Uncle K's Visit!
Uncle K came to visit for about a week before continuing his vacation in Maui and Waikiki. We got to show him some of our favorite things and try a few new ones! For his first full day we did a drive around the island with stops at Turtle Bay for snorkeling, at Giovanni's truck for shrimp plates, and at the Polynesian Cultural Center Marketplace for Dole Whip and window shopping. We also drove through the Valley of the Temples to see the Byodo-In Temple.

The next day Daddy, Monkey, and Lion hit up an iconic hike once again and took Uncle K up Diamond Head, while Bug and I went to her therapy session. That afternoon we met up to go the Arizona Memorial Museum and actually got to set foot on the memorial itself this time--such a beautiful, well-done memorial (the dock broke just after we moved here and was only recently repaired).

The king's sitting room

Our next tourist stop was another new one for us--a tour of Iolani Palace, the only official royal residence in the U.S. A docent walked us (and a couple from Sweden) through the palace explaining the history and artifacts and answering any questions.

We finally got in a photo op with the Kamehameha statue on Oahu!

 On Saturday we spent the morning watching the girls' soccer games and the afternoon at Bellows Beach walking, sandcastle building, and boogie boarding.

Sunday started early--Uncle K decided to tag along and watch Lion run in a cross-country meet (she smoked the competition as usual!). Fortunately, the meet is early, so they could still join Monkey and Bug and I for church. It was a special week: the girls--joined by Auntie L on the cello--played "Amazing Grace" for the offertory.

Happy Halloween!
Just in case you missed the Facebook photos--we did a group costume for the first time this year. The girls were SO excited! (And I was thrilled that the costumes were so easy and awesome.) Happy Halloween from Gru, Lucy, and the minions!

Because trick-or-treating is always more fun with friends, we invited our favorite homeschool friends to join us (their neighborhood isn't really trick-or-treat friendly). Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades were happy to join the minions in gathering massive amounts of candy!

Art Museum
We finally made it to the local art museum, and it's definitely going in our regular rotation of outings! It was a much larger and higher quality collection than we were expecting with great works from every era and from all over the world. For our first visit, we just did an exploratory tour and breezed through the museum just to get a feel for what's there. Granted, we got pulled in by a few things and just had to stop and read signs, but we spent almost two hours poking around the galleries and courtyards. We intend to revisit the museum to focus on just one or two exhibits per trip.

Classic pose with the zoo statuary!

Zoo
Everybody loves the zoo! A couple of the highlights included the hippo being back on exhibit (his space was being renovated the last few visits), and actual sightings of the elephants and the tiger (they're usually hiding).

We had to get a photo with the elephant,
my personal favorite.

 However, this time we spent most of our time and were totally fascinated by the birds in residence. Especially when we discovered a walk-through aviary down a path we hadn't noticed before! Bug also decided to work on her photography skills during this trip and caught a few great pics:

Spoonbills are such funky looking birds.

  

This gorgeous red-crested turaco was one of our favorites in the aviary.

Bug even managed to capture him spreading his wings!

Wednesday Church Night
We've recently decided to transition to a different church. We've got a variety of reasons, but the real driving force for making the move was Monkey and Bug's (completely valid) dissatisfaction with the youth group and the new youth pastor (nothing immoral or inappropriate, but they didn't feel like they fit in with the group, and this youth pastor didn't seem like he was going to create an atmosphere conducive to healthy spiritual growth).

We've attended the new church's traditional service a few times (and loved it and the pastor), and this past week we decided to try out the Wednesday night offerings. Everybody loves it! Monkey and Bug had a blast at youth group. I knew it was going to be good when, within moments of arriving, another 6th grade girl spotted them ("More 6th grade girls! Whoohoo!"), introduced herself, and insisted "Come meet my friends!" They were instantly plugged into a gaggle of middle school girls who they stuck with for games, dinner, and a special speaker who happened to be their martial arts instructor! They also knew a handful of other kids from various sports teams they've been on, and found out about a middle school girls small group Bible study that they want to get involved in. (I just need to find out the details.) Meanwhile, Lion and I had a lovely time making new friends (this church has homeschoolers!), and getting involved in the children's and adult ministries (Bible video, discussion, and crafts for Lion; Mere Christianity book discussion for me).

