Happy Birthday Macie!

Macie is 5 today! Where does the time go? Look at that baby face . . .

Halloween 2009

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And the Oscar goes to . . .

And the nominees for costume design are . . . Marley Miyamoto! Tonight Marley took it upon herself to design costumes for her cousins and sister. It was all a part of the weekly production that happens after Sunday dinner. Chloe wrote the script and Marley designed the costumes. From left to right we have a cat, a dog, and my favorite - a tree!



Here is Marley as the narrator, reading the script . . .

Fun filled Sunday

This past Sunday we woke up bright and early to participate in the Nike Run that supports Physical Education in schools. Here the girls are at the beginning of the 1 mile walk/run:

We were smart this year and beat the line this year for the face painting! The girls alternated between walking (and whining) and occasionally running. Here they are proudly displaying their medals:

Our friends, the Kodamas and Satarakas also participated in the run (but they did the 5K, overachievers!). Afterward, we all headed to Big City Diner for a much deserved breakfast. We had a large party, so the wait was long. The kids did their best to entertain themselves. Here you can see "whole body Jun Kun Po". One person stood in the back and was the one to beat, the other kids stood in front and used their whole body to make rock, paper, scissors.

After a while, the grown-ups got in on the fun!

Long Day . . . Good Night

Friday was movie night at Granny Val and Papa Jer's. We had Tony Roma's for dinner (yummy ribs) and then all snuggled up to watch "Toy Story 2". This year's Halloween theme is Toy Story and neither Sugihara grandparent had seen it.

Apparently, it was a long day for the girls, this was my view looking back in the car on the way home . . .

The new kitten at granny sandy's

One of the stray cats at the Miyamoto's had a new kitten! So cute!

Diva in a booster seat

I just had to take this picture because Macie was so cute! She loves to wear my sunglasses in the car but today with her new haircut she just looked like such a little superstar!

Exciting day

Saturdays are usually pretty hectic for us running form lesson to lesson. Mid-way through this last Saturday I realized we had a free afternoon because dance classes were cancelled for the Labor Day Holiday. So we took a trip to Pigtails and Crewcuts. Much to her father's dismay, Marley has been dying to cut her hair. So we headed out to the kids salon and chopped both Marley and Macie's hair. You can see the results below:

Despite the carnage on the floor, I think they look really cute, and it has cut blowdrying time and morning hair time dramatically. Here are the after pictures:

Maya (our niece) came with us also, but she just trimmed her bangs and ends. Can you imagine what her mom would have said if we chopped her hair too?

Spa Day!

Last Friday we had a quick spa treatment. I've been drinking this sassy water from the flat belly diet book (water with lemon, ginger, mint, and cucumber). When I was preparing it Friday night I thought it would be fun to have the girls try cucumbers on their eyes.

Of course they loved it and lay still for all of 2 minutes! It was tricky getting the cucumbers to stay still. Their eye sockets are so little, I'm not sure how much of the cucumber was actually touching their eyes.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Sorry - still missing pictures from the first day of school. This was actually day 7. The girls decided to wear their matching "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" shirts. For those of you who are not Seussically inclined, the things are from "Cat in the Hat". Of course, they wanted matching hair as well.

Sisterly love

As you all know, Macie loves ears and loves to snuggle. So this is what happens when no grownups are around and Macie snuggles with her sister . . .

You have to look closely, but I swear Marley is under there! Mind you, they were like this for 30 minutes, and neither one of them moved!

Crab surprise!

Sorry I'm a liitle behind on the blogging. Life got crazy and blogging
was the first thing to go. I promise to try to be better.

Anyway, August 24th was Papa Mel's birthday and we celebrated at Kai
Market, the new buffet at the Sheraton. Happy Birthday Papa!

The healthy carving had steamed opakapaka and inside Granny Sandy's piece was a surprise, a whole baby crab!

Check out Maya and Macie's reactions!

Macie's Haute Couture Hat

Today was Open House at Hanahau'oli Summer School. Here you can see Macie modeling her new line of Haute Couture Hats styled after the "The Cat in the Hat". Actually, the only similarity between this hat and the one in the Dr. Seuss books is that it has blue and red on it. It cracks me up that her hat has a wide, asymmetrical brim, very chic!

