Thanks to Sam and his huge Biology book, tonight we learned about this protein which signals tissue differentiation at the zone of polarizing activity (ZPA). It tells the cells in a limb bud which side will develop into posterior and which will develop into anterior (like little finger and thumb, respectively). I just thought the name was hilarious. Apparently hedgehog is a drosophila protein (fly) and Sonic is a video game character. The scientist must have liked playing the game I guess!

Ben and Camden cuddling THE BABIES on their hike today. They are so funny!

Ben and Camden had such fun on their hike at Koko Crater Botanical Garden today. They picked many plumeria for their mommies and Gramma, climbed trees, fought the terrible “cactopus” – a cactus that looked like an octopus – and had slow-mo sword fights. Then they found these huge sausage fruit things and took them to a bench and started rolling them like pizza dough, or making cookies. But in just seconds the “dough” transformed into babies and the boys were holding these 2 or 3 lb sausage things like little babies, cuddling and rocking them. They carried them like this all the way out the rest of the loop – over a mile! Camden named his “Fifi” and Ben named his “HE!” then changed it to “Jessica”. They were so funny. The “babies” rode in the truck on the way home.

So Tamara looked up the sausage tree this afternoon. Very interesting tree. Among her findings:

Cultivation and uses

In African herbal medicine, the fruit is believed to be a cure for a wide range of ailments, from rheumatism, snakebites, evil spirits, syphilis, and even tornadoes (Watkins 1975). An alcoholic beverage similar to beer is also made from it. The fresh fruit is poisonous and strongly purgative; fruit are prepared for consumption by drying, roasting or fermentation (Joffe 2003; McBurney 2004). In Botswana the timber is used for makoros, yokes and oars (Roodt 1992). Kigelia is also used in a number of skin care products.

First Easter eggs for breakfast (the hard boiled kind that the boys LOVE), then Church, then donuts after church! Here they are contemplating the goodness of Church.

Then to some of our favorite tide pools for some snorkeling. Gorgeous day! I set the camera up for this shot and barely made it in 🙂

Now the house smells of roasting roast, Yorkshire pudding is in the works, and I’m about to take a pre-feast nap! We are so lucky to have had a wonderful weekend together – we know we are blessed. Aloha to our ohana, both near and far! We love you!

Oh – just remembered some things you might be interested in, Great Grandma…First the liturgy was right on target I thought, about the perils of practicing “cultural Catholicism” by not embracing the faith as one’s own. Then as everyone was leaving, we were finishing singing the last song before we left the pew. Ben was in the aisle, though, practicing genuflecting! I turned to see him watching everyone, then he’d face someone right behind us and go down on one knee just like she did, holding onto the pew for balance! It was so funny.

Uncle Kevin always walks on the beach at the same time every day. I pass him around 0830 and we smile and comment on the sand condition which changes dramatically with the tides. Some days are gloriously easy, others more difficult!

I thought I should finally start documenting some of the great people we know from our daily routines. We don’t always know their names (today I decided to ask these gentlemen) but nevertheless we know them and wave to them whenever our paths cross. I will miss them!

Today we are doing a little informal Easter Egg Hunt in our backyard and getting together with some dear friends to talk story and play ukulele. It is warm here, and we’ve enjoyed a swim at the beach this morning followed by smoothies. Dave and I are looking forward to our next adventure in Washington but we will always be part Hawaiian. Dave will have lived here one quarter of his life by the time we leave. This place has taught us so much about how to care for the land, and for each other, because being on an island really affects one’s mentality. You feel more of a sense of community, like we’re all in this together. And for those who immerse themselves in the culture, seek knowledge from the kupuna, and open their hearts to experiences which might be unfamiliar, then the spirit of aloha and true love for the land and the place is inescapable. These islands and their people are a treasure.

Uncle Steve is another beach buddy of ours - he has three kids and commented on how fast this time goes. I enjoy every jog along the beach with Ben. I will hold onto those memories and the smiles from the beach friends we pass every day.

Ledward Kaapana and friend playing just for fun at Kailua Beach.

