Yummy Breakfasts, Hawaiian Style

I love breakfast, I especially love breakfast out at a cafe, and I most especially love American breakfasts out at a cafe!

All that delicious deep fried bacon, yummy eggs and pancakes. Always pancakes.
Mmmm... Denny's....

Denny's is a fave of ours, they always have delicious Americanness breakfasts. Hash brown, sausage, bacon and pancakes? Yes please! I had Pumpkin Pie Pancakes this time, and they were AWESOME! Not to mention massive! With a giant dollop of whipped butter covered in cinnamon sugar. Oh how I wish for some right now!

Jaimeson loved Denny's too! Check out that smile! LOL!

Then we went to IHOP. I forgot to take a pic of my whole breakfast, but here I am with a half finished plate of pancakes, so obviously I had pancakes again. Jaimeson had mushrooms, he's a mushroom man.

Then we went to Eggs & Things, which had a fabulous write-up online, and I have to say, was totally crap. We waited 45mins for a routine breakfast that didn't even measure up to Denny's. We were a little annoyed after the long wait! Will had portugese sausage with home-fries, which were small squares of fried potato. Jai had scrambled eggs, a sausage and a single pancake. Sausage and egg were winners, pancake got barely a look-in, clearly he takes after Will.

Here someone is about to attack my Corn Beef Hash when I wasn't looking!

Look, more pancakes! Along with my Corned Beef Hash and easy-over eggs.

Verdict:
1.Pancakes rock.
2.Eggs & Things is way over-rated.
3.I love Breakfast.

:) C

Absolute FAVOURITE thing...

In Hawaii, Jai's absolute favourite thing was to "Ride The Bus". Good thing he's easy to please. Every afternoon we caught the bus to Ala Moana Centre to do some shopping {heart warming at the memory of awesome shopping} and Jai just had the BEST time waiting for the bus, pointing at all the other buses, and finally, getting on the bus, waving at everyone on the bus, and spotting other buses out the bus window. He's a little in love with buses (and trains).

Getting along nicely with the other people at the Bus Stop.

Bus spotting, out the bus window. Other fun things to point out are birds, bikes and trucks.

We all enjoyed the ride!

When there was finally a free seat next to me, Jaimeson wanted to sit on it on his own, but he still wanted to hold my hand {hearts rising from head!}. What a cute tiny hand holding mine! (Not to mention a brown hand, man this kid tans easily, just like Daddy!)

Look Mum! We're on a bus!
:) C

Another Tiny Train!

While we were in Hawaii, we rode 2 trains, much to Jaimeson's excitement. That's quite an effort since Hawaii doesn't have a rail network!
We were shopping at Windward Mall in Kaneohe on the second day of having our hire car, feeling like we'd stepped back to 1987 cos this Mall is seriously stuck in the past with black glass and weird hexagonal shaped floorplan. Not to mention empty of people and good shops, when it suddenly redeemed itself with one small toot of a train whistle. A miniature mall-train!

What more could Jaimeson want, than a ride on a mall-train? Yep, nothing. So apparently Christmas came early for Jai!

He was a little chuffed with our yellow Carriage.

Say Cheese for Daddy, cos he has to mind the pram and the shopping bags (ok, so I did find something to buy in 1987, no puffy sleeves in sight though!). Our conductor/driver took things VERY seriously. He sold us our tickets ($2 per ride I think it was) then said "I'll come along and ask for the tickets and you'll need to show them". Like 2 seconds after we got our tickets and climbed into the carriage he booms "tickets please!" and waits for me to show ours. Ok dude, you just gave them to me! LOL! But it was so realistic, after he collected our tickets he booms "All Aboard!!", rings the bell, blows some steam out of the train funnel (where did that come from?) and off we went!

It was a really long ride, we did 3 laps of the mall which I thought was pretty cool! Some of the shop keepers stopped what they were doing just to wave at us! And Jai loved it when we passed the pet shop {oof oof! Oof oof!} at the puppies!

Here is our uber serious Train Driver, cool outfit hey! LOL!
What a fun ride, even if we had to step back to 1987 to go on the train!
:) C

Hanauma Bay of Awesomeness

Hi y'all!

I'm back with more fantastic pics from our magnificent Hawaii holiday! Holiday! Celebrate! {Madonna song humming through head!} Oh take me back to Hawaii now! I miss it already!
We took The Bus #22 out to Hanauma Bay for a little snorkelling, it is our favourite place on the island, after all! This time the bus took us past some of the fancy shmancy houses at Kahala, the million-dollar-look-like-they're-out-of-a-reality-show, kinda houses. I was most impressed. But with Jaimeson on my lap, and a full bus, I didn't get to whip out my camera! So just Google Streetview it.

