Maui Holiday day 1

Well we have just returned from a week in Maui. It was the best family vacation we have ever taken. We left on Thursday morning and fly from Phoenix to Honolulu, a 6 hour flight, and had about a 2 hour layover. But by the time we landed and got to the gate it ended up being a little more than an hour wait. We grabbed something to eat and ran to the next gate to catch our next flight to Maui. Our next flight was only 35 minutes long. As soon as the plane took off, I started feeling sick and before the plane was even level I was running for the back of the plane sick. Let me tell you that throwing up in an airplane bathroom has got to be the worst place to get sick in the world.

Once our flight landed we grabbed our luggage and rental car and headed to our hotel. It was only about 2:30pm which was nice, that we had the after noon still to do stuff. After checking in to our hotel we went to the front desk and inquired about tours and stuff to do the rest of the week. We already knew what we wanted to do, but it was just about money. We did not want to go broke this week. We booked our three big items, one every other day and we headed out in our car to take a drive down the coast.

We found this cute cove and we stopped to take pictures and watch the sunset. As we are climbing around on the rocks, Don yells that there was something in the water. It was a giant sea turtle. We watched him for quite a bit and looked for others. We found about 2-3. The kids found black crabs climbing on the rocks as well.

Did I mention that is was rainy and cloudy the first day. But that did not dampen any ones spirits. After spending about an hour watching the sea turtles we drove back to the hotel to check out the beach that was across the street from our hotel. Emily who is still afraid of the beach wanted nothing to do with it. She pouted on a blanket for several hours while the rest of us played in the water.

That night after the sun set we grabbed a bit to eat at McDonald's and headed to the pool at our hotel. The kids enjoyed swimming. About 8pm we headed back upstairs to our hotel room and went to bed. It had been a long first day in Maui and this was only the beginning.

Kindergarten Graduation

Last night was Emily's Kindergarten Graduation. The kids sang songs from performances they had done throughout the year and then in groups of 4-5 the kids read books for us. After the readings we watched a slide show from all the activities for the year then had cake and punch. Emily's teacher was so stressed that she forgot to give out the certificates to the kids last night, so she handed them out in class today. OOPS, but that is ok.

Tuesday night we joined Michael at school for his academic award ceremony. He received two awards. One for having a 4.0gpa all year long and the other was for a good citizenship, with that award he received a $50.00 savings bond from the school.


Since April we still have been fighting with Emily on her hair color. Well she won. I have decided that this is not the fight I want to waste. I am saving that fight for the dating and clothing fights. But hair is just hair. So on Friday I picked up Emily from school and took her to the gal who does my hair and we had red highlights added to her hair. However with Emily's hair being as dark as it is, the highlights did not show up like Emily wanted. You could see them in the sunlight, but inside they were very subtle. Emily was very upset by this. So after talking with friends, they suggested that we head to a store in the mall called Hot Topic for temporary hair color in bright colors. So Sunday we headed out to the mall and bought her flaming red and hot pink. Don and I redid the highlights in her hair and she loves them. Again they look great in the sunlight, and not to bad inside. Emily is very happy and in 4-6 weeks after they wash out maybe she will not want them redone, But again we are talking about Emily and I don't think this will be the last time for highlights.

Three Weeks

The last three weeks have been a little crazy here. Don has been gone for 5 weeks now. He is home almost every weekend, but the weeks are really long and busy. This is the time of year the kids are so excited about, three weeks left of school and lots of fun activities for the end of school year.

Michael school has a field trip at the end of the year for those kids that are A/B honor roll all year, no discipline issues and few absent days. This years trip they went to San Diego for a weekend. Michael had a great time. He is looking forward to the 8th grade dance in a week, and his last field trip, a day at Sunsplash water park, on the last day of school. Last week was the last band concert for the year, and both the boys did a great job. In two weeks is Michael's 8th grade graduation and he is looking forward to be a high school student.

Nick got to enjoy patriotic day at his school. A huge performance by the band, choir ,special speakers and the kindergarten from Emily's school. Nicks has been less busy with end of the year activities, which is fine with Nick. He is just ready for school to be out.

