Aloha Friends!

Wishing you a fun filled July 4th! We’re having a good day here on Kauai. Barbecue is on, fireworks have been bought and we got smores ready for dessert!

Thanks for reading my diary!
Aloha!

May 1st is Lei Day here on Kauai. Local school children celebrate the holiday with colorful leis, homemade ti leaf “grass” skirts, and hula. Aloha and happy May day!

Aloha Friends,

We had a fun New Years but, we seemed to have greatly underestimated Kauai’s enthusiasm for fireworks and love for all things noisy. Lol! It was crazy here! And obnoxiously loud! Made July 4th weak in comparison. The fireworks we bought to celebrate New Years...haha...

What everybody else bought...

Everybody had fireworks. One of our neighbors was telling us about about a homemade noisemaker that the locals like to put together. Made from simple stuff you’d have around the house. A bamboo pole, a lighter and gasoline!!! Makes a loud BOOM!
Happy 2019! May your new year be blessed.

Hey friends!

Wanted to wish you and yours a very merry Christmas! We went down to Kalapaki bay this afternoon to see the sand sculpture...it made front page news in our paper yesterday! The sculpture held up well despite the 2” of rain we had last night. Here’s hoping that you all held up just as well through the Christmas craziness! Mele Kalikimaka friends!

Aloha friends,

Every year Kauai celebrates the holidays with the Lights on Rice Parade. I’ve always wanted to go as I’ve heard it’s quite spectacular. This year we finally got to attend. There were 61 beautifully decorated floats and about 13,000 happy spectators! It was so much fun!

This was my favorite float. It had a gingerbread theme with a flurry of snow falling. The snow was actually bubbles...the kids loved it!

Lots of folks made an evening of it and packed picnic style dinners, I think we may do that next year. If you’re on island during the light parade I highly recommend you check it out. We had a great time.

​Thanks for reading my diary!

Aloha friends,
So standing in the line at the post office on Friday I saw a sign that basically stated I better get my Christmas cards out! Mainland bound needs to be post marked soon. I spent some time this weekend writing my cards and enclosing them with a Kauai calendar. Longs had a sale on these calendars for .88 cents, can’t beat that.

My favorite image from the calendar is January ‘s photo....so beautiful!

It’s always nice to send a little aloha to friends and family especially this time of year. Mele Kalikimaka!

Aloha friends!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! We had a nice day here on Kauai. The temp was pushing 80F, but we still baked...had all the windows open in the kitchen! On the menu was ham, augratin potatoes, sausage stuffing, and asparagus with pumpkin and apple pie for dessert. I was so happy about how well the pumpkin pie turned out. My last few attempts did not go as well. But, this one was nearly perfect. I think I got it down. Here’s a few photos from our day...

I hope that you had a good day and got to spend some time with those you love sharing food and laughter.
As always, thanks for reading my diary!

Aloha Friends!

It’s been a beautiful day here on Kauai. Really the complete opposite of last year’s rained out Halloween. The kids are excited for trick-or-treating but, first we had to carve our pumpkins and pineapple.

Pineapple are fun to carve. I think they have a lot of personality. They’re also tasty. And when Halloween is over I can plant his top in my pineapple patch.

We’ve been doing a little decorating for fall. Last week I made some bunting and hung it up in my kitchen shelves. I used scrapbook paper and ribbon. One of my daughters painted the haunted house. Nothing too scary here. We don’t have much Halloween decor because I purged most of it when we moved. But, I did keep our favorite pieces.

For Halloween dinner I always make chili. It’s a family tradition back from when I was a kid. I like this recipe because it’s an all meat chili. The beans and whatever else you want to serve with it are on the side. That way everyone can make their own bowl. It’s even better with corn bread. Here’s an old recipe card my mom gave me with the recipe...

The kids came home quite happy from trick-or-treating. They got a ridiculous amount of candy! Lots of full size bars. The people offering treats were very generous. The pile below is just one child’s stash!

I hope that you had a nice Halloween and thank you for reading my diary!

Aloha Friends!

​I hope that you had a great July 4th! We had a lot of fun here on Kauai. It was perfect weather for a cook-out. My husband and son barbecued some delicious pork ribs and fresh corn on the cob. The girls and I made pasta salad, baked beans, steamed asparagus, and a tossed green salad. We kept it pretty simple so we all could enjoy the day.

After we ate a yummy dinner we busted out the fireworks. By the way, they sell fireworks everywhere here. I thought it was funny that I picked up ours at the grocery store! And the boxes at Costco are huge...nearly as tall as I am! Here’s what you can get for $199...

But, here’s what I purchased...$17 worth.

We had a good time playing with the fireworks, and nobody got burnt. We then made s’mores for dessert. Sweet and sticky goodness! We ate them up before I could take a photo.

Kauai puts out a nice fireworks show. I was really impressed as I’d never been on island to see it before. We watched a spectacular show from our backyard. They set them off from Vindinha stadium in Lihue which ironically is across the street from the airport! It’s actually a day long celebration with lots of venders, bouncy houses and entertainment, fun for everyone. The proceeds benefit Kauai Hospice, always a wonderful organization to support. I took a few photos that didn’t quite do the beauty of it all justice but, you get the idea...

Happy Independence Day and thank you for reading my diary!

Aloha friends and happy new year!

For a brief time, fireworks are sold everywhere here on Kauai. All the grocery stores, Walmart,  even Costco was selling a huge box as tall as me! So, we thought it might be fun to do something a little different this New Year's Eve...we played with sparklers at the beach.

Early in the evening we walked out to the beach and collected driftwood. My husband made a small fire. As we sat and watched the sunset the fire kept our toes toasty. After nightfall the kids were eager to light the sparklers. We had fun watching them laugh and play in the colorful night. My hubby and I lit a few too! It was one of my best new years ever. We all had such a good time!

Happy New Year! Wishing you peace and much aloha in 2018.