Snapshots of the 4th

The girls had a great 4th of July weekend.  Saturday, while I was working, Jeff took the girls to the Makawao parade.  They saw horses, floats and a "car with fire" (one of those classic cars that blows fire out of the tail pipe).  Since Jeff had to handle the two girls by himself in a crowd we have no pictures to commemorate their outing but based on Genna's re-telling of the parade they had a blast.

We had a good, old 4th of July barbecue on Monday with the Madaus family.  All four kids were decked out in their patriotic best.  Here are some snapshots.

The girls looked so patriotic.

Emily practicing her statue of liberty pose.

Genna beautiful as always.

Danielle's super cool Uncle Sam Ice Cream Treat which all the kids really enjoyed a.k.a. devoured.

Emily checking out Daddy's super sparklers (a pack of 6 sparklers lit together).

Just for fun

Sunshine Dinner 

Although Genna seemed pleased and she usually likes carrots she didn't eat one ray of sunshine.

This is it?

Memorial Day Weekend we camped in a wonderful, 80 year old cabin above Kapalua Airport.  This is a privilege we get while Jeff works for Maui Land and Pine and we're making the most of it (camping in February and again in May).  When we went in February I forgot my camera.  Luckily Danielle is an "almost photographer" and took hundreds of great pics.  This time around I brought my Canon Powershot SX200 - a glorified point and shoot camera which I love.  I told myself I was going to document the weekend.  Here is what I took:

Looking down the gulch toward Kaanapali

A yummy, chocolaty treat for Emily (it was vacation!)

Emily eating, again

Genna and Macie feeding Emily

 Despite the fact that these are the only pictures I took we did not spend the entire weekend feeding Emily.  We went to the beach twice, picked a couple pineapple (Jeff made sure they were from fields no longer in use), played games . . .
Luckily Danielle was there again and I know she'll have tons of great pictures.

Coffee Filter Butterflies

While visiting Chicago, my Mom wanted to try a craft she read about "somewhere".  We were going to make butterflies using coffee filters, paint and pipe cleaners.  She couldn't remember exactly what we were supposed to do or where she had seen the craft but my mom and I fancy ourselves clever so we decided to wing it (pardon the pun).  Our initial attempt to make the butterflies was a huge success.  Genna made one butterfly, then another, and another . . . you get the picture.  This craft was amazing!  It held the attention of a 2 1/2 year old for well over thirty minutes and, over a year later, Genna still asks to make butterflies.  Genna is now old enough that I can set her up with all the supplies and she will happily prepare the butterfly wings on her own.  I still need to help with the assembly.  This craft is so easy and fun I just have to share it with you.

Supplies:
Round Coffee Filters
Pipe Cleaners (any color will do but I tend to use black or brown)
Paint or Paint Pens (the latter are hassle and mess free and easy to use)
Water
Paint Brush (1 if you use paint pens, otherwise 1 per color + 1 for the water)
Paper Towels

Steps:
1. Gather your supplies

2. Using the paint or paint pens decorate the coffee filter.  Be sure to use a lot of color and go all the way to the edge so that your butterfly is not dull once assembled.

3.   Dip the paint brush in water and brush it all over the painted coffee filter.  Be sure to get the filter wet enough that the color starts to bleed.  Place the coffee filter on a paper towel to absorb the excess water and to keep the work area clean.

4. Let the filters dry for a few minutes until they are damp but not soaking.  Fold a pipe cleaner in half to form a "V" and place the coffee filter between the two ends.  Make sure you have equal amounts of coffee filter on either side of the pipe cleaner.

5. Push the filter down to the bottom of the "V". Gather the filter in the center and twist the pipe cleaner closed just above the filter.  Snip the ends of the pipe cleaners to a good length for butterfly antenna.

6. Once the butterflies are completely dry you can do any number of things with them.  Two of our favorite uses are decorating cards and hanging them from the blades of the ceiling fan so the butterflies are "flying" in the room. 

We've also tied them to string and run with the butterflies trailing behind us.  Another use I have thought of but not yet done is to attach a longer pipe cleaner to the bottom of the butterfly and use it as a puppet. 

If you have little ones you should try this quick, fun and relatively mess free craft.  

