Back from Hawaii!!

We spent our 10th Anniversary in Hawaii. It was the most wonderful trip ever! The kids behaved, mostly. We visited the Volcano National Park, rain forests, went whale watching and spent a ton of time together as family. No internet in the hotel for the first time ever on a vacation LOL It was really the most amazing experience. I have tons of pics but I will chose one or two from each activity to keep it manageable and also interesting for you!

Day 1 and 2: The day we were leaving for Hawaii, Aanya fell sick. She had fever and was not happy during the flight. The flight was long - 2 changes (DC to TX, TX to LA, LA to HI). It was the most awful part of the entire trip. Once we got there and slept the night she started feeling better. No more fevers Yay.
We started the morning easy and took a tour around the hotel. We stayed at the Hilton resort in Waikoloa. It is so awesome I can't even describe it in words. It encapsulates what Hawaii is all about..lots of vegetation, ocean, and birds! We woke up to the chirping of birds every day.

View from our balcony. First view of the ocean in Hawaii

Hotel had boats to go from one tower to another or you could take a monorail. Once or twice we went on foot and it took at least 15 minutes. We decided monorail was the easiest with the stroller. 

The Big Island has white sand, black sand and green sand beaches. Black and green are due to the volcano activity. Wherever we went on the island, there was TONS of lava rock. Big island has the only active volcano in Hawaii. We went to the Wapio Valley overlook. This overlook has view of the wapio valley and the black sand beach.

Breathtaking view of the valley 

 We continued on to visit the Hawaii National Botanical Gardens. Along the way we saw snow capped mountain Mauna Kea. It has snowed the previous night and it was a picturesque view. We barely made it to the botanical gardens in time for the last entry of the day (4pm)! As soon as we entered the trail was a bit steep and it had been raining..it always rains in this part of the island every day. I fell. Nothing hurt except my pride :) Lots of beautiful tropical plants and trees here.

Inside the Botanical Gardens

        

The Hawaii Rainforests are absolutely breathtaking. I would stay back and take all the sounds in. It's an experience like no other. I very much wanted to do a zipline but turns out it was an 8 zipline tour for which I would need to with the group to another location and do the tour and come back. If it wasn't for the kids Girish and I would have gone but I didn't want to go by myself. Oh well, next time for sure!! On day 2, we stayed back at the hotel and went to the pools and took it easy. It was great to get into the water. Aanya and Mehul really love the pool. Aanya's favorite floatie Loving my new sarong To the pool Relaxing Best friends!!

Day 3 and 4

We had tickets to the 'Breakfast with Whales' tour. Getting everyone up and dressed before breakfast is no easy task! Somehow we made it to the hotel lobby from where we were picked up to go to the tour. Whales were all around us. So close that it was scary and cool to think about it. Let's go! Mehul spotted a whale One of my favorite pics from the trip Waving bye Awesome experience!

And something for him

Ok - we all know girl clothing is just too cute to resist buying or making. But my big boy is not without mamamade clothing either. I made him 2 fleece hoodies last year. He helped by selecting the fabric combos and the shield applique. Everytime he puts one of these on it puts a smile on my face. Finally, something for my boy! There is another one in red and grey but I don't have a picture online for it.



The hoodie pattern is from the book 'Sewing clothes kids love'. It is actually a great book for children's clothing inspiration, patterns are really good and fit my petite kids very well. Sizing is European so you do need to figure out which size to make but information is all included in there. One of the items on my 52 things list is from this book - 'Feliz' which is the ultimate ruffly super twirly girls dress with an underlayer and an overlayer.

Few from last year

Last summer I was making Aanya a nice summery wardrobe. There are so many cute girl dress patterns that I have a hard time chosing which one to do. One such pattern is Summertime Dress. The designer is from a sewing forum I frequent and she is just as sweet as this dress is! I bought the pattern right as it came out and made the dress. It is adorable. I'm sad that it is too small for her now. I plan to make at least 2 more this summer.



