The Rest of March

Tiny likes to hold all the groceries when we go shopping. It's not too much of a problem in Target, except that Wren is usually in the other section of the cart fighting to hold everything, too. In Sprouts or Frazier Farms when we're shopping for produce, it's not my favorite because then she drops fruit through the holes in the cart and ruins it.

Ever went to a birthday brunch for Lelei Thompson. A pancake birthday party is a dream come from for Missy Leigh. Talila (Lelei's teenage sister) texted me this picture:

(Aside: Ever's front left tooth got super wonky as it got looser, and it started sticking out. That's why her front teeth look crazy in some of these pictures.) Tyson (Lelei's dad) had made a gigantic pancake with the last of the batter. He said it filled up the whole plate, and he didn't think anyone would eat it. He offered Ever $1 if she finished it, and she took the thing down. Tyson couldn't believe it. I told her she can out-eat any man when it comes to chocolate chip pancakes.

The biggers got on a dance kick. They got dressed together, and Ever did Wren's hair.

The girls wanted to paint. I strongly suggested reading because it's easier and cleaner, but I let them prevail.

Wrenzy's crack is my fave.

As I was saying about cleanliness...

I don't know how this happened:

Lovely notes from Ever:

Wrenzy became, very briefly, one of those little girls who wears princess dresses everywhere. She didn't let the attire slow her down on the climbing wall.

This was the next day at the doctor's office:

Later in the month,Tiny got in on the action. The sight of the two Elsas in the yard was just too much for me. The cuteness.

Wrenzy also wore an Elsa dress to the Rondos' annual Easter party/egg hunt, but it was covered by a flannel so no one could really tell.

Sometimes when we go late to BASE (the before-school program), Tiny holds hands with Leela across campus. Then Ever gets jealous, and this happens:

Bear held the door on our way back through the office:

I took this picture only to remind me of the time I offered to watch Lindsay Hughes's son, Koben, who is a tiny toddler, and let him flip over our back fence and roll halfway down the hill:

The pic does not capture how steep that hill is. I was only a couple feet away, cleaning the mat around the tramp, when he toppled. I kept thinking, "Surely he'll stop rolling," but he was like a little rag doll. Thank heavens he stopped eventually. If he'd crashed in the concrete ditch, I don't even know what would have happened. My biggest regret is telling Lindsay what happened in graphic detail, especially since, as Melanie Karner pointed out when I told her about it, that Lindsay has been plagued by severe postpartum depression and anxiety since Koben was born. I really wish I'd just said that he fell off our fence but was fine. Honest to a fault, I am.

More notes from Ever. It really doesn't get any better than being your daughter's "fafrite prsin in the hl wrld."

Ever lost another tooth. She put it in an envelope, on which she also wrote a note:

I can't remember if I've explained on the blog how Ever got really into the Tooth Fairy and wanted to go out with her on her nightly rounds. There were multiple notes. When she first started losing teeth, she was completely convinced she saw the Tooth Fairy a couple of times. She even described her appearance. I thought since she was imagining so much, she could easily imagine that she'd gone out with her one night. For some reason, though, she wouldn't go that far. She got disappointed and a little bitter that the Tooth Fairy wasn't taking her. Anyway, the night she wrote the note pictured above, the Tooth Fairy didn't just not take her out; she didn't even show up to take her tooth and leave money. Big whoops. Ever came into our room the next morning to tell us that the Tooth Fairy hadn't come, and I said maybe she had just been really busy that night. Then the following night, I left this note, which I thought was quite good:

Jim said not to address the whole may-I-go-out-with-you thing, but I thought the subtle invitation for her to imagine that she'd gone out with the Tooth Fairy was pretty clever. Unfortunately, Ever did not bite. She even figured out that the Tooth Fairy had just said that to get out of taking her. Perhaps this whole debacle contributed to her concluding in May that the Tooth Fairy is not real. Is she super smart, or is it all my fault? Hmm...

This Easter involved a lot of egg hunts. We had to take a bunch of candy-filled eggs to the Rondos' party. Ever had to take eggs for an Easter egg hunt at school. We'd been invited to a hunt organized by a friend in the ward. Lastly, I'd invited our neighbor friends, the Cikaneks, over for Easter dinner, and Rebecca and I planned to do a little Easter egg hunt with Nathan and our girls. Ever and Wren made a little egg-filling factory, which pleased me. They made short work of it. 

The girls really like "Llama, Llama" by Anna Dewdney. One day the littles were really excited to watch an episode of the T.V. show. Tiny, of course, stopped excitedly saying "Llama, Llama" when I started filming.

Since then, she has started pronouncing the "l" sound at the beginning of "llama" with a Spanish accent, like "Zhama, Zhama" (I don't know how to spell that). It's really cute.

I love the schoolwork Ever brings home. The way she sounds things out tickles me.

The kindergartners do an Easter parade every year. They donned these amazing hats they made and walked around the school while the teachers played the song "Easter Parade."

Wrenzy put her hand on Tiny's back as they tried to catch up to the kindergartners.

Someone there had a small "bella" (dog), and the girls did some petting. Please help them never to want us to get a dog.

For the egg hunt, each kid was assigned a number and had to look for the eggs with that number on it.

Wren slipped into a photo of Ever with her girlfriends Aviana, Leela, and Emily. Ever's other good friend from their class, Grace, isn't pictured.

