Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind….Ohana Dinner

We hula’d and twisted as we decorated for our “Aloha to Hawaii” dinner night.

And while we did, daddy drilled holes in some fresh coconuts so we could have an authentic Hawaiian drink.  Delicious!

And of course it wouldn’t have been appropriate to do anything Hawaiian without a little music so we turned on our fun new appletv and set it to Hawaiian Legend Israel Kamakawiwoʻole singing, somewhere over the rainbow.

Brian even found a program where it looked like the kids were standing in front of the beach in Hawaii and we dreamt for a minute that we were actually there.

Hawaiian Dinner Menu:

Traditional White Rice

Chicken Hawaii

And for dessert, a medley of Hawaiian fruits

Here is a real picture of our last family trip to Hawaii, back when we just had three little ones, WAY too long ago.

And here’s another fun shot of a beautiful Hawaiian woman we met and got to know on our trip.  She danced the hula right by our hotel and gave Addie her homemade lei and hair clip.

Aloha!

Always an Excuse for Shave Ice

 

I’m pretty sure nothing says “Aloha” like shave ice.  When my family vacationed in Hawaii in high school, we enjoyed the sweet syrupy ice so much my dad even looked into buying a professional machine.  Fortunately, this delicious nectar has made its way across the Pacific and landed in our sunny state…and thanks to places like Target, you can get a cheap machine like this one…

(We have an older version of this model that works pretty well.)

While this machine does do the trick in a pinch, we also just happen to have the BEST shave ice place down the street and decided to use our study of Hawaii this week for an excuse to partake.

shave ice is always better with friends

We used our special shave ice cone cups and spoon straws to make it even more authentic.

Aloha!

A Pearl of Great Price

For Christmas last year (or maybe it was 2010 🙂 ), I tucked away a pearl kit my mom gave me from one of her real-life travel adventures, knowing we would be learning about the Hawaiian Islands.

We had a bunch of fun opening the clam and determining what type of “love” we would have according to the pearl’s color and the poems written in the little manual made me crack up as they had a bit of an Asian slant.

 Ours was peach which symbolized happiness in love….

After you open the pearl, you place it inside the provided necklace.

And now I have the tool to a love filled with happiness…..or so they claim :).

Aloha Art

On our next day in the beautiful islands in the Pacific, we decided to have some fun with art, inspired by our favorite art teacher.

Today’s project was a fish printing.  First, using watercolor paints, we painted the background.  I taught the kids how to do a “wet-on-wet” watercolor, painting the background with water first, then adding the color and watching it twist and turn on the page.

Here’s how they each turned out.

Next, using small pieces of foam, they each designed a fish and traced over it with a pencil to leave indentations for printing.

Lastly, we dipped our fish in shades of tempura and printed them on our dry backgrounds.

Here's my foam fish....tried to copy the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (Hawaii's state fish)

For more complete directions on how to do your own fish printing, let Patty show you how.

Aloha

We are now on the eighth letter of the alphabet….H….and what better US place to learn about that begins with “H” than Hawaii?

Here’s what you do when you’re learning about the Aloha State (other than hop on a jet and actually visit the beautiful islands)…

you hit the beach, of course….

and while you’re there you can grab a beach pencil and practice some spelling…

and if you’re really thoughtful when you’re learning about the Hawaiian Islands at the beach you can use your beach pencil to write your mother a love note

(okay so we may have gone off our list just a bit as we got caught up in the ocean air)