Aloha!

Hailey, Makayla, and I spent this week on Hawaiian projects.
 I dug out some grass skirts and leis and we practiced our "Alohas"

and our Hula dancing.

I remember Mom opening a coconut several times when I was a kid so that we could experience real coconut, so I took the girls and got us a coconut.

We made sure we could hear the coconut milk sloshing around, then poked a hole in it

and tried it out.

Hmmm. I'm not sure it's quite the hit I thought it'd be.

How about a bite of the coconut? That'll bring out our Hawaii!

Or not.

Let's move on to our authentic Hawaiian craft- painting sea shells.

You can buy a big bag of these shells at Walmart, or gather them from the beaches of Hawaii. I ran to Walmart.

Yep, those practically scream "Oh we're going to a hukilau".

 After crafting, we headed out to practice our Hawaiian magic. Makayla ran around a blanket covered Hailey, singing at the top of her voice "I belong to you, you below to me, my Suh-weetHEARRRRT",

then tapped Hailey, who would now lay flat. Makayla now tells me Hailey is in Hawaii, or maybe Disneyland.

After a fun Hawaiian/Disneyland excursion, Hailey would reappear, only to do it all again.

Welcome back from vacation, Hailey.

Makayla finished the day demonstrating how she can cross the monkey bars all by herself.

Later this week we made ourselves some genuine Hawaii paper flowers. Makayla, you have a gift for blinking during photography!

Ta-da!

On the way home from school, Hailey mentioned she had worms in her backpack. "Cool," I thought. "I like gummy worms. I wonder if I can talk her into sharing?" When Amy came to pick her up, she pulled them out. You don't have to  share with me after all, Hailey.

On Saturday Stan and I headed to the cabin with Kent and Kim and Cliff and Diane. Here's the garage Stan, Cliff, Kent, and David (pre-marriage to Megan), have been working on.

There's still some garage work to do, but today we came to open and clean the cabin for Grandpa and Grandma.

We found all sorts of treasures: 3.6 trillion dead bugs, 2 dead mice, and this dead mammal.

Kent tells me he remembers HIS Grandma Jones wearing this lovely thing.
Around her neck.
To church.
On.
 Purpose.

It appears to be three lovely, very, very dead mink sewn together, paws and at least one head intact.

Here's a blast from the past picture.

It was the model for the pool room wall. Hard to believe these cute little kids are now grown-ups.

One of the biggest chores of the day was The Hanging of the Art.
Stan volunteered to hang Mr. Cattlo (half buffalo/half cow).

The rest of us spent a large amount of time finding the right spot for the pictures.

This is not as easy as we made it look--there are dozens and dozens of pictures, and you have to recall exactly where you saw it last year. If you misremember, the rest of the pictures don't fit and you have to start rearranging pictures in a domino-ing fashion. 

 We spent the bulk of the day cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Look! There's a table and counters in here! We decided the kitchen hadn't been this tidy for 20 years.

 Afterwards we visited the pond on the backyard stream, thoughtfully built for us by the local beaver family.

They've been taking down those pesky shade-giving trees

in astonishingly large numbers.

I have a feeling they're going to get another visit from our not-so-friendly local beaver-trapper. They are a little too efficient in their efforts to wipe out the forest.

The cabin is so incredibly gorgeous this time of year. We've had lots of rain and everything is clean and green.

On Saturday nights, Stan still had enough energy to go to the free movie in the park with Amy and grandkids. I was too pooped for "Wreck it Ralph".

I woke up bright and early Sunday morning to find this cat guarding the bird house. Isn't that nice? I'm sure the mommy bird inside is thrilled.

After church we set the table for our Hawaiian dinner, 

complete with paper flower festooned chairs,

and authentic Hawaiian painted seashells to enhance our traditional Hawaiian iris and rhubarb leaf centerpiece. What's that you say? Irises and rhubarb aren't Hawaiian? Hey, my house, my rules!!!

We made a bona fide Hawaiian pizza. These two felt the need to change into costume for this part.

Who wouldn't love these cuties cooking up a storm in their kitchen??

Our yummy Hawaiian pizza followed by

our tasty Hawaiian chocolate ice cream.

Aloha everyone!!!