Enjoying the HI life poolside!

Spontaneous Pool Date
I love that we're in a stage of life and a geographic location, where a friend can text "Hey, wanna go to the pool?" and 20 minutes later there we are!

Everybody loves jumping in, diving for rings, and experimenting with the many floaty things we end up with: kick boards, noodles, boogie boards, and floaty disks.

Diamond Head Hike
We completed Honolulu's iconic hike this weekend! It's short (1.6 miles round trip) and has gorgeous views, but involves a lot of steps. Totally worth it--especially when you celebrate the accomplishment with fresh pineapple smoothies at the bottom.

This is the way up
(but it's not actually all steps).

This is the view of Diamond Head Crater

From the other side of the Head you can see downtown Honolulu.

They were very excited about drinking smoothie out of a real pineapple!

Beach Day!
We decided to join some friends for another morning at Kailua Beach. An early morning start means we get to beat the crowds, spend a few hours, and still make it home for lunch. On this trip our friend J got mildly stung by a jellyfish, so they spent a little more time in the sand than they did last time. But they all got back in the water again at least once before we left.

Foster Botanical Garden

We've been going to this garden every Thursday evening this summer for free concerts, but this week I actually took some pictures! The girls showed me some of their favorite plants (I'm usually busy chatting with the grown ups, while the kiddos explore.) Daddy had to work late and couldn't come, but we had a great crowd of neighborhood and church friends to sit with and share food (almost 30 people--mostly kids!). The music was a local couple who plays bluegrass. Bug and Auntie L were both excited about the fiddle player.

Yes, that sign says "Watch out for falling
cannonballs." Take it seriously.

That sign is under this huge tree. If you look closely you
can see the cannonball-sized seeds hanging in it.

"Look, Mom! I could use it like an umbrella!"

Check out this tree's roots!

Bug Did It!
Bug accomplished some big things this week! She's officially done with fourth grade math (ironically enough, going to school in the fall slowed down her academic progress). She also finally finished the scarf she's been knitting! She's excited to have the lovely completed project, and only a little disappointed that she won't have the opportunity to wear it for at least a few years.

Library Fun
The girls finished the summer reading program weeks ago, and finally got to collect their final prizes--kites! It's almost always breezy here, so they've had fun getting their kites airborne in the green spaces near our house (no photo yet, I'll snap one eventually). In the photo below they're wearing their first level prize shirts, so they could get grab bag prizes (a bracelet, collapsible binoculars, and a puzzle box). That day the library was also getting patrons to paint rocks--one each for the library's new rock garden and one each to take home to hide in the neighborhood. They loved painting, hiding, and finding rocks in VA, so they're pretty excited that it's a thing here too!

Splash Pad with FriendsThe girls are a little old for this splash pad, but we went with a couple other families one morning and had a blast!

If you can't find Monkey, look up!
The abundance of climbable trees might be
her favorite thing about Hawaii.

Bug and Lion are waiting patiently for snacks
with our friends L and Baby P.

Where It Happens: Tropical Edition (Take 2!)

We finally have our stuff and are feeling settled with everything unpacked and the pictures up on the walls. This move has taken us a lot longer than usual to reach this point, and we are all glad to be here!

The Study

It's math time! Bug works on Khan Academy, while Lion
creates a set of flash cards for the 3x table. 

While the house itself is smaller than our last one, the study is bigger, and the girls and I are enjoying the elbow room. We'll have to work hard to keep this very lived in space from becoming its usual crowded mess--it's right inside the front door!

The Kitchen

We have a fantastically big kitchen! This is where the science projects and lots of life skills lessons happen. Perhaps my favorite thing about this kitchen though is that we have wall space to hang the massive painting! (Painted by a co-worker of Daddy's back in Philadelphia, it usually gets relegated to the stairs because nowhere else is big enough.) Also, this kitchen has so much cabinet space that we were able to put a bunch of books and games in the last set of cabinets near the window.

Yes, that's another bookshelf and a printer in the kitchen.
"You know you're a home schooler if . . . "

The Lanai

We love this outdoor living room space! I frequently spend a daily quiet time out here, the girls enjoy this location for teatime, and we've even taken our family lessons out here.

Recently, we also invited the G girls (across the street neighbors with 3 little girls + a baby boy) to join us for a "formal" tea. My girls had a great time planning the menu (iced watermelon green tea, crustless cucumber sandwiches, diced strawberries, and chocolate chip mug cake) and getting everything ready (arranging the lanai for sufficient serving and seating space, gathering the right number of plates, cups, etc.). They did a great job, and everybody had fun! I think this will be a repeat event!

The Living Room

The furniture all fits--including four bookshelves and a china cabinet! And we did manage to create two cozy seating areas. The blue couches definitely get more use. This is where we do family lessons, read alouds, and lunch time TV viewing. (We're currently watching Spirit and Trollhunters.) It's also Monkey's preferred location for completing her independent lessons--it's comfier and tends to be quieter than the study.

The Closet under the Stairs
When the girls realized just how huge this closet was, Monkey asked if we could fit one of the extra chairs in there and declare it an "alone time space." It's just right!

The Girls' Bedroom

They decided the "triple bunk double L" arrangement would give them the most floor space, and by putting one dresser inside the closet, they even have room for a butterfly chair. We also removed the closet door, which definitely helped open up the space.

The Playroom

The playroom is looking so grown up! The play kitchen and workbench have been removed to storage, and musical instruments and bookshelves have taken their place. The girls are enjoying the new set up, but they're already discussing how best to keep our littlest friends off the instruments when we have playdates!

RIMPAC Ship Tour

 With so many foreign ships in port this had the potential to be an awesome event. However, it was so poorly organized that we were all terribly disappointed. We didn't set foot on a single foreign vessel because no one knew anything about anything--even the people working where these ships are docked. We did manage to "tour" a U.S. aircraft carrier. But after waiting in the blazing sun for an hour to get aboard, we were only allowed to see a small section of a hangar and a small section on of the flight deck. (Having gotten a full tour of the USS Midway a couple years ago, we were less than impressed.)

Kaupo Bay Tide Pools 

This outing, however, was a blast! The girls were even willing to get up early in order to join our early-rising friends and beat the crowds to have the place to ourselves. Like any piece of coastline here, it's gorgeous, and the girls had so much fun scrambling around on the lava rocks, building a sand castle, splashing in the pools, and even catching a few fish (and a hermit crab!) in buckets. The girls decided that next time they want to bring their snorkels for better fish viewing.

Look! I was there too!