We've settled into "the usual routine." Here in the land of eternal summer that means a steady stream of park days, pool dates, and beach days! We're continuing our weekly pool dates with our home schooling friends, and the girls have asked that Mondays be designated outing days. Here's a few shots from our most recent outings:

They discovered a great climbing tree at a park
not far from home (it also has a playground,
 picnic tables, shade, and bathrooms,
 so we'll definitely be going again)

Gotta love a beach that thinks it's a swimming pool!

"Hey, Mom! We're digging the Mines of Moria!"
(Don't worry they stopped before they found a Balrog.)

It wouldn't be a real beach day without somebody getting buried!

Run! Kick! Run!
A recent weekend was one sporting event after another--especially for Lion! On Friday evening Daddy and Lion had a rematch race on level ground (really level--this 5k took place on an air field). Daddy won this round! But only by 30 seconds, and Lion says she was gaining on him. More impressively, while Lion was 1st place in her own girls' age group, she was also in 3rd place for all runners under 19--only two teenage boys were faster!

Lion crossing the finish line
(Photo courtesy of the wife of the guy finishing behind a tiny girl)

The girls had their first soccer games of the season! They're all doing well and having fun. They're all continuing to improve their skills, and Lion's excited to actually be on a team this year (last year she was stuck on a waitlist, but Monkey and Bug's coach let her practice with them). We've actually lived here long enough that the girls arrived at their first practices and discovered they already knew people!

Lion is actually in a different age group, so on a different team,
but they all ended up in the same color jerseys!

Then on Sunday Lion decided to try out one of USATF's developmental meets for cross country (because they're all on Sunday mornings, she won't be competing in all of them--just a few leading up to the championship meet). The event for her age group is a 3k, and Lion ran an amazing race! She told me she was planning to go just to get a feel for the course and not worry about being competitive, "but, Mommy, I was just born for running!" The next runner in her age group crossed the finish line two minutes behind her, and the next female her age was almost three minutes behind her! Go, Lion!

Here's a shot from the race before she left the pack in the dust.

Happy Labor Day!
We loved having Daddy home for a four-day weekend! With the additional time off, he took the girls shopping for new cleats and a couple of new soccer balls, we had an extra movie night and watched a couple of fantasy favorites (Fellowship of the Ring because they're almost done reading The Two Towers and we'll be watching that one next weekend; and The Dark Crystal in preparation for watching Netflix's Age of Resistance series), and enjoyed a neighborly potluck Monday afternoon. The families on our little corner of the street joined forces to feast on your typical cookout fare and let the kids run around pelting each other with water balloons and water guns while the grown ups chatted. Good times!

On Saturday, we actually spent several hours hiking a portion of Tripler Ridge Trail. It's an out-and-back train that goes on for miles and links up several other hikes. We chose to hike about two and a half miles out, stop for a picnic lunch trailside, and hike back. Here's a few photo highlights:

One moment you're hiking through the dense undergrowth of the wilderness,
the next you come to a clearing with massive power lines.
You're never really far from civilization here on Oahu!

We had to do a bit of rock scrambling on this hike.

We reached a summit! We topped several actually as the trail followed a ridge for miles,
but this one made for a really good photo op.

Somebody installed a swing! The perfect spot for resting
and taking in the view.

Snack time!

We reached our last summit, and the girls lined up for a photo.
Me: "C'mon get closer! Act like you like each other!"
All grins, Monkey immediately steps in front of Bug,
while Lion leans in to push her over!
"Is this close enough?" Gotta love sisters!

Planning Tea
At least once a year, the girls and I have what we call a planning tea--we work together to whip up a sweet treat and steep a nice pot of tea, then sit around the table discussing our educational plans for the coming months. This gives me a chance to outline my plans for them, along with any changes we'll be making, and gives them a chance to give feedback and bring up any special interests they want my help with. This year we decided to go all in and create a formal three-course afternoon tea with tea sandwiches, scones with clotted cream & jam, berries, sugar cookies and a chocolate mug cake, and the makings of iced milk tea (because it's Hawaii and it's hot). Scrumptious!

Academically and otherwise here's what we're up to. But, before we get into the core academic subjects, here are things the girls expressed interest in that we'll be pursuing along side their usual lessons:

Lion wants to learn Irish step dancing (not real lessons she specified, just videos at home. Whew! I don't know that we can find that in Hawaii! Thank you YouTube!). She also wants to add more creative writing to her composition lessons (story writing and poetry).

Bug, as usual, has an ongoing list of craft projects (mostly textile crafts). She's also interested in learning to draw animals and human figures and has requested we add art museum visits to our list of outings. She also recently been building Rube Goldberg machines across the study table, and would like to do more hands-on STEM projects.

