Carnival and Book Fair at Navy Hale Keiki School

Another busy day around here. It was up and off to school for the boys. John dropped Colin off and then headed to the playground with Ryan to kill the 30 minutes or so before he gets dropped off. He had a great time this morning.
On Thursdays Ryan wears his Thailand soccer outfit that he got from one of the Dad's who was visiting there. There are three of the boys in their class that have them. They're florescent yellow with their names on the back! He also has lunch at school on Thursday so he went armed with lunch. When John picked up Colin they stopped at a grocery store and picked up some diet Coke to do a volcano experiment we saw yesterday at the Museum. They got Ryan and came home and had lunch and then the science began!

You shake the bottle and then add 7 mentos candies to the bottle, insert the special device at the top and get ready to pull the string.
Pull the string and voila - instant volcano. Great unless the videographer happens to be in the line of fire :-) I may have to download the video again so you can get the full effect!



After the experiment and the driveway cleaning we watched a short movie before heading to school for the Book Fair and Carnival. We went a little early so got through the book fair before it got really crowded.


The boys loved the Carnival. They had all sorts of games set up for them to play...no charge for most but a donation asked. The funds were going to buy a Smartboard for Colin's class. Since we got there early, they were still doing setup so we passed the time with a refreshing shave ice...not quite the same as the North Shore ones, but Ryan certainly enjoyed it!
Colin did a great job on the slot board....as did Ryan when he followed him.

The Ring Toss was harder than it looked.

The highlight of the afternoon though was the Dunking Tank. Two of the teachers had volunteers to sit in the tank, Colin's teacher being one of them. This one they actually charged $1 for three balls to throw at the target. Alot of the kids nailed the target, but many were close and they let them go up and press it to drop the teacher into the water. It was hilarious and the lines were long all the time we were there!

Colin's shot was soo close....

but he dunked her anyway!

Ryan nailed his and down she went!

After a very fun couple of hours we headed home for a little more dinner....the hot dogs there didn't quite do the trick. As we were driving back home there was this beautiful rainbow.....a full one with the full spectrum of colors!


After dinner the boys all headed to the park across the street while Grandma put the finishing touches on dessert....

Strawberry Shortcake - Yum!

Time to hit the sack after a couple of stories.

Another very fun day....and tomorrow is Friday already! Where did this week go? Don't envy the snow Mom and Dad are getting in New Port! More adventures tomorrow!

The Swap Meet & Dinosaur Exhibit at Bishop Museum

We dropped the boys off at school this morning and then headed to the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium. It's a huge bargain sale of mostly Hawaii T-shirts, clothes, some food, wood products etc. There were a couple of items that we wanted to pick up on our last trip to Hawaii.
Booths like these go all around the stadium. It's very fun and a great place to get some super bargains. This vendor was selling a ukelales
We bought some Certified Plumeria plants from King Charles for the Museum of Life and Science Butterfly House. We were assured that we could get them into the US. They do have the USDA tag on them, so we should be fine.

Then home to drop stuff off and pick up our picnic lunch and then off to pick up the boys from school and then on our way to the Bishop Museum where they have the traveling Dinosaur Exhibit. We had our picnic lunch on the lawn while we watched two dinosaurs growling and swinging their tails nearby.
Then inside to the actual exhibit....very cool. There were brief descriptors and they all moved...quite realistic and of course there were full sound effects. There were short descriptors for each family of dinosaurs and each individual model.

They had a dig table where you could carefully excavate a dinosaur. Colin and Ryan spent a fair amount of time there.

Then off to the Volcano Building. They have this great simulated Volcano that you can make smoke and sputter.

Then home and Colin changed into his baseball clothes for practice and Savannah came over to play with Ryan. They played store and then ran across a tape measure....Ryan was the tallest!!!
Taco soup for dinner which everyone devoured and then bath time, some stories and then off to bed for all.

