Family Fun Day at CCF

We've found a Church family we really like. Cornerstone Christian Fellowship is super close to where we live - less than a 10 minute drive away. This is a huge thing for us, without even knowing it our family has adapted to Hawaiian Time. Which means we are late to everything and always rushing out the door to get there. Or maybe that is just how life is with a young child? Anyway, we really love the Pastor and his wife at this church. And I love how social they are! A few weeks after Easter (see how behind I am?) they hosted a family fun day at the church. They set up 3 bounce houses and one huge inflatable adult sized water slide. They BBQ'd hamburgers and hot dogs and it was a potluck lunch with popcorn and shaved ice. So fun! On this day, Jillian finally started appreciating bounce houses! We put her in one of these things at every fair we go to and she always just sits there looking terrified. Not any more! She made the rounds several times. We had to hold her down when it was time to eat - she didn't want to stop the fun!

Here is Jillian picking out a balloon and deciding what animal she wanted to request the clown to make. I think she picked a dog.

Yum! Shaved Ice! :)

Jeremy and Jillian getting ready to go down the bounce house slide. Jillian wouldn't go down alone.

It looked like so much fun, I wanted to go down too! And this is the only picture of me that day where I am NOT eating something, I ate sooooo much this day!

One Little Monkey

Last time I washed sheets, Jillian got creative as soon as I left the room. When I returned, this is what I found. She made a "safe landing" out of the comforter and pillows. We had to get a few pictures.

Oh my heavens, she cracks me up! She was so excited to show us her new trick when I returned.

Sweet Jilly-Bean

Pre-Piano at Junior Music Academy

On Wednesday morning Jillian attends music class with Miss Mary at Junior Music Academy. She starts out the class with singing and dancing. The children get to play with several different instruments for the first half of the lesson. Then Miss Mary moves on to the keyboard and teaches the children how to play a very simple song.

Then we pick a keyboard and each child has their own to play. Jillian is placing pictures of 2 black crows above each group of 2 black keys and pictures of 3 black bears above each group of 3 black keys.

After they play the song they learned a few times, they get to free play on the keyboard. Jillian loves this part of class because the pianos play fun melodies and beats and sounds with just the touch of a button. We really enjoy music class and we get to go with the neighbor boy is almost exactly the same age as Jillian.

What is wrong with this picture?

Jillian does not like to fall asleep in her bed. If she is very, very tired she might actually fall asleep in bed. On a normal night though, she falls asleep somewhere else and I will transfer her there later on. On this night, she had fallen asleep outside her doorway surrounded by fun toys. In one hand she is holding a baby doll and in the other she has a crayon. The funny thing is that there is nothing nearby that would have required the use of a crayon. Hmmmmm.....

Our Little Girl is a Kona Aerials Gymnast

Jillian has graduated to Kindergym, the bigger kid gymnastics class. She is working on her stretches in this photo. Isn't she just the cutest thing? And tiny too, right? She is four years old, weighs less than 30 lbs and most 3T clothes are still too big.

In this picture she is working on her jumps on the tumble track. There is no parent participation in this class. In fact, the parents are no longer allowed on the floor and if a child walks off the floor to see a parent they are usually done with class. There were a few days, that Jillian would come see me to fix her hair. When she tumbles her ponytail falls out. We started braiding her ponytail and that fixed that! :)

Coach Sierra is helping Jill with a bridge. We LOVE Coach Sierra - she is Jill's favorite. And she is also the toughest. I am so glad we first attended Tumble Bears - this class introduced gymnastics to the little ones and taught basic skills, with help from the parents. In the little class, the coaches let Jillian do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. It was a really laid back class focused on fun as the top priority. In the bigger class, there can be up to 14 kids per 2 coaches and no other adults. So, the coaches have to be strict to maintain safety. I am thankful that Jillian had the time in Tumble Bears to bond with Coach Sierra before moving on to Kindergym, where Sierra is an awesome, very tough teacher. One class Jillian had to have a time-out and skip her turn in the rotation on bar work because every time Sierra turned her back, Jillian ran away to be ornery.

Sierra is helping Jillian with a back bend pike over. Very Fun.

Coach Nanette - this is her gym- is helping Jillian with a forward roll on the beam. We love her too - she is also great and also strict. I think this is what Jillian needs. Out of all the adults in her life; between her school teacher, music teacher and gymnastics coaches, she responds the best to her tough gymnastics coaches.

A few weeks ago, Jillian was in a mood when I took her to music class. She did not want to listen to Miss Mary. Miss Mary asked very sweetly throughout the class for Jillian to do / not to do certain things and Jillian was like whatever! When Jillian is in a mood at gymnastics she is still expected to listen and do what she is told - anything else is simply not tolerated.