Emily got to sing in front of the 6th and 7th graders at the boys school. Her class put on Donuts for Daddy, however she was sick on this day and was unable to go. Next Friday her class will enjoy Mom's spa day where she will get to do my hair, nails, and I will get a massage all given by Emily. The following Monday we will enjoy her Kindergarten graduation.

We have had our first trampoline accident the other day. Emily was jumping by herself and over extended her knee causing a loud popping sound and lots of tears. After a few hours in Urgent Care and a diagnosis of sprain knee, Emily is walking around but not yet running and not back on the trampoline. We will have to give that a few more days.

Three weeks from today will be the first day of summer vacation. I am just as excited as the kids. Every year we have a very quiet, relaxing summer around the pool with friends. This summer we have so much planned in a small amount of time. We will just spend one week at home relaxing before we will leave for Maui. We have been planning this trip for over a year now, and we couldn't be more excited. After Maui we will be home for two days then we will leave for Oregon. The kids and I will go stay with Don for about 6 weeks before coming home, so Michael can attend band camp at the high school. He has three weeks of band camp before school starts. And before you know it it will be August. Just thinking about it makes me do a double take and wonder what happened to our quiet,relaxing summer??

Yes It's Blue!!!

Emily has decided that its time she did something with her hair. She is not happy with the color or cut. She is mad that we cut all her long hair off and she can no longer put it in a ponytail. She also had decided that she wants a different color. When I asked her what color she wanted, I was thinking blonde highlights like mine, or black like her brothers, or red like her cousin. The answer I got made me think for a moment. She wanted red. Not like her cousins natural red hair but punk rocker red like Allison on American Idol. Not only did she want it red, but she only wanted red highlights. We told her when she is older.

Well a few days later she brought it up again, and again. She was not going to let it drop and boy will she be a good lawyer when she grows up. So finally we gave in. We told her she could color it for the summer, something temporary that would be gone for school in the fall. After talking with all my friends, who suggested coloring it in cool aide or semi permanent dye at a salon, I found at toys r us a tool that puts washable hair dye in your hair. Crazy colors too, red, blue, gold, and silver. We gave it to Emily for her birthday and what a big hit. The morning of her birthday party she had red hair. Then on the 15th, her birthday she put blue in her hair and went to school. The school didn't say anything about it. Since then she has gone to school everyday with a different color hair. She loves the blue.

I have gone to school to see performances and have lunch with her and other parents look at me like I am crazy. I let my 6 year old color her hair blue?? If I let her color her hair now , what is she going to be able to get away with when she is older?? I see no difference with the hair color than a temporary tattoo. Its washable, just for fun. How many parents put those on their kids and thats ok. But add some washable haircolor and now my kid is out of control?? I don't think so.

Happy Birthday Emily

I hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Easter. We sure did. Easter weekend for most of you know happens to fall on Emily's birthday almost every year. Don was able to come home for the weekend on Friday night and we went to Red Robin for dinner. After dinner we went home to open gifts. Emily's big gift was a new art desk. She loves to paint, draw, play playdoh, anything arts and crafty. So now instead of having her art supplies spread all over the house they are neat and organized and she can play with them anytime she likes.

On Saturday was her birthday party at Jeepers Indoor Amusement Park. We all had a blast. About half of her class from school came to the party. It was a great turnout. After her party at Jeepers we had to go to Don's parent's for dinner and another birthday party. Emily had a great birthday weekend and received lots of money and gifts. She has spent all of her money on a 12 foot trampoline for the backyard, something even the boys can have fun with.

Spring Fling in the Park

Our neighborhood has a park day every April. There is free food, music, an Easter Egg hunt for the kids, and bounce houses. Michael helped out all day making popcorn and cotton candy. He had a great time. Emily enjoyed the day by getting her face painted, playing in the bounce house and eating all the free snow cones she desired.

We enjoyed the day at the park, but what made it special this year, was that Don was home for the weekend. It has been a long two weeks with him gone, but the kids and I are making it work. Don will be home again this next weekend for Emily's birthday and Easter.

