Monday Morning Celebration!

Well, it is official...the Free Dining Plan at Disney was offered this morning to Disney Chase cardholders (Thank Goltz family!) so we are now officially going to Disney! We wait with bated breath as the days ticked off until this morning when my sweet friend Mary was on the phone on hold for TWO HOURS waiting to get our reservations for September! But, we were thrilled to find out the we were able to get a value resort AND the free dining which was a great thing for our budget too!

Our girls are asking just about every other day about Disney, but that is OK...secretly I will be counting down every day with excitement too! We are making our official countdown board today so that they have a visual of how many days we have left until Disney. What a blast!

This weekend was really fun for our family. We were so blessed to have been a part of a Mission auction a while ago and went in with a few of our close friends to purchase an authentic Hawaiian meal from a family who lived there.

Let me tell you it was truly a FEAST! I loved every single thing there! We tasted all sorts of neat new dishes (there were about 20 dishes if not more). By the end were were so full and were having so much fun!

We went to Joann's to buy some new fabric for the girls' summer capris and shirts. I got a sewing machine about 6 months ago and have made a few little things so far. But, I found a great, easy pattern for capri pants that I LOVE. I have already made several so far with cute matching tops. So, as we were there at the store getting new fun fabrics for the beach in two weeks, we came across these fabrics. The girls went crazy and begged me to make them "Hawaiian girl" dresses. Since it was SUPER easy...I said I would do it for them. Really, it was a hem and running a seam along the side and making some straps out of white ribbon. They literally took me about...30 minutes and that was making matching American Girl Doll dresses to match!

We started with soup and it was AMAZING! We found out that Spam is a very popular ingredient in Hawaiian cooking. It was a soup made with ramen style noodles and a great broth. We were able to put fried spam, dried cuddle fish, and shrimp on top.

We had some wonderful friend wantons that rocked! We had some wonderful dipping sauces. I grabbed one that I thought was soy sauce...but it was Liquid Smoke...don't try that at home kids it's terrible! But, the wantons were yummy!

The kids had a great time and loved eating with chopsticks! They all had on their Hawaiian clothes and had a blast playing together. We really didn't see them unless there was food around...especially when the desserts were served!

Ethan like using his chopsticks to eat his hotdog. They served the kids hotdogs in case they didn't want the other Hawaiian food.

My girls tried just about everything. They didn't love everything, but they tried it. Here Anli is eating some Mahi Mahi that was in a lime and cracker batter cooked on the grill...so good!!!

This dish is called Kimche (don't know the spelling!). It is basically rotten cabbage with spices. It was actually really good! It was a little hot, but other than that...it tasted like cooked cabbage. I like to try anything at least once and I make my kids do the same thing. I can't stand having regrets...so I try most things unless it will surely make me sick. But, this was a surprise that it tasted so good!

The star of the night was by far the Kalula Pork and rice dish. The Smiths had served us this dish before a year ago...and it was AMAZING! It is a great dish and I don't even like meat that much. But, this is about the best thing I have had! They even send us home with some and we ate it yesterday for lunch again. YUMMY!

A big thank you to the Smith family for having us over for such an awesome meal. There was much more to eat than I can even mention. It was literally a feast to end all feasts. It was great food, wonderful fellowship, and great conversation, and we learned a lot about Hawaiian culture too!

Another celebration is that on Thursday, Viringia got her expander off and no more headgear! We were thrilled and surprised! Though she is still a cute snaggle smile without many teeth, she is expander free. She is so happy. Dr. Jordan did tell us that we need to see an ENT for her airways. It looks like another of my girls may be loosing her tonsils. But, we'll see. Dr. Jordan gave her a bag full of the sticky goodies she couldn't have with her expander...yummy!Lastly, I celebrated finishing the girls a set of outfits yesterday. Since it is Spring Break the girls didn't have AWANA, so we had the day free to hang out at home. So, while everyone was resting, I made these two capri outfits for the girls...along with American Girl Doll skirts to match. They were very excited and they are soooo comfy. I have liked making their clothes mainly because I can pick the fabric...and they have input. Also, my girls are very tall and very skinny, so it is quite hard for me to find what I want in the right size...for a good price.

I don't do long projects...I am way to immediate gratification driven. So, one of these pants only took me 30 minutes from start to finish! Anli's shirt with the fabric added to match took a little longer...so the total time for both her pants and shirt were about an hour. But, I got them both finished in one afternoon with time to hang with the fam. I'll post more creations...we have a slow week because all of our normal activities are canceled due to Spring Break, so I hope to finish several this week.