We took the kids to a Luau.  My camera's battery died so I only got a few shots of the kids.  I got a great one of Kate but didn't get a chance to get one of the boys. 

 Saturday we went to a couple of waterfalls and also saw the Waialua river.  We wanted to kayak the river and then hike to secret falls, but the kayak rentals were outrageous.  It would have been close the three hundred dollars.  The kids have kayaked plenty of times at Bear Lake, so we decided to go to  Kalapaki beach instead.  I'm glad we made this change because it ended up being our favorite beach.  This beach had pretty big waves.  The kids loved it.  It's right next to a really nice Marriott hotel.  We decided to just walk by the pool to check it out.  Maybe someday we will make it back there for a stay.  It was pretty nice.  Then we all went and grabbed some KFC in town.

 Sunday we went to Church and then headed over to lydgate beach.  It had a really fun playground and also a beautiful beach.  If we would have had an extra day we would have swam in the pools at this beach. 

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!