Tide Pools

We met our good friends, the Woods at the tide pools at Baby Makapu'u on Wednesday for a lunchtime playdate. This is one of my boys favorite beaches to visit because the rocks shield us from the (sometimes) brutal waves, and form shallow pools for them to jump and play. 

Keaton loves jumping off the rocks!

love that little sandy butt... :-)

 

Wet suit, floaties, full coverage beach hat - plus SPF 50+ on every inch of exposed skin. Yes, it's official. I've turned him into a beach nerd.

Rabbit Island

My 4 year old!

One last birthday post

Keaton's ACTUAL birthday was Monday. "April Tirdieth." So what if we partied him to exhaustion all weekend? I'm all about making the ACTUAL day count. Plus who needs a reason to make an average Monday more exciting? 

He woke up to presents - the big one was THE BIG BOY BIKE, complete with Lightning McQueen bell and helmet.  

I love how he wanted to sit on his bike (with his helmet on) to watch Spiderman. Notice his underwear are on backwards...we're still working on that! :-)

We stopped at Safeway to pick up some doughnuts and chocolate milk and then headed to the beach park for some bike practice.

 

It was very slow going at first. He had a hard time getting used to the "back brakes" thing. He got the hang of it really fast, though. In fact, TOO fast. Cut to me sprinting across the park (Mark under my arm) screaming Keaton's name.  So thankful for an angel (guy in board shorts) that saw what was happening and intercepted Keaton before he rode headlong into the busy parking lot. Whew!

Such a beautiful day!

We had a coupon, so we decided to take him to Chuck-E-Cheese (just the 4 of us) once Daddy got home. Let me tell ya - Monday night is the time to go to CEC! We basically had the whole place to ourselves. Keaton had such a great time that he has declared that he wants to go to CEC every birthday of his whole life!  (Oh, boy)

Mark had a ball too!

Chuck E. came to our table and sang "Happy Birthday!" to Keaton and gave him a free slice of birthday cake.

Sharing his cake with Bubba. :-)

Me and my birthday boy

Can I just take a quick moment to say, what the heck? Keaton is 4 years old? How is this possible? He will always be my baby boy. I love him so much, and I'm so proud of him. He has made me smile every day of the last 4 years. I can't wait to see what God has planned for this little man.

4th Birthday Party

Yesterday afternoon, we took Keaton, Mark and three of Keaton's best buddies on the Hawaiian Railway for Keaton's birthday party.

 

 It's a 90 minute, open air train ride up the west coast of Oahu traveling at 15 mph. 

Yeah, I know. 

But the boys loved it! 

Because they were together on a TRAIN acting silly and saying things like "DISGUSTING POO POO!" :-)

We "oo'd and aww'd" at the fantastic sights we saw along the way...

Thankfully, the views got better the further along we went..

 They loved waving at passerbys along the way...

I forgot his shoes... Oh well, it's Hawaii. Always optional.

Mark did so great for about 81 minutes of the train ride.   

Then he was OVER IT!

Thankfully, Auntie Karen was there to help hold him...

family shot

 The boys had some time to play around in the train yard after our ride.

Keaton and Grant

 I had the best time with these boys! They are each so unique and funny.

Handsome birthday boy!

After the train, we headed to "Old McDonalds" for dinner and cupcakes! 

I watched Grant carefully open his hamburger and using a french fry,  scrape off each pickle and onion.  Clearly, he'd done this before. :-)

 

 

 

Time for presents!

Happy Birthday to you!

Spiderman cupcakes! Yum!

Such a fun and memorable day celebrating our K-RAY!

Four

Beach Playdate

Springtime in Hawaii means less rain and more play dates at the beach! 

Yesterday, we met our church playgroup at Lanikai for some fun in the sun. 

All the kids colaborated and worked very intently together on this sand pile project.

It got a little intense when Keaton and Ansley disagreed on correct method of sand-piling. :-)

Pretty girl. I'm quite certain that my son is the reason there is sand in her hair.

Another boy brought a beach-proof Lightning McQueen. That was all she wrote...

"I wonder how long until he realizes that I have his car?" 

I said it once, and I'll say it again. You just can't get cuter than a baby on the beach.

James takes a break from the rice cake to say, "Cheese!"

Erin and Lainey
They are moving to St. Louis in 3 weeks (sniff)

"I have these floaties on...maybe I can make it out to that island before mom catches me?" 

Life with Boys

Two phrases that I heard this week that I'm pretty sure I never said when I was a little girl: 

(On our way out to dinner): "Mom, I'm not really sure if I just tooted or pooped." 

Also: 

 

Me: Keaton, stop eating your boogers. "I'm not. I'm eating my snot." 

We also learned the hard lesson of why we never climb trees without a shirt: 

Youch!