PlayDate with DollGirl.

Today, my DollGirl came home with me after school. I had planned that we were going to go to the beach, since she is a little girl after my own heart and loves the beach just as much, if not more, than I do! However, it was raining...and we got home later than I thought.

After school, I also have the job of cleaning the school (every extra bit of money helps when you are living in Hawai'i!)...and she so desperately wanted to help me clean. I had told her that if she stayed in my classroom and played while I cleaned, it would get done faster and we would have time to go to the beach...but she really wanted to help me and who am I to deny the help of child wanting to help me clean?! So I let her help me clean. And lets just say, that we did have a lot of fun cleaning...there were a lot of laughs, giggles, and teaching moments...but it also took an hour and fifteen minutes longer for me to finish cleaning. To be fair, I did clock out my normal cleaning time...and just had fun with cleaning with my DollGirl. She loves to clean...more like, she loves to be helpful in any way that she can. I mean, I did get her her own tool set and tool belt so that she can help her dad build and fix things! I also know that she likes being with people she loves and cares for and she loves to learn new things...and so I love that about her. One of the million things I love about her.

Her mom already told me that she was going to come by my house to pick her up at around 6:30ishy after giving the little brother a bath. DollGirl and I got to my house at 5:30. Her mom had sent Mac and Cheese for dinner...and we had to cook it and eat it fast since the little brother is severely allergic to cheese. She wanted to eat dinner at the beach...but I already knew that there was no way that we could have made it without rushing...and so I told her that while the mac and cheese was cooking, we could make berry/mango smoothies and drink it out on the roof top (another place that she enjoys going) as dessert...so we had to eat fast!

As the mac and cheese was cooking I had turned on the music...and I do have a microphone that I am guilty of dancing and lipsyncing to! And DollGirl and I danced and sang to "Five Little Monkeys" and "The Wheels on the Bus" and other kid songs! It was so fun and we laughed and laughed and laughed. While the smoothies were staying cool in the fridge awaiting for our excursion to the roof top, we ate the mac and cheese. I love having conversations with my DollGirl. She is so much fun to talk to. The memories that she remembers is amazing for someone who has only lived 4 years! She recalls so vividly!

On Monday, she had come with me to my favorite pet store and helped me pick out another Betta fish, since my BamBam Jr. died a month ago. I've had him for about 3 years and I was really sad to see him go...so I waited a month to get another one...but when I went to go out to get another one, DollGirl came with me and chose a 1/2 Moon Betta fish. Very gorgeous one...that we are still trying to pick a name for it! (When we decide on the name, he will have his own introducing post!) But she was telling me all the fish in detail that she saw at the fish store...and she was even able to point out the fish that I had!

But while we were eating our Mac and Cheese, she really wanted her smoothie too, and so I told her that if we drink it now, we couldn't go out on the rooftop to drink it...and she said that that was okay...and so we ate our mac and cheese and drank our smoothies...all the while laughing, talking, and singing to the music.

I love that girl, and I always have fun with her. I pray for her everyday. And I love her. I love her. I love her.

Beautiful Day!

Today was such a beautiful day...I woke up early because the birds were chirping and it was pretty bright in my room from all the natural light from the sun. I love that. I love waking up to the birds chirping...to the sun shining in my room...and to the sound of the ocean greeting the shore. It instantly puts me in a good mood. :)

The other day I wasn't feeling so well. My keikis tend to come to school with the sniffles and what nots...and being me, I never turn a child away from a quick cuddle, I ended up getting the sniffles and whatnot. No, I think it was a little more serious than that. I lost my voice. That was not fun. But I have to say that I am so blessed to have an amazing family. My brother-in-law was in the neighborhood and he asked me if I wanted to come over...he had brought his truck. And sick or not, one of my favorite things to do here in Hawai'i is ride in the cab of the truck. The wind in my hair makes me feel as if I am flying...and cools me down from the beating sun. I love it. I hadn't had the opportunity to ride in the cab for awhile, so I did...and look at my view...

This is Kailua Beach...and it's one of my favorite beaches here on the island. The sand is so soft and although it can be choppy at times, for the most part I love the stillness of the water. I also think the water is more warmer here than in town! *laughs*...but that is just my opinion.

Well, I am sad to see this weekend go...but I am kind of glad it is over. It was pretty busy week, wedding-wise. We had several weddings to design for this week. Today we had 2 weddings...and so starting Saturday night I had been working on "wedding #1"...and quickly jumping in to help with "wedding #2" when they needed me. But my wedding that I had to concentrate on was wedding #1.