Open mouth insert foot

I am famous for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. I need to slow down and think before I speak. Yesterday I took the kids out to lunch and to run some errands. On the way out we stopped to pick up the mail. We are all in the car and sitting at a stoplight and I am thumbing through the bills and junk, when we get a letter from the boys school. I am thinking that this cannot be good. Report cards don't come out for a couple of days, so I open this letter. I read the letter out loud for the boys to hear.

"Congratulations to Michael Hadder who will be awarded student of the Month at a Special Assembly on Wed. at 9am." Stop.......

I didn't read anymore of the letter. I congratulated Michael and continued driving. Well Michael asked if he could see the letter. Sure why not, I hand it over to him and he continues to read the letter where I left off. Next sentence of the letter.

"Remember that this is a surprise to Michael so do not say anything until the assembly on wed. We hope we see you there."

OOPS...
We sat in the car all of us speechless.

This week has been a little crazy here. Don left on Thursday morning for Oregon. His first trip home will be April 3-4th. Nick is still recovering,and stayed home from school all week except for Wed. I am still trying to unpack and do laundry. This weekend was so quiet but crazy. I have a new respect for single parents. I rented the kids some movies for the weekend and got my self the movie twilight. I started watching it about 11am yesterday and finished it around 11pm. I had to keep pausing it to make lunch, clean up lunch, answer the phone, answer the door, take Emily to a birthday party, help kids with computer, start Emily's bath, get her out of bath. etc. . . You get the idea. All the things I would normally do, but had an extra set of hands (Don) to help out. I am thankful that this is only temporary, but know that the next 5 months will be very long and exhausting.

Hopefully this week with all the kids in school, I can get back to cleaning my house, which has not been done in two weeks. Thank goodness for Flylady who helps me every step of the way. For those who have not heard about Flylady.net you should check it out. It has been a huge life saver for me and my family. My friends, who do not use Flylady, all think I am crazy with my control journal but all I can say is that different things work for different people and this works for me.

More pics from our trip

Pictures from the lighthouse. Fishing at Grandma's pond. And from St. Augustine Beach pier.

Florida Holiday/Uncle Augie's Wedding

We had an amazing time in Florida. It was so good to see family that Don and I had not seen in 15 years since our wedding. We left on Saturday afternoon arriving in Florida around 11pm. Sunday we hung around the farm and the kids played football and Emily road a Power Wheel 4wheeler. She had a blast. On Monday we drove to St. Augustine Beach and hung out for the day. It was about 75degrees and the ocean was only 66 degrees. Did that keep Nick from swimming?? No it didn't. We also took a tour of the St. Augustine Light House. Tuesday we hung out at my mom's again with family who had started coming in for the week. Wed. we set out again for the beach. Wed night we had a birthday party. My sister's hubby Bob, his bday was on Sat, the day of the wedding. His daughter's bday was on Monday, Emily's birthday is in a month.

Thursday Emily got sick and we had to take her to urgent care. She ended up having a double ear infection and lung infection. So we spent the rest of the resting with her. Friday was the rehearsal dinner at the farm and all family was in town, so most of the day was spent cooking and setting up for that. Friday Nick also started getting sick, so we headed back to Urgent care with him to find out that he had Bronchitis. He spent the rest of the day in bed. Saturday was the wedding, by this time Don was sick, and I was so stressed out that I was starting to get sick, but I was making my self sick by the amount of stress.

The wedding was beautiful. I was so proud of my little brother and wish him a life time of happiness with his new bride. At the reception my family who was still sick. tried to put on a happy face, but they were miserable and wanted to go home. So after about 45 minutes we said our goodbye's and left. We all went home and climbed into bed. Sunday our plane left at 6pm so we left my mom's about 3 and stopped on the way to say goodbye to the bride and groom. After a long flight home, we finally got home around midnight and dropped the suitcases by the front door and all collapsed into bed.

Today, Tuesday we had to take Nick and Michael back to the doctor. Nick now has pneumonia, and Michael has a really bad cold/flu. Don is still not feeling the best, and trying everything to beat his cold. He is leaving on Thursday for Oregon so he has lots to do before he can leave. He will be in Oregon for 6 months. I have not gotten sick yet (knock on wood) I am trying everything possible. I would hate to get sick after Don leaves. Next time we leave town on a airplane we will take plenty of airborne before, during and after the flight so we don't get sick again.