Thanksgiving week goals.

It's Thanksgiving week! Since my life is a sleepy haze right now with baby I really function best when I make simple goals and hold myself to them. Here's my two goals for this week:

1. I want to make this. How about this: I am going to make this garland this week! There.

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

I never really love Fall decorations because it usually involves dried flowers and rafia and straw or something, but I like this garland. And I usually want to head straight to Christmas, but it's Thanksgiving week, and dash it all, I want to get festive. Anyone have a good idea for Thanksgiving place cards? I pinned a few today, but I am not in love.

2. Create fond thanksgiving memories and traditions for my children.

I have so many great Thanksgiving memories with my parents, sisters, and relatives at my cousins house in Visalia or Modesto or this one time when my mom invited a ton of friends and family to come together at our cultual hall at the church. All the kids ran around and the moms cooked up a storm. My mom and her friend steamed sugar cones to bend like cornucopias and put candy inside and this is before Pinterest! The Thanksgiving of my childhood is about loved ones- lots of them- and play, and watching the parade on TV, and snacking on little appetizers while waiting for the big meal, and taking a long walk to the park after, and getting immediately geared up for Christmas the minute you cleared your plate, and laughter, and festive fun.

Being married and spending many nice Thanksgivings with my in-laws and little family has been more quiet and scaled down then I am used to, but still good memories overall. My mother-in-law puts a ton of care into the food she cooks. Unfortunately I feel like in the past couple of years the kids were too small to involve in Thanksgiving so they've just kind of been ignored all day as we cooked, scolded for not being tiny adults at the table full of food they don't want to eat, and then immediately dismissed so we could just have a moment's peace at the table. I know I can do better, but have never bothered to in years past.

All of a sudden I find myself in the position of being the mom to three little boys who are starting to remember traditions and things we have done each year. I feel like it's high time to decide what kind of Thanksgiving memories I want them to cherish (or cringe about!). I am traditional in the sense that I take great responsibility as their mother to set the tone for a nice holiday, a fun holiday, a day that is about creating good memories and pausing to think about what we are thankful for.

In past years it's been easy for me to get stressed out about cooking the meal, worrying about what is on the table, my kids being perfect at the table...etc. but I really want to make a conscious effort to simplify things and make it more about creating good memories with the kids. I know my children aren't going to eat turkey or mashed potatoes or really anything most humans consume on Thanksgiving and I am positive their table manners will leave something to be desired,

but I want them to enjoy the day. I want them to remember happy Thanksgivings with their grandparents, parents, siblings, and friends. I am confident that we can give them that and that we can be happy and thankful for each other.

So we will set a fun table and talk about manners but not expect perfection, we will watch the parade, we will take a long walk and play, we will be stoked if they try at least one new food, and we will talk about our blessings. This will be our tradition.

Halloween Happened.

Hey Thanksgiving is next week so maybe I should document Halloween real fast yeah?

Ambrose wavered for months leading up to Halloween- one idea to the next- but the most frequent idea was dracula so that's what we went with. Asher was pretty firm. He wanted to be a pumpkin no matter how hard it was for us to find a pumpkin costume that wasn't intended for a dog or infant. Thomas came through in the end and found a brand new pumpkin costume at Savers right before Halloween! Atta Thomas. Jonah just had festive pants.

 I was kind of worried about the face paint at school all day when Halloween rolled around so I didn't mind at all when Ambrose asked if he could wear his Woody costume from Preschool to the Kindergarten parade. Yes, do it. Good idea. Thanks David Yuen for the action shot!

And just because I have an unhealthy obsession with my baby- here are some pictures from that week of his life. Awwww.

This is the night I became a mother:

And it's been a hard, crazy, fun ride ever since!

Grateful for my family this Mother's Day and my Mama who taught me by example.

Very lucky.

The boys got up excitedly all this last week to see what "Lucky" the leprechaun had left them under the shamrock arch. The gifts were a wild array of small treats and plastic trinkets conveniently all purchased at the tiny St. Patricks Day display at our local party store. Apparently this is not a huge holiday in Hawaii. At all. "Lucky" got it all for less than $10 though so she is happy. What?! Leprechauns can be girls. They are rare and vicious, but they exist.

Here's a few of the days:




I had so much fun setting out the next surprise each night (Oops cats out of the bag... guess you know I'm really a tiny, vicious leprechaun now...) and we got such a kick out of watching the boys be so thrilled over a little toy or treat each morning.

I was proud of Ambrose too, because last night I told him Lucky would only be coming one more night so he set out not one, but TWO thank you notes for his leprechaun friend.

Maybe one is in behalf of his illiterate little brother? Thoughtful. Happy St. Pattys to all!

A leprechaun under some shamrocks.

Ambrose made that shamrock chain with Grandma a while back.

We're all about keeping festive around here. We got a shamrock shake at McDonalds yesterday. I told Ambrose and Asher if they were good a leprechaun would leave chocolate gold coins for them to find sometime.... anything to hold over their heads for good behavior! Can I threaten the same thing with their Easter baskets next? And then what? The mothers day fairy won't visit if they're naughty? At the rate I'm going she's gonna skip my house all together.

President's Day

Today I said Aloha 'Oe to the Great Aloha Run. My feet just can't handle 8 miles anymore. 4-5, probably. 8... apparently not. I love the Great Aloha Run and I was happy to barely make it through one last hurrah! It was fun and well worth the pain. On to shorter runs and walks, swimming, yoga... anything easy on old lady feet like mine.


After I got home and showered we worked on Ambrose's cutting skills and made our very own R2D2!

I hope the Presidents feel honored...