Weddings that have a base of hydrangeas make is SO easy!

I like hydrangeas...I have heard that you can start your own hydrangea bush from the stem...I should look that up...however, where I live would not be a good place plant hydrangeas anyways. They need a cool climate...and it's more sunny in the area where I live. So, in this picture I have started the base of 18 center pieces.

 

And then by layers we added the color! I enjoyed this wedding because I do love the bright weddings that we do. The ones that broke away from the traditional white-tone colors.

When we add the different sades of pink and coral (the groom wanted PURPLE in his wedding to represent the Lakers! Yeah, no...we talked him in to letting us have lavender instead!) the whole studio bursted into a room full of bright gorgeous flowers! And the smell smelled like flower candy! I loved it! It was a good thing that the wedding that we did were held on Aunty Michele's backyard which was just there outside our studio! And the family members of the bride and groom all pitched in to help!

It was a fun, gorgeous wedding full of happy, nice people, flowers, color, and  hardwork! But we did it! 

So congratulations to the happy couple, Jake and Lindsay! And yay for Passion Roots! We did it together! :)

Family Day.

Smells Yummy.

I am getting anxious because my time at my current school is coming to an end soon and I know that when I leave I will also leave a piece of myself there. I know that I have had ups and down at this place...but I have also spent a lot of my teaching time there and I have learned a lot, met a lot of people, and made several life long friends. So I will miss this place.

I do know the number one thing...or things that I will be missing...and that would be my keikis. Each child that has come through my doors hold a piece of my heart. I give so much to my kids that I feel so much for them. And I will miss them something fierce. I am glad through that I will be able to visit them...one thing that I really do appreciate about this school is that it is at this place that I've had opportunities to make really good friends...and so the director at this school is my mentor and friend.

Anyway, when one of my lil keiki walked into my classroom, he had a humongous smile on his face as he told me that he brought me a pineapple and it "smells so yummy!"...his words. :) And it really did smell so yummy...but it also tasted SUPER yummy as well. :) I love my keikis and I only hope and pray that I get along with my new keikis. But for now I will enjoy my last few moments with my kids now. :)

Porcupine Mango.

I love mangos! And at my sister's place they have a Mango Grove...DollGirl LOVES taking a walks there and when we get there, she loves running around and just being "free" there...but oh mandate...I love mangos.

Kaleo has a mango picker...and so when it is mango season, we all go up to the Mango Grove and pick us plenty of mango's to enjoy. You know my favorite?! I love peach&mango smoothies! And so with this mango season and peaches...I love it. I get one of my favorite flavor smoothie. :)

DollGirl wanted her berry compote with her pancakes...but afterwards, she had a LOT of mangos to eat! But look at her smile while eating her pancakes.

She makes me smile...and she makes my day go better.

Day Seven: Running.

One thing that makes me sad is that I don't have a camera to document the amazing views when I go running in the morning. Even in the evening when I go running, the sunsets are amazing...but the sunrise...oh wow it's beautiful. I do run with my iPod, but unfortunately it doesn't have a camera.

Another thing that I want to say is I had forgotten how wonderfully nice the people are here! Every since I started running, the people that go running have remembered me and they give me encouragement. There is not a single day that has passed that someone, if not several of them, have encouraged me one way or another. We don't ignore each other when we run...they look me in the eye and greet me and give some encouraging words. I love the Aloha spirit here.

After I run, I like having my daily smoothie and pot of tea. Today, I was able to have some nectarine in my smoothie! I LOVE nectarines! They are soo expensive here, but it is so worth it. White nectarines are my favorite though.

So today, I used two yellow nectarines, two apple bananas, one acai packet, a scoop of Matcha Ginger powder, a handful of granola, a dribble of honey and, of course, my favorite coconut water.

I wasn't able to fit everything in the first go, so I filled it as much as I could, an then I blended it and then added the last nectarine.

Today, I chose my Peach Ginger tea with honey. One of the top 5 favorite flavors of tea!

As you can see, I couldn't wait until going downstairs to start on my yummy, yummy smoothie. :) But now that I am down stairs I need to start getting ready for my day. But here's to a wonderful, beautiful, Sabbath day.

"Let prayer be your first response, not your last resort."-Joyce Meyers

Fruits.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week...but tomorrow is officially Teacher Appreciation Day. Not because I am a teacher, but I really think that teachers are under appreciated for all they do. From experience and also from what I see from my teacher friends... we do work so hard because we love what we do. I think to be in this field, you definitely have to want to be in this field...the pay is seriously junk...but the kids love makes it up.