Beach Day with Daddy

On Fridays, I go to work and Jeremy stays home with Jillian. If the weather is nice, Jeremy will take Jillian to Kukio to play. Fridays are a big beach day here and there are usually tons of kids for Jillian to play with. I am not much of a beach girl and when they include me, my limit is two hours and then I'm ready to go home. Jeremy and Jillian LOVE to stay all day long. On this day, they stayed over 4 hours - which is huge for us.



Jillian was sleeping by the time they got home. She slept in the car for an hour. When she woke up, Jeremy transferred her to the couch for two more hours of sleepy-time. She was so exhausted, she slept sitting up.

And then she laid down...for more sleeping. If you look closely, you can see the sand in her hair. It took us 2 showers to wash out all that sand - she must have been rolling in it. :) And I mean that literally - she gets out there on the beach and starts busting out her gymnastics moves. She does forward rolls almost everywhere we go.

Easter Egg Hunt at Home

Later in the afternoon, we did a little egg hunt at home.

Happy Easter!

This morning, after the service, our Church had an Easter egg hunt. They asked all the adults to spread out the 1000 eggs, while all the kids (about 20) waited to be released from Children's Church. Jeremy has a handful eggs he is about to "hide"...and I use that word loosely as you can see in the background. :)

Here comes Jillian...she is wearing the polka dot dress.

Jillian on the hunt.

She had to open each egg as she put it in her bucket. As you can imagine, moving that slowly, she didn't gather that many eggs. She stopped with about a dozen eggs and then moved on to help other children fill their buckets.

We are enjoying an Easter cupcake after the egg hunt. Yum! :)

I have a confession - I wasn't very nice this morning. The church likes to keep the plastic eggs to re-fill each year. When Jillian was done with the hunt, she went with Jeremy to get something to eat. I took her bucket to a table to empty all the eggs and another mom came over to do the same thing. Her daughter - who looked to be about the same age as Jillian - came up and grabbed half of what was in Jillian's bucket. Her mom said and did nothing. I shouldn't have minded - its just candy right? But, I did mind - the little girl didn't ask and she took several pieces - not just one. And it bugged me a little bit that her mother did nothing. So, I said to the little girl, loud enough for her mother to hear, "Hi! Where is your Easter bucket? Don't you have one too?" And I think I may have taken the candy back. She was starting to drop it - but I think I helped her out, it all happened so fast that I'm not completely sure. I am so embarrassed and I feel horrible - it was just candy for pete's sake! I should have let her have it. We are new to this church and it makes me sad that from now on, this family will remember me as the lady who was territorial over the Easter eggs. Jeremy overheard me and said I sounded really mean - but he was in a cranky mood this morning. He had to work all night last night - they have contractors doing some fun thing on the runway - and he wasn't really feeling up to going to church. All that to say, his perception of over-hearing the incident, may have been skewed by a sleepy fog.

Ugh. Being a mother is hard. And my competitive, mother-bear side, doesn't always serve me well. I should have just let the little girl have the candy.

An Egg-tastic Day

We colored eggs for the first time this year. I'm not sure why we haven't done this with Jillian yet - maybe she still seemed a little young last year. Anyway, she did great. I was so paranoid about spilling the dye and it pleased me immensely to watch Jillian be so careful.


Jillian had so much fun! I had pre-cooked 8 eggs for her....when she was done with the eight, she wanted to start dyeing the remaining raw eggs. I wonder if that would be an OK thing? I'm sure it would be fun if you mistook a raw egg for a cooked egg.

When I was a kid, we would color the eggs and then the next day my mom used the hard-boiled eggs for the Easter egg hunt. Oh yes, there was no candy-filled plastic eggs for us. We would get chocolate and candy in our Easter baskets, just not for the egg hunt. As I sit here writing this entry, I am listening to our daughter (who is still on her chocolate high) play, play, play in her room. She should be sleeping, she is never going to bed tonight! It may not be a bad thing to limit all that sugar.

Last week Jillian asked to do s'mores this weekend. While the eggs were drying, we fired up the grill and roasted a few marshmallows. Yum! Marshmallows over the grill take longer to roast and never get that yummy brown crispy outside. BUT, they still worked for us.

Reading Time

Jillian loves to read to Athena. Jillian brings her to her room and makes her lay down for some forced reading time. Athena is such a great sport sitting there so calmly - and if you know Athena, you know she doesn't do a whole lot of calm. However, Jillian has learned to bribe Athena with treats - and Athena is VERY food motivated. :)

Gymnastics Camp

Jillian has graduated from Tumble Bears to Kindergym in gymnastics...on Tuesday I brought my camera to the gym to snap a few pictures of her in her new class.

