Aloha Friday - Pineapples and Sailboats

What is more Hawaiian than Dole pineapples?!?  Okay, chocolate covered macadamia nuts...um, poi...leis...okay, there are lots of things that are quintessentially Hawaiian.  But come on, you gotta think of Hawaii when you think of Dole.

So as we are finally getting settled and spending our free weekends sight seeing and exploring instead of unpacking and organizing, one of our first stops was to the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

1.  Dole Pineapple Plantation.  

Let's face it.  The real reason we visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation was to eat some of that delicious pineapple soft serve ice cream (aka Dole Whip).  This might just give poke a run for its money on my list of awesomeness.  

Here's a photo of Charlotte eating her own serving of Dole Whip.  This girl is serious about her food, just like her Mommy and Daddy.  

We also took the family on a little ride on the Pineapple Express.  It's a short tour around the plantation.  Not necessarily the most amazing tour in the world but Charlotte loves trains and I find it difficult to deny her anything.  :)  Here's a shot of me with the kiddos on board the Pineapple Express.

So the Dole Pineapple Plantation was two weeks ago.  Last week was JAM PACKED with Hawaiian adventures.  

2.  Ono Steaks and Shrimp Wagon.  

We did not intend to eat out that day.  In fact, I made lunches for everyone and we were eating our turkey sandwiches in the car when I spotted the Ono Steaks and Shrimp Wagon in Waimanalo and directed Justin to pull over.  Thank goodness I did!

Justin ordered the fish tacos.  OMG, DELICIOUS!!!  That mango salsa was divine and I must say, it was one of the best fish tacos I have ever had (and that's considering that I grew up right next to Baja California, home of the fish taco)!!

I had the garlic shrimp with macaroni salad.  Also amazingly delicious and do you see all that garlic?!?

Here are the boys at the lunch stop.  What an amazing place for a food truck, right?

3.  Animal Farm.  We saw this random animal farm while driving along the coast.  Benjamin was screaming for milk so it was the perfect time to take a quick stop.

Here is Charlotte feeding some goats.

4.  Hike to Makapu'u Summit.  

The trail to Makapu'u Summit is an awesome trail because it is completely paved (which means that we can push the stroller the entire way up the summit).

Check out some of these views.  Absolutely gorgeous.

5.  Hanauma Bay.  We only stopped by Hanauma Bay for an hour or so and I can't wait until we can come back and spent the entire day here.  This place is just breathtaking!

And here is Benjamin in his stroller hanging out while we look down into the bay.

6.  Sailing in Kaneohe Bay.  Last Sunday we went sailing in Kaneohe Bay to the Sandbar (aka the Sunken Island) with the owners of a boat that Justin races on.

What an amazing afternoon.  Charlotte adored being out on the water and especially loved kayaking with Dad.  They even saw a turtle in the water!

Whew!  Okay, that's it for now.  I can only hope that all of our weekends are this fun.

As always, mahalo for stopping by!

A Reading Journal - A Jenni Bowlin Stuidos Hybrid Project

So there are two purposes to this blog post.  One - I wanted to talk about books.  Specifically, Charlotte's books.  I won't lie and tell you that I'm in a book club or am remotely "well read."  In fact, I think the last book I read was called the Toddler Whisperer.  BUT...I do read A LOT of books with Charlotte.  In fact, they are often my biggest source of crafting inspiration.  Which leads me to purpose number two - upcycling old journals.


Are you like me and hoard, um, I mean collect a ton of notebooks and journals but never seem to finish them?  Well, that's not true.  I do have a number of completed notebooks filled with lots of nonsense.  They're often hard to read through at times.  Like, did I really care that much about Twin Blonde Boy that it consumed four journals full of girl angst?!?!?  However, this particular journal was the victim of my poor stamping skills. 