Monkey is interested in learning American Sign Language (There's an app for that! Several actually. We're working finding one she likes), and in learning about how filmmakers create the special effects for live action movies (between YouTube and our DVD collection, we should be set). She's also requested more regular visits to the climbing gym, since she's pretty much conquered the nearby trees, and the gym changes up its walls every month.

All three girls have developed an interest in chess. I found an app that gave them move options for each piece as they played, but they quickly learned those and proceeded to set up multiple chess sets around the living room. There's usually at least one game ongoing at this point. Lion in particular is likely to play both sides if she can't find an available opponent.

A rundown of the academics:

Language Arts: For spelling, Lion will continue working her way through the units from K12Reader that Monkey and Bug recently finished. Now that they're middle schoolers (when did that happen?!), they've moved on to a vocabulary program called Vocabulary from Classical Roots that teaches them vocabulary based on Latin and Greek word origins. All three girls will continue using the Institute for Excellence in Writing workbook assignments for composition and Daily Grams for grammar.

For reading, Lion and I recently finished Charlotte's Web, and she's jumping into our group read aloud of The Series of Unfortunate Events. She's been listening in, but when we started (10 books ago), her reading skills weren't quite up for it. They are now! We love this series--not only is it a fun read with a compelling story, but the girls have definitely expanded their vocabulary and learned about a variety of literary devices. Also, now that Netflix put out a great TV series, we have a fun comparative analysis to do whenever we finish a book. Of course, the girls also have books they're reading independently: Lion is on book 2 of the Harry Potter series, Monkey is reading the Artemis Fowl series, and Bug is currently reading an edition of Little Women that comes with sidebars about the author and the Civil War era.

The girls are also practicing cursive handwriting and typing. Lion and Monkey are still working their way through the Typing.com program. Bug has actually finished the program, but still practices typing almost everyday through writing assignments, her email correspondence with friends and relatives, or adding to her collection of favorite poems. All three girls are practicing cursive using a Reason for Handwriting workbook that will keep them busy until Christmas, when I'll have them switch to using cursive for more of their assignments.

Math: Khan Academy still suits our needs (for now, but we're looking at different curriculum for math beyond 6th grade). Bug finished 5th grade earlier in the year and is about 30% done with 6th already. Monkey just finished 5th, and Lion just finished 3rd. Family tradition says they get a bit of a break before started up the next grade, but there's some overlap between grades, so neither of them will actually be starting at 0%.

Social Studies: For history, we're continuing to read through Story of the World, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages. The girls have decided that trying to create a video for every unit is a bit too intense, so we'll be switching between videos and illustrated note cards depending on the subject matter. In addition to looking up the locations that come up in our history units, the girls are doing map studies--making their way around the globe memorizing the locations of countries using atlases and dry erase maps.

Science: We're continuing our explorations with no formal curriculum, but LOTS of learning--through completing hands-on projects, watching videos, reading books, and (with Google's help) answering the stream of questions that come up everyday.

Spanish: The girls are making their way through the Rosetta Stone program, and--except for some difficulties with my laptop's microphone--we're really enjoying it.

Music: All three girls are still loving their instruments and their teachers! Actually due to a scheduling conflict, Bug switched violin teachers over the summer, but she and Miss S are getting on very well. The girls recently decided to skip their school's fall recital (in which they'd be plugged into random groups and given a video game song to play) in favor of forming a quartet with our pastor's wife, a cellist, to play "Amazing Grace" during a church service at the the end of October.

P.E.: In addition to the hours spent riding bikes and running around outside with friends and going on family hikes and beach days, the girls will continue studying taekwondo, and this week soccer season starts. We were able to register on time this year, so all three made it onto teams!

These last things are just life--not academics--but perhaps even more important!

Growing in their faith: We're still attending church, of course, where the elementary Sunday school class is doing an in-depth study of the Gospel of Matthew. The girls are still cheerfully doing their weekly homework and memorizing Bible verses. In fact, Monkey and Bug are technically supposed to move up to the youth Sunday school class, but they got permission from the children's and youth pastors to stay put until the study is finished. At home we're making our way through Training Hearts, Teaching Minds, a daily family devotional based on the Shorter Catechism. We don't always agree with the commentary, but it's led to really great discussions.

