Happy 6th Birthday, Ma-lak!!

Wow, another birthday! (One more June birthday to go next week, and then a small break!!) Ma-lak had a super fun day with his brother and sisters, and after eating a bunch of green cake, I had FOUR little hulks running around!

Hard to believe that 6 years ago this very tall and animated little boy was a tiny little 5# 2 oz. bundle of joy!! He was actually 4# 11 oz when we brought him home! We are SO blessed by you, Ma-lak, and we delight in watching you grow and learn and become more and more of who God created you to be! Happy Birthday!!

Here's a small but entertaining excerpt from a conversation Ma-lak and Rea had recently: (please note their ever-evolving vocabularies...)

REA: Hey, Ma-lak! Look outside!

MA-LAK: I don't WANT to look outside, Rea!

REA: But Ma-lak, I WANT you to look outside! I have to show you something!!!

MA-LAK: Rea! Stop talking! You're too loud! I don't want to hear your voice!

REA: I'm not too loud, besides, it's not my voice you're hearing. It's the sound waves. (WHAT!?!?!)

MA-LAK: I do TOO hear your voice! STOP TALKING!!! You're not listening to me!! Instead, you're being a scatter-brain! That's what it's called when you DON'T LISTEN!!!

REA: Oh, Ma-lak, you're so silly! I LOVE YOU!!!

MA-LAK: I love you, too, Rea.

MOMMY: I need a vacation!!!!

Bumble Bee vs. Red Hulk

Marvel Comics and the Transformers have invaded our home!! OK, I guess they were sort of invited in... I did start to question my sanity and choice of purchases after about an hour of little people screaming "Hulk Smash!!" and "Hey, stop beating up Barbie!!"

Happy Birthday, Rea Sunshine!

My little baby girl turned 5 years old yesterday!!! How did that happen so fast?!?! Kindergarten this fall, then college, then grandchildren.... (sigh) I dare not blink, wouldn't want to miss anything!

So, my Little Ray of Sunshine had to have a special cake. Perhaps next time I'll plan a little better and make it BEFORE I'm working the whole weekend while doing a garage sale, but I digress... All was going pretty well till the top layer started to slide, and slide some more, and then finally it earthquaked itself right down the middle. It was looking pretty cute till then, but it still tasted good! And in Rea's words, "It was a fun special birthday!" so that's all that mattered!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl! How you light up the room with your bright, sun-shiney face! I pray that the light within you always shines so brightly for Him! God bless you with countless more birthdays to come!

More Birthday Pictures

In keeping with the Smith Family birthday tradition, the birthday girl (or boy) gets to chose what they want for dinner that night. And Rea's request??? "I want a Fillet O' Fish sandwich from McDonalds!" Well, they are pretty tasty.... But the sad thing is that I brought home "hot cakes and sausage" from McDonald's after work that MORNING for a tasty birthday breakfast treat! Oh well, it's her birthday, right?!?! (So we had salad and vegetables twice today to make up for it!) :)

Rea got a scuba diving Barbie with dolphin friends, in honor of our up-coming family vacation in two weeks (and her daddy's love for diving!) Apparently Barbie's making the trip with us now.

Garage Sale/Fundraiser SUCCESS!

Wow, garage sales are alot of work! HOWEVER.... After having SEVERAL of them, I'm happy to say I have the logistics of it all down to a science!

So yesterday was the community garage sale here in our subdivision, which was WAAAYY awesome as far as getting alot of people here! We were advertised, and there were 30 houses having sales, so we all gave out lists of each others' addresses to help each other out! I sold almost EVERYTHING in less than 4 hours!!!! I was extra happy about this, b/c I used my garage sale/bake sale as a fundraiser for the AVON Walk, which is coming up July 11-12. (I made 5 dozen molasses cookies, brownies, and banana bread!)

Rea, as it turns out, is quite the savvy cashier/sales woman. I may have created a tiny garage sale monster... I heard her telling Daddy that "garage sales are sooo fun b/c it's like going to a store at someone's house and shopping all day!" (sigh) Oh, dear... Her only goal all day was to make sure she sold her pink snow globe, and sure enough - she found a ready customer!

So, after all was said and done, we raised almost $200 for the AVON Walk, and look forward to raising more as the month progresses! Thanks so much to all who contributed and participated! See you next year!

www.avonwalk.org

Ma-lak is Ready for First Grade!!

Wow, I can't believe how fast this year has gone! Ma-lak graduated from Kindergarten on Wednesday, May 27th!! We're so proud of you, Ma-lak!

He has come such a long way - a few years ago we put him in a special preschool program to help him with his speech and language processing. And now, at the end of his Kindergarten year, he has scored at the top of his class and is reading at a Third grade level in fluidity, and a Second grade level overall! Thank you, Mrs. Corwin for your patience and for your passion and love for your students!

You're doing great, Ma-lak! Keep up the good work!

The Graduation Ceremony!

The pictures turned out a little dark, and unfortunately the one of him receiving his diploma from his teacher, Mrs. Corwin, is blurry! :( It was such a fun program, they sang lots of songs, and each of the teachers spoke about what special students they had and what a great year it had been. Good job, Ma-lak!!

Swimsuit Season Begins!!

After another heat wave last weekend, we decided it was time to bust out the swim suits, water hose, and popsicles! Can't wait till the pool opens, but flooding the backyard is a satisfactory compromise!

The Alapa Ohana Lu-au!!

About 6 1/2 years ago on a cold and rainy December day, our small but rapidly growing family moved from a tiny apartment to the home where we live now. This whirlwind move came on the heels of losing one of our children, finding out we were pregnant with another, raising a teenager, and balancing all this with being newlyweds, working a stressful job at the hospital, and most importantly giving our hearts to the ministry.

A very dear friend from work, Blythe and her husband Cliff, dropped everything that day to come help us. We were still very new to the area and didn't know many people that well, and they spent the day with us, loading, moving, cleaning, and just loving us in our time of grief. We will never forget their selfless love and kindness to us, and we are so grateful for their friendship!

So we were delighted to be invited to their family Lu-au! In true Hawaiian tradition (Cliff is Hawaiian) they have a huge celebration in honor of the first birthday of each of their children! Their son, Keoni turns 1 year old this month! It was almost like a wedding reception! The food was delicious (except for this gooey pudding stuff called poi - ooooh!) and they had music, fun activities for the children, and their daughters Ena and Jasmine did a hula dance.

Blessings to you, Alapa Family! Thank you for including us in such a special occasion, and may God continue to bless you!

More Lu-au Pictures!

I didn't realize how much the "tree-climbers" my children were, I guess b/c we don't have many trees around here for them to climb. But they proved that they do indeed have some of their mama's inner hillbilly in them! They were truly in their element!