(ignore the unfinished hem. this was try it out time)

Aanya had this simple knit frock which is way too cute on her. I traced the lines on paper and just recreated the pattern. It actually fits and looks cool! I made her 2 of these last year. Bonus points with this one because she can wear these as tunic over her jeans this year. Yay for knits!






I haven't done much sewing since last post. I have been tasked with coming up with pirate costumes for 7 kids from DS's Odyssey of the Mind program. It's not much, just vests made of felt but this project is actually preventing me from doing any sewing at all. There's so many things cut out and ready for attention but I am preventing myself from working on anything else. I will be glad when they're done.

Week 2: Overnight pads

I wanted to try mamacloth for a while now. Since I've been making Aanya's cloth diapers, I had all the supplies handy I just needed to find a good pattern. This pattern I tried has many good features. It has 2 parts - soaker and winged outer. It's very quick dry because the soaker/insert is just folded for use and comes open in the washer. The maroon fabric is waterproof PUL material. You can't tell from the picture but there is a layer of maroon microfleece as well to hide the shiny side of PUL as it can be irritating. The microfleece is soo soft.

The soaker is a layer of terry cloth and white microfleece. The microfleece is to keep the top layer dry. The snap is to keeps it in place. These are good overnight option because I can add a doubler in the middle of the insert if needed but so far I'm finding it is good as it is. I made one prototype and used it before going forward with the remaining 7. I love that they look like little purses. After use I just snap them up like this and drop them in the diaper pail until laundry day. Unsnap and throw in the washer with a bunch of diapers. The soaker is attached to the PUL on one side so it keeps them together. Now that these are done, I need to make some regulars and pantyliners.

Week 1: Little Grey Dress

Completed 1/07

Little Grey Dress Pattern

The dress is made of grey fleece from JoAnns. I hand stitched the cowl neck down so I wouldn't need to adjust it all the time. Head fits fine on Aanya. Sleeves are a little bit longer than I'd like but I only noticed it after finishing the dress. Oh well. Next year she can wear it as a tunic. Pleats look way better in person than the picture shows.

Some pictures

I have been getting to know my DSLR little by little after owning it for 5 years. I bought it with the intention of taking awesome memorable pictures of the kids (well, only Mehul at the time). Since it performs well even with the kit lens and on auto, I never bothered to learn it. Now I've decided the time has come so I've taken it off auto. Some of the cute shots from earlier last year.

One of my favorites. I've got it on the picture wall in the hallway.

Aanya is about 11 months old here.

Another favorite

A good friend said it's better than his school portrait :)

First post of the year!!

Happy New Year everyone!!

I have the dress finished! Will do a longer post later but I want to post the dress.

Cute tag

Thanks for all the nice comments. They mean a lot to me as I rebuild my blog :) Thanks for visiting. It will be an incentive to me to keep blogging.

2011 is coming to an end

Few hours and we will be saying goodbye to 2011. It was a great year and here's to another great one!!

Here is our holiday card this year! Happy New Year everyone!!

Green Fleece jacket

I have been making Aanya's clothing slowly but surely. I love dressing her up in mama-made clothing. I even bought the clothing tags that say 'mama made' :D It makes me so happy to see her wearing handmade things. Slowly I've been working on improving my initially pathetic sewing skills. Yesterday I made her this fully lined fleece jacket.Every new item becomes my current favorite and this is no exception. Here is the jacket pending the buttons

McCalls 5739

 

Fabric lining is Michael Miller Oriental Kids print.  Love!

Tonight I started making a matching dress. It will be a simple sleeveless dress in the same print, lined with white cotton. I can't wait for her to wear this ensemble.

I'm SO excited to be blogging again! It's great to have a place to put my thoughts in writing rather than just pictures here or there. I have a whole 1.5 yrs worth of pictures to share!! So stay tuned!