Our Last Day on Oahu

Our last day on the island was a beautiful Hawaiian day!  We decided we would take a walk around historic Ford Island.  We stopped to take pictures of the USS Utah Memorial and then relaxed by the waters edge.

It was bittersweet leaving Oahu.  As much as we missed the mainland, it was our home for four years. We made some great friends, became involved with some amazing homeschool groups, and had many adventures.  

We are here

We made it to Nevada! Yay! 
It was quite the move but we are here now and starting to get settled.  After a month and 10 days in a hotel room(not that I was counting), we moved into our new house last week. 
Hubby and I have had our hands full with painting, ripping out carpeting, unpacking, major weeding, etc.  We would wake up, eat and start working until about 10 o'clock at night.  I look back over the past week and I still can't believe how much we've done.  Now that we have taken care of the "must be done" list we are taking the next week or so off to get back to routine. 
It sounds like an easy thing.  Right?
Well, while we were in the hotel we were so bad and let routine fly right out of the window.  Which in at least one way was very good.  My Little Man is now potty trained because of that routine flying out of the window. Big Yay!!  Other than that...bedtime, wake up time, mealtime, schooltime, chores, etc. are all things that have to get back to normal.   I am looking forward to normal routine again.  I think that is what I missed most over the past month or so...a normal routine and also my oven.  I couldn't wait to bake a batch of cookies (did Sunday)and through a lasagna in the oven.  Which I am planning on doing tomorrow :)

Kaena Point Hike

We had a free day last Saturday. We decided we would enjoy it by taking a hike to Kaena Point.  Kaena means "red hot" or "glowing" in the Hawaiian language.   It is located on the most northwestern point of Oahu.  The hike was very different from many of the hikes we have done on the island.

It was absolutely beautiful and we are so happy we went!

The picture above is from the left hand side of the road. I couldn't take my eyes off the beauty.  Then Sweet girl and I said at the exact same time. "That is so beautiful!" 

Once we reached the end of the highway and parked.  We set out for Kaena Point. 

I thought this formation looked like it was in the shape of a heart. Had to take a picture!

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The entire hike the view is (in my opinion)the most beautiful ocean one will ever be blessed to see.

Silly guy spotted this formation, a Sperm Whale.

The view looking south-breathtaking!

This view is looking north.  In the distance you will spot Kaena Point. We walked for about 1 1/2 hours.  Then we decided to head back to the car.  Little man was getting tired and our water bottles were low(full sun all the way). It was a great day!!

Family Pictures from the hike...

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...Critter Sitters is off

A while back I wrote about Sweet girl starting her own dog walking/pet sitting business.  Well, this summer it has taken off.  Since starting she has had four customers.  It may not sound like a lot but it was.  I am so happy she had this opportunity!  She has learned so much from running her own business. How to manage money, proffesionalism, customer service, responsibilty, interview process, etc.
She has been so proffesional and responsible!!  Recently, she let her customers know she would be leaving.  They told her, "What will the neighborhood do without you!" What a compliment!!

Pictures of Sweet girls "clients".  Photos taken by SG

Mimi- long time and loyal customer.  She walks her Monday-Friday and has pet sat for the family a few times.  Mimi is the cutest thing.  Sweet girl always brings her up the house to say hi to me(and get treats of course).  She is always so happy.

Marley- Sweet girl pet sat for her family. Marley's owner recommended Sweet girl

to her next customer.  Marley was ADORABLE and sweet!! Lap dog all the way.

Teddy- She pet sat Teddy and Buddy for 3 1/2 weeks.  It was A LOT of work. 

Teddy was a sweetheart, very loveable dog.

Buddy-  Buddy was  a sweetheart too but was scared of everything.  Bless his heart. 

I am so proud of her!!

Travel Games- Find It!

While walking through Target's game aisle I found this idea.  The game is called "Find It!"
I thought it looked like something that would be easy to make at home.  I went around the house collecting little things from junk drawers and toyboxes.  Then dyed some rice the fill theplastic bottle with.

Once the rice was dry, using a funnel I put the rice and items into a plastic bottle. 

I made a list of everything that is inside the bottle so the kids know what they are looking for.  The object of the game is to find all of the items by turning and shaking the bottle.

Items I put inside:

• A tire from a Matchbox car.  I dug into my son's bin of cars and found a few stray tires.
• A foam letter "E"
• A BB- found on the park
• A foam letter "S"
• Rubber band
• Lego
• Long green bead
• Penny
• Dime
• A little leaf-from a broken pair of jewelry
• A ice cream cone-from my daughter's Littlest Pet Shop collection
• A cup-from my daughter's Littlest Pet Shop collection
• A foam caterpillar
• Yellow Pony bead
• A small fish-from the bottom of the toy box
• A daggar- from the Playmobil box
• A pebble
• Jack
• Piece of string
• Small cork
• Rope toy-from my daughter's Littlest Pet Shop collection
• Purple heart bead
• Blue flower-small flower from the craft store.
• Green Pony bead
• A small eraser
• Paperclip
• Sea Shell
• Marble
• Screw- I found a plastic one.
• A small dinosaur

Art at the Zoo

Something new at the zoo is this painted wall along the path to the entrance.  It was beautiful and wow was it colorful!!  I thought I would post this work of art:)  

One Last Trip to the Honolulu Zoo

Last night I was doing a blog makeover- updating pics, layout, background, etc.  I realized while looking for pictures I never posted these.  We took a trip to the Honolulu Zoo a little while ago.  Little man always ask ,"Can we go to the zoo? or beach?"  His two favorite places.