Life Skills: AKA doing chores and generally helping out around the house. Friday's our official clean-the-house day, but they assist with kitchen and laundry jobs on a daily basis along with any special projects and tasks that come up. I can also now hand them half the grocery list to gather and meet them at the check out, where I pay and they bag everything.

Tired yet? Me too! But life is so good with these girls, and I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Perfect view for a "first day" back at the books

School's Back in Session!

Us too, I suppose, since we just got back into things after our trip to Japan, but our actual excitement is that all the school kids are back in school! We have all our favorite places back! Since we're year-round learners in a variety of grades (depending on the subject and the kid), the "back to school" season doesn't mean much, but I informed the girls that they can officially tell people who inevitably ask this time of year that, yes, they are "back in school" and that they're in 4th (Lion) and 6th grades (Monkey and Bug).

Here's what our last few weeks have looked like:

For our first "official" day back into lessons, we decided to do it Hawaii style: We packed up a few books, picked up a box of Dunkin' Donuts, and headed for our favorite nearby beach! After enjoying breakfast, we spread out a blanket in the sand to do some of our read aloud lessons. Conveniently enough we were learning about the Polynesian explorers, so we filmed their history presentation on location! They also copied out their spelling words in the sand and had the rest of the morning to play and explore. (Meanwhile, I had the morning to sit on the beach, read, pray, and journal.)

We started up our standing Wednesday morning pool dates with another homeschool family! Our combined six kids are LOVING having the pool basically all to themselves. (My apologies to the sunbathers.)

We also made it back to the zoo for the first time in months--just us and a handful of preschoolers and Japanese tourists. We had a lovely, leisurely stroll through the zoo, making sure to spot some of our favorites: elephants, monkeys, and the tiger (he was up and about this time!). We even got to chat with a couple of zookeepers. One was set up for discussion with a table display of replica monkey skulls and hands, and the other was cleaning out a turtle pond and clearly enjoyed the company and conversation of a trio of inquisitive girls.

My kids are in that climbing structure somewhere!
(The zoo playground might be one of their favorite things.)

At Monkey's request we visited the bouldering gym--our first time since she broke her arm! Now that she's free of the cast and back to full strength, she had a blast and climbed hard the whole time--she came home with the blisters to prove it, but wants to go back regularly. Poor Lion was having fun until she pulled a groin muscle--fortunately, toward the end of our planned stay. Bug meanwhile decided that she's just not that into climbing and will likely stay home to work on projects next time.

The week after we returned from Japan, they had their taekwando belt test. They are officially yellow belts now! This is especially exciting because technically they were supposed to go from no belts to white belts, but they worked hard and proved they knew enough to skip a belt and go straight to yellow! Here they are being applauded by the school after Master C presented them with their belts:

Posing at the 6th Station torii gate

Konichi wa (Japan Trip Part II)
The adventures continue!

Day 9: We climbed Mt. Fuji! Well, most of it. Bus schedules proved a limiting factor, but Daddy, Bug, Lion, and I made it to Station 8 on the Subashiri Trail (3,100 m. elevation) when we realized we needed to head back down or risk getting left on the mountain overnight. Aunt E started the hike with us intending to go only to the first stop (6th station). She's climbed it before and made plans instead to head to a nearby onsen (hot spring baths) while we kept going. Partway to the 6th station Monkey wasn't holding up well, so we sent her to the onsen with Aunt E rather than drag her along and risk altitude sickness. The altitude is no joke! Lion, of course, remained bouncy the whole time, and she probably could have made it to the summit in plenty of time. However, Bug and I were definitely starting to slow our pace, and Daddy started getting headaches. It was a good hike though! Besides experiencing the world famous mountain, the girls also handled getting the station keepers to brand our hiking stick, mastered using squatty potties, and had a glorious time sliding down the black gravel slopes!

The Mt. Fuji hike starts in a lovely forest.

The higher you go the more desolate and foggy it gets.

We didn't make it to the summit, but that's it behind Bug and Lion!

This photo doesn't nearly do justice to the steep slope we had to slide down! 

The girls tried out futons in one of our hotel rooms.

We met Aunt E and Monkey back at our hotel, which was a fantastic cultural experience in itself! Our room's entryway, where everyone left their shoes, led up to a tatami mat room with futons laid out. Also off the entryway was a private bathroom (a Western luxury, not traditional to Japanese hotels) that had a big onsen-style tub. While eating the dinner Aunt E and Monkey picked up, we swapped stories of the day. Monkey had a great time at the onsen: a traditional lunch, a lovely hot soak, and ice cream in the relaxation room. Lion and Bug decided they deserved a long hot soak as well after that hike and set up their own private experience in their hotel room before bed.

