Out for an after-dinner romp, this was taken moments before Sam did a faceplant and got holes in his palms!

Today I spent a couple hours getting two websites polished up for a friend who owns (and loves to open!) restaurants here on the island (www.sakestreet.com and www.formaggio808.com). To celebrate going live with both, we went out to dinner at one of the restaurants (Formaggio Grill in Kailua) with the boys. Sam picked out my dress – he was so cute looking in my closet and asking “Is that your casual side of the closet?” pointing to my shirts. He then picked out the polka-dot dress above that I haven’t worn in about 5 years. Ben screamed when I put a dress-up shirt on him – lately he has reacted violently any time you even hint at messing with his shirt, even if it’s filthy and it’s time for bath. Strange dude. But we finally got him dressed in a nice aloha shirt and all out to dinner. Sam enjoyed his dinner very much – “I really chowed down on Dad’s red pasta. I liked Formaggio Castle – everyone all crowded there feasting at the long tables.” It was so fun seeing it through his eyes – indeed it would seem like a castle with the tall ceilings, low light, and long tables of feasting! The food was delicious, I had my barnyard and underbrush wine again (love!) and we felt like a walk after dinner. For our boys, though, they don’t walk. They run. Often things go well, but tonight while Dave was snapping this picture of us all jogging Sam went down inexplicably hard and poked pretty good flaps in his skin. While he was screeching Dave tried to round Ben up for the truck, but Ben wanted to keep running (Dave was fearing a second face-plant) so he started screaming, too! With a Dave-mai tai in me followed by the wine and lobster mac and cheese, I was in good shape to handle all these ruffled feathers. Dave literally thew his arms up in the air in astonishment at the double meltdown happening on either side of him in the middle of the marsh trail with all the nice folks out for a walk/ride, several families rescuing a fish from the middle of the canal with a rake and many other poles duct-taped together, and a wedding on the other side of the canal. It was all so incongruous but very funny in retrospect!

Miss Dana left the boys such a nice note and MONEY for taking care of her doggies while she was away! The boys really did take good care of the doggies, each hand-feeding the dogs little bits of food so they would eat otherwise they’d be too lonely and depressed. She totally overpaid – money for both boys – and Sam did the honors of dividing up the money. Out of $10, he gave Ben $4, then gave $2 to the kids in Pakistan (Pennies for Peace fund on his shelf) and saved $4 for his truck fund. Thank you, Dana! Then tonight during prayers Sam said he was thankful for the holes in his hands because he has a strong body. Ben then said he was ready for his big-boy bed (he just moved into Sam’s old toddler bed yesterday). That’s a wrap from Kailua…hope you all had a good day!