(dinner out)

Dinner out for my dad's birthday was a great chance to get family pictures taken. While we waited for our table in the courtyard of Benihana's, the lighting was nice and the camera did a bit of magic.

It was fun taking close up photographs of our family. Natural poses, happiness in our smiles.

Even though my parents spend lots of time with the kids daily, it's never an opportune time to take pictures. So on these fun occasions when we get to go out together, I get to take these! With a little bit of complaining sometimes, but what photographer mom has kids that are not tired of her antics. Haha.

Scrapbooking these pictures was extra fun. Kept with joyful colors and notebook style embellishments. In Vietnamese, we call grandfather Ong Ngoai so I like to keep that in our family pages to remember that's that our real life. The kids call my dad this everyday.

We are quite blessed to have my mom and dad be such a big part of our lives. Here's to celebrating his 72nd birthday. Many more to come.

A quick weeknight dinner out, a quick excuse to capture these memories to last a lifetime. Fun times!

Prompt 13-Who inspires you?

This prompt asks the question who inspires you? My momma. Not because I want to be like her, unfortunately our personalities are so different, but because she is awesome in her own way. Through the years I think we've learned to agree to disagree and through the years we've grown in love and respect. 

She is awesome for her unconditional love for her family. She would do anything for any one of us. 

She is awesome for being a great role model. She raised my brother and I well and now has a huge impact on raising my kids. I think they're turning out well too. ;-)

She is awesome for her talents ... cooking, sewing, knitting and gardening. 

She is awesome for her sense of adventure. She lives to travel and will keep going till the end. 

I am inspired by my totally awesome mom. Thank you for who you are and all you do. 

Challenge idea came from here.

(puppy love)

On our recent trip to Las Vegas, the kids got to spend lots of quality time with the Cupp's pups ...  Aiko and Sasha. Lena normally doesn't like dogs but every spare moment this weekend was spent with these dogs. She cuddled with them, napped with them, hugged on them. Her favorite place to be was on or next to one of them.

Lucky for her they loved her too. They loved the attention and let her be all over them. :)

These sweet pictures I captured for sure showed their connection. So adorable, so precious!

Had to keep the scrapbook layout pretty simple to keep the attention on the pictures. And the cardboard letters I've never used before. I never seem to come up with a title short enough since the letters are so large. This time, however, it worked! Such sweet puppy luv!

(Benihana Birthday)

For my dad's 72nd birthday this year we took them to Benihana. They've never been and thought it was both delicious and fun. I think they've been to a teppanyaki place like this before but each chain has it's show characteristics. So much so that my foodie kids claimed Tanaka of Tokyo in Hawaii is better.

When we visited Hawaii earlier this year, we took them for their first time to Tanaka of Tokyo. It was where Moi and I had our first date 12 years ago. Kainani was most impressed with the personality of the chef, the fire volcano and the yummy food. She was the one that said let's go again.

Here at Benihana in Carlsbad, the chef was experienced and skilled but didn't crack jokes or have as much interaction with the audience. In the end, the food made up for it and was delicious ... steak, shrimp, scallops. Yum!

Scrapbooking this was most fun. I tried to keep a more masculine feel with the blues and plaid since the theme was my dad's birthday. Still had to include some fun bling, but overall a simple design.  

Prompt 11-How do you love?

Journal Prompt from i heart run with scissors:  How do you love?  Through dating, and marriage, I had always heard talk about the five love languages.  I never thought much about it because I was pretty sure I knew exactly how I loved :)  Once, I read the book, it made so much sense to me!!!  What is your love language, how do you love?

I personally have not read the book but today's journal prompt makes me want to. I took a quick quiz on the website and discovered I love first through quality time. I need to know the ones I love want to just be with me hanging out and enjoying each others company. Quality times are the best times. Not a lot of fuss.

A pretty close second for me is acts of service. I never expect kindness or favors but when a loved one does something nice without being asked I feel loved. Clean the house? Cook dinner? Play with the kids? All rank high in my book.

What's also true for me is that receiving gifts is the lowest. Maybe that's why it never dawns on me to make a big fuss with birthdays, anniversaries or holidays. I really don't love through receiving gifts. I'm a romantic huh? Or a cheap date!

Some of the other ways people love are words of affirmation ... being told nice things. And physical touch ... those couples we see in public who can't keep their hands off each other. Problem is ... how you love may not be how your loved one loves. It would be wiser to love the way they need you to rather than the way you need to and vice versa. I think this book is worth a read.

Curious to know how you love? Take the quiz here.

Challenge idea came from here.

Summertime is pooltime!

My oldest started her love of water as a baby just a few months old ... following daddy to the beach for surf.



Kainani has to love water because her name means "beautiful ocean".



