We gathered this afternoon to celebrate the 7th birthday of our youngest son, Kekoa. And as it is with 7 year old boys everywhere in America, the party begins with SpongeBob Squarepants...
SpongeBob is the yellowish figure on the right side of the cake above.
Apparently, SpongeBob is a sea sponge. But unlike most sea sponges, he is square like the sponge used in the kitchen sink, which really doesn't look anything like a sea sponge.
Kekoa also tells me that SpongeBob "lives in a pineapple under the sea."
Logistically, I can tell you now that this would be very difficult. Growing up in Hawaii, I've seen pineapples that fall in the ocean. After about fifteen minutes, they're really mushy and well, it's just not something you'd want to live in.
Then again, this SpongeBob found himself knee deep in frosting on my son's cake...
After writing that last sentence, I couldn't help but wonder if SpongeBob actually has any knees. If not, could we really say he was knee deep in anything?
Anyway, here are all the kids gathering for the standard Bicoy birthday picture...
Kekoa really wanted a sword for his birthday so he could battle imaginary dragons and save damsels in distress in our front yard...
And if that weren't enough, he wanted a couple of video games...
...like "Zelda" so he could battle virtual dragons and rescue damsels in distress in a video game.My, how times have changes since we were kids.Then again, some things aren't all that different...
It appears that I'm not the only one who takes lots of pictures and insists on posting them on the internet for friends and family!
All day on Saturday, Nalani kept asking when it would be night time. We couldn't figure out what was going to happen at night that made her so impatient. Finally, Nalani explained it to us.
"When it's night time pretty soon it will be Mother's Day."
And nobody was more excited about Mother's Day than Nalani. This is the first year she's been in preschool and she made her very first surprise for Mother's Day - a laminated picture of her hands...
It was a nice gift, but heck, we see those hand prints on the walls every day anyway.
This morning began very, very early when I was awakened by David, Bretty, Kekoa, Nalani & Malia - all of whom woke up at sunrise to help make a big Mother's Day breakfast. Everyone took a turn making pancake batter, cracking eggs, flipping pancakes and buttering the toast.
Although when Malia butters toast, you can count on far more butter than toast. Of course, that seems to be exactly as she likes it...
We also made a very rich strawberry shortcake topping for the pancakes that the kids loved when smeared in whipped cream. When combined with eggs, bacon and other artery hardening foods, it was a bit much.
Bretty absolutely wore himself out eating all that food...
After breakfast we got around to opening the Mother's Day presents. Apparently my children want to arm their mother with a very sharp knife and make sure she knows how to use it...
The functional gift was a really, really nice Katana 7-inch Santoku knife...
...and the various sharpening and storage tools to care for it and her other knives.The fun gift was the Wii video game, Cooking Mama Cookoff.The kids wanted their Mommy to practice cutting in the game before she used her new Katana knife...
Cooking Mama Cookoff is a competition in which two players go head to head in trying to correctly make a meal. Here is Mommy's shrimp sauteing on the top, and Nalani's on the bottom...
It was a tough contest viewed by the whole family...
Well, almost the whole family.Alyssa slept in and didn't help make Mommy's breakfast so she got to clean up after the meal...
Then everybody decided to take advantage of this 95 degree day and join David in the pool (except Alyssa, of course, who had many urgent life-altering text messages about boys to respond to)...
Happy Mother's Day!
We haven't gone anywhere or done anything particularly out of the ordinary lately, and yet somehow things still occur which make life an adventure.
Perhaps the least adventurous thing was when we finally got around to picking up the trophy and plaque for the winner of last season's Bicoy (fantasy) Football League...
The plaque is permanently displayed with great reverence and honor in the alcove outside the bathroom where our kids go potty.
We also picked up a new trophy each year for the League champion. This year's is a bit nicer than last year's, but it is also a bit more confusing...
Exactly which side of the trophy is the front? No matter which way you look at it, one guy is facing you and the other has his back to you.
Strange.
With the temperatures already touching 100 degrees outside, our kids tend to come back into the air-conditioned inside to hide from the afternoon sun. David and Kekoa spend the time perfecting their Jedi arts...
While Malia and Nalani play together.
Can you guess what it is they're doing from the photo below?
Well?
Clearly, they're in the midst of playing a board game..
A full-contact board game, apparently.
Bretty, unfortunately, has had enough of full contact for the time being.
The boys were playing football in the yard with some kids from the neighborhood when this big fat boy tackled my son then jumped on him a second time while he was laying on the ground.
Here's the result...
Maybe I'm being mean by calling the neighbor kid a big fat boy, but he broke my son Bretty and didn't even feel bad, so I'm calling him a big fat boy.
Poor Bretty has a broken collar bone. He was not a happy camper.
That was about a week ago, and the doctor says that it will heal on its own with his arm in a sling. Being a stubborn Bicoy, however, Bretty decided he is fine. The doctor told our son he could stop using the sling whenever he felt ready. To show us how much better he was indeed feeling, Bretty decided to do a few jumping jacks. Altogehter, he did 24 jumping jacks.
That got Kekoa thinking. Exactly how many jumping jacks could he do if he tried.
So Kekoa began his version of jumping jacks...
His form may not be perfect, but he jumped up in the air and clapped his hands every time. They were as demanding physically as they would be if his form were perfect.
So we started counting to see if Kekoa could beat Bretty's 24 jumping jacks. I had no doubt he would because Kekoa is Mr. Endurance. He once ran a dozen laps for no reason other than because he felt like it.
But we were all a little surprised by just how determined this little boy really is.
Well, our Mr. Endurance did 1,002 jumping jacks.
Yes, that's one thousand jumping jacks, with two more added on just for fun.
It got tough there for him with the last 150 or so, but by then we got everyone involved in cheering him on. We even started counting backward for the last 100 because Cari and I wanted him to stop at 1,000.
I think if we would have let him, he'd have kept going until he dropped.
Kekoa is one very, very determined little boy.
Here is our very sweaty son swigging a glass of water his little sisters brought to him after his jumping jacks...
When asked why he wanted to do 1,000 jumping jacks, Kekoa explained it was easy. He said that he was born in the year 2000, which is the Chinese year of the Dragon.
Dragons, Kekoa pointed out, have lots of energy. That's why he could do 1,002 jumping jacks.
Mr. Endurance!
On another note, Cari and I had the opportunity to sneak away from the kids the other night to see the Producers, the Mel Brooks musical that won all those Tony Awards on Broadway. Someone had a few extra tickets and Cari and I were lucky to get a chance to see the show for free!
Here's a picture we took of the stage (with the curtain down) as people were arriving...
The Producers is a Mel Brooks comedy/musical about two Broadway producers who realize they can steal a fortune if the show is a disasterous flop. The original producers were played on Broadway by Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane (who reprised their role for the film). The great thing about the Las Vegas production is that it features the actors who starred for many years in the Broadway version shortly after Broderick and Lane ended their short run.
Anyway, the producers select a surefire flop which is a musical called "Springtime for Hitler" -- yes, that Hitler. As added insurance to make sure it is a disaster, they hire a gay director who likes to dress in women's clothes and is known for his outrageous over-the-top musicals. The director makes the Hitler in the musical a flamboyantly homosexual Hitler.
In the movie and on Broadway the part of the gay director is fabulously played by Gary Beach.
In Las Vegas, the gay director is played by none other than the Knight Rider himself...
Yes my friends, David Hasselhoff.
The first time you see the Hoff in the show he's dressed in a fabulous low cut sequined evening dress complete with long white gloves and a handbag my wife just adored.How can you not love living in Las Vegas!
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