Halloween!

Yet another busy day at the Baird house! Soccer practice for both the boys at different times on different fields in different locations of course. Then home for lunch and some playtime in the tent and a little baseball and then it was time for the neighborhood party. Five of the families on their side of the street got together in the spare lot next to Jill for a potluck. Of course special drinks were in order! Jill is in the orange.

Ryan ready to dig into his mummy dog!

The Baird Ghost makes an appearance.

Grandma facilitating disaster as the kids crashed at the bottom of the hill.

Colin and Ryan ready for the parade.

Ryan and Clark, his friend from next door.

Everybody got into the fun.

Colin on his mission to hit every house.

Then he was going to pick out a small group of his favorites and then take the rest to school where they would send the candy to the troops deployed from this area.

and a little apple bobbing to end the evening.

There were two huge bags of candy and two tired trick or treaters when we got home. The bags got dumped, but the decision on what does where will come another day. Great time and almost everyone in the neighborhood took part. It was GREAT to see!

Soccer and the Campout!

A little giggle time with via This Little Piggy to start out the day! Had yummy breakfast Burritos and then got ready for soccer practice. We're bringing the apples for half-time snacks today. Colin had a game and Ryan had drills again. Then home for lunch and then Colin had a birthday party and Ryan, Mom, Grandma and Grandpa set up the tent outside to air it out for our big Campout tonight. Mom and Dad have date night tonight so we get the boys all to ourselves :-). They've been waiting for this ever since we got here almost three weeks ago. After we picked up Colin from his bowling party (where he bowled 101 in his first game!), we moved the tent into the house.

The boys then proceeded to move their animal menagerie into the tent along with their sleeping bags.

Once they got everything organized we had a game of U-build Sorry that Colin whupped us at and then we made dinner - freeze dried spaghetti and meat sauce with mac and cheese on the side.


Ten minutes later we were dining in style and the food disappeared in a flash! Hungry campers! By then it was getting dark so we grabbed the headlamps and the scavenger list and headed out the door to find witches, candles, headstones - 18 different items on the list and we found them all! All kinds of strange creatures walking around the neighborhood! Then home for somores, flashlight stories and time to hit the bag! They were both exhausted and settled down pretty fast and both actually spent the whole night sleeping in the tent. Meanwhile Mom and Dad had a great time at dinner and watching the Cirque de Sole show. Everybody had a great night!!

Party Day, Pumpkin Carving and Apple Bobbing!

Jill and Grandpa dropped Colin off at his school and then headed to the park with Ryan to swing for awhile before Ryan got dropped off. Great morning to play on the swings!

All of us piled into the car to go to Colin's party about 10:15. They were already in full swing with the K-1 and lst graders all in costume and doing different stations.

Hum...what do I want from that table?

There were four or five different crafts they could do, a food area with an incredible amount of goodies (some better for you than others) and juice, and of course the marvelous playground they have. Everyone was having a great time and all put away impressive amounts of food. Poor 1st grade teachers who have them for 2 1/2 hours after lunch. We were quite impressed with how well they all got along. It was fun to visit Colin's school where he shared his journal with us. They write and illustrate something everyday. They have a beginning sentence such as "If I were going on a trip to the moon I would take along...." Very fun to read. Jill went to get Ryan and then came back to get us and we headed home for lunch....not very big for the boys! Then it was time to get cracking on those Jack O'Lanterns! Colin had gotten a small pumpkin at school and then we had the two from the Pumpkin Farm. Colin decided to do an original design on the smaller one to test out the carving tools.

Great face Colin!

Ryan helping Mom get all the seeds out of his pumpkin.

Both of the boys then picked out designed for their pumpkins from the book that came with the carving tools so Grandpa and Mom were punching in the design so they could be cut.

Colin then got a short lesson from Grandpa on carving technique and went to town on his pumpkin. Ryan had chosen a more intricate pattern that Jill carved for him.

While they were carving, Grandma separated out the seeds so they'll be ready to roast (yum) and then it was time for a little exercise so all headed to the park across the street where Grandpa was again the chase king for the neighborhood kids. They had lots of energy to burn off, and just about wore him out! He's a favorite around here as a lot of the kids don't get much Grandpa time as they are all so far away from families.


Then a great dinner of Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto with Sugared Walnuts that Dave made (to die for!) and it was time to go apple bobbing at the clubhouse across the street. Neither of the boys had done it before and it was a great success!

Strategizing

Good work Colin!

Success!!

And these great looking Jack O'Lanterns greeted them when they returned home!

Ryan's

and Colin's that he cut out all by himself--all Grandpa did was hold it!

Bath time, a couple of stories and time for bed. Another big day tomorrow! And the old folks fell into bed shortly after!

