Long time no blog! Today we visited the zoo (the skies miraculously cleared just as we got to Kapahulu!) and Aunty Christy's classroom. Here is a Flickr album with pictures from Eliza's trip to the zoo. Eliza got to monkey around on the playground and help the zookeeper feed the koi. She also got an up-close look at the tigers! After our visit to the zoo, we went to Aunty Christy's classroom, where Eliza met the principal of Aliiolani school. Aunty Christy explained that a principal is like the boss of the school. Eliza considered this and asked, "Can a kid be a boss of the school?" Sorry, not till the kid grows up! Yet another career aspiration :) At the end of the pictures you can sneak a peek at the beginning of Eliza's life-sized art project. Elementary school, here she comes!

Today we finished up Eliza's school supply shopping at Aunty Christy's favorite store: Fisher Hawaii! What a great, glorious mess of pens, pencils, paper clips, tape, rulers, protractors, art supplies, backpacks, stickers, notebooks, and ... globes!

Eliza insisted on finding the Hawaiian islands on every map and globe on display. She got pretty good at locating the "P" ocean as opposed to the "A" ocean. Already a geography ace ... her kindergarten teacher is so lucky!

We spent the rest of our time together at the Children's Discovery Museum, aka "Sensory Overload Central." Eliza was a blur of energy, a lightning bolt from (deep breath! ready, GO!) the doctor's office to the police station to the fire station to the grocery store to the bus back to the fire station to the mechanic's to the pet clinic to the boat to the airplane to the bubble machine to the Philippines to Korea to China to Japan back downstairs to the bubble machine to the pet clinic to the gigantic mouth to the brain and BACK AGAIN!

Aunty Christy so far has been joking about not being able to keep up with Eliza. Today she is not joking. Here are some pictures of Eliza's day - the only ones that are not impossibly blurry due to the speed at which Miss E moved from station to station!

Future mechanic?


... Or perhaps a firefighter.


Maybe a doctor?


X-ray technician ...


Pet groomer!


Eliza waits not-so-patiently for her turn onstage at the Keiki Theater.


She found this cute kimono (happi coat?) in "Japan" and refused to part with it, even when visiting other countries. Here in "China" she serves some random other child's parents tea. Somewhere out of the frame, their little boy is nonplussed.


Bubblicious fun!

Today we visited Uncle Matt and Aunty Kristi at Manoa School. Eliza got to sit in on Uncle Matt's lesson about the 13 English Colonies. Cool! Here she is sitting attentively in Room 20. This is right before she turned around and said, "Aunty, what are they TALKING about?"

We also went outside and did some running, stretching, climbing, swinging and JUMPING exercises on the various play areas at Manoa School. Eliza is really strong and since the beginning of summer has increased the length of time she can swing from a bar! She is much braver and will hang (and swing) by herself, several feet above the ground. She is also great at walking the length of a balance beam and climbing up a great tall spiral tower. Aunty sees a future gymnast (or cheerleader, mountain climber, or spelunker!)

Here are some pictures from our day:

CPK again?! Yup, this time w/Uncle Matt, Aunty Kristi, Arianna & Asher. Everyone's trying to burn their promotional discounts before the expiration date!


Eliza has informed Uncle Matt that he must cancel all his plans and spend the rest of the day with her :)


Fearless :)


Low bar w/ "alligator mud pit" below!

And ... here is a funny and informative video for you. Eliza almost daily mentions how great life would be if she had a little brother. So today I asked her, "Why not a little sister?" Here is her answer!

Today we went window shopping at Kahala Mall. Eliza was in a great mood and had a lot of energy. She has decided that she likes hair bows so we browsed through every girl's favorite accessory store, Claire's (which is every little girl's favorite accessory store only until they grow up and discover the Big Girls' accessory store that starts with a T and ends with a Y!)

Eliza and Aunty Christy got a lot of exercise and retail therapy today. Miss E made some great suggestions on clothing, accessories, and housewares, leading Aunty to believe she may grow up to be a stylist, a personal shopper, or a model.

Eliza: "Can I try this on?"

Aunty: "Sorry, that's a skirt for grown up girls."

Eliza: "But if I pull it allllll the way up to here, it is a dress that fits ME!"

The junior fashionista modeled a "Miss Birthday Girl" sash and said rather slyly, "It's still June. So it's still my birthday!" to which Aunty Christy replied, "It's your birth month but no longer your birthday." So Eliza thought about that and said, "Well, can we buy it for Uncle Scott?"

After a quick CPK counter lunch of fusilli with tomato sauce, Aunty got a call from Aunty Kristi Radona, who invited us over to play with Arianna and Asher. Eliza had a great time playing dolls and Littlest Pet Shop. She also met Arianna and Asher's pet tortoises, Holly and Avatar. Finally, it was time to go.

We headed to the Humane Society, where we planned to visit the kitties before swim class, but look what happened on the way!

It's been a good day!

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Conversation of the Day:

Eliza: God is awesome. He gives us rain. And treats. Everyone gets treats!

Aunty Christy: Treats?

Eliza: Yeah! But not the Hawaiians. They only get kalo.

Aunty Christy: Huh?

Today we got to Barnes & Noble just in time to hear a storyteller ("Kainalu's mom!") read Kili and the Singing Tree Snails by Janice Crowl. The blurb below is from TheIslanderGroup.com.