So, I thought I would attempt to recover it to make Charlotte her very own reading journal (i.e. a place for me to write down all the books we read together, i.e. an attempt to make me feel better about not reading grown up books that don't include photos of chicken and cake.  But not on the same page.  Cause, that's just weird). 

Using some the new Jenni Bowlin Studio ("JBS") Red and Black Extension Kit 4 (available over at Jenni Bowlin Digital Store), I created a book cover in Photoshop.  I also added some wording to one of the Red Labels included in the JBS kit.  Then, using my large format printer (Cannon Pro9000 Mark II), I printed all of my digital elements onto a 12x12 sheet of white American Crafts cardstock.

Next, I trimmed down all of the difference elements with my paper trimmer and adhered them onto the notebook using my Xyron machines (specifically, the Xyron Creatopia for the book cover and the Xyron 2.5" Create-a-Sticker for the inside label).

After I printed out the cover, I noticed that it was too small to actually cover the entire journal.  (Oops!)  However, since I love the look of red and aqua, I decided to keep it that way.  (Whew!)  Here is what the notebook looked like with everything securely adhered on. 

I punched out small hearts from a piece of JBS patterned paper that I also printed onto white cardstock.  After running them through a small Xyron sticker maker, I adhered the strip of stickers onto the back page with some washi tape.  The idea is that she can add a heart sticker to any of her favorite books.

Super easy and super cute!  I love hybrid projects - where computer design and some good Xyron machines merge to make something awesome.

I promise to update y'all on what books we end up loving this year.  I know that the first one will definitely be Go, Dog. Go by P.D. Eastman. 

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Project Life 2013 - Week 2

Here is the second week of Project Life 2013.  The photos and stories in this layout relate to the stories in this Aloha Friday post.  I am sticking with the January Card Kit from Splendid Fiins (the same one I used for the Week 1 layout).   

Digital Supplies: Splendid Fiins (January Card Kit, 2013 Calendar Cards, Script Day Stamps).

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Project Life 2013 - Title Page and Week 1

For those who follow my blog, you know that I tried Project Life in 2012 with only minor success.  I started after Thanksgiving 2011 and kept up with it through April.  I tried restarting Project Life around Halloween and still have hopes to finish 2012 at some point.  Regardless, I am moving forward with Project Life in 2013.  So I am proud to officially introduce to you, Project Life 2013.

We are going all digital this time and working primarily with awesome products from Splendid Fiins.  I am on the Creative Team for Splendid Fiins and genuinely ADORE everything that Nisa Fiin creates for her shop.  It's a fantastic mix of quirky and clean.  Just fabulous.

So, using the amazing Project Life products from Splendid Fiins, here are my first pages for 2013.

This is the title page for the album using the January Card Kit from Splendid Fiins. 

The photos of me and Justin with the kids were taken by Melissa O Photography.  Melissa is a good friend and fellow Navy spouse.  If you're in San Diego and looking for a photographer, be sure to look her up!

Here are the pages for Week 1 (also using the same January Card Kit linked above).

I'm so excited about this project and between this and the Aloha Friday posts, I can't wait to share with everyone our Hawaiian adventure!

As always, mahalo for stopping by!

 

Aloha Friday - Settling In

We have finally moved into our new home.  We finally have internet.  We finally are starting to get settled.  There are still boxes to unpack, furniture to buy, and pictures to hang.  But...we are in our home and it feels awesome.

Here is a photo of Charlotte sitting at the front door on moving day.  We literally rolled her out of bed at 6 and drove straight to the leasing office to pick up the house keys.  Thankfully she was almost all smiles that day despite the chaos.

Here is what we saw outside of our front door that morning.  Our very first double rainbow in Hawaii.  I saw a second one later that night on my way to Target.  So cool.

Here is Charlotte sipping some strawberry tea.  The tea set is one I brought back with me from Vietnam back in college.  I remember painstakingly packing that set and making sure it didn't get broken.  Now, it's a toddler tea set.  Go figure.  :)

Here is Charlotte drawing on the lanai with her birthday sidewalk chalk.