This week is spring break for Jillian's school...so Jillian is attending gymnastics camp. She is loving it! But, doing gymnastics for 8 hours is exhausting! By the time I arrived, hoping to snap a few pictures of her in action, she had climbed on top of this foam block for a nap. :) I brought her home and she slept for another hour and a half on the couch...and still went to bed on time.

Jillian and Athena

What a month it has been! Jeremy traveled like crazy through February and the beginning of March. It was like the old days again and made us appreciate our new "normal" of him not traveling quite so much anymore. While he was gone, Jillian or I or both were sick with something (cold, flu, fever, migraine) every single week. I'm sure my boss also appreciates that Jeremy is home now and can share in the fun of missing work to stay home with a sick kid.

For Valentine's Day we decided to have Athena shaved. It may be hard to see, but she was beautiful - soft and smooth and shiny. And no shedding...for the first two weeks anyway. :)

Jillian is using one of those doggy tooth wipes to clean Athena's teeth. Athena is such a good sport!

A while back the police visited Jillian's school. The children got to see a police car, hear the sirens and the PA system and even sit in the back seat. Ever since that fun-fun day, Jillian wants to call the police for everything. She told me she wanted to call the police and have them trade Athena for a kitty. That is her new thing...she wants a kitty. Too bad Athena eats cats. On Valentine's Day, Jillian opened her presents and wanted to eat all the candy by 9am. We were like, I don't think so! So she called the police to come and take us away (so she could eat all her V-Day candy without interference)...she stood at the open front door and yelled through the screen "POLICE! POLICE!" Oh yes, she really, really did. It cracked me up...and then I thought it may not sound too good to anyone passing by to hear a child yelling for the cops.

Shower Time

Athena and Jillian...my two girls. One night before the shower, Athena was hanging out in the bathroom with us and Jillian invited her to play in the shower. I thought their silliness was very cute. I don't think Athena knew what she was getting into - she doesn't like to be "trapped" anywhere.

Mama and Me

Jillian LOVES to help me bake cookies and cook dinners. She is a great helper in the kitchen!

Good Daddy

What a good Daddy! Here is a picture of Jeremy fixing the hair on one of Jillian's little ponies.

Gymnastics

Jillian loves her little gymnastics leotard - here she is being silly.

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day(s)

There were a few days during the Holiday break that we needed to find an alternate plan for Jillian. Jeremy took off a couple extra days from work and I received permission to bring Jillian to the office with me for 3 days. I packed so many toys, games, movies and activities, I thought we were moving in to stay! On the first day, Jillian wanted nothing to do with what I brought and kept busy with the stapler and scotch tape. Seriously.

She liked sitting at my desk. She got to know everyone in the office next door and would call their names to say "Hey" as they walked by. Thankfully, they all took to Jillian and stopped to chat with her.

I set up her school nap mat on the floor for a play area. Here she is working with stickers. Who knew stickers are so awesome?!

Meow Meow

Jillian has decided she is a kitty. She made herself a little kitty bed using a blanket and a laundry basket. When I was taking pictures of her being a kitty...I said "smile, look happy!" Jillian said that kitties don't smile. Where do kids come up with this stuff?

By the way, as I am preparing this post Jillian walked in, saw the picture and said "That's my new home!" :)

Fun In The Dryer

One night Jillian helped me with laundry. After we unloaded the dryer she just hopped in and started cracking up. I had to go get the camera.

I took a couple photos and Jillian said "one more mama". So I told her to make a funny face for the last photo. She said this is her "scared" face.

Happy Christmas 2008

I am finally organized with the few pictures from Christmas day. I can't believe how little pictures I took....I must have been too busy with all the cooking. Here is a shot of Jillian opening presents...even Athena helped. :)

Playing the piano. Jillian takes music lessons...pre-piano...and she is loving this little version.

We found this super cute baby doll set at Costco...gotta love Costco! The set came with a doll, stroller, bed and feeding chair. It is sooo cute! This gift was definitely a favorite. Jillian named the doll "Baby Lyssa". Hmmm, Allison...do you know what TV show inspired this doll's name?

My videographer. :) I may not have many pictures from this day...but I have an entire 2008 Withrow Family Christmas DVD.

Every year Costco gets these AMAZING poinsettias. They are huge! I love them sooooo much and just had to have one for home. BUT...fall and winter are ant season in Hawaii. When we put any kind of live plant in the house...its like ants on parade all over the place. And once they come in, it is a major battle getting them to leave...no matter how much we spray. Right now I am battling a colony living in an electrical outlet above our kitchen sink. Hawaiian ants are no joke.

So....the poinsettia lives outside on the lanai. Jillian and I are sitting outside looking at the pretty flowers. I've heard you can plant them and they will grow into trees....