Starting our last week here in Hawaii...

...and making the second trip to drop some people off at the airport for their flights home. Weather wise this past week has been an adventure in itself. Rain showers, Thunderstorms, Flash Floods, all have been making things interesting and a bit soggy...

At the beginning of this week we picked up Adam's friend Brandon. We took Brandon for a late breakfast at Eggberts Restaurant. Gracie had the famous banana pancakes, which were phenomenal. Adam & Auntie Michelle arrived the next day. The boys were off to have fun together and us girls decided to go get pedicures together.

Martin & I had our first couple's night out together at the famed "Beach House" which supposedly has the best sunset view on the island. The food was pretty good too, and funnily the waiter we had was from Seattle originally.

We explored many new beaches, the boys hoping to find some amazing boogie boarding and the girls looking for beautiful sand and easy swimming.

The boys wanted to go hiking and since I really wanted to see a waterfall I decided to tag along. Grace also wanted to come. We headed out fairly early to hit the famed "Kalalau Trail". The day seemed perfect for a hike and we set out on the 8 mile round trip. About 3/4 mile into it the heavens opened up and it started down pouring. The trail turned to mud and we plodded on. Numerous people passed us on their way downhill with advice to turn back. We kept going to the 2 mile mark and then decided the trail got too steep to continue to the waterfall part of the trail. Both Adam & Brandon ran up ahead and made it all the way to the 4 mile mark at the waterfall. We stopped at the beach and by the time we were 3/4 of the way back the two boys overtook us and beat us back to the beach where Michelle was waiting for us.

One of our last days was spent going back to probably our favorite, Secret Beach. Gracie had so much fun there this time. Our first trip there the surf was very rough and the waves were high. When we tried to find the famed lava pools described in our handy dandy guide book "The Ultimate Guide to Kauai" we struck out. This time surf was way down and lo and behold there was the most awesome pools just around the corner. This is where our little daredevil spent the day frolicking in the water...(video to follow!)

Heading out to Hawaii

Sunday we are going to leave for Kauai for a much deserved family vacation. So I thought I would get a head start on my blog post for this week. I've been stressing about packing, getting everything done last minute and not forgetting a thing...I think I've hit the point where I realized something's gotta give...not sure what it'll be yet...

Sunday Morning last week we met Verena & Chris at the Rusty Wagon for breakfast. This is Gracie's favorite food there, the kids pancake face...

On Tuesday I headed into Lynden to shop at the Second Chance Thrift store. I ran into Julie & Alissa, who are usually there on Tuesday mornings as well...I even found some smoking deals. It just happened to be Hawaiian theme and very appropriate for us. I snatched up a rash guard for Grace that I had been putting off buying since they run over $25 on the Internet.

Thursday Grace had her final swim lesson for the Eel program at the Bellingham YMCA. At first I wasn't sure if she would complete the program but about 3 to 4 lessons into it she got the hang of things. She is now way more confident in the water and I feel better about her swimming in Hawaii. For their last lesson they played a lot of games and even got to sit in the kayak and ride around the big pool.

Gracie & I spent some time on Friday making valentine's for her classmates & teacher since we won't be there for the party they will be having in Kindergarten. So we punched, glued, wrote, and taped them together. I think they turned out pretty cute. Hope they will like them as well...

Now it's time to start packing for Hawaii...no time to get excited yet. My to do list is waaaaay too long...

Ever Had an Oatmeal Sundae?

Me neither. But apparently it's a hit with the younger crowd. My daughter is normally not a picky eater but oatmeal is not really her thing. So the other week, (the Monday we got snowed in a week ago, actually!) I decided to give this a try. I had read on some ladies blog about trying to add sprinkles to food and just being creative and calling it fancy names. So I thought let's see if it works...

Well, I can report SUCCESS! Not only did Miss Grace eat her whole bowl of oatmeal and fresh fruit, but she also asked for the same thing for dinner, and breakfast the next morning. ;)

Here is the secret to my success. I used the following ingredients:

Then we put one of the waffle bowls into a glass bowl, stirred up the instant fruit oatmeal (we used Strawberries & Cream to go with the fresh strawberries.). Sliced up some fresh berries and added them to the bottom of the waffle bowl, added the oatmeal, garnished it with a whole berry and for our finishing piece de resistance we sprinkled it with Valentines day Sprinkles. (Thank You Michaels, probably the best fifty cents I have spent lately, grabbing these puppies after they put their Valentines stuff on SALE at 75% off.)

Anyway, here is the end result, and let me tell you, I had one impressed Toddler. She couldn't get over the fact that the whole thing was for her, and her alone...

She polished it off in a few bites and then showed me how full her tummy was. Well I was one happy Momma that morning, I've been racking my brain for ways to keep her from eating "Lucky Charms" every day. And I can't cook Snowman Pancakes every other morning either...so here is a go to breakfast we'll be serving more often at our house. As a matter of fact it seems to be a crowd pleaser with the banana cream oatmeal and fresh banana slices. Yeah for Quaker Oatmeal and Fresh Fruit. Mom's everywhere rejoice...