Benjamin is around too.  He's usually hanging out in the baby carrier though (which makes photographs a bit more difficult).  He turned four months old almost two weeks ago.  It amazes me how much quicker time seems to fly by with two kids.  I wish it would slow down just a bit sometimes.  And this kid is a chunkster.  At his four month check up, he weighed in at over 12.5 pounds!

We visited Daddy one afternoon while he was on duty.  Charlotte said that she would bring a pink screwdriver to help him fix the ship.

And finally, here is Charlotte with a pink cake we made after school.  We sang happy birthday to the entire family and blew out imaginary candles.  And as Charlotte would say, "That's pink.  That's my favorite."  Silly girl.

As always, mahalo for stopping by!!!!

Aloha Friday - The Waiting Game

Since we will be in Hawaii this entire year, I thought I'd try a new series called "Aloha Friday" where I give y'all a sneak into this island paradise lifestyle.  I promise to come up with a super cute header/ image for it soon.

And to kick things off, I sadly have nothing super glamorous to show you.  :)  We are still living at a friend's house and out of a series of suitcases.  I can't seem to find my card reader to upload photos.  In all honesty, I haven't taken too many photos anyways.  The weather, while warm, has been rainy and a bit gloomy.  Thankfully, the weather gods are telling me that sun is in store for this weekend.  But that doesn't keep me from being grateful for every single moment that our family is together.

Although there aren't any photos, here are some highlights from this week:

Charlotte playing on Lanikai Beach.  On the first day we arrived to our friend's house in Kailua, we took Charlotte to Lanikai Beach, which is just two blocks from the house.  She loved it.  Justin dug a huge hole for her.  We got her a bucket and shovel at the drug store.  She was one happy little beach baby.  Once the weather clears up, hopefully we can sneak in a few more beach days before moving to the other side of the island.

New Years fireworks over Kailua.  Benjamin woke up at 11:58 pm so I rocked him while watching the fireworks on our friend's balcony.  Justin and Charlotte woke up a few minutes later to catch the tail end of the show.  Really beautiful.

Dole Pineapple.  They are delicious.  Seriously.  Avoid the Maui Gold pineapples.  Dole is where it's at.

Poke.  Another awesome Hawaii delicacy.  Raw tuna mixed with deliciousness.  I have dreams about this stuff.

Asian Food.  And since we're talking about food, I love that there is Asian food EVERYWHERE in Hawaii - like I can get all my Asian food stuff at Target or Walmart.  In Rhode Island, I had to drive to freakin' Boston to get a bottle of Magi.  Here, I can get it the corner market.  Awesome.

As always, mahalo for stopping by!!!

One Little Word - Grow

My word for 2013 is grow.  

Last year, I resolved that 2012 would be the year that I finally find balance.  As crazy of a year that it was, there were moments when my life felt like it was in almost perfect harmony.  All in all, I think I can look back on 2012 with no regrets.

Now for 2013, it's a whole new ball game.  We are in the same state, and once we move into the new house on the 8th, the same house for an entire year!  We live in an island paradise.  We have two kiddos in tow.  Once we are "settled," I think it's time to put down some roots (even if it's only for a year) and do a little growing.

I want to grow in nurturing my relationships with my husband, my children, my family, my friends.  

I want to grow as a memory keeper.  While I love the pretty paper and stickers that is a part of scrapbooking, the foundation of the craft is to preserve those family stories and memories.  

I want to grow as a person - to learn how to take care of myself better (which, in turn, will allow me to take care of my family as well).

And I do believe that growing while surrounded by palm trees, tropical birds, and the most delicious Dole pineapples EVER sounds pretty darn awesome.

So there it is, 2013.  GROW.  I'm gonna do it.  You game?

Note:  One little word is a concept developed my Ali Edwards.  You can learn more about it by visiting her blog here.