Plant a Seed and Watch It Grow

Nic was so excited when he brought home a project from school- a plastic cup filled with soil and a seed he planted. He exclaimed that he was going to water it every day and that his teacher promised that it would grow into a plant. I was a little nervous when I heard this because when I looked into the cup all I could see was a bunch of mush. There was more water in the cup than actual dirt. When we got home I put Nic's cup on the kitchen windowsill to catch some sun. I checked on it every day secretly wishing that Nic would forget about it. Each afternoon I filled the cup with a little water and watched for progress. I started to doubt that there was even a seed in the cup. What if Nic forgot to put the seed in? Or if his seed was a dud? When I finally seen the first sign of something sprouting I called Nic over and he was so proud that his little seed was growing... so was I ;)

We put it back up on the windowsill and continued to water it.

Look at how much it's grown!

July 4th, 2010

As we sat on the lawn at Murray Park the fireworks began to shoot off. The kids thought it was great. Soon Nic started to name a super hero for each of the colored fireworks...

^Spiderman

^Hulk

(another red) I thought he'd repeat his first answer, but he didn't...
^Iron Man

I kept trying to shush him, but he kept going and the people sitting next to us thought it was pretty funny. As each firework came up he continued to come up with super hero's to match the colors in the sky, never repeating the same verdict. I could almost predict what each of his answers would be, but wondered what he would say for purple cause I couldn't think of a purple super hero. Sure enough a purple firework shot up in the sky and I paused and listened carefully to see what Nic would say.

There was a slight moment of silence and just when I thought he was stumped I hear him say... ^Hulk's pants!

That was last year's 4th of July. This year we stayed in Vegas. We have officially lived in our house for 3 years now. I still remember the first Independence day we celebrated here. Siope was only 1 and wasn't talking. Ti lit a small pack of fireworks as me and the boys sat on our small porch- Siope in my lap. Our neighborhood was pretty desolate. A lot of the land still open and few homes had people actually residing in them. Yesterday was much different. We could see fireworks going off in every direction we looked. It's so great to see how much the neighborhood has grown. The prior day we drove out to Pahrump for the first time and bought loads of fireworks. Kalo & Ulysses were here with their kids and after filling our bellies with some of Ti Tonga's delicious BBQ we started the fireworks show. We were soon joined by half of the neighborhood that had gathered around our street. Some of them standing on the street, others out on their balconies- each applauding after each firework that Ti Tonga lit. It was AWESOME!! This was by far the best fireworks show that we've had. We will most definitely be heading to Pahrump every year from here on out. We went to the pool for a late night swim then came home and the kids went straight to bed. It was such a fun day.

July Birthday Board

We have a birthday committee at work that designs a board spotlighting those who celebrate birthdays within the current month. Last month my manager Brian asked if I would help him with the Birthday board for July. When I saw Brian's sketch of what he had in mind I was super excited to be on board. He came up with a whole Independence Day theme and wanted to create a sky scape with fireworks and rockets shooting off. We decided that instead of giving the usual candy filled goodie bags we would fill ours with sparklers, party poppers, and super snaps. I was in charge of making the rockets and this is what I came up with. July is the first board to go 3D... thank goodness there were only 6 birthdays this month! Last month we had a ton.

Hula Who?

There are some things that I know will never make it into our house. Tiara's, Barbies, mermaids, princesses, tea sets - just to name a few. I thought I had it all figured out... until 2 weeks ago when the boys slept over Toakesa's house. It was the weekend that Ti was in Colorado and when we got to the house Toakesa was so excited to show the boys her new hula hoop she got for her birthday. I was talking to Toa in the living room but could overhear the kids in the kitchen. I didn't think too much of it cause I was sure that the boys wouldn't find her hula hoop interesting. Toakesa was showing them how good she had become when all the sudden I hear Mote say "Oh I know how to do it." He takes the hula hoop and starts shaking his hips for like 2 minutes straight without it falling. Me, Toa, and Mote (Lahi) were cracking up! I was so surprised that Mote knew how to hula hoop. He said that he learned in gym class. When Nic saw he wanted a turn and then the fighting over the hula hoop began. "Mom! Mote won't let me have a turn! He's hogging the hula hoop all to himself!" Wow, words that I thought I'd never hear my boys say. This was all weird and very surprising to me. Nic finally got a turn, but wasn't able to keep it up for more than a second. I thought it may have been a bit advanced for his thick little uncoordinated body to handle ;) But made sure that they kept taking turns. When I went to pick up the boys the next day Nic dashed down the stairs to hug me and the first thing out of his mouth was "Mom! Come watch me! I know how to hula hoop!" So I followed him and sure enough he had mastered the hula hoop. I was so shocked and not gonna lie - pretty proud of my little Nici =) Toa said they were stuck on the hula hoop all night. I told Ti Tonga about it on the phone, but I wanted him to see for himself. So I went to Walmart the other day and bought a hula hoop for our house- yes I know, I thought I'd never find myself in the hula hoop isle, but there I was. Finding a blue one without floral or butterflies turned out to be a bigger challenge than I thought. The kids were beyond excited when they seen it. Nic has gotten even better and him and Mote are now trying to teach Siope. I thought I should record them to show my Mom and sisters back home. I know if my brothers see this I'll never hear the end of it lol... oh well. Here's the boys hula hoopin to one of their FAVORITE songs.

