Day 1

We started the day off at Annapolis Mall. We gave the girls $20 each and challenged them to find some cute presents for Lillie's birthday.

While the girls shopped, Lillie got to play at the "indoor park" for a VERY long time!!

Here she is freezing.

I say gang signs. Haliaka says peace sign. You decide. ha ha

Then, we changed plans a million times and ended up at Sakura, a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant, for Lillie's birthday dinner.

First, the food.

Then the friends. Lillie, as usual, is such a friendly girl. She quickly made friends with Madison. They had a great conversation about the food, their age, things they like to do, the flower from their drink.

Next came the cake.

Blow Lillie, blow!

Birthday 5 proved to be a good one!

A couple of dresses from Mommy and Daddy.
A phone and stickers from Kamakea.

An artist smock made by Auntie Berta.

Some treats and $$ from Auntie Momi, Uncle Terry, and Ame

Ariel from Haliaka and Kamakea

Princess purse and little Ariel from cousin Katie

Polly Pocket and Hello Kitty purse from Nana and Papa

Super fun and lots of goodies!! Lillie is such a lucky little girl with so many people who ADORE her!!

The Girl Cousin Party!!

For Lillie's 5th birthday, we decided to go big and have a girl cousin party. The Kauwe side of the family, as many know, is VERY boy heavy. Lillie has 19 cousins and only 5 are girls. Now, Lillie also has a cousin on Keola's side of the family, but she's only a little one. So in the end, two of Lillie's girl cousins were able to fly out east for our: 5 days of Fun for 5 Years of Life!!

Wednesday, January 13th, we picked the girls up from the airport. This is Kamakea, Maka's youngest.

And this is Haliaka, Stew's oldest.
Fun in the car ride home.

Happy Birthday to Keola!

Sorry for only 2 pictures, but we did have a great time. I decided to plan a surprise dinner for Keola at a friend's home. Just a small affair, with 3 other families. The funniest thing was trying to keep everything from LILLIE, so that she wouldn't say anything to Keola. Well, it ALMOST worked. Keola's actual birthday was on Thursday (which he was occupied at a church meeting), the dinner was on Friday, and as a ploy, I told Keola we would go out to dinner as a family on Saturday. Well, between juggling all these dates in the air, making Keola's gift, and making all the food without Keola knowing, including the dessert, which was the birthday cake - chocolate dobash, Lillie was very confused. I got a call from Keola's mom the day before the dinner, "I think Keola knows something about the dinner." Keola often puts Lillie to bed. One night he asked Lillie what she did that day. She proceeded to tell him, "We went to the Isaacson's house where we are going to have your birthday party!" What made it so funny was that I never told Lillie about the birthday party knowing she would leak it out. In the end, she mixed up the dates, but actually got it right!!

New Year's Eve was celebrated at a place called National Harbor. We loved looking at the great "leftover" Christmas decorations and the fun water fountain display.

In the end, we were a little disappointed because we missed a few things that we really wanted to see. But we were able to go on a scavenger hunt for large stuffed Peeps, see an electric train display, eat at a new restaurant, marvel at the lights, and spend time together as a family.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

Not sure why we didn't take lots of pictures, but we really did have a great Christmas! Since we didn't make it back to Hawaii this year, we thought we really needed to make it big for Lillie.

So, starting on December 1st, Keola and I decided to put one present every day until Christmas, under the tree for Lillie. By the middle of the month, we both thought, "who was crazy enough to think of THIS idea!!" As you can see, along with our 25 gifts, Lillie got SO much from family!!

Here's just some pictures of the goodies!

In the end, Lillie was thrilled with the wonderful gifts she received for Christmas. Thank you all for the generous presents!!

"MOM!! Something's happening!!"

The weekend before Christmas, we awaited the big snowstorm that we didn't realize would be SO big!! It started with this...

Then a little bit of this...

Then, before we knew it, it was this!!!


With at least 17 inches of snow, Lillie wanted to experience all of it first hand!

Daddy was brave enough to hike Lillie up our steep hill and planned on sledding down. After 2 seconds, Lillie was NOT having it!! So, Daddy thought maybe making some of Lillie's favorite, snow angels, would make our little angel happy. NOPE!! Another 2 seconds and our little angel was screaming to come back in. "I don't look happy, but I'm much warmer INSIDE!"

By the next day, the sun was out and the snow had settled a little. Lillie was the first to get her coat on and wanted a second try at the great outdoors. This time, she was much more cautious and stayed close to the house, right outside the garage. She took her little shovel and helped Daddy create.

This is what they came up with! Maybe next year we can create something at least Lillie's size! ha ha