santa came by our little party on monday. he read a story and gave out some sweet treats. grace wasn't as friendly with santa as last year, but warmed up a little towards the end of his visit. nice to see santa is color coordinating his bike and suit!
it is that time of year again. nothing like forcing your children to sit in a strangers lap. but dogs shouldn't mind. right?
well, our sweet little lehua left quite the impression on the santa clause at petco. i took grace and lehua down to get their picture taken with santa for christmas. for the first time ever, grace was a little scared of santa. last year she ran to him. this year she hid from him. and when i tried to set her in his lap, she squirmed out, whining the whole time. fine. i will just put lehua in santa's lap, and grace can stand beside. wrong song ding dong. when i put lehua in santa's lap, santa leaned forward and his beard went on top of lehua's head, which freaked her out. she grabbed the beard in her mouth and did the old "break the ememy's neck" shake and growl. this left santa with his entire outfit in disarray. when i got lehua free from the beard, the photographer took santa to the side to help him get his suit back on straight, and beard back on. this is why grace got the chair, with lehua on one side, and santa on the other. good times. 
i must have voted for pedro, because all of my wildest dreams have come true. i have always wanted to have a surprise birthday party. and on many occasions i was convinced that one was being arranged, just ask ric. i had given up that dream. and then my sweet dear friend vicky deceived me.
on my birthday she came over with a crazy yummy birthday cookie her family made for me. see picture.
a card and gift sealed the deal. we had just celebrated my birthday.
well, a week before she asked me to come to her house to stay with the girls while she went to a meeting thing. was i suspicious? no. why you may ask? because vicky doesn't have one sneaky bone in her body. she is so "honest abe" it isn't even funny. and she has a busy busy schedule. plus her friend who usually stays with the girls was out of town. little did i know i would be ambushed.
so the saturday after my birthday, i jump in the shower, grab some comfy/not cute clothes, and head over to vicky's with a wet head of hair. ric and grace came too, so we could all hang out. ric drove, and i was so busy on the phone, that i didn't notice all of the cars in front of the house!
then i saw more kids in the yard than i should have, and i got a feeling something was going on.
SURPRISE!!!
well, vicky, my kona sister, you got me good.
and you know me.
this isn't over.
not by a long shot.
the party was great. kids running around laughing and playing. the best. and i even had a game created in honor of my birthday. pin the water drop on the cake on fire. you can see the picture of me and the girls with the water drops, pretending they are tears, because i am so old.
thank you vicky and family for making this birthday so special. you guys rock!!! and i love you all. i am so glad God blessed me with such great friends. cccooooouuuuuu!
we had a great couple of days in waikoloa. mom got us a room at the marriot, and we partied like rock stars. we spent more time in the pool than in the room! they have 3 or 4 different pools, 3 different hot tubs (aahhhh), and a water slide. yes, i went down the water slide. i'm not THAT old. we had a great time!
here i am covered in my "40 presents" from my fabulous sister. hopefully one of the gifts is double chin cream.
we almost lost grace in a pile of bubbles. when we turned on the jets........the bubbles got higher and higher and higher. i was so jealous.
gracie had some friends come over for the day and play. here we are in the kitchen making cookies. a great way to bribe them to be good. ahh ha ha.
last saturday we went to the koloko tree farm and picked out our tree for christmas. it was just like a wedding dress. we picked one out, then changed our minds and picked out another, then another, etc. moving our orange tag all over the place. in the end......back to our first pick. 
ric and i celebrated out 8th anniversary. miss regina from church kept grace for us, so we had a hot date!!!
this is the exhibit of the honu's that local artists painted. grace loved them. she wanted to pose with all of them.
camping trip of fun!! the dad's took the kids on a hike, then came back for a water fight. grace was right in the middle of the action.
for her 3rd birthday, grace wanted to have a princess party. she was tinkerbell. we also had belle, ariel, aurora (sleeping beauty), and more!!! and don't forget jacob!
grace turned three a month ago.....and i am just now getting the pictures together. the 3 of us spent the day together and then had dinner on the lanai, followed by present and cupcakes. her favorite thing was the card that seth sent. the song "who let the dog's out" plays when you open it. she kept opening it over and over and over again. even when i put her cupcakes with lit candles in front of her.....she still couldn't keep her eyes off of it. later that night, when i put her to bed, i went into the living room. 10 minutes later.............i hear "who let the dog's out". her room was dark, she was in bed, but still loving that card.
