Month: December 2007

Christmas at the County Building

Santa’s Gone Kauaian!

Leilani and one of her very best friends Raya

Frosty the Snowman … Down to the beach with a surfboard in his hand …

Leilani still doesn’t like Santa

Photo Opportunity!

Many ornaments were made by an old Kauaian lady, most from recycled materials, but there were some new ones this year such as the nutcracker…

And hula Santa:

The county building from the outside:

2nd Birthday Party!

Saturday Dec. 8th, the day after Leilani’s birthday, we had a big party. There were 15 kids, most of them between 2 and 3, and probably 30-35 adults. We knew ahead of time that the weather would not clear up enough to depend on an outdoor location, so we had it at our house, which worked out nicely – it was possible to go a little longer, and parents didn’t have to run after their children and were able to relax a little more.

Thank you all so much for the great gifts, Leilani loves them!

It was a lot of fun, all kids were well behaved and happy. I was amazed that our chrismas tree, and all ornaments stayed intact, and all the decorations I had put up with twine and scotch tape stayed up as well.

Leilani was a great hostess, and shared all her toys, even the new ones without any problems. The accidents were small and the tears dried quickly – Leilani and Elsa bumped into each other, and on the later pictures you can see Leilani’s bump next to her eye.

We let Leilani unwrap the presents as they came in, for the first 10 or so. I suppose it’s bad manners, but she doesn’t understand why they need to be put in one place and she can’t have them even though they are for her and it’s her party… She was so happy with her gifts, and played with them and wanted to wear some of her new clothes right away.

She was fascinated with the little ducks that light up.

I need to get a waiver for the trampoline and not let kids on if parents don’t sign…

With Daya:

Shoko, Viola and Daya:

Eat your beans, then you can have cake.

Leilani did not start on the icing until it was on her plate, but she kept waving the spoon around and made me nervous…

Andy says: We spent the night before making all the fish and turtles out of marzipan, which she made from scratch. Then she spent all morning baking the pound cake–there was so much of it that she made 3 tiers. The good thing about pound cake is that it supports its own weight.

Joy gave her an awesome present – a grocery store, which all of the children played with, even the older ones:

The girls then went into the bedroom and messed up our bed…

… and then they all went into the playpen.

Leilani was very happy that lots of kids forgot their party favors – she arranged the turtles into hugging pairs.

Happy Second Birthday!

We had so many birthday photos, I decided to make it 2 separate posts, these are from her actual birthday, and the morning of the next day, before the party.

Leilani went shopping with Andy while I finished up birthday party preparations and decorations. She liked her balloons (5 helium balloons reinflated) the best of all the shopping. She was exhausted afterwards and fell asleep in the car.

Grandma Rosemary gave her the great rocking horse that Leilani named “Kleiner Onkel” like Pippi’s horse.

Leilani loves to unwrap presents…

… and immediately plays with (or colors) what she finds.

And if the gifts are books they need to be read right away.

Leilani really liked the cake I baked and decorated for her. She has and amazing ability to not overeat on sweets, that makes me very happy.

Chrismas Tree

A few days before Leilani’s birthday party we finally got the Christmas decoration up. Leilani was happy to help.

Mikey is back!

We’ll take a better photo – hopefully. Amazingly enough the tree and all ornaments stayed intact through the big birthday party (16 kids).

Princesses and Ponies and Penguins too!

Following the lead of her older friends, Leilani has gotten into “princesses” (which consists mostly of dressing up and looking at Disney’s version of the fairy tales). I let Leilani pick out her birthday party decoration yesterday. I expected her to go for the princess – she loves Fairy Tales, and can listen to them forever. I can totally diffuse most tantrums by offering to tell her stories like Cinderella (Aschenputtel) or the Frog King, or Snow White. Her favorite dress up – besides Pippi Longstocking of course – is a princess dress with an emperor crown.

Leilani surprised me by deciding within a second or so – on the Little Pony. I asked if she was sure and she really was. The princess was kind of a folksy-cutesy princess, maybe Leilani didn’t recognize her as such, and there was not that much to choose from, but her determination surprised me as much as her choice. She tried to buy every piece they had with a little pony on it and we tried pretty hard to only but the stuff we needed (we won, except for 3$).

Afterwards I let her pick out her birthday dress herself from the “princess” dresses in the toy aisle. Leilani looked at the dresses, the one she was interested in was too big (but super-cute) – the other ones did not interest her. We were right next to the Barbie toys – I didn’t worry, she is way too young to be intrigued by Barbie, but – Barbie has a horse. It caught her eye, and she pointed it’s way. “No dress, the horsie.” “But Leilani, what will you wear at your party (Nemoshorts??)?” “The dress is to beeg. I want horsie.” The price was about the same. I bought her the horse.

Andy did not agree with “turning her loose in the store” and letting her make a choice of something totally different than what I had had in mind, but its her birthday, and remembering how much I loved horses as a girl – how could I refuse. Addition written after her birthday: When we finally gave her the horse on her birthday (one of 5 horses btw.) I was amazed to see that she really enjoyed it and she did all the girly things the horse is designed for – started with brushing mane and tail, putting leis and jewelry on… nobody ever showed her, she doesn’t watch commercials on TV, and I thought she was too young to figure this out on her own.

We went to Borders, wher Andy attended a book signing and I encouraged Leilani to pick out a gift that she wanted daddy to get her for her birthday. She has a book about a Penguin named Mumble, and likes it a lot, and recently realized that there also is a “Mumble Movie” (Happy Feet), when she saw it playing in a store. He got it for her and a horse sticker book and a purple pony too (now that’s my kind of shopping: while I buy a hiking book, Leilani picks out presents for herself that I totally agree with).