Weekend Recap: Hula Show, Angela's Birthday, and a Golfcart Ride

Our last couple of weeks on Kwaj are flying by, and last weekend was no exception! I seriously can't believe that we only have two weeks left on Kwaj! EEKKK! We have so much going on, but we are doing our best to soak up all we can of Kwaj before we make our way back to Texas!

Our weekend started on Saturday night with the much anticipated Hula Show. We had been practicing since FEBRUARY, people!! The show was supposed to be in late April, but it got postponed, and the level of anticipation and performance anxiety has been building up ever since! We practiced every night last week, and by the time Saturday rolled around I was a nervous wreck! Johnathon flew home from Roi early so that I could get myself ready, and I may have taken advantage of the extra help by helping myself to a vodka soda! The dancers got to the MP room an hour or so before hand so we could get our lava lava's (hula skirts) tied, and take pictures before show time! Here are the ladies and I before the show!

Amy, Cher, Me, Chamee, Angela, Jenny, and Jane! All my favorite ladies and I before the Hula Show!

We had some time to kill before the show, and our nerves started getting the best of us, so we made sure that we were well "hydrated" before the show began!!

Excuse the plastic bag...the water bottle was leaking, and we were trying to stay tidy...and classy...

We also tried on different headdress pieces...Angela fought a losing battle with her flower crown...

Darn twigs!!!!

And I got this cute pic of Cher with her daughter Meredith who was also in the show...

After all our pre-show shenanigans, I am happy to report that the actual show went really well! There were no major screwups, and we all had a lot of fun! Johnathon took some video, although Hadley was being a little non-compliant so he only got bits and pieces of the dances! I will try to get those uploaded ASAP! I stayed after for the big potluck dinner, and J took Hadley home since the show ended way past her bedtime. Huge shout out to the hubs for coming home early from work and taking care of Hadley so that I could get ready and focus on the show! Taking a 15month old to a dance recital that was past her bedtime and lasted for over an hour is no easy thing to do, but Johnathon did it, and rocked it! Thanks love!

The next day was Sunday, and we celebrated Angela's birthday with a cookout at the beach! I took approximately zero pictures because Johnathon and I were chasing Hadley EVERYWHERE. That girl has officially reached toddler hood, and the days of being held or sitting in one spot for longer than two minutes are long gone. She was walked all over the beach, greeted people, and even started begging for food until we got her her very own plate of cheese cubes. Then she was a happy camper! It was kind of ridiculous, although I too get cranky when there is cheese to be had, and I don't have a plate of it immediately in front of me so...no judgement there.

Monday was more cleaning, and organizing for Johnathon and I, and Hadley did a lot of this...

Then we finished up the evening by going on a little golf cart adventure. It's been awhile since we rented a golf cart and just drove around the island, so we decided to make a little night of it. We drove the golf cart to the finest restaurants Kwaj has to offer (Subway and Anthony's Pizza), and got ourselves some dinner before heading out in the golf cart!

Don't let Hadster's face fool you, she inhaled her pizza!!

After our dinner of champions we loaded into the cart and drove out to the golf course, where we checked out the Country Club and the putting green!

The putting green and Country Club

Looking out at the first hole

Hadley was desperately trying to figure out how to pick up all three balls at one time...

...no such luck

After the golf course, we headed out to North Point at the other end of the island to watch the sunset...

The best selfie we could get!

God gave us another gorgeous sunset

 

We even saw a little baby black tip shark chasing fish around the lagoon

We were about to pack it up and head home, but Hadley was loving the sunset and breeze and was giving us all kinds of great photo-ops, so we took advantage!

She saw a dog walking by...

and she LOVED IT!

 

Every good model needs a break

It was another fun weekend out here in paradise, and I'm glad that even though we are leaving soon, we are still doing our best to make the most of our time out here!

Friday Favorites

Oh, TGIF! This has been a busy, busy week of packing, selling, and trying to get organized for our big move back to the states! It's such an exciting time, but it is also incredibly stressful! We are making good progress though, and thankfully it looks like Johnathon won't be going to Honolulu for knee surgery next week, which really takes that extra level of craziness off of our whole situation! Since it's Friday, and we are going to be taking a break from all our packing this weekend to celebrate our friend Angela's birthday, and I get to perform in our long anticipated Hula show!! EEEEKKK I'M NERVOUS! But more on that in a bit, because it's time for me to link up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci for some Friday Favorites!