Holey ears!

As a part of her birthday celebration, Marley got her ears pierced.
It took her some time to work up the courage and she almost bolted
from the chair at the last minute, but she hung in there and this is
the result! You can still see her eyes and face are red from the few
tears that snuck out.

In case you're wondering, no, I didn't pierce them, the Merle Norman
lady's name was Robin too.

There is much more variety now when choosing your first earrings, it's
not just the gold ball ones we had to get. Initially Marley chose the
giant rhinestones reserved for professional wrestlers, but I managed
to talk her into the small CZs.

Birthday Buddies!

July 16th - happy 7th birthday to Marley and happy 21st birthday to
Aunty Becki! Marley was sick with the flu for most of the week
(possibly H1N1) so we had to postpone her party. Of course the family
was willing to brave an outbreak so we could celebrate at Farrell's!
Marley was most excited about receiving a "touch 'n brush" as a
present, I'm sure you've seen the informercials. Aunty Becki's present
is gently resting on her lap! I hope it's a few years before Marley
asks for one of those!

3 Japanese girls?

Saturday night the Satarakas invited us to our 2nd Bon Dance (Maya's first). This year, Macie wanted to wear her new kimono that Granny Val and Papa Jer bought while they were in Japan. We (Michele included) are remiss in promoting our Japanese heritage. Maya's caption for this photo is "Look we are wearing our bikinis!".

Marc also found it amusing that this is a picture of 3 little girls all with Japanese blood, none of whom look very Japanese. I think Maya probably comes the closest. For sure Macie looks the most haole, but she has the most quantum - 75% Japanese!

Happy Father's Day!

This one is late too! On Father's Day we went on a gastronomical tour of sorts. First stop - Shimazu shave ice. The girls had sour lemon and green river. The grown-ups went for some more sophisticated flavors - chocolate peanut butter cream and red velvet cream. We stopped in Chinatown for some Gin Dui and pork hash and finished off with poke bowls from Pa'ina! Then it was off to Ward theatres to see "Up!"

Giant insect safari

Sorry - I meant to post this earlier! Last weeked we headed to Pearlridge for the Giant Insect Safari and stopped in for Farrell's for dinner. Nothing like 15 foot bugs to go with your patty melt and green river!

Macie's first day at Hanahau'oli

After just returning from our Disneyworld trip yesterday, the girls headed off to summer school this morning. Because of the time difference, Macie was up at 4 a.m. asking "is it morning yet?". While it's just summer school, it was her official first day as a Hanahau'oli student. Macie was so excited to pack her backpack for the first time. She and Marley spent the morning in the car discussing the ins and outs of Hanahau'oli and how Marley was going to walk her little sister to class every morning. It was very cute . . . we'll see how long it lasts!

Experienced traveler

Here's Macie waiting for our plane to leave Orlando. She's all set with her headphones, iTouch, and turkey sandwich. Quite the experienced traveler for 4-years old!

Day 8 - Around the world in 5 hours

Friday was Day 8 and we spent most of it at Epcot. For those of you who haven't visited Epcot before, in addition to the usual Disney rides, they have an whole portion of the park dedicated to different countries. So we started out with a Princess Breakfast in Norway. The breakfast was hosted by Belle and featured, in addition to the usual breakfast fare, pickled herring! Now granted our breakfast was more like brunch, but I found it amusing when we returned to our stroller and found our neighbor packing an unusual beverage in the kid seat of a stroller:

Yes, in case you weren't sure that is a margarita with a salted rim. This was apparently one of the specialties in Mexico right next door.

So, the benefit of Epcot was that the girls got to experience a little bit of each country without the travel time. They had a blast completing the "Kim Possible" interactive game in which they followed clues provided on a special cell phone. Their "special assignment" took us through China. You can see the glowing orb under one of the lion's paws. They eventually found the sacred monkey statue and saved the world!

Next it was off to Italy. I unknowingly bought a Coke Icee to help combat the heat and so we were too full for Gelato. I did have the girls pose in front of the Venetian mask shop.

