We Survived Another Year

 Well it's the end of 2021 and we successfully survived another year!  Where does the time keep going?!?!  It's hard to say if the pandemic makes it seem to go faster or slower.  It all depends on what you're referring to I guess.  

As far as the kids growing that seems to be happening at warp speed these days.  Esme makes it a well known fact that she has reached the 5 foot mark on the wall :)  She's now 10 years old and in the 5th grade and loving being back in the swing of things.  She really missed all the social activities at the beginning of the pandemic.  She continues with tennis, seasonal soccer, and started swimming this year.  She's also going strong with Kumon and piano.  She had her second piano recital last month and did great despite being so shy and nervous to be in front of the group of parents.  

Chan is now 8 and in the 3rd grade. He never stops moving and keeping us on our toes.  He's become quite the little fisherman and has such a drive to keep going.  Luckily Allen is a good sport and they often spend entire days down by the water waiting for the next big catch.   Baseball started back up this fall and it's a whole different game now that the kids are pitching for themselves.  Chan also went back to judo which he really seems to enjoy in a different way.  He's also doing Kumon and piano and did great at the piano recital which was his first!  He didn't seem nervous at all :)

Poppy & Eve are 5 and finally started kindergarten this year.  So this is the one year that all the kids are at the same school.  Woohoo!  The girls are in separate kinder classes and thriving in their own ways.  They adjusted to school with no problem despite all the pandemic changes.   And they started back with gymnastics and finally seem ready.  We tried at 3 years old and they weren't comfortable enough yet.  Now they go out there onto the mat without any major meltdowns.  Phew!  They're also doing Kumon for reading and are waiting for another year or two to start piano like their big sibs.  

As for Allen and I, we're just busy keeping up with all of the above.  Ha ha!  Happy Holidays everyone!

One Step Closer

 Our kids finally got vaccinated!  Woohoo!  We'd been waiting for this day for soooooooooooo long and it feels so much better now.  We got them signed up as soon as possible so that they're fully vaccinated before we travel over the holidays.  We'd been talking about it for awhile so they were as prepared as they could be.  Eve and Esme were champs and took them with straight faces.  Chan was nervous which I'd expect from him and I think Poppy was taking after him.  But the first one is done and I have a feeling they'll both be much better for the second.  

They were a little stoic right afterwards.  

But they livened up by the time we got some boba tea and got home :)

Halloween has also come and gone.  We didn't know what we were doing till the last minute so we were digging through all of our costume drawers to put things together.  And they all had so much fun doing something so normal again.  Though I'm not even sure Poppy and Eve remember the last time they went...

I couldn't nail this one down to take a picture with the girls.

Eve is taking off with reading and it's so cute to see her read to Poppy.  I found them like this one day in the playroom.

And then bright and early one Saturday morning I found them like this - playing Sleeping Queens in the driveway.  Silly kids!

Oh yeah we also celebrated our 12th anniversary.  Dinner out on a Sunday didn't sound appealing this year so we opted for breakfast out with the whole family.  And it was a hit since we never do that :)  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day!

Chan and Esme had their first piano recital and both did awesome.  They had to memorize 2 songs each to play in front of a small audience.  They were both nervous but you couldn't tell.  They pulled it off well.  

And Chan continues to be our busy fisherman.  He's hooked!  Whenever there's a free moment he's always asking to go fishing.  He recently borrowed all of the local fishing books from the library and can't stop reading them.

Fall Break Has Come and Gone

The kids had fall break last week and it just flew by.  All four of them attended Imiloa Astronomy Center's fall break camp which kept them busy and they all enjoyed.  And it felt more like "home" than our regular school to go back there for the week which was nice.  

School pics 2021-2022 school year

I can't remember if I mentioned that the twins started gymnastics.  Just as fall sports started ramping up we found another activity to fill our days!  They just go once a week and they really look forward to it.  And now that restrictions are loosening in our community the the big kids are starting to have games too.  Esme now has weekend soccer games and Chan starts baseball games next week.  Spectators still aren't allowed but we're just happy the kids are getting to play.  

And when the kids aren't out and about they love being home and playing with the cats.  Oscar and Toby are getting to be best buds and soooooooooooo loved by the kiddos.  They're enjoying cats so much that they even want to go and watch shows about cats these days!

Cat Fest at the Palace Theater

Best buddies, Oscar and Toby

  

Happy Fall!