ONE

I never got around to recapping my Mother's Day, and I couldn't not share the sweet photo collage Johnathon made me for Mother's Day! I may or may not have casually reminded Johnathon that there wasn't a lot of fanfare surrounding Mother's Day in our house last year because...as he so earnestly told me..."But you're not my mom??!" Well, I gently informed him that I was Hadley's mom, and Mother's Day now applies to me too! :) I am happy to report that Mother's Day was celebrated with enthusiasm this year, and my day started off with a sweet card from Johnathon/Hadley and this awesome picture collage was waiting for me on the table! We spent that afternoon packing, but finished off the day with me putting my feet up while Johnathon made me this awesome Orange Chicken recipe that tasted just like Panda Express! (Don't judge...we don't have fast food here, and it's what I was craving!) A thoughtful gift to remind me of Hadley, and a day were I didn't have to cook is a perfect Mother's Day in my book!

TWO

Cecil & Lou Hot Pink Embroidered "Fiesta" dress

About five minutes after I found out that we were moving back to Texas, I set out to find Hadley a fiesta/Mexican mumu dress to wear when it is super hot this summer! Fortunately, last week was Cinco de Mayo so I had several options to pick from. I ended up going with this dress from Cecil & Lou and I can't wait for Hadley to rock this all summer long! 

THREE

I was so excited about moving back to Texas, that I spent the first weekend packing with a level of enthusiasm and intensity the likes of which my husband and most of the human race has never seen. I felt like if I could get everything packed right away then somehow that would get us home faster. Then I started getting to all the little crap that you have no idea what to do with, where it came from, or whether it has some sort of sentimental value to it or is worthless junk. That's pretty much where I'm at right now, and I still have more to go! So for now let me leave you with some e-cards that pretty much sum up my feelings on moving and packing...

THREE

Even though I am so excited to be moving back to Texas, I am really trying to soak up these last couple of weeks in our little island paradise, and to not take any of it for granted. Johnathon had to take a helicopter to work the other week, and took some really cool pictures of the islands in our atoll! It will be hard to ever find a place as naturally pretty as this...

  

FOUR

PB teen- Emily and Merritt bed of roses duvet cover

To say I am excited to find a house and start nesting would be a huge understatement. I have been waiting for this for so long, and I'm so excited to find our home and settle down! I have a pretty good idea of how I want our new house to look, but obviously I'm waiting to pick out specifics until we find a house, and I get to know the space. I have one room, however, that I can picture perfectly in my mind, and that is Hadley's room. I can see the exact color scheme, bedding...everything and I can't wait to get to decorating!  

Land of Nod Black Stripe Teepee

   

I Am His sign- House of Belonging

FIVE

Tomorrow is our big hula show that we have been preparing and practicing for MONTHS for!!! I am so excited, but the build up to this show has been so intense that I am starting to get super nervous! I'm also right in the front, and have this weird complex about what my face looks like when I dance! I'm worried I'm going to be focusing too much on toning down my axe murderer smile that I do when I get nervous, and not enough on my dance moves! I'm just ready for the show to be done and behind me! Wish me luck! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!! xoxo 

Show and Tell Tuesday: Pinterest Finds and Fails

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope y'all had a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend spent with people that you love! We had a great weekend that was made even better by Johnathon having a three day weekend! I even took a blogging break myself yesterday so I could enjoy having all my people under the same roof for a third day in a row!

Instead of a Tasty Tuesday recipe today, I am linking up with Andrea over at Momfessionals for Show and Tell Tuesday. Today we are sharing Pinterest finds and fails! 

I'll be honest, I have a real love/hate relationship with Pinterest. On one hand, it has given me countless clothing, home decorating, party, and child craft ideas that I would never have come up with on my own! The flip side is that it can definitely give you a complex when you try and recreate a Pinterest pin and it turns out not at all like it's supposed to. Also, I feel like it may be giving me unrealistic dreams for my future home. However, I like to remind myself that Pinterest is inspiration that you can take and apply to your own life, expertise, budget, space, closet, etc. and isn't always meant to be an apples to apples comparison.

With that said, I feel like most things that I "pin" these days are all home related. Johnathon and I lived in a rental home in the DFW area before we moved to Kwaj. Because we knew we would be moving to Kwaj, we didn't really put much effort into making the space our own. And speaking of Kwaj...all the houses on Kwaj are pretty much the same, and leave a lot to be desired in the "homey" feeling department. Seriously...our walls are cinder block. Our floors: vinyl tile. Jealous? Whenever we move back to the states, buying a home will be the first big item on our to do list, and needless to say I have had PLENTY of time to figure out what style I would like in my future home. I can't wait to have a home that we can truly decorate how we want and invest time into.

Here are my top pins for things I would like in my future home:

1) GAS LATERNS

A walkup front porch with a gas latern...LOVE!

A hobby obsession of mine is pretend house hunting on Zillow. I know we aren't buying a home right this second, or even next month, but I seriously love just looking at homes out there, going through the pictures, and deciding what I would change to fit our particular design aesthetic. If only I had a dollar for every time I've told Johnathon, "I LOVE the front of this house....the only thing I would do is add gas lights!" I just love the look of dark gas lights against a white house. Plus I think the way gas lanterns flicker makes the front of a house look really inviting and cozy. 

