. Very Disney-fied, huh? Especially when you consider how it looked when it first cruised into Oahu.

Black Pearl in KoOlina Marina (Part 3)

Here are two shots of the right side of the boat. Aargh! (Sorry, had to get one in!) Is that starboard or leeward? I've never understood those terms. Anyway, note the "damage" to the facade. I am willing to place a bet that there is a battle between ships in the movie. There's one every time, yes? So maybe this is the results of the skirmishes?

Cub turns 3!

Cub turned three earlier this month. We asked him he wanted to do for his birthday, and then we asked Robbie what he thought his brother would want to do. Putting the two together we ended up with a laid-back outing to ride the monorail at Pearlridge, then off to the pool for a swim, BBQ, and cupcakes with the family.
Robbie loves the red velvet cupcakes at a local sushi bar (I know, sounds weird to me, too) and I was going to attempt to make them for the birthday. I tried to cut a few corners and picked up ready-made "whipped" cream cheese frosting. An awful product! Read the packaging carefully - I didn't and made the mistake of bringing it home. From my untrained eye, "whipped" just means lighter and more airy in the container. On a cupcake, this translates to a flat, non-rich frosting that neither Noel or I liked. Yes, that's right! The birthday boy could have cared less and we ate the most. I don't think Cub even ate one.
The red velvet plan went out the window, too, as the birthday approached. I couldn't get the ingredients to replicate the sushi bar cupcake (specifically the chocolate candies on top) so I went with an easy and cheap sea theme. Aqua/blue tinted frosting and Swedish fish and other sea creatures on top of a vanilla cupcake. They didn't look that great, but at least Robbie and I had fun making them.

Fire truck says, "Woo woo!"

Yay! The first of the artwork from Cub's preschool has come home. Last week they took a field trip (walked to a downtown fire station) and after the trek made fire trucks using half gallon milk cartons, construction paper, and paint.
Wondering why the truck is not red? They're yellow on Oahu; no red fire trucks. I'm used to them from California (some cities and counties tried them out in the 80s and early 90s but the trend didn't stick there) but I've heard other military wives who say they've never seen - or heard of - them before and it has taken them some time to get used to.

PlayDoh revisited

Elementary school kids state-wide have been out of school all week. Something called "Fall Intersession," which neither Noel nor I can remember anything like it when we were kids. Only the elementary kids, too, so parents like us have to scramble for childcare coverage or are busy with activities. Or both.
We made PlayDoh yesterday afternoon. We've made it a half dozen times since the summer, and it's turned into a lesson in color creations. Robbie stands in the kitchen with all the food coloring options spread out before him on the counter and dictates to me what colors he wants to mix next. And that means he squirts the drops of food coloring into small balls of PlayDoh and I knead it. We got a lot of grey one day, which I turned into an elephant. We also usually wind up with a lot of browns and oranges, typical from a kid who wants a little bit of his favorite red in everything!
A few things that I've learned about making PlayDoh since the original post in late July. Don't follow the directions! I now have a more efficient system. First, pour the water directly into pot and start heating it (medium heat). Add the remaining liquid ingredients directly into the pot, including vanilla - but not food coloring, unless you want the entire batch the same color. (I still don't add a lot of vanilla. One teaspoon works well for us.) Pour the salt into the water and let it begin dissolving. Add remaining dry ingredients and then start stirring. With the water already heated, the mixture comes together within a minute and you're done! It takes longer for it to cool down than to make it.