em jay & me: observances and occasions

Showing posts with label observances and occasions. Show all posts

Sunday, April 24, 2011

EASTER! and a eco-kids egg dye review

This year Em Jay loved dyeing eggs. She had so much fun-- and sat for over an hour coloring her eggs.

Who's having more fun...Em, or Daddy?

Em discovered that if you paint eggs with tempera paint, then dip them in the dye it makes a very pretty marbled look.

This year, along with our regular old dudley egg dye. I decided to try natural egg dyes from eco-kids -- eco-eggs.

The dye powders come in cute little containers. Just pour the powder in a cup, add water, and mix. I absolutely LOVED these dyes. The colors are beautiful, and they are really easy to use.

Also see the first photo in this post (all the way at the top) for an example of the blue. The entire two left-side columns of eggs in the photo were made with the eco-kids dyes.

These were my prized ones. I loved the monochromatic look.

Although they were a bit pricey for egg dye...I will definitely be purchasing the natural dyes again next year. I ordered mine from imagine childhood for about $15.99.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

RANDOM UPDATES

two weekends ago we celebrated my yakudoshi birthday singing karaoke at toma. the play list included...what's up (4 non-blondes), ice ice baby (vanilla ice), right stuff (new kids on the block) -- complete with the dance moves, and regulate (warren g) -- sung by marc!! I don't think he'll be too thrilled when he reads this and sees his photo of the performance below:

this past weekend we flew to maui to visit marc's family (mom, dad, brother, sister in law, niece, and nephews) and friends, and go to the maui county fair. it was a really good fair! I was very impressed. em jay rode the ferris wheel (she calls it ferry wheel) and big slide for the very first time and loved it.

we also ate at paia fish market for the first time. I had a chicken quesadilla and marc had the fish and chips...

we hung out with friends...

and had a fabulous time...

see em's perfect little teeth in the above photo. take a good look because it's the last time you'll see them that way...

today was quite possibly one of the worst in awhile. it started off with some frustrations at work which I won't get into because I really don't want to say negative things or details about such a great organization. but basically I cried / had a meltdown. and what kept me from leaving-- was the fact that if I don't work, marc and I will not afford our mortgage. we'd lose our house. and we really would not like to ask my parents (or his) to help us...so there. a good reason to stick it out. and of course on top of that, I teach accountability in the workplace. it's my responsibility to see what can be done before making any rash decisions like that. and at a deeper level, I really do believe in our agency and what we do. and frustrations happen at all workplaces no matter where you go...

then this evening, em is running around and playing with family friends and falls flat on her face... on the tile. she starts crying. I ran to pick her up and she said "my teeth!" I looked at her teeth and saw it. a HUGE chip on her front tooth. and a small chip on the other. I, who am usually a very calm person. freaked! partly because I have a thing about teeth. I have nightmares about loose, or falling out teeth. partly because I had a particularly bad day, and partly because I couldn't stand to see her crying, and was sad that my perfect little girl, with a perfect little smile...has a HUGE chipped tooth! after a little while she was completely fine. except that she kept touching the tooth with her finger, or her tongue or lip because of the jagged edges. after we saw she was okay, I stepped away to cry. for em's accident, and for my rather trying day. I just cried. then pulled myself together because although work was stressful, and em's tooth is chipped-- in the scheme of things...it's not that bad-- it could have been worse and for that I am thankful.

we're taking her in tomorrow to have it checked out for damage to the root, and see what they can do about it. I made the mistake of looking on the internet (don't do that) and freaking myself out even more after reading that they do x-rays to rule out permanent damage to the root and future permanent teeth. hopefully everything is just fine and he can file down some of the jaggedy part.

there's a million possible bad things that can happen to a child. I always have to rationalize them out of my head. or I drive myself crazy, and I know I have to let her live (and myself) without irrational fears and just be a child. will it be that way for life now that I'm a mommy?? will I always WORRY??? I suppose so. I've really learned just how much being a mom also entails letting go... the very thing we instinctively don't want to do as mothers. we want to hold, and protect, and keep them to ourselves forever. but really we need to teach, and trust, and let them grow wings...and be their own person. teach them how to be in the world without us someday. I'm learning. I'm learning. I'm learning. I'm also learning that there is a reason why we tell kids not to run around on the tile--I take responsibility for not stopping her. now to go enforce it is another story...

