The dream must come to an end our last day

I felt like I was continually pinching myself our entire trip in Kauai.  I felt like the dream would suddenly come to an end and I'd wake up from this blissful paradise.  All the hours of planning on trip advisor, packing lists, swimsuit buying, and anticipation for a trip that felt like it'd never come, was now all of a sudden wrapping up with our last day on the island.  We all enjoyed a nice easy morning in the hotel and then packed up, checked out and set off for our last day in paradise.  I had so meticulously planned what we would do each day.  Today would be a none swimming day since we had a six and half hour flight on our way home.  I didn't want to be digging through suit cases looking for dry clean clothes at the beach.  So we headed up to the north shore of the Island to Limuli Gardens.  This was suppose to be a spectacular botanical garden filled with plants and trees which are native to the island.  As we pulled in the gate was closed. We realized it's not open on Mondays!!!!  What!!!!! I had read about this garden several times and didn't even notice the day's that is closed on?  Really?  I guess I've gotten worse things mixed up in my brain before.  At least I didn't error on something important like a flight time.  So now our day was suddenly opened up.  We were on a tropical island surrounded by surf and sand but forbidden to go in.  I had the kids wear their adorable Hawaiian matching outfits so I could take a bazillion pictures of them in the gardens.  So plan B was to do a mini photo shoot on Hanalei Bay.  The kids protested, but then I gave them a tiny guilt trip about the great expense of this Hawaiian trip and I their loving mother who birthed them, fed them, and changed them (Ok so it was a huge guilt trip).  But the pictures were totally worth it! 

 Another sad protest to taking pictures.  I did take about 800 so by the last day of the trip I really can't blame them, I'd probably feel the same way. 

 This is a hilarious photo of Jence stating he really needed to use the bathroom (he wasn't kidding)

 isn't this adorable?  Probably my favorite of the entire trip.  Man that water was blue! 

 This shows you the amount of work that goes into getting the kids to stand where I want them to stand, look at the camera, it feels like a workout to get a perfect picture!

 Kate looks like a Hawaiian girl she got so tan!

So what was the reward for taking the pictures?  Miniutre golf!  I had passed by a Mini golf sign on our way up to the gardens.  This ended up being the best find.  The kids loved the mini golf, and it was also a botanical garden too!  The gardens had all kinds of Hawaiian trees and waterfalls, and plants.  This made Dan very happy he loves gardening.  I was happy to becaseu yes you guessed it the gardens made for great photos.  This time the kids were more than happy to show off their golf prowess in the photos.

 Here the kids are proudly putting up their Hole in one come back free cards.  They told us that if we got a hole in one just tell them which hole.  If it happened to be the mystery hole then you win a free round of mini golf.  I got a hole in one, kirk got one, and so did Kate.  All on the same hole number 13.  None of us got another hole in one and we aren't even very good.  My hole in one was completely luck.  We told the guy three on hole thirteen and he looked at us in disbelief.  It turns out the the mystery hole thirteen!  We got three free rounds!!!!  There's no expiration date we will see if they will accept them in several years if we ever make it back!

Benjamin's Be-lated sixth birthday party

We held Benjamin's 6 year old friend birthday party exactly one month after his real Birthday.  I was feeling a lot of guilt over this.  Last year we were out of town at a family wedding so he had his friend party a few weeks after we got back from Navuoo.  This year we weren't out of town, but in the middle of finishing off our basement.  We've been in limbo for a couple of months.  These things always take longer than you expect them too.  I was planning on the basement being all done, but the project started to really drag on.   Finally I sent out the invites and told our builder that he just had to wrap it up before the party date, or I'd just finish the painting myself.  He was really good and came and finished it up.  For Ben's Birthday this year we did a "pretend"  sleepover party.  I've don't this theme before and it's been a real hit.  I buy pillows and flannel fabric on black Friday sales.  Then I sew ten pillow cases for the boys to take home.  The boys all wore their pajama's, ate pizza, had a pillow fight and watched a movie.  Great!  This year it seemed a little more chaotic than past birthday parties.  Some of the boys didn't want to watch the movie and Kirk was organizing a pretty elaborate pillow fight by dividing the kids out by age and establishing rules.  Ben couldn't decide on a type of cupcake so we opted for the easiest cake ever and that was a doughnut cake.  It was fun to hold the party in our brand new basement and we really liked using our new kitchen.  I'll post pictures of it soon. 