Tuesday

A little quieter day today. Everybody is a little worn out after the really busy weekend! The boys had school this morning and Grandpa picked them up and we had lunch on the porch at Ryan's request. Then just some fun playtime. Grandma worked on laundry and we had tortellini with macadamia nut pesto sauce - yum. It's so fun to work from somebody
else's refrigerator, freezer and pantry!

After dinner we all headed down to the basketball court. There were two other boys there so Colin and Ryan played ball with them for awhile. Then off to bath and bed.

Hawaii's Plantation Village

Colin and Ryan went to back to school today with smiles. They both had playdates after school so Grandma and Grandpa took advantage of the extra time and headed for the Hawaii's Plantation Village.
We got there about 45 minutes before the tour began so we headed into their very good Museum. Much of it was about the earliest Chinese and Japanese groups that came.
This was a display about the "Picture Brides" from China. When the workers first came, only the males came but when they weren't working they spent much of their time drinking and gambling. The owners encouraged them to bring brides and family over to settle things down.

Our guide, "Jo" arrived and our group took off. First stop was the flag display with each ethnic group represented.
Then through the time tunnel to the Sugar Cane Display.
A more complete history is at the end of this blog, but this Village is full of replicas of many of the different buildings that existed on the Oahu Sugar Plantation from the 1900's - 1930s.
Chinese Society Building (1909). The owners encouraged the groups to continue with their traditional lifestyle and customs. They thought this would help eliminate a lot of labor problems.

Shrine in the Society House

Chinese kitchen - baskets had been used as suitcases when they traveled to Hawaii.

Chinese pillows on bed. Each bed had a mosquito netting cover.

Tofu-Ya - The owners found that the Asians who ate Tofu as a staple were very hard workers. This was one of the foods they supplied for the workers. Workers made Tofu 24 hours a day.

The Portuguese were the next group to come beginning in the 1870's. They became famous for their wonderful breads and the company build special ovens for them. This was a typical Portuguese house.

Portuguese kitchen

The Japanese were the next group to come, also in the 1870's. By now they had begun building duplexes - a center wall and one three room house on the left and one on the right.

Japanese kitchen - item in middle of table was a saki
warmer invented by one of the workers.
Japanese bedroom

Japanese Living room

There were many more houses and buildings. It was very interesting. The last area we came to was the Company Store area. It had a medical clinic, Store, Camp Office and a Social/Union Hall.

Camp Store

After a great 2 hour tour we headed back home. We had lunch and caught up on laundry and picking up around here and then it was time to pick the boys up from their play dates. No homework tonight to it was off to the pool to burn off some more energy!
Then back home so Colin could get his baseball uniform on for practice. One of the Mom's down the street took him and we got to have one of her daughters, Savannah.
She and Ryan had a really good time! Grandpa got in a lot of reading time. Colin returned and we had a short playtime with the basketball hoop while dinner was cooking and then it was time for bed. Another great day at the Baird house!


Sugar Camp History.... Each different ethnic group that was brought to Hawaii to work in the sugar fields had their own Camp. The Hawaiian population was being ravaged by diseases brought by foreigners. The first successful sugar plantation in Hawaii got its start in Koloa, Kauai in 1835 with Chinese Immigrant groups. They signed a 3 year contract and lived in rough grass shacks. By 1885 the plantation was providing workers housing, some food, some medical care and a wage of $9 a month for men and $6 a month for women. The workers were paid using coupons or scrips which were redeemable for merchandise in the plantation store. Workers were not identified by their family name but were given shaped metal disks called "bangos" with numbers stamped on them for identification. Each ethnic group bango was a different shape and each individual had their own number. As sugar plantations expanded to other Islands because of the increased demand in America, the demand for cheap labor increased as well. Owners began looking to other countries. Portuguese from the Azores and Madeira Islands, Japanese, Peurto Ricans, Okinawans, Koreans and Filipinos were brought in. Each would have their own Camp and each group worked under a different wage scale and rate with the latest arrival being paid less.