Back to Oahu and Cookie Making for Halloween Parties

It was a leisurely morning as we just had to finish packing and clean up a little and then head to the airport. Had lunch at Costco when we made a gas stop and then turned in the car and headed in to wait for our Hawaiian Airlines flight. We were a little early and they didn't have much to do so they checked the weight on the carry on roller bag (26# limit)....too much so there was a switch to luggage of some stuffing for the big lens to the checked in luggage. First time that has happened and I'm sure wouldn't have happened if it had been busy. Easy 30 minute flight and Jill and the boys came to pick us up. Then 5 minutes to the house and it was cookie time! Needed to make Halloween cookies for the parties tomorrow. Jill had a new sugar cookie recipe that worked GREAT! Everyone had a fun time.

Ryan really got into this project!

A little assistance frosting the quality control sample.

I think this ghost needs a little more frosting.

The end product was great with plenty of pumpkins for classes and lots of quality control samples devoured. Did some last minute costume adjustments, Jill filled goodie bags for Ryan's class and we were ready for tomorrow.

Waimea Canyon, snorkeling at Tunnels & Twilight at the lighthouse.

Up extra early this morning to miss the traffic going to Waimea Canyon on the other side of the island. It was raining when we left and we were heading to "the wettest place on earth" at Pu'u o Kila Lookout at the end of Waimea Canyon Drive. Everyone said go early and you'll have a better chance of no clouds. So on we drove....it was the other side of the Island, even if it is only 7 miles from Ha'ena as the crow flies (at the end of the north shore road--10 miles from Princeville) . We had short showers a good part of the way, but it brightened up as we got to Waimea where we turned up the Canyon Drive. Our first stop was this waterfall.Then on to bigger and better sights. We headed up to the very last stop and went to the viewpoint with umbrellas in hand and arrived in the clouds with nothing to be seen. But, we waited for awhile and sure enough the clouds moved on and we got a beautiful view of the Kalalau Valley, the largest valley on the Na Pali. You can get to the beach only by an 11 mile hike down from here.

The clouds would roll in and then clear again and the showers would come. Interesting and they were only light showers, though the wind turned the umbrellas inside out a few times :-). We headed down to the next viewpoint. The weather up here is so damp that it's a fern heaven right here at the top.

The next stop was the Kalalau Lookout where we saw the same valley, but a different view of it.

and great waterfalls in the distance...

and of course some flowers...

and the ever present rooster to cheer us on!

It's a beautiful Canyon with it's red and green contrasts!
Lots of great stops along the way back down to the shore.

Then we headed back to Princeville, changed clothes and back to Tunnels for some snorkeling. No seals today, but the fish were pretty nice. Must have been yellow day!

After a couple of hours we headed back to Princeville and cleaned up and headed to the Lighthouse to watch the Shearwaters come in. The Ranger had told us when we were there earlier in the week that the adults are out at sea fishing all day and return at dusk. He said it was really neat to see so we decided we'd better see it! We got there just before sunset with some pretty clouds and hundreds of red footed boobies flying in after their day out fishing.



Some precarious landings! Actually, they were fun to watch. They use those big feet as rudders as they are coming in. Sometimes hilarious. As it was getting dark and the stars were beginning to come out, the shearwaters began coming in. You could just see them, but they looked like huge bats flying in. They would come fairly close and then vere away. You could hear the babies calling as they were coming in. It's incredible that they can fly in from 50 or so miles out at sea and find the one branch on a tree in the pitch black! Actually a little spooky with all those "bats" flying around (it is almost Halloween!). It was a great time. We headed back and had the last of the leftovers and then headed to Princeville for ice cream....yum!! Did a little packing on the return and then hit the hay. Great day and back to Jill's tomorrow.

Na'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens & North Shore Beaches

What are all these clouds this morning! And rain! Well, they certainly need it around here and the showers are short and over almost before you can get the umbrella out so not so bad. We're off to the Na'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens and Sculpture Park this morning. Thanks to our Duke Gardens membership, we got free admission as well as a guided tour. Gotta Love it! The sculptures were wonderful and all throughout the gardens. You'd come around a corner and there would be another one.

The Paperboy.

The Classics

and lots of orchids growing on trees and in the gardens. They are in a severe drought now and have lost many of their plants in the past year as they have no water supply per se....they count on the rain. And, we are late in the year for a lot of the plants so while there were many trees in bloom, the majority of the color was coming from orchids and bromiliads.

and of course our favorites....the birds.

This was one of our favorite bronzes...picking apples. Two little kids on a horse and one standing up to pluck that apple from the tree.

and more orchids!

and into the Japanese Garden...

the Tea House and zig-zag bridge...

and the garden and sculpture behind the tea house.

It was a delightful 2 1/2 hour tour and the rain didn't begin until we drove out of the parking lot. Headed back to the room for lunch and a little rest and relaxation and then decided to head up the North Shore and visit the different beaches along the way.

Kahalahala Beach

Lumaha'i BeachBali Hi of South Pacific Fame

and this Monk Seal was waiting to greet us at Tunnels Beach.

We spent about an hour at Tunnels during which we had a couple of pretty good rain showers. Headed back to the condo for dinner and stopped it all mid stream when we looked out the window and decided to head down the road for sunset.

Very nice considering all the clouds!

Good night all. Hope you had a great day!