This was a laid back trip.  We took our time and let him navigate us.

Our three kiddos

A family favorite... the elephant.  The zoo is in the process of making these guys a better home-yay! 

One of my favorite animals at the zoo, the giraffe.  It was kind of funny.  There was an event going on across the street at the beach.  People were letting balloons fly into the air.  They just so happened to be flying directly over the giraffe exhibit.  The giraffe's were constantly on watch  looking out for them. 

Out of all the animals, Little man was facinated by the chickens.  While Dad was running out to feed the meter we hung out and watched them (for about 45 minutes). It was feeding time on the farm.  He thought it was hillarious that they were coming into their house for dinner time.  He was watching them go up and down the ramps. The zookeeper noticed his facination. So, he brought Henry out for him to pet and feed.  Henry was such a sweet rooster.   

The zookeeper told us Henry loves to have his picture taken with the kids.

The sweet little goats.

Out of the Fog

This past week I had a rude awakening...literally. 

Every morning I have waken up with a severe headache.  I don't usually get headaches this often.  Maybe once a month I will get a minor one but nothing like what I experienced this past week.  Every night I went to bed praying it would be gone.  The next morning came and they just seemed to be getting more intense.  It was taking me about 3 hours to even function. 
On Tuesday, I woke up and it was the worse one yet.  It was pain I can't even begin to descibe and nothing I have ever felt before. You could say I was a bit frightened !! 
I struggled to get out of bed but I had to. I started to think to myself,  "What is going on?"
After about an hour and no relief I called my husband at work.  At this point I was in tears(which wasn't helping ).  He was growing concern too and told me to go to the doctor.  I hung up the phone and made an appointment right away.  I was so thankful they could squeeze me in asap. 
I arrived at the doctor's office.  I began to tell her where I was having this pain (the back of my head, radiating to the top of my head and down the neck)and descibing it to her.  Her diagnosis was a "tension headache". 
From what I understood, I have been storing the stress from this move in my neck.  Which then is affecting the nerves leading up my spinal cord.  She described it as a domino affect.  She prescribed me a muscle relaxer(at night), Motrin, gave me some exercises, and suggested that I sleep with a heating pad on my neck.  Usually, I don't take medicine but  had to cave in this time.  It was not only affecting me but everyone in the familly.  Everything was a fog.    
The first two mornings I  didn't have any relief.  I was starting to think I should go back to the doctor(or ER).   But then, this morning I woke up with a very mild headache.  How excited I was to see a light and to be coming out of the fog!! 
I am praying tomorrow will even be better:)

Statue of Liberty Art

We are keeping with an American theme in Art this year since we are studying American History.  I found this idea on Deep Space Sparkle and thought it would be a great kick off for the year. We are still in the Pre-History of the United States but while drawing her we had great discussion.
I am thinking our next project will be to either use oil pastels or paints(haven't decided yet) and draw the Grand Canyon.   
First, we drew the Statue of Liberty, buildings, etc. in pencil.  Then, we used sharpee markers to outline everything.  Next, we used markers to color everything but the Statue of Liberty.  Last, we painted her using watercolors.  I enjoyed joining in with the kids.  Art is a great way to spend time together.  We were happy with the way they turned out.   

Sweet girl's

Silly guy's- He decided it would be the Fourth of July. 

He painted a night scene and used glitter for fireworks.

Little Man's

Mama's

My Travel Journal Notebooking Pages

I am trying to find different ideas to keep the kids occupied during our move. 

• Thekids will be without their toys/belongings for about two months. 
• We'll be staying in a hotel for about 1-1 1/2 months. 
• A 5 1/2 hour flight from Honolulu to Oakland. 
• Because our van is only being taken as far as Oakland, CA, we'll have a  five hour drive to our new home. So, we decided we would take a sightseeing tour along the way. 

We went to Target and Walmart this week and bought a few travel games.  I have found some other ideas from the internet too.  I am going to buy freezer bags and fill them with different activities.
A few websites I found for activities: 

• Momsminivan.com  
• Activitiesforkids.com
• Familyfun.com
• FamilyEducation.com
• Trekaroo.com

One idea I found during my search was to have the kids make a Travel Journal.  What a great way for the kids document the trip and adventure that lies ahead of us.  I made some Travel Journal notebooking pages and wanted to share.  These pages would be great to journal any kind of vacation/trip, just journal, or even some pages could be used for a nature study.  They turned out kind of cute.  I am also going to have them collect brochures, tickets, etc. along the way to include in their journal.  You can download them on my page at HSlaunch:  My Travel Journal .  Enjoy!!