And Lena loves to follow her sisters everywhere ... but she's still learning to love it as she learns to swim.



A few weekends ago we kicked off summer with time at the pool with our friends over. Lena and her friend Neveah spent fun times together this year as Daisies. More play dates to come for sure.



Nani spent as much time as possible with Sammy before she moved away to Colorado.



And Ally is the sister they've always had ... she lives next door and Nani's always saying "I see Ally 7 days a week mom!"



All smiles as the weather was perfect and there was so much fun to be had playing games and splashing around.



First was a race to get caught by the person who's it. Kaila gets ready to jump in and chase the others before they reach the other side of the pool.



Go get 'em Kaila!!!



Ally makes it to the other side and splashes water in a "you can't catch me" fashion. Haha.



Then it was time for chicken fighting. Really funny to watch the bigger girls being held up by the smaller girls. Good thing water makes you weigh less. LOL.



I'm gonna get you Kaila!!!



And then the winners rejoice! What was the best was how well these girls all got along and played so well together. They were so loving and it was so sweet.



Bye for now ... but not for long as we make our way back to the pool again and again at least several times a week. Hope you are all enjoying your summer too!!!

Summer Frenz Layout

Our friends from Chicago came out to visit last summer and the kids had a great time together. They are close enough in age that they immediately bonded ... much like their moms who bonded years ago in Hawaii when chance put them together as coworkers.

Time spent at the house, time spent at the beach, time spent together ... we are pretty blessed to have good friends that despite the miles are so close at heart.

Used several edge punches here. Also took out the cuttlebug and made texture paper from scraps rather than tossing them out. Sometimes old school techniques are just as fun as new ones. My favorite part about this double page layout is the picture of Lena and Olivia. They are so sweet!!!

Seaside Layout

We are pretty lucky to live in such a beautiful place. These are good times with family at the Oside Pier. Sunset is the prettiest here even with the colder weather during the winter months and the fog during May Gray and June Gloom.

We sometimes will head out all the way to the end of the pier for lunch or dinner at Ruby's Diner. While we wait for our table, we check out the fishermen and the sunset and the city view ... trying to find all our familiar spots in our little city.

In this double page layout I actually scrapped a picture with me in it. As the kids get older, they are learning to take over the camera and snap a few of me. I think I have junior photographers on my hands and it's pretty funny when the DSLR is bigger than their face as they peer into it. LOL

My favorite here is the pom pom fringe. I also got to use my edge punch, the ripped notebook paper one, and I saw the folding over technique somewhere in blogland. It's fun to see that this paper is double sided. Also fun is the glitter brad. Bling is a good thing. :)

Take Twelve March-Luck

Take Twelve for this month was about luck.
I am so lucky to have this life.

My wedding ring symbolizes a wonderful marriage.I am lucky to have found a wonderful man, a caring father and a supportive life partner. I am not just lucky but so blessed to have my 3 children, Kaila, Kainani and Kaiolena. They are my everything. Family and friends are more than just words displayed in our kitchen ... they are a huge part of our lives ... they are our cousins and our neighbors. 

I am lucky to have technology. After discovering Apple products we are grateful to own ipods, iphones, ipads and imacs. My wine glass rack on our bar stands for the joy of downtime ... wine. The side door we use to enter reminds us to keep the spirit of aloha alive in our home. Displayed in our home is a globe of the world. In this house, we know we are lucky to have the life we have so we are open minded to learn about other cultures and those less fortunate than us.

Being from Hawaii, we believe in aloha. We feel lucky to know the beauty of the islands and it’s people, it is within us and keeps us grounded with its spirit. Love for one and for all. Love for our environment and for our life. Love for our God.

This is the luck and good fortune that make up our so called life. Symbols of it are all around us. Remember.

Pinned It, Did It Again!

Pinned it and did it again ... so excited! For easter, we did a very informal egg hunt in the backyard. Showed the kids these glow in the dark eggs from Pinterest and they went for it right away. Way more exciting than the traditional egg hunt.

But getting the glow stick bracelets to stay in the eggs was not an easy feat. We broke a few by bending it too much. A few just kept snapping out of the egg. This was not exactly a huge success but nevertheless, we got a few to work. Hiding them in the dark yard was the funnest. They looked so cool glowing in the landscape.

Then our neighbor brought over these cool rainbow eggs. She said they dyed them but forgot to hard boil them. When the first one was cracked on Kainani's head, I screeched.

It wasn't gooey egg at all, it was filled with confetti!

Once the kids knew that, they couldn't grab them and crack them on each other fast enough.

It's all fun and games until mom had to sweep. Haha. Wasn't too bad though and the pretty pile that was the aftermath made for a very pretty picture!

What are your plans for an Easter egg hunt?