Mom and I were hanging out on the beach with the boys while Dave was at work yesterday. I went for a jog and came back to find two guys playing beautiful music about 3 feet from us! Mom and I exchanged looks like “How in the world do we get this lucky?” When they took a break between songs I was like “Thank you! We LOVE Hawaiian music! So…are you famous?” Turns out he was indeed – Grammy Award-winning Ledward Ka’apana and his friend were the two guys gracing our afternoon. So despite increasing hunger and thirst, we were determined to stay as long as they did. Richard brought us some food and drinks and we enjoyed playing in the water with the duo’s incredible slack key and falsetto dancing around us. Led’s family is from the Big Island – the Kalapana area which is now nearly covered with lava – and he grew up around music. His family would hang out and have days-long bbqs where the whole family would break out instruments and just play. His sister sings with him now at Kona Brewing Company on Sundays I think. Click on the picture above for one of our favorite pieces – Wahine Ilikea, by Rev. Dennis Kamakahi. The whole story behind that song is amazing, too.

Ben got sit on an ATV on the beach!

So I had kind-of a funny day today involving truck mechanics. Our clutch decided to go (the VW was repaired just a few months ago for the same thing) so we are not too excited about doing another clutch repair. Got an estimate from the dealer ($2100, 10 days to do it), then from another mechanic we pass on our route to school (a lot cheaper, after-market parts, but sounded like two weeks to do it). So I stopped in at our friendly VW mechanic just to confirm that after-market parts are ok to use (I have to report in to Dave on all my research) and turns out Barry says he can do it, on Tuesday, with OEM parts, for the same price. Wow. So I decide that is the way to go, and call the first mechanic who is a super nice guy with good recommendations (Rocky’s Auto). I apologize profusely, say it’s OEM parts vs after-market and can be done sooner. He explains he could do that as well and calls back with an estimate that is exactly the same as Barry! Oy! Didn’t mean to have two mechanics bidding on my one truck! Poor guys 🙁 But the part was already on order to Barry and so I am going to go drop something nice off at Rocky’s tomorrow on our way to school. I thought about maybe having them arm-wrestle for it…Honestly I never thought Barry could fix anything other than VWs. Not even sure the Xterra wants to hang out with a bunch of VWs while getting fixed.

So then I get home, think it’s all resolved after multiple phone calls to each of them, and notice in the Nissan receipt that they list my truck as 2WD…huh? I thought sure that extra stick thing I try not to touch meant it was 4WD? I was very confused. So I called Barry back (keep in mind he’s a tall 6’5″ guy who reminds me a lot of Chevy Chase with dark-rimmed glasses and a funny sense of humor) and said I felt like the most stupid woman in the world…but (and I explained my consternation). He said to drive it down and he’d tell me. So I figured the 5 min to drive 1 mi down and back was worth it to make sure the right part was on its way here from the mainland. After confirming it IS a 4WD, Barry is leaning on my passenger door going “You are killin’ me today!” I’m SURE! I am so sorry! I told him it was so disturbing to see 2WD listed – like finding out your husband doesn’t have all his parts or something. Just odd – you think you have a 4WD, but what if all this time…??? So hopefully I’m done tormenting the local mechanics for a while…

After a very busy afternoon editing a manuscript on deadline, creating graphics and graphs, conference call to troubleshoot some box and whisker plots, etc. the boys say they are hankering for dinner out at Zia’s. “We haven’t been there in SUCH a long time and we just LOVE the spaghetti and meatballs.” Dave is working late again so we are on our own (poor guy is working 15 hr days writing a 30 page report which he got behind on while away in Japan). So I ordered a Caesar salad with the fish of the day – opakapaka. It is an odd fish – kinda gamey, strong tasting, very fleshy/muscley. The boys were going “Something smells FISHY!” all during dinner thanks to their love of Madagascar (the movie). It didn’t taste like a fish, didn’t smell like a fish. In fact, it smelled more like a goat. Dave informed me tonight that I was thinking of alpaca. I am really confused today, huh? Is that a fish, or a mammal on my salad? Someone please tell me!

Huh? Yes…I am that uninteresting. I brought some flashcards to the table so we could have some fun in case we ran out of good stuff to talk about. Then we of course ended up doing some silly games whenever Sam got one right. I told him I’d fall out of my chair and…(insert gross boy noise here). Here’s a movie of the fun we had any time Sam got a hard one: fun with fractions

March reading log (Kainalu Pride).