We spent a lot of time in Japan. Here we had the girls pose in front of a Japanese garden. The poses in the first two pictures were our request:

This one was their idea:

Lord help us!

We enjoyed the Mikimoto pearl shop where the girls picked their own oysters. They ended up with pretty nice pearls and decided on a flower pendant and a dolphin pendant. Here they are modeling their creations.

We made a quick stop in Morocco on a search for hidden mickeys. The Disney artist have hidden Mickey heads all around the park. They actually publish a book with location information for hidden Mickeys. Marley really got into this and was able to find a few that weren't in the book. You can see the girls pointing to one in this mural.

Next we stopped for lunch in Paris! We enjoyed quiches and pastries from the Patisserie. Marley had creme brulee - again! The girls tried on these pink barets (or raspberry berets for you children of the 80's) in the gift shop. Ooh la la!

Paris was our last stop on our world wind tour. We spent the rest of the afternoon repeating some of our favorite rides at Epcot. After a quickly pit stop at the hotel for dinner and a bath, the younger two Miyamoto generations returned for a late night evening at the Magic Kingdom.

Unbelievably, on the second to the last night of our trip, we still hadn't rode the teacups. Here is Michelle, Maya, and Macie in their cup. We toyed with the idea of squeezing into one cup, but after spending quite a bit of time in line laughing at other people whose cup overflowth, we decided splitting up was the safest bet.

Here is our view from a spinning teacup . . .

We ended the evening with another ride on "Peter Pan" and one last ride around "It's a Small World". This one never seems to get old! The kids were still pointing out characters of interest. . . I had to ask them to be quiet because they kept waking Marc up (he was taking a little rest in the dark).

At 1 a.m. when the park closed, the kids finally had enough. Unfortunately the adults had to stay awake for the Monorail ride back to the hotel.

This was our last full day in the parks. On Saturday we had to check out of the hotel by 11 a.m., and we spent our last 5 hours in the Magic Kingdom. We were so tired when we finally got on the plane. We had a great trip, but it is a good thing it ended when it did, I don't think we could have kept up the pace much longer. The kids were troopers and it was truly the trip of a lifetime! Thanks Papa Mel and Granny Sandy!

Day 7 - Animal Kingdom

After our late night at Hollywood Studios, we slept in and didn't get
to Amimal Kingdom until early afternoon. We headed straight for
Finding Nemo, the musical. It was hard to get pictures, but here's my
best attempt. This is the aquarium scene in the dentist's office. The
Nemo musical has large puppets similar to Lion King, including a
gigantic bicycle with Mr. Ray, the manta ray, to glide around the
stage.

Next we traveled to Africa for the Lion King Stage Show. Even in the pretend Africa it was hot! 95 degrees and muggy. Marley was trying to keep cool in the misters provided in line.

The Lion King show was a very cool "in the round" type production with a lot of audience participation.

Simba was there and Timon with his "flying monkeys"

And we thought of the Satarakas when the fire-knife dancing hyena came out! Sorry in this picture he looks like he is on fire, the iPhone doesn't really do him justice.

While Michele tried to get Maya and Macie to take a nap, we took Marley on "Expedition Everest". This is a new addition to the Animal Kingdom and looked similar to the "Matterhorm". But this rollercoaster went backwards and much of the ride was in the dark! Marley was brave and relieved that there was no "big drop" that made her stomach shake! On the left side of the picture you can see the cars climbing up to the top of Everest. We ended our Animal Kingdom day with a "Grand Gathering". This was my favorite experience of the trip. We got to stay in the park after it closed and had a private safari ride. We got to see real life wildebeast, hippos, ostrich eggs, and got close enough to touch a rhino (but we didn't). Then we went to the "Tuskerhouse" which is Animal Kingdom's upscale restaurant (air conditioned, thank goodness) and had an African feast, Timon and Rafiki from the Lion King made an appearance, and we were serenaded by musicians from the Congo. When it was time for the audience participation, of course the three girls were the first up!

We ended a great day with a late night swim in the hotel pool. We were able to soak for a few minutes in the Jacuzzi and realized we should have ended every night there!