Happy Birthday to Aya Maureen! She's 4!

On August 16th Aya turned 4 years old!  The 16th happens to be Hawaii's statehood day so all the kids were out of school which worked out perfectly for the beach birthday party we had for Aya.  When I asked her awhile ago what kind of birthday party she wanted she said she wanted an "ocean party" which is pretty perfect since we live here by the beach! I bought a few decorations but didn't need much since we have real palm trees and the real sandy beach and the real beautiful ocean!  I did bring lots of food though because you can never have too much food, right?
 Here are some fun shots of the day...

I made the cake to look like a fish and I was happy that it turned out pretty well! It was decorated and undecorated a bit with the gummy sea life candies on the table before we took this picture but everyone still enjoyed it!

Aya LOVES her ketchup!

All the kids excited for Aya to open the presents they brought her.

Our adorable little neighbor baby. Love him!

Here we're "going on a shark hunt"

After eating  & presents we played "fish pond" and then we all headed to the water to play.  Such a fun party! Thank you so much for those of you who came! Wish all of you not in Hawaii could've come too.  It was a fun party & Aya seemed to love it.

Later in the day the girls decorated cake #2

It was so breezy at the beach we couldn't get the candles to stay lit so we did that at home with this cake.

Aya loves Daddy!

Aya with all her many wonderful gifts & cards!  Thanks, everyone!

Our lanai (patio) swing is inside because the outside of our building was getting painted so we had to bring in all the outdoor furniture.  The girls thought this was the best thing ever!

Hana's First Day of 2nd Grade!

We can"t believe that Hana is in 2nd grade!  She started last Monday and is already loving it.

She chose to wear her new, pink, sparkly, tutu Hello Kitty dress with sparkly shoes and head band and requested that I braid her hair in a "princess crown" and curl the rest.  That's our Hana!

Doesn't she look so beautiful and grown up?!

...And there has to be at least one picture with the shaka!

Aya joining in on the fun.

Waiting outside of Hana's new classroom for school to start...

Her classroom door is the yellow one

We have very snuggly girls and we love it :)

Hana clipping on her new name tag at her new desk

Summer Break is officially over...but luckily we live in the land of eternal summer.

Here are some fun pics of the last few weeks.  We have such a wonderful "Ohana" here and we are so thankful for all of them!  I don't have pictures of all of them here but know that we love and appreciate you all!

Aya insisted that I take this picture of her and her friend Grace when our 2 families when to the $1 movie and lunch.

The kids entertained themselves for hours sliding down our back grass hill on cardboard!

More cardboard action! I guess this is how we sled in Hawaii. ;)

Love both of these little boys! So sad one just moved back to the mainland :(

Fun afternoon at the beach with the girls and 2 of their best friends

The swing is still a cool place to be! I love how all of the kids do the shaka  whenever we ask them to pose for a picture!

Aya and her bestie reading Peter Pan together.

Aya all dressed up at the church party.  It was Pioneer Day & so we taught the primary a line dance and had them perform for their families-so hilarious!

Fun little party at the beach for one of our good friends who turned 1!

Still never get tired of those amazing sunsets over the ocean!