it's time for cubbies!!!!! grace is finally old enough to go to awana's. she loves it!!!!! miss christine plays a game with them where she says "all my babies are sleeping", and they all lay down and pretend they are sleeping, and then she names an animal, and they wake up and run around acting like that animal.
and she's 3
we have had a big weekend.
lost our camera during the move, so missed all birthday photo opps. or shall i say oops. have some nice ones with the big camera, but still don't know how to download with it.
sorry.
and yes, it is sideways. aaron took this picture at rainbow falls. so can i blame him that i don't know how to rotate?
stay tuned........
this was just too cute to not take a picture of. here we are leaving the beach with some friends, and ALL the girls had to hold hands. no one was left out. sweet girls.
yyyyiiipppppeeeee!!! here are pictures from our trip to oahu in july. we met aunty lori at ala moana one day, and she treated us to lunch at nordie's, then showed grace how to shop in style.......a balloon from the kids shoe department. maybe this is why cousin aaron says grace is spoiled??
according to my dad, there are no new diets in the house of academia. all diets have been deleted. almost forty and my dad is still telling me what to do. all protesters are urged to leave a comment. mahalo for your kokua.
cousin aaron came for a visit from honolulu. he is the best teenager in the whole world. he is very patient with grace, and she loves him. he went with us to volcano for our church retreat. it was a great visit with him, and we hope he wasn't too bored with the slow pace over here. thanks for coming aaron!!!
here is grace with her friends at our church retreat in volcano. we were on a hike and came across a hula stage.....and the girls were inspired.
that is how memma blackard always said her birthday. eight eight o eight
i just read patti kaye's blog, and decided to share some memories too. click on to patti blog (link on the right side) and check out the groovy picture.
i was probably the luckiest grandchild, because we usually lived the closest. and out of my sisters, i was the only one who knew how to "fake a fever" on thursdays so i could go to quilting with memma. (ooh the food those ladies would make)
memma always made peanut brittle (in her microwave) for people. if someone came over to do something for her, she went into the kitchen and whipped up some peanut brittle. i make brownies or butter mochi.
she always drove fast. and so do i. we had a nickname for her......anyone remember??
she always made me blueberry pancakes for breakfast. thanks goodness. i don't like oatmeal, and she had it every day. EVERY DAY! i think i remember her making kevin chocolate gravy.
when i would argue with my sisters, she would always tell me i would be sorry one day. they would live far away and i would give anything to see them. she was right.
when i saw mom was cooking liver for dinner, i would secretly call and invite memma over. she didn't like liver, so mom would have to cook something else too. i still don't like liver.
she planted purple iris on the side of mom and dad's house, and they are still my favorite flower.
we would spend the night with memma on saturday nights. then we could watch the carol burnett show, but only after suffering through the lawrence welk show.
memma would always cut out dear abby articles from the paper and give them to people she thought needed them. i still have one about a rebellious teenager giving her parents a lot of grief. hhmmmm.
the first time i traveled abroad alone, i got a little freaked out. then i thought of memma and all of her stories from traveling. she did it and so can i!! my favorite travel story is one she didn't tell me. i met up with peggy (hardgrave) horne and brother larry when they were in hawaii about 10 years ago. she told me about her,aunt judy, uncle ben, maybe diane and memma all driving to spain from germany in a volkswagen bug ( i think ) and all the girls bought these really big spanish hats (something like a sombrero maybe?) and she will never forget them all trying to fit back into the bug. memma probably said something like "land sakes" or "well i'll be".
i remember going to wal-mart with memma to put together a care package for todd, sherry, and kevin and looking for red licorice. memma said they couldn't get it in germany. then she recorded us sending greetings to our cousins on a cassette tape.
i remember memma talking about visiting robin, and he had a little sports car that he drove memma around in, and zipped in and out of traffic. she said he could fit that little car anywhere. i was secretly hoping she would trade her big car in for a little sports car after the colorful stories.
on special sunday's, she would wear her mink to church. she would drape it over my and vanessa's lap. we would just pet it the whole service.
i could go on and on ......
the most important thing i learned from memma is how to love the Lord. it may have taken me a while to get my priorities straight, but it was always in my heart.
thanks memma. you rocked!!!!
here are some snapshots of a beach day with our friends and their boys. grace was well taken care of this particular day, being the only girl of the group.