2) IVORY AND BLACK KITCHEN

 

I kind of feel like I'm cheating on my white cabinet/grey counter top combination, but if I could do one dream kitchen, one way it would be ivory/cream cabinets, with neutral/beige counter tops and black drawer pulls. It just looks a littler warmer and more inviting to me than the white/grey kitchens that you see so much these days, and I like that it is a little different take on a lighter kitchen!

3) OPEN CONCEPT KITCHEN/LIVING ROOM

Gaslights and an open floor plan...yes please!

Why this isn't how all houses are laid out is beyond me?! I've always wanted a kitchen that looks directly into the living room. We spend so much time as a family in both locations, and I want to be able to see and talk with everyone while I cook! Also, I apparently really have a thing for 1 big island that lots of people can sit at, as well as neutral tone living areas! If loving neutral color palettes is wrong, I don't want to be right!

4) WIDE PLANK WOOD FLOORS

I just think these are a nice twist to traditional wood floors. They really bring a rustic, warm feeling to a home that I just love! 

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that my dream home may or may not be a cross between a Pottery Barn catalog and a La Madeline restaurant. Not sorry.

 

Besides home inspirations, I'm also starting to really use Pinterest to find activities for Hadley. Hadley just turned one this month, and I feel like she is finally getting to a age where I can begin to do "learning crafts/activities" with her outside of playing with her everyday toys.  I found this website off of Pinterest that had lots of great activities for one year olds, and toddlers a like! I can't wait to try these with Hadley:

1) Clipping Toy: Hadley loves the clip on our dog's collar and on her stroller, and I feel like this would really work her gross motor skills and keep her engaged for a LONG time.

 

 2) STICKY PAPER: Hadley loves the feeling of different textures so I think this is right up her alley! Plus, she really likes examining leaves and grass, but always ends up putting them in her mouth! Putting the leaves on sticky paper would totally allow her to check out the leaves without the culinary finish she so often seeks!

3) EDIBLE FINGER PAINT: As mentioned above, pretty much everything these days goes in Hadley's mouth, so this would be a great way to get our arts and crafts on without having to constantly be pulling her fingers out of her mouth!

Finally...it wouldn't be a true Pinterest post without sharing a recent Pinterest fail with you all. Let's set the scene shall we?! Hadley's first birthday...Kwajalein has a bakery, but it is nothing to write home about. Sarah and Lindsey (who were the co-hosts of the joint birthday) and I decided we would dream big and make the smash cakes ourselves. How hard could it be?! I know a woman on island who makes fancy cakes with the icing roses on top, and she was nice enough to lend me her piping tip to make said fancy, rose icing. We decided to go with a pink, ombre cake like so:

I'm going to go ahead and say that mistake number one was icing this cake after we had one or two cocktails during our party set up the night before the big day. We decided that it would take too long to mix four different colors of pink icing so we nixed the ombre idea and just went for a pink rose cake. Fine. The second problem came when I cut out two circular sections from a rectangular cake I had baked the day before. I didn't have the right sized round pan to bake the correct size and shape cake that I wanted, so I figured I could just cut out the size and portion that I needed. Result...the cake was lopsided. "No worries...I'll just correct it with icing!" I thought. Ah, the icing...

For reasons unknown the icing roses, when piped onto the sides of the COOLED cake, did not want to stick and began sliding down and off the cake. (I even started from the bottom)! Sarah and I both got so frustrated that we just abandoned all original dreams of icing roses, and just spread some Pepto-Bismol pink icing across the cake, threw some sprinkles on for good measure, and called it good! I was still slightly ticked off that the icing had the nerve to slide off MY cake, so I did my best to still put roses on the top of the cake, but the result looked more like wads of chewed bubble gum than actual flowers:

Mine would be that lopsided wonder in the back! ;)

Hadley's cake in all it's glory!

 And just in case there are some more visual readers out there, that prefer a side by side comparison...

#nailedit

 Your welcome.

I'm not gonna lie...my failings in the cake department got me down for a hot second. I would love to be that mom that got the pink, ombre rose cake right on the first try. Instead I'm the mom dying laughing at how truly terrible Hadley's cake turned out. And since she's my daughter...I can only hope she will look back on this blog someday and laugh right along with me! I could let my Pinterest fail get the better of me, but watching this little face enjoy the heck out of her lopsided, Pepto-Bismol cake was all the affirmation I needed...

So if you have a Pinterest fail that's getting you down, never fear...I promise there is at least one fail that is even worse better than yours! :) Happy Tuesday friends! xoxo