Everything Clicks

Do you ever have those days where you feel like everything goes right?  You have plenty of energy, are a multi-tasking maniac and have FUN the entire day.  A real "Midas Day" when everything you touch seems to turn into gold.  It just clicks.  I had one of those days today.  Here is a rundown of the feel good moments of my day:

1) Pleasant patients all morning at work.

2) Running into one of my best friends at the store.  She wasn't having a great day but seeing her and her two little ones made me smile.  

3) Smiling children and a clean house when I got home from work.

4)  40 minutes of quality cuddle time with the girls.  We cuddled on  the couch, on the kitchen floor, on the laundry room floor . . . the girls just followed me around as I decompressed from work and got little tasks done.  Every finished task was capped off with a cuddle! 

5) Roller skating and tricycle riding in the garage.  Genna was fumbling around on her Tinkerbell roller skates complete with knee pads and helmet.  She had a blast trying to skate on her own and then trying to keep her feet under her while I pulled her around.  Emily is finally able to push her self on the tricycle (no pedals yet).  She wasn't content to stay in the smooth, level and safe garage and decided to push herself onto the sloped gravel driveway - and directly into my car.  She thought it was great fun and tried again as soon as I rescued her.

6) Pruning our hibiscus and gardenias in front of the house while the girls followed with the watering can.  I am going to control our garden this time!

7) Watering the fresh pruned plants with the hose while the girls watered themselves at the leaking hose bib.

8) Making banana muffins with my 2 sous chefs.  The most amazing part is that Genna and Emily took turns the entire time without my having to say a word (including tasting the batter).

9) Dancing to Michael Buble while making dinner.  It went something like this:
Emily shouts "Watch!" as she rapidly stomps her feet while making a circle around Genna.
This is followed by Genna shouting "Watch!" as she twirls, kicks, sways, etc in her wonderful mix of ballet and tap.  Every once in a while it was Mommy's turn to leap and turn in my funny (and I like to imagine graceful) imitation of a dance.  This lasted for 5 songs!  Why did my video camera have to be out of battery?!?!

Today was a good day.  Everything clicked.  Nothing momentous happened nor was I able to cross anything major off of my  to-do list but it was full of smiles and moments that I want to remember for a long, long time.  I'm sharing two of those memories with you.

The Power of a Name

Genna doesn't eat anything nutritious I make.  Correction.  Genna DIDN'T eat anything nutritious I made.  That is, until I came up with the brilliant and desperate idea to find really special names for my dishes.   I've read in parenting magazines that calling carrots "x-ray carrots" and broccoli "trees" will help get your kids to eat.  That never worked with Genna.  Apparently she doesn't value x-ray vision and the abundance of real trees in our yard satisfies her enough that the idea of eating mini trees is just not appealing.

Then one night I was making a yummy beet pasta with the beets from my CSA box.  The pasta turned a pretty pink and the beets were a beautiful red.  Inspiration struck.  I told Genna we were eating "Pink Princess Pasta with Red Jewels and Green Ruffles (beet greens)".  She loved the idea.  That was the first time I saw Genna eat a beet.  She even tried the beet green ruffles.  The second time I made the pasta resulted in another feeding frenzy . . . and the third time.  "OK," I thought, "maybe this is just a tasty recipe.  The name doesn't matter."  But then we invited Genna's friend Macie over to see if she would eat Princess Pasta. And she did!!!  Macie usually doesn't eat the dinners I make because she says they aren't what she eats at home (how different can carrots and buttered pasta with cheese be from house to house?) so I consider this a valid test.

Princess Pasta with Red Jewels and Green Ruffles

Yummy!

Mmm, a red jewel!

Even Emily, who is not much of an eater these 

days, smiled for the pink pasta.

Next I tried Rainbow Soup. It is a kind of minestrone I concocted a couple of weeks ago when I wanted to use up some vegetables and give my sick family something good to eat.  It has tomatoes (red), carrots (orange), orzo pasta and potatoes (yellow - yes, that's pushing it), collard greens (green of course), eggplant (indigo) and Okinawan sweet potatoes (violet) in it.  I know I'm missing blue but blueberries won't work in soup and I couldn't think of anything else to add.  And guess what?  Genna ate every last color!  Yes, that's right she even ate the collard greens.