Pre-Birthday Gifts

Ti Tonga and the boys will be heading out to Salt Lake this Friday - which happens to be Mote's 7th Birthday. My brother was just over last weekend and bought the kids a video game. He came over again last night and Mote says, "Misi guess what this Friday is?" Misi thought he was just bringing up the future trip to Utah but Mote exclaimed, "It's my Birthday!" Misi was so surprised that he asked me if Mote was telling the truth. So today after I picked up the boys from school I got a text from Misi asking if we were home cause he wanted to come over. He shows up with a bag full of birthday goodies for Mote.
I'm not sure how I'm going to top this ^ so I'm just not even going to try ;) I sent Misi a text last weekend thanking him for the first video game he bought and told him that he really didn't need to buy the kids anything. He responded by saying that I have such good boys who deserve nice things and that he loves them. It almost made me cry. I really do have the best family! Not just cause they buy my kids things, but because they love to do things that make my boys smile. Thank you Uncle Misi!
I'm so sad that the boys are leaving without me this weekend. Nic keeps saying "Mom, I wish you could come with us." I do too :( I guess it's just me, Mario, and Luigi this weekend =(

More Than Meets the Eye

To many this may seem like an ordinary bubble wand, but to Siope it's much more!





We had these bubble wands from Easter and Siope saw one laying on the floor one day, picked it up and kept acting out this Disney Channel commercial. Gotta love that imagination!

From Last Place to Top 3

Soccer is done and I really should post about Mote's achievement this season. When he first started competing it was so cute to watch them play. After a couple games we noticed a pattern - we were losing lol. And frankly we were no match for any team! They were all a lot bigger than the kids on our team and we went the entire first season without even scoring one single goal. The next season we started out with the same pattern, but all the sudden one game Mote scored and our team went crazy. The other team was looking at us like we were nuts because of course we still lost, but the team mates and all the parents were cheering and screaming like we had won a championship. It was a huge step for us. Each season we enrolled him again without much expectation of winning any games. I thought it would still be good for him to learn the game and gain coordination. Each year the team showed improvement. We actually started scoring more, and eventually were able to pull out a victory. The kids have been practicing super hard and this year we won enough games to actually compete in the end-of-the-season tournament. I never even knew there was a tournament at the end of the season because we've never qualified to play in it. Mote was absolutely stoked! He was so focused and determined. Out of my 3 kids he is the most competitive. My parents got to watch the first game in the tournament and we ended up losing which was tough for Mote, but everyone said he did great. He scored our only 2 goals. The next week we played for 3rd and 4th place and we won! I thought he might be bummed because we didn't win a trophy, but he was sooooo excited that he won a medal for 3rd place. He wore it all day Saturday and when I was getting ready to drop them off at Mote & Toa's that night he tried to wear it in the car and I had to tell him to take it off and leave it in his room because I didn't want it to get lost. We called Ti Tonga (who was in Colorado) and my Dad so that Mote could tell them about his win. And when Monday came Mote was all dressed for school with his medal around his neck. I let him wear it because I didn't want to burst his bubble a second time but made him promise that he would be extra careful with it while at school. Nic has been super jealous and has even stolen it a couple times, so I had to tell Nic that if he plays really hard then one day he'll earn one too. I'm so proud of Mote's team and how much they've improved. I told Mote that next year maybe, just maybe, we'll bring home a trophy =)