Fall is upon us and our schedule has filled up with all the fall sports - soccer and baseball on top of year round tennis and swimming.  Allen is still coaching Esme's team despite all the COVID restrictions and she's happy to be around her soccer friends again.  This is Chan's first year of kid-pitch baseball so it'll be interesting for sure.  He's just excited to be back on the field too.  We're still waiting for openings at gymnastics so the twins can start back there.  With our recent COVID spike though it might be awhile.  At least they have each other!

Other than that we've been keeping busy with lots of outdoor activities like usual.  Chan is still obsessed with fishing.  He could do that all day every day which is amazing considering what a busy kid he is.  

We had to take Poppy to Oahu recently for an eye appointment and while we were there for the day we stopped by to see the Beyond Van Gogh exhibit.  I'm so glad we went because it was shut down the next week due to our rising COVID cases!  I didn't know how she'd do at the exhibit since she's not the most patient kid but she made it through and enjoyed the end of the exhibit the most.  

The kids used to go to the farmers market with me in the morning but now I make them wait in the car instead of exposing them to more people.  This was Eve hiding from me one morning.  And don't worry, the garbage bag is filled with clothes ;)

We did have a visit from cousin Kai and Googoo all the way from New Jersey recently!  It was so fun to have all the Shih cousins together!

School is still going well.  Thank goodness for uniforms in the morning.  Getting dressed goes so much faster!  The kids are loving the bus still too which works out great for everyone.  They play all sorts of games in the driveway when they wait for the bus in the morning.  

And other than that we're just enjoying our lovely island as much as we can to keep busy and safe!

Oh and we got a new cat!  We thought he could be a friend for Toby but it's taking him awhile to warm up to Oscar.  So we're waiting for now.  We adopted him from a shelter, he's about 8 months old and he came with the name Oscar.  The kids didn't want to rename him so Oscar it is!  He's got the cutest little white paws and a gray coat.  I'll get more pics later

Back To (One) School

 And just like that the kids are back to school!  Time sure flies!  We've been looking forward to this year for awhile as it's the one year that all the kids are at one school!  Woohoo!  Kinder for the twins, 3rd for Chan and 5th for Esme.  One pick up and one drop off!  Well that's what we originally thought but then the school traffic was horrendous with all the staggering schedules so we ended up signing all the kids up for the bus which has been a lifesaver.  No more fighting in the car in traffic on the way to school.  Ha ha!  

Amazingly all the kids transitioned to daily in person learning with no issues.  They're so excited to be back actually.  And the twins had no issues.  They were tired at the end of the day initially but we expected that.  The added COVID restrictions and rules may have had something to do with that too but regardless, they're handling just fine.  

Before summer was over we had one last get together with all the cousins in one place!  A dozen cousins!

We celebrated the last day of Imiloa and preschool with the kids current favorite treat - boba!

Then a few days later we celebrated the first day of school!  Usually we take a picture outside but it was raining on the first day which didn't help the traffic.

And this was another rainy day waiting for the bus.  I should remember to get a picture outside on a nice day for comparison to previous and future pics.

On the weekends we fit in some beach time to unwind.

The twins love climbing the keawe trees.

Summer In Seattle

 Well it seems like it just started and now it's almost over!  We're on a modified year round school year in Hawaii so our summers are only 2 months long.  They go by quickly!  We just got back from almost 3 weeks in Seattle and had so much fun.  I meant to update the blog before we left but ooops, I didn't get to that.  So here it is but I'll have to attach more later.  The kids haven't travelled in so long that they were just as excited about the actual plane rides and the airports because of the escalators, bright lights and billboards, play areas, etc.

And we're off!  I'm not really sure what Chan was grumpy about in this pic.  He gets super anxious with new stuff so this was a big day for him.

We couldn't decide which seating arrangement was the best for us and in the end we chose 3 and 3 in the middle of the plane.  Next time we might try the 2, 2, and 2 on the window side.

We told the kids they had to double mask on the plane and they all had their own combinations of what that could look like.

Poppy got the most creative with the double masking.  Ha ha!

The kids loved the courtyards in the HNL airport!  We had them run around a ton before sitting for the long mainland flight.

Eve was trying to hide from the light sprinkle of rain.

So excited for vacay!

Too cool for school!

We have a habit of taking these pics in airports.  Allen was exercising the kids while mommy was resting during this one ;)