By now I'm patting myself on the back!  I'm thinking maybe I'm really onto something.  Having a scientific mind however, I am not content to rest at just 2 recipes.  Especially since Jeff declared the soup amazing and wanted to make sure I wrote down my made up recipe (of course I didn't).  The next time I make it I will write it down and if it turns out just as yummy I'll post the recipe. 

Continuing to test my theory I presented Genna with Treasure Shells last night.  It's a recipe from Giada de Laurentiis of the Food Network for - get this - Swiss Chard and Sweet Pea Stuffed Manicotti.  Tubular manicotti didn't give me any exciting ideas for names so I substituted large shells instead.  Genna had one shell with extra marinara sauce in it and one stuffed with the cheese, chard and peas.  I told her she had treasure shells and would be able to taste the shell's different treasures when she ate.  At first she balked when she saw the filling but when I reminded her it was treasure she tried it . . . and ate it all!

I hope to keep this trend going and welcome any recipe and name ideas you might have.  

Mr. Shakespeare said a rose by any other name is still a rose and maybe that's true for flowers.  But Princess Pasta with Red Jewels by it's real name is uneaten.  Maybe there's more to a name than old Willie thought.

How to move a (mini) house

Friday was an interesting day.  We had an already built 8' x 10' wooden shed moved onto our property.

This is where the story begins - a lonely, unused shed in a warehouse.

Jeff saw this little structure and knew we could use it at home.  He set about finding a way to make it ours.  This whole thing was Jeff's project and he managed all the logistics amazingly well.  I took careful notes and will share them with you in case you can find your own pre-built structure for sale.

Step 1: Prepare your yard for the shed.  This includes clearing vegetation, grading, making a pad and enlisting the help of a knowledgeable friend to assist in sinking cement supports and making them level.

Step 2: Hire a low-boy trailer and a fork lift with extensions.  Luckily, my husband knows someone with just such a trailer and he can operate a fork lift (something he learned how to do in his management position at his current company - go figure).

Step 3: Load shed onto low-boy.  Be sure to use extensions or your shed will fall off the fork lift.

Step 4: Transport shed from current location to your house.  Beware - you will leave a long line of slow moving traffic in your wake.

Step 5: Stop traffic (in our case along Hana Hwy) to maneuver low-boy into proper position while awaiting arrival of fork lift.

Step 6: Once the fork lift arrives don't forget to add the extensions again.  Carefully remove shed from low-boy trailer. (Jeff had told me about using the extensions before I actually saw how it works.  Honestly, I thought the shed was going to fall off of the fork lift even with the extensions.  Scroll down and you'll see why.)

Just to be sure you understand exactly what was happening I should tell you that our ever-cautious Genna was hanging out safely on our lanai while our ever-daring Emily was trying to crawl out of my arms, runny nose and all, to get closer to the fork lift as I was taking these pictures.  Malu (our 120 pound "guard" dog) was probably hiding behind Genna. 

Step 7: Direct the fork lift operator (Jeff is now the director and not the operator) into the driveway and oversee the precarious drive up the slope to the prepared pad. 
*Note the belt placed around the shed and fork lift.   
** Next note the left corner of the shed almost hitting the ground as it reaches the top of our driveway.  USE OF A BELT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!

*                                                                                    **

     

By now the girls are both in the house standing / jumping on our bed to see out the windows.  Malu is curled up in Emily's room with his tail between his legs and his paw over his nose. And yes, you are right, letting an 18 month old jump on the bed without adult supervision is not the best idea but it turned out just fine.

Step 8: Carefully place shed on prepared cement supports.  (This may not be as easy as it sounds.)
In our case, the fork lift couldn't get up the slope to the pad so we had to use some unorthodox methods. 

First Jeff attempted to push the fork lift up the slope.

Obviously this didn't work.  

Enter low-boy trailer reversing up our drive.  

And gently nudging the fork lift and shed into place!

After a little fine tuning with the use of 2x4's and some man power our shed was finally in place!

Welcome home shed!  Thanks for the entertaining afternoon.