Aloha ! The 4th Annual Girls Night Hawaiian style

Held on Saturday May 19th 2012 ( Tammy's Birthday) at Grandma
De's House.  We also celebrated a belated Mother's Day.

The event began with the entrance through The De's waterfall. A mist of water sprayed onto the
guests welcomed them into the Hawaiian Atmosphere and experience.
Tammy and Haley were the first to arrive, followed by Karen and Sarah.

We had two new additions this year. Aloha to baby Anastasia , my new granddaughter,  just 6 months old and Sarah, one of Sarah's friends also having the same name. She is now being called Sarie, so they can be distinquished.

The festivities, as always, is based around authentic food so we had roasted pork, coconut jasmine rice, plantains,  shrimp kabobs, homemade hawaiian bread, Hawaiian bunch and lots of fruit, papaya, bananas and grapes. Here is Sarah and Sarie enjoying the feast. We also had Hawaiian music playing.

When the guests arrived the table was beautifully set. Flip Flops was part of the decor. We used them later for our craft project. Real banana leafs were used as part of the meal presentation.

Of course our mascot mini mouse attended. This year her name was Milea and was wearing a clam shell bikini top with a poka dot bottom. Her toe nails were freshly painted for the event. Nothing gets passed Milea.

The first fun time event  was swimming. This was Anastasia's first time in a big pool and she loved it. Sarah , Haley and Sari had lots of fun too.

Although Haley is swimming much better on her own this year, she enjoyed the ring float as well.

She especially enjoyed swimming at night and jumping into the water with the girls. But her most favorite thing were the paper umbrellas. She just loved those and made sure she went home with at least three of them.

Our group picture always includes Mini Mouse/Milea.

There is Haley with the

umbrella again.

Sarah seemed to enjoy the umbrellas too. She especially liked the Jasmine rice made with coconut milk and coconut flakes. It was yummy.

Next on the agenda was celebrating Tammy's birthday. I made a beautiful cake for her decorated with Hula Dancing girls. The cake was a coconut pineapple cake with cream cheese and coconut icing.

At some point Anastasia made the decision that the party was over for her.

Tammy also needed her rest.

The next day, all rested, we were ready for some more fun.

I am not so sure about Sarah ????? She went from the bed onto the sofa.

Haley started her day jumping on Grandma De's bed.... I told her " No more monkies jumping on my bed"

Tammy made us a delicious breakfast, her specialty Omelets. We also had fresh fruits. We ate by
the pool side.

The adults had a nice morning treat. Champayne with fruit juice.

The photo shoot with the Hawaiian Dancers was on the agenda for day # 2, as well as a craft and a Hula Hoop contest. ( No pictures of the Hula Hoop Contest ) but the winner was Sarah...

Here are some pictures of our craft for the event. Everyone was given their flip flops to decorate using beads, cut outs and glue. The most interesting one was Haley's. She decorated hers with dinosaures cut outs. It was the way she arranged and glued them that was so interesting for a 3 year old. She won, the best decorated flip flop contest.

It was the perfect end to a perfect girls night.... One we will always remember.... I am already thinking of the theme for our 5th annual girls night....Stay tuned.  Aloha...

Summer of 2011

A lot is going on this summer. Sarah and Randy will be in NY with their paternal grandparents for 3 weeks and then coming back to Florida for their mom's wedding. They are both very excited about the upcoming nuptials, which is very good to see. They had an awesome school year, graduated into middle school and now are enjoying the summer fun.

I baked a special cake for them for their graduation.

Our sweet Haley is a pure delight. We hope to get her graduated from Pull ups to Big girl underwear very soon. She is working hard at this transition and enjoys her successes.

We had our  3rd. annual girls weekend this year and in honor of Karen we dressed Panchita in a wedding dress. It was suppose to be a beach theme but Panchita had trouble getting into a bathing suit. She promises to slim down and be ready for next year.

We had fun swimming, watching movies, and doing a craft project. The children also went to visit the horses. For Haley, Sarah and Randy's bd I hired a couple of horses for a couple of hours and we had a lot of fun that day. Haley just loves horses. She takes after grandma de for sure when it comes to my love for these beautiful animals.

For this year's Grandma De's Country camp I hope to have Sarah and Randy for one week.  We are going to do some cooking classes, swim, go horseback riding and I may teach them how to do a fondant cake. Sarah is very interested in this and for the past year I have become better at making fondant cakes. We will visit their great grandmother and maybe have lunch with her. I wish I could  also have Haley for a week, perhaps next year.

Haley finger paints, while Randy takes the bull by the horns and Sarah takes the reins.

Just a few blocks from my home there is a ranch named Rock N Stables. This is the first year that they offered a summer camp for children. I jumped at the chance for Sarah and Randy to take horseriding lessons with them. I enrolled them each for one full day of camp on different days.

Sarah visited me for one week first so she enjoyed her full day at horse camp with several other cow girls. She learned to feed them, brush them, and of course ride them. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience and wants to return next year for a full week.

Randy was next. Randy also did the housekeeping chores of a cow boy. He cleaned the stalls, fed the horses hay, brushed his horse and learned how to ride the horse, but added to his experience was roping. He really enjoyed learning how to rope.

The instructors were very relaxed with the children and the camp was well organized. The children were given a delicious lunch and swimming was also available during the lunch break. The day with the horses was everything and more than I had expected for Sarah and Randy's first experience with a horse. I recommend this camp to anyone.

During this summer our visit with baby Haley was also a lot of fun. She is getting so big and is so smart. Sarah and Randy enjoyed playing with her. She did her first finger painting masterpiece with Sarah and enjoyed a relaxing time with Auntie Karen, Randy and Cocoa. Haley's summer experience included her first airplane ride to attend the DeFrancesca Cousin's picnic in Libertyville, Illinois. She and Tammy enjoyed a 3 day weekend with Papa and I and the Walsh's and Ganchows. She also went to a farm where she saw lamas, coats, and sheep.