We hit the Polynesian Cultural Center by storm. Hibiscus amazed me with her poi ball stunts. A while ago, Aunty Peta, made her a set of poi balls and showed her a few pointers. To my surprise, she must have listened! Because with the poi balls at PCC, she could do the butterfly swing, clapping and dropping the balls over her head and back again.
Hibiscus was out of school for Prince Kuhio Day. Who's he? And why is there a state holiday in his honor? Who cares. As long as it means a day off school, we'll keep calling him a prince, a real prince.
During our long weekend of fun and friends, Hibiscus was able to reconnect with her little playmate from back home. The two girls have been pen pals since we moved away from Oregon. They were so happy to play together again.
Just so happens that I had planned a field trip with my kids for a submarine ride, the same week that our friends were going to be on the island. Tickets were amazingly inexpensive (through a homeschool discount rate). The boat ride to the sub had the most picturesque backdrop of Diamond Head.
We were happy that our Oregon friends could share the thrill of being 100 feet below sea level! It was so cool!
And so, in the spirit of relaxation, he built a fence around the garden. A misnomer, if you ask me, since all I see is a patch of dirt, cleared momentarily of it's usual crop of knee high weeds. The weeds should be back before he is...something I think he's in complete denial about, but that I don't have the heart to tell him since he's so happy in his role as Farmer Brown.
He likes to enlist the help from the kiddies, which I'm all for. Old fashioned weed pulling builds character! However, we've learned the hard way (after the dubious mosquito attack that left Wooly's face swollen up like a rotten papaya) that if the kids are tromping down the hill, long pants and long sleeve shirts are a must! Add a spritz of bug repellent, and they're good to go.
Soon, he argues, that empty weed patch out back will be home to a forest of papaya trees. He'd almost all but given up on his papaya tree dreams, after the cows ate the first batch, the pigs squashed the second, and the landscaping team of overly zealous weed-wackers did the others in. Building a fence gives him hope that this attempt at transplanted papaya sprouts, that he's so lovingly grown pot by pot, by bigger pot--all in the safety of our garage, might actually make it.
Now that it appears as if he's finally conquered papaya, he's moving onto new challenges. Rumor has it that I'll be seeing pineapple and bananas join the papaya ranks. Clearly, he is out to prove that given the preference, he'd live out his days as a simple farmer.
I say, all he really needs to do is take a few more days of vacation to "relax" at home. It'd do him, and his papaya trees, some good.
Always on the grow,
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