Kili and Tutu prepare for the great lu‘au. The King – Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha the Third – is hosting a feast at Kaniakapupu in celebration of La Ho‘iho‘i Ea, or Sovereignty Restoration Day. Join Kili as he takes in the sights and sounds at this joyous event, and along the way, discovers the wondrous singing tree snails that are the namesake of the King’s historic residence. Kili and the Singing Tree Snails gives a glimpse into the days when the Hawaiian kingdom flourished, and shows the importance of aloha ‘aina – caring for the land and perpetuating Hawai‘i’s native culture.

Eliza made her own Kili craft - a tree with snails in it!

Eliza making her snail tree with "Aunty Kainalu's mom"


Careful cutting and coloring! The finished product!

Today we also visited Aunty Amy and Bentley in Manoa.

Eliza took Bentley for a walk!

And finally, Miss E discovered Aunty Christy's drawer of hair things! The good, the bad, and the bad '90s fashion that fortunately she did NOT care for. But we did settle on a new 'do for today!

Why yes, I DO answer to "Cutie Patootie"!

Today we had a great day! We went to Sea Life Park in the morning ... the drive was beautiful - clear skies, blue water and no traffic! We got to the park and saw lots of amazing things. We listened to a penguin talk (as in, a talk about penguins, not a TALKING PENGUIN!), saw sea turtles, and saw some great waving, dancing, flipping DOLPHINS! Of course, the highlight of the whole visit was ... See below!

The playground

After Sea Life Park, we went to visit Aunty Christy's uncles and aunties (so confusing!) ... Uncle Matt helped Eliza have a treasure hunt in the yard, and Eliza got to see an orange kitty and her four little kittens. Even Bentley came out to play.

Other pictures from today:

Penguin!


Amazing!!


A snork for swimming!


Deluxe arm paddles!

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By the way ... she LOVES this YouTube video (click picture). Her favorite part is "Bow wow chicka bow wow ..."

Today Eliza was very patient with Aunty as we went on some b-o-r-i-n-g errands to secure pet supplies at Wal*Mart. She did however find the TOY and BIKE department, and suggested that Santa might come (really) early this year and bring her this bike.

Aunty: Don't you already have a bike at home?

Eliza: Yes, but it's dirty.

Aunty: I bet you could clean it.

Eliza: My daddy is really good at cleaning. He should clean my bike. But I think he will rather buy me a new one.

Aunty: If you say so!

After Wal*Mart we bundled up and went to ... ICE PALACE! It was Eliza's second time and she was very excited. We pulled into the parking lot and Aunty Christy moaned and groaned because there were about six big yellow buses in the parking lot which meant of course that there would be TONS of kids inside.

Eliza: What's wrong, Aunty?

Aunty: There are going to be TONS of kids inside!

Eliza: YAY! TONS OF KIDS!

Sure enough, when we got to the entrance, the lady warned us, "There are about 400 kids inside. Want to go have lunch and come back?"

That got a big N-O from Eliza, so we braved the crazy crowd and watched while the Zamboni went around and around ... and finally we laced up our skates, stepped on the ice and swooshed around like the two complete pros that we are.

Hee hee!

Eliza had a great time. There are only "resting" pictures because cameras aren't allowed on the ice. Aunty Christy needs a nap but Eliza is NOT tired AT ALL!!! (Can you tell which parts of this entry she dictated?)

Skates on and ready to go!


Relaxing with her pal.


Having a moment with Kona's kitty.

I was unable to embed this into the blog post but take a look at Eliza's first experience with Pucker Powder. (Not my finest moment as an Aunty/babysitter, but it was so cute! And I promise -- she did NOT eat it all. She had three tastes and that was it.) Sorry but you have to turn your head because I took the video the wrong way.

Movie on 2011-06-21 at 14.03 a video by christy_yee on Flickr.

Today we went to the Friends of the Library Book Sale. Here's a video of Eliza reading her new book, "Who Will Go To Kindergarten Today?" Sorry, Flickr only allows 90 seconds, so her performance was cut off. Next time I'll use the Flip cam!

Eliza and her friends jump through hoops at Leahi!

"Hey, Kona. What are you looking at?"
"I don't know, Eliza ... what are YOU looking at?"

Aunty Christy is really, really, REALLY out of shape. We hiked halfway up Kuliouou today (to the picnic tables) and Aunty Christy kept asking Eliza, "Aren't you tired? Don't you want to turn around and go back to the car? You do, don't you. Let's go back!" ... but Eliza replied very serenely each time, "No, we are going ALL the way up, Aunty." Look at the picture - she didn't even break a sweat. Eliza and her pal Kona are SUPER TROUPERS!

Today was very low-key, due to a dramatic doctor's appointment complete with two shots! The shots must have done their job, though, because Eliza is even FASTER and STRONGER than before! She won every single race with Aunty this afternoon, and she turned her cherry Jell-O to mush with just a few pats of her spoon.

In the afternoon we visited Aunty Christy's mommy, Aunty Amy, and Bentley (Kona's brother). Eliza got to see the huge turtle, a bird named Cuddles, and lots of baby fishes at Aunty Amy's house. Below is a picture of Eliza playing Chinese Checkers with Uncle Daniel, who was also visiting at Aunty Amy's house. Eliza is so good at games, maybe one day she will join in and be the Grand Champion of the "Family Bonding" at her house. Watch out, Uncle Tenny!

Chinese Checkers