Baseball in the park

It's official: Robbie's first year of organized baseball is in the books. We ended the season with two games, an "awards" ceremony (passing out trophies and a pizza party after the last game), and a family bowling party Sunday afternoon. A lot of fun. No surprise here - Robbie likes bowling better than baseball. Cub was up for a few frames then became a little bored rather quickly. The last game was held in Waianae. It's a longer drive for us, but I like the park a lot. I like the feeling that you're surrounded by mountains, and here the backdrop is the Waianae Kai Forest Reserve. Skies were grey that morning, but not cold or windy.

UH Baseball

We had a weekend full of baseball. First up was the University of Hawaii team playing Cal State Fullerton at the Les Murakami Stadium in Manoa on Friday night. I hadn't seen a live baseball game (not including t-ball) in years. I haven't forgotten how much I love watching baseball, but I'll admit I forgot how much I love sitting in a baseball stadium watching a game in person. Tickets are cheap - concessions are not - and the atmosphere is great at the stadium. It was a really nice night. We ended up in the upper deck, covered from the light rain that came through mid-game. I don't even know if that would have put a damper on my mood. I hope to go back a few more times before the season ends.

The end of a potentially short era

Baseball (err, t-ball) season is winding down here. Robbie’s team played in a tournament over the weekend. Four games in all! It was a sunny, windy, dusty couple of days but I had fun.
It would all be more exciting if Robbie actually enjoyed it. He doesn’t. It’s hard to get him to go to baseball practice and hard to get him to go to baseball games. On the mornings when he wakes up and asks if he has “to go to baseball” and the answer is no, then he is happy. We have loved watching him play (despite a few rocky moments at the very beginning with Cub at practice that I wasn’t enjoying) and wish he would like to play more. He has already asked us that we don’t sign him up for baseball again next year. He would like to be the one who sits on the sidelines and watches his brother play. Two more games this weekend, another team potluck, and trophies for the boys during the end-of-season gathering. We are secretly not giving up that sometime in the future he might want to play again, and surely hope that at least he will be a big baseball fan like his parents and the rest of his family!

More birthday fun!

Family is in town this week! The original event that started it all was my rock star, software-selling sister got another Gold Club trip to Hawaii for her sales year. They head to Maui tomorrow for a long weekend at the Ritz Carlton, but before heading to the Valley Isle, they came to visit us! They are staying at a KoOlina property I immediately wanted to move into. Seriously. Time to reset (again) all those retirement goals.
We are heading back today for more beach and pool fun. Last night they threw a second birthday celebration for Robbie, complete with a dinosaur cake. We had a few harrowing moments (but we're laughing now) as we attempted to light the birthday candles with no matches. My brother-in-law did it using paper towels and the toaster! And didn't set off any fire alarms nor should my Mom lose any of her security deposit. I feel the need for some sort of legal disclaimer here...really, do NOT try it at home.
Sorry no picture of the lighting, just the sugary carnage that remained. Robbie provided one of the many cute moments of the evening. A little confused by the birthday celebrations spaced nearly two weeks apart, he innocently asked, "So am I seven now?"

Hawai'i-grown chocolates

Last weekend on Robbie's birthday I treated myself to a few locally grown and produced chocolate bars available in the Dole Plantation gift shop. I've seen various products around and have read a lot about one producer in particular lately, and figured it was as good a day as any to indulge. And indulge not just in the caloric sense - they are super pricey! A small box of 5 miniature bars? $6.00. The other bars pictured? $6.50 each. Were they worth it? Yes, if what matters most is supporting locally grown goods. Not really in most other areas. I'm not one really blown away by dark chocolates without a lot of added sugar and milk solids. (Darn sugar addiction!) In a blind taste test, I'd spot and go for the "milk" chocolate any day. But for fun (and after I get a job!) I'd buy them again for special occasions.

Makakilo Waffle House

After the tsunami warning Thursday night, we are all OK. My in-laws came over early(!) Friday as they were in Waikiki, but ultimately no damage there. I was very tired Friday, but I'm getting back to normal today. Funny, I just can't stay up until 3AM like I used to! ;) And to be truthful, I didn't. I fell asleep on the couch in front of the TV and woke up a couple of times to dark, live camera pans of waves. Yup, I missed all of the "action." One strange bit of good fortune - public schools had a planned furlough day, as did some of the other state agencies. That made it a little easier knowing in advance there would be no school and Noel would also have a light day.
One of the hotels during our quick California trip last month had a breakfast buffet. No pancakes, but lots of waffles, so the boys had those instead. I've had a waffle iron for years but haven't used it more than once or twice. For some strange reason a waffle iron was on my must-get list despite rarely ever using it before (along with a toaster oven, a Kitchen Aid mixer, and other gadgets) when Noel and I got married. So I picked one up back then but it sat unused for a long time until this week as Robbie has wanted to eat waffles. And lots of them! Luckily my go-to pancake recipe works well and the ingredients are always around.
I picked up some organic Fuji apples from Costco earlier in the week. I was bummed to try them at home later and discover they were already getting a little mushy. Don't you hate that? I love apples very crisp. So I made a batch of cinnamon applesauce. I also had an idea to make apple waffles and the experiment was a success! I whisked a half cup of the applesauce in the pancake/waffle batter and gave it a try in the hot waffle iron. In my humble opinion, they came out pretty yummy. Moist, a little sweeter, and less dense than the regular variety. Another recipe for the "keeper" pile.

Birthday boy!

Our oldest turns 6 today! He requested his favorite, red velvet cupcakes, and I couldn't pass up the chance to bake them for him. A few months back I tried a recipe off the Food Network site. OK, but not great. With another search I found a food blogger's version and it looked better. It was! We found a keeper. I'll it make again in the future, maybe next time try the multi-layered cake. Noel even liked the cream cheese frosting, but I made the much sweeter option the blogger hints at. I tried to stick to the original ratio of cream cheese, butter, and sugar, but it was much too strong on the cream cheese side for me. So I doubled or tripled the powdered sugar until you just got a hint of the cream cheese. It's closer to the version that Robbie likes at Genki Sushi anyway. Yes, that's right. The local sushi chain has cupcakes for dessert and that's where he learned to love them. That and a chance stopover at a cousin's house where they had a Costco red velvet cake, but that's a longer story.
It's raining here today, at least parts of the island. Robbie's baseball game was already called, so we will head to Dole to see about one last train ride before the annual pass we bought last year on Robbie's birthday expires.

Switch light at the Railroad Museum

We made a special pilgrimage to the "train museum" before heading on to Tahoe. The plan was to fly into the Bay Area and drive directly to Sacramento from the airport. We figured it would be easier to wake up with the Bay Area traffic behind us and a few steps away from the museum in Old Town Sacramento.
First phase of our plan went well! The boys liked waking up with a view of the bridge and the railroad tracks from our fourth story hotel room. We liked not being stuck on 80 East any longer than necessary. And the museum! Didn't disappoint. We could easily spend the weekend there, but had to squeeze all we could in a half-day. This picture is a classic railway "switch light." My Dad purchased one a long time ago and refurbished it; his was very similar and had the same blue/green and red lenses. He had it in the house for many years. It always makes me think of him when I see one.