Traveling with Pets

Our move date is coming up fast.  It is a BIG move from Hawaii to Nevada.  There are so many things to schedule and co-ordinate:  pack dates, plane tickets, check outs, check ins, hotels, shipping two vehicles, finding housing, getting rid of things, etc. Just when I think I have it all figured out something changes. 
It is a bit stressful and exhausting.
We are also bringing our pooches along with us.  This seems to be adding to the stress. Finding a hotels that will take dogs, vet appointments for health certificates, flight regulations, etc.  I thought I would share a couple of websites I have found useful for traveling with pets. 
One is Petswelcome.com .  On this website you can find information about all types of travel with pets.  You can also find hotels all over the country that accept our furry friends.  It has great information!  Another is Petsonthego.com .  This website also includes a lot of useful information.  You can also download the Air Travel Consumer Report which has all of the incident/accident reports for each airline.

I am praying this transition will be not to stressful for Wally and Roxy.

Our furry loved ones...

Wally- Reading up on his breed history. 

Roxy- She always strikes a pose for the camera.  Such a beautiful girl!

Lately...

I haven't blogged in a while.  We finished our 2009/2010 school year the first week of June when the public school year ended.   Many of the kid's friends were off of school.  Since we'll be moving in a couple of months I felt it was important for them to soak up the time they have left with them.  Anyway, we took the first couple of weeks to relax a bit.  We went to the movies a few times, bowling, the pool, the mall, etc. Pretty much just chillin.  It has been great! 

In between chill time, I have been gearing up for our next school year.  I hit a couple of the used curriculum fairs. Which I am happy to say I made out.  I saved our homeschool budget about $500.00 by sorting and picking through many many tables and boxes.  It took quite a bit of organization and planning on my part but with that kind of savings I have to say it was well worth it.

I have decided to have the kids study American History this year.  Since both children would be studying the same thing I thought it would be best and probably more fun if we did it together.  We'll be using the Joy Hakim series A History of US  as our main text.  Adding in various literature selections, poetry, and music to co-ordinawith the study. Sweet girl will have three current event assignmets per week.  I am hoping she will post them on her blog but we'll have to see.  She doesn't like when I tell her what to post on her blog;). 
Science- Silly Guy Christian Kids Explore Biology , How Nature Works   and library books. 
Sweet Girl -Apologia's General Science.  I decided to go with General Science because after looking through the table of contents she covered a lot of Physical Science last year.  She is excited about Apologia. 
Math-  Both kiddos will be using Saxon (Silly guy- Saxon 6/5 and Sweet girl Saxon Algebra 1)
Bible-Both kiddos AOP Lifepac Bible
Language Arts- Silly guy-BJU English 5, Wordly Wise, and Spelling Power.
Sweet girl- Sonlight Core 100 writing, Spelling Power, Wordly Wise, , and
Easy Grammar 180 Daily Teaching Lessons
I plan on doing some nature studies once we reach our new home. We can't wait to explore!
Art- I am going to be pulling lessons/activities from various websites.  I am trying to stick to an "American" theme.  Deep Space Sparkle , Art for Homeschool, Artyfactory, Captain Watercolor, and Sketch Tuesday all have great ideas and lesson plans. 
So, needless to say we are most definitley eclectic homeschoolers. 

I have decided to start our school year next week since we will be moving in September.  I would love to take a couple more weeks off, but with moving the kids will be taking off quite a bit.  I want to get in a solid six weeks before getting on that big bird back to the mainland.  I am planning on having them continue Math, Language Arts, Literature, and possibly History while we are in transition.  Our household goods could take up to 45 days to get to our new home. 
Along with all of this planning comes organization.  But I will have to post about how I've been tackling that later(maybe tomorrow).  I just peeked at the clock and well I have to go to bed!!

Starbase Atlantis

Silly Guy participated in the Starbase Atlantis program last week.  It is a free program funded by the DOD open to all students entering or graduating 5th grade.  The program is 4 days of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  The week is full of hands on Science experiments and instruction.  Some highlights from his week...designed his own space station, built and launched a model rocket, and simulated a flight where he had to take off from Ford Island, Pearl Harbor Naval Station and land safely at Hickam Air Force Base.  He also went on a few field trips to various places around base.  He was completly exhausted by the end of a 7 hour day but always excited to tell me about all of the fun things he had did at Starbase. To find out if this program is offered near you check out their website Starbase  .  Also on the website they offer some links to various science websites shared under the link tab.  Check it out!

In this picture is his group, Endeavor, graduating.

A picture of him preparing to launch his rocket.