I would be lying if I said that money doesn't matter...because in this world, money does play a big role in society...and there are so many other fields out there that you can go into that will pay you more...but I make by, just barely, but I stay in this field because I adore and love my keikis. And that being said, Nicole (she is going to take over the director position at the end of this month) made a list of suggestions and reminders to the parents to appreciate their teachers. At first I was like WHAT?! You can't send that out...but she said that technically we as teachers aren't sending them out...but her as a director is sending it out because she appreciates US and she wants us to know it. So that makes sense. :)

But this is the list that she  hung in my classroom.

So, as you can see today was fruit day...and so some of my keiki brought me fruit...and just watching them come up to me with the fruit with a huge smile on their faces just totally made my day! I am so blessed to be able to work with this amazing age of kids. I love the two year olds. I simple love this age. I would say that this is my favorite age. My second favorite age would be the older 3's...but it's the two year olds that hold my heart. I love them.

Here are some of the fruit that I got. I was joking with Ashley and Jess that we will get lots of fruit that we can use in our afternoon smoothies! *laughs* And I did use a banana that I got as part of my smoothie for the day...:)

Lil' Elijah's gift of banana and chocolate dip made me smile. He had decorated with stickers! So cute! And so ono! :)

Well, I have been getting hassled that never show what my classroom looks like...so I was going to take picture of my classroom before I took down our projects for the month of April. I still haven't been able to take anything down...so hopefully I'll be able to take more picture tomorrow when my keikis are not in the classroom...when I whip out my camera...they LOVE pictures...they wanted me to take picture of them! Yep, they are definitely NOT camera...but I also will NEVER post pictures up of my keiki...I can't really understand how other people can, I'm not saying that they can't...it's their decision...but for me, I will never. Unless it's of my own family.

But yes, I love "my" keikis. They appreciate me. I appreciate them. They are amazing.

"Always smile back at little children. To ignore them is to destroy their belief that the world is good."-anonymous

Friday.

 When I use to teach the older three's-younger fours I use to sing a song with them every Friday..."It's Friday, It's Friday...OH! OH! It's Friday...lets shake, shake, shake and jump, jump, jump coz it's Friday! It's Friday! OH! OH! It's Friday!" and do a little dance with it. My kids loved it and they always would count the days until we can sing this little jingle. When I started teaching the 2 year olds...they could not yet grasp the fact that not every day was Fridays so they were wanting to sing this little song everyday. So I stopped singing it with them...just because. At least during circle time I had stopped singing this song. 

Through out the day on Friday though, I would sing it a little and my former students who are still in the school would hear me and drop everything and do the little dance with me or sing it with me. But today, during our morning playground time, I was being super hyper with my kids...and this song came up. I hadn't sung it in awhile and I have all new little ones who have not heard it yet. I have this little guy, whom I like to call "handsome" (side story time: When he first started in my classroom two weeks ago, I asked him what his name was--of course I had already known his name. He replied..."I am handsome." When I turned to mom, she said that he had just gotten a haircut for his first day of school and the hair dresser had said that he was handsome with his new hair cut and since then he liked to smile and say, "I am handsome" Cute story, ya?! :))...now he is a fun character! It made me sad because I was "warned" about his "rascal behavior"...I keep those warnings in the back of my head...but I come to the child with a clean slate. I like him....he listens to me and he is SO much fun. He is THE FIRST keiki that I have ever had that when I say "Sing handsome!" He takes a deep breath and just starts singing. Anything. Makes no sense a lot of times...but he still does...and he does this with the biggest smile on his face. I love it! :)

But back to my story. I sang my little Friday song once...then moved on to a new song that the kids wanted me to sing. Thirty minutes later playground time was over so we were walking back to the classroom. So to keep my keiki focused, I asked them what song they wanted to sing as we walked back to class..."Handsome" looks me in the eye...marches down the pathway saying, "Come on Friends...It's Friday! It's Friday! OH! OH! It's Friday...." Oh my goodness! He made me laugh! I just love my keiki...they keep me happy. :)

After work I decided to make myself a fruit shake. My friend had gotten me kiwi...since she knew I LOVED kiwi...so today I made myself a strawberry, banana, kiwi shake with Acai.

It was a yummy combination and the kiwi made it that much better! Yeah to fresh fruit, friends, and keiki who make me laugh! :)