In case you didn't know things are smaller in Japan.
That's Daddy in front of our hotel room door.

Lion and Bug are ready for their onsen!

The girls joined the temple guardian in scaring
evil things away.

Day 10: For convenience we decided to take advantage of the hotel's breakfast, which advertised a mix of Japanese and Western foods. We had to laugh at their Western offerings though--teriyaki meatballs and potato salad! After checking out we headed to a local playground that the girls loved--a couple of massive slides and a variety of climbing things made everybody happy. From their we went to the Peace Garden, a Buddhist temple dedicated to world peace that contained some of the Buddha's remains. We wandered through the lovely traditional gardens and down a long path of compassion Buddha statues before getting back in the car and heading back to Tokyo.

Day 11: We had low key day back in the apartment while Ellie ran some errands. I got the girls to a playground in the afternoon before we headed out to explore a bit more of the city in the evening (shopping & dinner).

It's an early morning on the Shinkansen.

Day 12: We got an early start the next morning to get to the Shinkansen (the bullet train, in fact, the third fastest train in the world), and what would have been an all day road trip got us to Kyoto by mid-morning! Our first stop was a tour of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. While tourists cannot enter the buildings themselves, most of the rooms open to the outside for easy viewing and the grounds are beautiful. I found a fun little park with a stepping stone river crossing for our next stop before heading to Pontocho Alley (famous dining district) for lunch. Many of the restaurant were closed until the evening, but we found a very tasty gyo katsu (fried beef strips) place. In the afternoon we visited the Golden Pavilion and did some souvenir shopping before dinner. On our way the little two-bedroom apartment we were staying in, we located an international donut shop and picked up some very tasty treats for the next morning.

The emperor's entrance to the palace.

Crossing the river on the backs of stone turtles.

A look down Pontocho Alley

Traditional Japanese dining--so tasty!

That's the Golden Pavilion in the background.

Classic image: Beautiful yukatas, a massive torii
gate, and a Shinto shrine

Day 13:  The five-story pagoda within minutes of our apartment was, sadly, covered in scaffolding, but we glimpsed a bit on our way to Fushimi Inari Shrine, famous for its hundreds of red torii gates leading up the mountain (we didn't go all the way to the top--with the felt temperature reaching 109 degrees it was just too hot for that kind of exertion). We also got to watch a shinto worship service with tradition music and dance at the main shrine and peek into a number of different little shrines on the way up the mountain. After lunch at an air conditioned restaurant near the shrine, we headed to the Raku Museum, were we learned about the history and creation process of a local pottery tradition and viewed samples from its beginnings hundreds of years ago to one created only last year. Finally we wandered through the Nishiki Market (food & souvenirs) before catching a Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

So many torii gates!

The girls learn about how to work a raku kiln.

Even the Kyoto train station had entertainment:
above, a light show on a massive stair case
below, an interactive robot
For the record, a robot that makes eye contact
and requests my participation is a little disconcerting!

Day 14: We attended a bilingual church service where Aunt E had friends, found tasty sandwiches and a playground for lunch, then headed to Miraikan (the national museum for emerging science and innovation), where we explored exhibits about robots and climate change.

Aren't they cute? Also that massive globe behind them
tracks actual satellite images of earth's weather patterns.

Souvenir shopping came with a fun photo op!

Day 15: We'd checked off our cultural and historical bucket list, so for our last day in Tokyo we headed to Disneyland! (also, it's significant cheaper in Tokyo than in California) Lion in particular was excited because she is finally tall enough for all the rides. Obviously, Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain were priority rides, and she loved them! (We almost ran into a snag, however, when a cast member spotted Daddy in line and was afraid he'd be too tall for Space Mountain. They pulled him out of line and took him "behind the scenes" to sit in an unused car to make sure he'd fit. He did!) The Star Wars simulation ride was also a favorite. In addition to the exciting rides we also rode It's a Small World--so the girls now get the reference next time Grandma sings it!

Daddy says this photo pretty much sums up his
Japan experience.

Day 16: We spent most of our last morning in Tokyo packing and cleaning, but the girls and I did find the time to visit a nearby playground and catch the last bit of a concert at the neighborhood shrine before heading for the airport and home.

We had such an amazing trip! And we were so thankful to have Aunt E as a tour guide!