Big Six years for Ben!

It's birthday month here at the Mower's.  We just celebrated Kirk's birthday and now it's onto this special little guys big day.  He's a big Six Year Old!  Ben's birthday this year was a little different.  I usually do a friends party for the little kids.  We have been in the process of getting our basement finished.  His birthday was also during Spring Break, so most of his cousins, and some of his friends would have been out of town.  I decided to wait on the friends party and just make Ben's favorite dinner and invite my parents over for his actual big day.  Dan's parents called and did face time from their mission which was a fun surprise.  We ate meatballs, hot dogs, and grapes.  All of those are Ben's favorite foods.  Then we sang happy birthday and had cake and ice cream.  I'll post some pictures of Ben's Birthday Party soon.  Our contractor just needs to paint the basement and then it's party time!  I picked up pillows on Black Friday for $2.00 each.  I will be sewing some cute pillow cases to go with the pillows.  It's going to be a "pretend"  sleepover.  The kids can come in their pajama's and have pizza, and pillow fights and watch a movie.  I've done this party for Kate and Kirk and it's a favorite.  So easy just food a movie and let the kids play and have fun.  

below are some pictures of Ben's cake.  He requested light sabers that cross.  I thought the concept would be pretty simple.  I googled a jellyroll cake recipe and baked it.  I added way to much strawberry jam for the filling and it was pretty oozy, and messy.  That was the blue light saber.  I decided to do something different and tried topping the cake with melted chocolate instead if frosting.  Pouring melted chocolate seemed like it would be easier, but it was a big failure. It turned out lumpy.  The next day I tried a different cake recipe still made in a cake sheet the rolled up with some chocolate filling in the middle.  It turned out way more tasty, but still the red chocolate melted on top turned out really lumpy again.  You live and learn note to self don't experiment with a new technique for a birthday.  He was happy with it so that's all that matters right!

Baby Animals Day's

This year during Spring Break we didn't go anywhere on vacation.  We have done a few fun things though. We hiked all the way up to Adam's Canyon.  Even Jence made it all the way up to the water fall.  Dan came with us of course and all the kids were real troopers.  The next day we decided to head up to Logan to go to Baby Animal Day's.  We enjoyed petting baby cows, goats, sheep, bunnies, chicks, ducks, and we even saw baby bears.  The line to see the Bears was ridiculous.  Dan would wait in line while I'd take the kids to see some of the other animals, and then after waiting about an hour and a half we finally go to see them.  They were cute, just not worth that long of a wait.  They had about six baby bears so it would have made sense to divide them up into two different viewing cages and had two lines going.  Next time we would probably try to get there right when it started in the morning to avoid the crowds.   

Kirk's Birthday 9 years old!

Kirk's Birthday this year had impeccable timing.  Right in the midst of a bad stomach flu.  We had to cancel the family party but we ended up eating cake anyways!  Where did the year go?  I feel like I just barely planned his Baptism.  This year has gone by so fast.  Once the kids turn nine I stop doing friend parties.   I still made a cake and Kirk was feeling well enough to eat some of it.    He got Star Wars legos and a nerf gun.  Then after we had cake and Ice Cream we all watched a classic movie "Bill and Ted's excellent adventure".  It was a good birthday.

 

 

 

Potty training success!

This guys potty trained!  Jence had been showing signs of readiness to potty train for very long time.  I just wasn't ready.  Potty training is one of those things that your so glad that you did it, but the process is just really tough. I'm never home all day we go to the gym, volunteer at the school, run the kids to their activities.  Potty training basically requires camping out in the bathroom all day to give the kid as much opportunity to go as possible.  One day Jence was watching his favorite show curious George.  This episode George goes camping and roasts marshmallows.  Boy do I love that monkey!  Jence wanted to roast a marshmallow so bad that I told him he could every time he goes on the potty.  Sure enough the boy is potty trained.  We roasted about a dozen marshmellows over two days but it didn't get old for him.  He was so excited every time!  We roasted them over our gas fireplace.  So funny.