Lest you think we are all nonsense, here’s a little picture of the monthly reading log, transformed into a calendar so it is actually useful to the whole family. The school asks us to record what we are reading daily, and also to make note of any family, fitness or healthy foods we’ve worked into the day. The idea is to raise awareness that it takes more than just the school or academics to help each child reach his or her potential. We all work better when our environment is in a healthy balance. Of course finding that balance is hard for some of us ;0 but hey at least we try!

The boys are going a little nuts now – wonder if the neighbors can hear us???!!!

Sam spotted this fig tree on Bellows and identified it correctly. So we took a picture of it and measured how many Sams tall it was. Over 6 Sams! That's more than...24 feet! We had fun FIGurin' that one out! ha ha!

So I have been cracking myself up lately with puns! I was on the phone with Dwayne at the Big Factory talking about how to replace my stroller wheel since I completely rusted out the bearings, nuts and skewer with beach jogs. It finally just wouldn’t work anymore. So we talked through options, including that I really need a quick-release so we can change tires on the fly if we get a blowout off-roading. When we were done arranging things, I said “Thanks for BEARing with me! Ha ha!” I liked this FIGuring one, too for the FIG tree. And using a Reese’s peanut butter cup was great for teaching fractions – I took a “tax” hit on Sam’s and told him that’s about how much the government takes from Daddy’s income. Then I took a small tax from Sam’s shortbread cookie (also round) and he guessed it was about 15%. Cookies are very good math aids I think.

We went to church this morning and saw some neat friends, then to the North Beach tide pools and hooked up with Giji and her gang despite some text-messaging mishaps. (By the way, while I was praying for peace and being a good mommy, Ben leaped sideways off the little kneeling cushion thing and landed in the middle of the aisle on his nose or something. His legs were flailing behind him like a donkey bucking. My prayer was answered because I got a case of the giggles along with the boys instead of getting really irritated at continued flagrant disregard for my church behavior admonishments. Ben is VERY quiet in church, but he is usually halfway or all the way in the aisle doing all manner of things he shouldn’t, oogling at people, etc. But he is QUIET, so he is not actually breaking too many rules. He brings a red cat along that we found in a geocache box – we call him Mr. Purrrfect because he is supposed to be Perfect in Church. Ben is responsible for educating Purrrfect. Crazy guy. I find it easier to take the two kids to church alone because I think it is a very unnerving time for my otherwise completely unflappable husband. Dave’s stomach gets in a knot wondering when Ben will erupt. That’s what I imagine he is feeling like anyway. I have not had a chance to ask him in a while.)

Anyway, after Taco Bell we headed home to gear up for the week ahead fixing tires and such. A family came through to look at the house as a comp for another one in the association (so I was quickly stashing my Scotch and bandaids and laundry!). As a matter of fact, one of the many reasons I will miss Hawaii is this. When a damsel is in distress, she can walk out her driveway and in a matter of seconds find a knight to help her. I found a strong man to get the rest of the new, tight tire on the stroller wheel when I couldn’t muscle it. It’s like camping here. People are all around. Usually that is a fine thing! Here’s hoping you all had a great weekend and have a good week ahead. Aloha!

Preparing for a little science lesson for Sam's class on viruses. Motivated by hearing that kids are continuing to spit in class. Needless to say I have the boys' colds now 😉

Sam did his homework in this thatched fort we built, and read a bit of the Dangerous Book for Boys. Love the world of boys! So over dinner just now we were doing some math in our heads for fun and something to talk about (I am not very interesting when I have a cold). So after 100×100 and such, I decided to stump Sam with 20×20, figuring he’d never get it and maybe I would if I used our white board which is right near the table. So he said “2000?” Nah…I said “What is 20×5?” Sam: “100” Mom: “So what is 20 times 20 then?” Sam: (12 seconds later) “400!” I asked him how he figured that out and he said “I’m not gonna tell youuuu!” I honestly think he pictures math, doesn’t have a system exactly. I have to use a system to ladder myself to an answer. He doesn’t. I think maybe that is related to good spatial relations? And music? That’s what I’ve read anyway. Whatever it is, it’s a gift that will come in handy when he’s out to dinner on a blind date that dead ends. At least he can do some mental math 🙂