Monday, September 20, 2010

EM'S BIRTHDAY PARTY WEEKEND

first of all...my sister bought me the cutest dunny... DJ LANCE ROCK!!

we spent saturday at my aunty's house celebrating em's birthday...

jen made these cupcake toppers...

on sunday, we spent time with em's aunty jen since she is on oahu for a visit... we went to the haleiwa farmer's market...

em's checkin' out the tomatoes--her favorite food!

we had lunch at kua'aina, here's em munching on carrots (they give them with your sandwich)

then we headed to matsumoto's for shave ice!!!

FUN! hope your weekend was just as grand!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

TODAY WAS MAH BIRTHDAY...

My Yakudoshi birthday to be exact.

What is Yakudoshi?
Bad luck ages are referred to as yakudoshi, with yaku meaning “calamity” or “calamitous” and doshi signifying “year(s).” These years are considered critical or dangerous because they are believed to bring bad luck or disaster.
For men, the ages 24 and 41 (or 25 and 42 in Japan) are deemed critical years, with 41 being especially critical. It is customary in these unlucky years to visit temples and shrines to provide divine protection from harm. In Hawai‘i, it has become a widespread tradition among men of Japanese ancestry to celebrate the 41st birthday with a festiveyakudoshi party or gathering to ward off the bad luck or disaster that may strike. The birthday person should wear red to bring good health, vitality and long life.

The equivalent yakudoshi ages for women are 18 and 32 (19 and 33 in Japan), with 32 thought to be a particularly hard, terrible or disastrous year. Like the age 41 for men, precautions are taken to ward off bad luck, and some women in Hawai‘i celebrate their 32nd birthday with a special yakudoshi party. (from the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii website)

Marc took me to my most favorite restaurant-- one that we only go to on my birthday.

alan wong's!!!

for our appetizer, we chose the "poki-pine"... it's basically ahi poke (raw tuna cubes) mixed with a wasabi sauce and topped with deep fried won ton sticks...avocado on the side...

we also had a hamakua tomato salad with jalapeno vinaigrette, but didn't take a photo of it.

for our main course I chose the ginger crusted onaga (snapper)-- no surprise here. this is what I order everytime we eat there!! YUM!

and marc had the kalbi (korean style short-ribs), with shrimp. it was so soft, no knife required.

marc on the other hand, always orders something different each time...

and as if we weren't already stuffed, it was time for dessert...strawberry shortcake with vanilla ice cream...

and a very creative banana split. banana ice cream wrapped in mochi and topped with coconut ice cream...

this awkward pose with my right arm is from trying to position it in a way that my arm would appear smaller. but I guess there is no escaping the huge arm syndrome...

the yakudoshi celebration with friends is not until late september...

after our early dinner we had time to get home and play with em jay...perfect day!

Monday, May 10, 2010

MOTHER'S DAY 2010

I had the most wonderful mother's day! it started out with gymboree-- my sister came along to spend time with em before she moves to seattle this friday (hopefully we'll get to visit her soon.)

after gymboree, I had a bacon and cheese omelet from zippy's--yum! and found that our bed was fixed and bathroom cleaned!

I was presented with a homemade envelope filled with drawings. I was very impressed-- marc and em made it (though they did use my supplies and photo that I was saving for another project) and I love it!

then marc, em jay, and I headed out to haleiwa town to spend a few hours walking around-- it's only about a 20 minute drive from our house, but such a different feel from our home in mililani. got to buy a few things from one of my favorite clothing shops.