Tiny was saying, "That's weird" over and over until I took out my phone. Then I had to prompt her.

Anna picked the kids up from school one day and took them to scooter around the harbor, where they saw seals. I didn't know seals go there because I don't get out much.

They went to The Privateer for dinner because Leela is super picky and their pizza is the only pizza she likes.

Another day Anna had Ella and Ever over to swim. Anna said there was drama over swimsuit selections and she was going to lose it, but it turned out OK in the end. I don't know what it is about having playdates with more than two kids, but they've always been a disaster in my experience. Anna fed the kids, too, which was very nice. They've got a great backyard setup.

January Hawai'i Trip: Mud Lane, ER, Mauna Lani

On Wednesday, January 24, we tried a new hike on Mud Lane. Bag Lady had seen a picture of Mud Lane posted by a friend recently, and she remembered that I used to run on Mud Lane. I hadn't thought about that place in years and don't really remember running there, but it has the most amazing trees. I love trees. I took many, many pictures of trees. Tutu sacrificed herself and stayed home with Ever, who was not feeling good.

Coco took pictures of Jim taking pictures of trees.

On the way in, we passed a rotting boar carcass and a couple of overturned, abandoned vehicles.

We passed the take-off point but eventually figured out where we were supposed to start hiking - at a gate in an area plastered with "PRIVATE PROPERTY - NO TRESPASSING" signs. Tiny started her sandwich while we got ready to defy the law.

We took turns posing in front of the gate. There were seriously about 100 of those red-and-white "NO TRESPASSING" signs on the gate and on the trees in the first little section of the walk. We'd read on a blog that described the hike to ignore those; the land belongs to Bishop Estates, they make money taking tours out there, and there's no way to get a permit.

I was afraid of wild boars, but we did not encounter any. Man, it's hard being afraid of so many things.

The road forked twice, and we didn't know which way to go. At one point, Coco voted one way, and Jim voted the other. I abstained. We decided to stay to the left and go Jim's way, and we were very pleased when we ended up at the waterfall we sought.

How great is Tiny's smile?

We had a quick food break and were getting ready to head out from that spot when an ATV tour group showed up. One of the guides came down with a few bags and asked if we were about ready to leave. We said, "Yeah, we're heading out now." He was super nice and chatted with us as we got packed up. He said they bring groups in to that waterfall three times a day; another outfit takes people on horseback to the lower falls. He said a tourist from a really cold place swam that morning, but he only gets in during the summer because it is cold.

As we got to the top of the short trail that leads to that waterfall, we heard the other tour guide telling the group that in the olden days, if you were trespassing there, you wouldn't just be fined; you'd be executed. She was apparently not a big fan of us, and that was uncomfortable for me. I was very glad that 1) our timing worked out so we were leaving when they arrived and 2) the nice man-guide was the one who came down to clear us out instead of the scary lady-guide.

We walked down to the other waterfall, which was free of tour groups at the time.

Wrensicle posed.

Attempts at a family (minus Ever) photo were made, rather unsuccessfully.

Jim felt pressured (mostly by himself) to swim. He hesitated.

Then he waded in to the right and walked around the side of the pool, staying out of the water as much as possible. I photocized Coco.

She photocized me photocizing Jim.

The pic he needed to show he made it:

This girl is too cute.

As soon as we left that lower waterfall, Wrensday said she needed to go to the bathroom. She's still not really used to going outside, and she couldn't get it done. We put a pull-up on her in case she couldn't wait until we got home. The whole process was a two-man job.

I carried her on my back on the way out. She gave me sweet hugs.

Tiny, meanwhile, rode with Jim and didn't look so happy about it.

We let Tiny and Wrenny walk at the very end. We should have let them out earlier but didn't realize we were so close to the gate.

That evening there was some baby-bonding time.

We'd passed around an illness, and Antone had gotten it. That night, Coco was up with him every hour all night. Thinking we must be awake because of the noise, she came into Jim and my room about 6:00 A.M., exhausted and emotional, and said she couldn't get him to stop crying. He eventually did quiet down, but it was ultimately determined that an ER trip was in order. Jim said it was probably just a regular virus that didn't require treatment, but if Antone were his kid, he would probably take him in to make sure it wasn't the flu. So off Coco and I went with the sick babe. He was very well behaved at the hospital, despite all the waiting.

They had us stay there until they got the flu results back. The results were negative, so that was good. Just a regular, nasty virus that had to run its course (and ended up plaguing us all for weeks and weeks).

Later that day, Pod and we Kringels went down to Mauna Lani. (Thank you, Barlockers!) That's Jim's favorite beach. He loves snorkeling there. Mamo, Coco, and Antone stayed home, and Coco and Antone tried to get some sleep.

My twins in their twin suits:

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Tiny wanted to catch some rays but just couldn't get comfortable.

Jim and Pod took Ever out snorkeling. Wrenzy worked on her sultry pose while we watched for eels.

Then the littles ran off.

Tiny took a dip and tried to drink all the ocean water.

Ever practiced her surf stance.

We didn't have a ton of time because Jim really wanted to get lunch at the Queen's Shops (Mamo had recommended a Thai place with a yummy chicken salad), and we had to get back to return a vehicle we had borrowed from Mamo and Pod's friends in Waiki'i. We had a nice little visit at their ranch in Waiki'i in the late afternoon. That place is lovely. The girls got to throw out some feed to the chickens, see some sheep, and pet some horses.