May Day 2010

For those of you who may not know, May Day is a big deal in Hawaii. Did I say big? I meant colossal! Ginormous! Huge! Bigger than big. It's so big that they have to stagger the performances at schools so that parents, grandparent, aunties and uncles can come too. So our May Day was actually half way into the month. Last year I was totally taken off guard. This year I was prepared. I showed up at the school an hour early, I had the stroller, sun shade, water-bottle, snacks, sun-block and a camp chair. I remembered the camera and video camera and I was ready for the 2 hour show the school was about to put on. It is like going to a fabulous luau where your kids are the performers (minus the food of course). At my kids' school, the fifth graders are honored to represent the Royal Court. Each of the eight Hawaiian islands are represented with a Kahili Bearer (he holds the colored staff), a Prince, Princess and Lady in Waiting. Corynn was asked to be the Lady in Waiting to the Princess of Kauai. She was so excited and did such a good job during the procession and ceremony.

As each represented island walks across the field a narrator tells about each island. I love hearing all the interesting facts about Hawaii.

Hawaii- The Big Island

Kahoolawe - The Target Isle

Kauai - The Garden Isle

Lanai - The Pineapple Island

Maui - The Valley Isle

Molokai - The Friendly Isle

Niihau - The Forbidden Isle

Oahu - The Gathering Isle

After the King and Queen are seated, the rest of the fifth graders put on a performance. There are chanters and hula dancers to entertain the royal court. Next, every grade puts on a performance.
This year Dallin's grade decided to try to put some humor into a touchy subject: Furlough Fridays. I thought the performance was cute, although I don't really find the subject all that funny. Irritating is more like it. I was also disappointed that it wasn't a Hawaiian theme like all the other performances. All the kids worked really hard on their dance, and it turned out really good, so I can't complain too loudly.

I'm having a hard time uploading the video of Dallin's performance, so you'll just have to take my word for it. He was a cute performer. It was such a fun day.

Aloha, Earl Family

We had the pleasure of playing host to Chris' sister Shelly and her husband Scott, and their 3 kids - Jordyn, Brenden, & Paige- for their first Hawaiian vacation. We loved every minute of it. They arrived bright and early Easter morning after having flown all night. We joked to the kids that the Easter bunny was bringing their cousins instead of candy this year. Kidding...sheesh. I regret to say that this is the only picture we have of them. They had their camera out so much, I decided to be lazy and let them play photographer. Just one slight problem. I forgot to have them leave a copy of their pictures on my computer before they left. Oops. So, until I get copies from them, this is the one and only picture of the Earl family. Rest assured, though I may be short on pictures, I'm not short on memories. We took them to all of our favorite places, and pointed them in the right direction on days we couldn't spend with them. The LOVED boogie boarding at Bellows Beach, and they LOVED swimming with turtles and snorkeling at Paradise Cove. They went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and had a luau there, walked around Waikiki, and bought way too much stuff at the Aloha Stadium swap meet. We had a blast with these fun cousins, and we can't wait to see them again. So here's a big ALOHA to the Earl family!