Mid Summers Night Gleam

There is a beautiful Botanical garden just a couple of streets up from where we live and last week they held the annual "Mid Summers Night Gleam" festival. It's a really picturesque event, and full of creative family activities. I loved the watermelon stand with big slices of watermelon for only $.50, or the station where you could win a free plant if you threw the seed into a pot. There was entertainment as well, all the way from bag pipes to belly dancing! But my favorite is how every corner of the garden gets lit up with with white paper bag luminaries. So magical! It usually costs money to get into the gardens, but this time it was FREE. Even better. It was a picture perfect evening.


Jousting Knights in Shining armor

Belly Dancers... this was the most modest shot I got of them. It was a cultural experience.


This was the "Horror Shop" with weird things like baby alligators and a pig with one eye (not so magical).



Little Edison loved the ballons!



Not to mention his Dads watermelon

At the end of the night, with a sleeping baby and the glow of all the luminaries behind us.

I've joined the club

So I did the Mom thing and cut my hair! I haven't had my hair this short since 7th grade. Yikes! I did it mainly because little Edison would always grab it and stuff it in his mouth...but not much has changed since I got it cut. Oh well, it's a nice change, and it makes me feel like more like an official Mom.

Just for Grandma

Here are some videos that only the Grandma will appreciate....and maybe some others will too. He is an awfully cute baby.

What Happened on the 4th

We had a great 4th of July, but I'm sad to say that I didn't take very many pictures that made it look like we were celebrating the 4th of July. However, we did take advantage of the Holiday, and of course we ended it with Fireworks. Here are some pictures and videos of our day.

4th of July Cupcakes:

Ok, so I did get to do my Patriotic thing and decorate some 4th of July cupcakes. This is me in my element. I stuffed these cupcakes with Twinkie like filling which was a first for me, and they turned out pretty good. Decorating, by far is the most fun part for me. Some people read, some people garden...me, well I decorate cupcakes. I'm somewhat embarrassed to post these pictures on a blog because I've seen such AMAZING picture perfect cupcakes from other blogs, but like I said this is me! I'm happy to say too that I got to listen to my favorite 4th of July music on Pandora.com while decorating....Neil Diamonds "Coming to America." It was sheer inspiration.

Et's theme song:

For those of you who don't know where our little Edison got his nickname "Et", I will clear your confusion now. When I brought home the first ultra sound pictures of our little babe, Nate said he looked like an alien...kind of like "E.T.". From then on the nick name stuck. This is also why we had the hardest time calling him William (which is his real first name) and had to go with Edison (his middle name) because it sounded more like Et. Poor kid. And that's how it all began. Till this day we still use his nick name. SO, on with our 4th of July holiday...as I was in my element decorating cupcakes and listening to Pandora.com, I started to listen to the composer John Williams, and low and behold the E.T. theme song came on. Nate and I couldn't resist the urge to grab our little Et and dance around the room to his very own theme song. You'll notice by his face that he was quite confused...as I'm sure he will be when he's older and watching this as well.

Honolulu Zoo:

After cupcakes and theme songs we finally got out of the house and met some friends of ours at the Honolulu Zoo. I'm happy to announce that we are now proud owners of a $25 year long Zoo pass. Yes! This will make for some fun outings. Little Edison LOVED the spider Monkeys and couldn't keep his eyes off of them. He was also pretty enthralled by the Hippos which we got some cool video of. It's no San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park...but it serves it's purpose well.

Bon Dance

One of the things that I love about Hawaii, are the multiple moments that I feel like I'm in a completely different world. Take for instance the Bon Dance, a Buddhist celebration that takes place at all the Buddhist temples here in the summer. The bottom line of the event is to raise money for the Buddhist temple, but the night is filled with good food, music and dancing. The unique thing about the Bon Dance is the tower that stands in the middle of the floor with Japanese lanterns strung across from all sides. On top of the tower blares Japanese music and sometimes live are Japanese musicians. Everyone is welcome to dance around the pillar....kind of like a Japanese line dancing party. As Nate put it, it's just like a scene from the infamous "Karate Kid." Totally different world.