Here is our usual pic at the top of the hill! See my post HERE.

We hired one set of snorkel gear cos only one of us could go while the other played on the sand with Jaimeson. Will went first for about 20 mins, he was super improved from previous snorkelling attempts. I mean, he could actually use the snorkel, mask and flippers, all at once! Impressive {high five!} When he came back it was my turn...

Lookin' hot right? {tongue in cheek!}

My safety inspector checks out my gear.

I was able to go out pretty far and check out some of the back reefs. It was a bit lonely with no-one to point at fish with, and get excited when you spot something weird looking like this long skinny clear fish. What is that???

And the South African Flag fish. He was pretty cool. Wonder what he's really called.
Then... oh my gosh... oh my gosh!! I was just swimming along above the reef and in a hole in the reef I saw.....

A turtle!!!! I WAS SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!! {clapping hands with glee!} He was nibbling on the algae growing on the side of the reef {delicious!} I poked my head up to see if anyone else was snorkelling around me so I could call out for them to come have a look, but I was on my own in the ocean! {slight nervousness at being shark bait!} So I just enjoyed him all to myself for a couple of minutes...

before he'd had his fill of algae and swam away.

I was soooo excited and swam straight into shore to tell Willy! He joked that I "kept banging on about the Turtle for the rest of the trip" but I loved seeing it! I wish he had seen it too!
Oh how I love Hanauma Bay, it's cemented in my memory as my favourite place in Hawaii now! (And Jai had a great time playing in the sand too!)
Happy Weekend!!
:) C

Dole Pineapple Plantation

Hi y'all!
Day 2 of our Hawaii Adventure, saw us hire a Chevy Malibu and head up the middle of Oahu to the North Shore. We stopped at a Salvos and Goodwill on the way through, and I had Pyrex success! YAY! More about that later...

On our way to the North Shore we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Dad went the last time we were in Hawaii and said how they had a little train and yummy Dole Whip, and so I knew it would be fun thing to do with Jaimeson!

Yay for the Pineapple Express!

Their beautiful, scrapbook-worthy tickets for the train! It was $8.50 per adult to ride the train, which wasn't too bad. I appreciated that my money went towards such pretty tickets. {giggles!} That must be the scrapbooker in me!

On the train, ready to roll! See the people sitting behind us leant out of the pic?! I didn't realise they were doing it, and we took like 4 pics and so they kept having to bend out of the way! Sorry peeps! LOL! They were actually behind us in the line at Budget when we hired our car, and 2 hours later we ended up sitting together on the Dole train! How funny!

"Say Cheese!" Yep, Jaimeson has the best timing when it comes to learning to smile for the camera! He learned to "say cheese" the day before we left. What a champion!

Hehehehe, Will as a Ukelele-playing pineapple!

Look! They had a head-hole down low for Jaimeson! {Belly laugh!} Look how cute he is standing up there on his own!

And the delicious Dole Whip! It's like pineapple flavoured creamy gelato-ish icecream. YUM YUM YUM! I wish I could have some right now.... mmmmmm {licking lips!} Jaimeson hoed into it too!
:) C

Aloha Lams!!

Hi y'all!
Yes, we're back from Paradise... oh it was such a wonderful holiday! The sun, the sand, the surf, the shopping, the family time, the food, the Christmas flavoured coffee, Jai loving catching the bus, the tiny trains we rode on and having 10 days of just the three of us. Pure paradise!
Be prepared for the photo tsunami that's coming!

Did you know this is what that little bag holder at the top of Airport Trolleys is for? Yep! It's a baby holder. That's what happens when you travel with Jetstar and they take your pram at check-in and don't offer a loaner pram.

Here are the Lams, ready to set off!!

We arrived!! When we got to our hotel at 9am, prepared to drop off our bags and crawl into a hole somewhere in Waikiki for a nap, they delightfully announced our room was actually ready and we could go in then. Will nearly dived over the counter to kiss the lady at check-in. His eyes were ready to pop out of his head! He and Jai settled down for a sleep and I went out to Waikiki to do some shopping! LOL! Ain't nothing gonna break my stride!

It actually took us a couple of days to get to the beach at Waikiki, the first day was a write-off and the next 2 days we had a car so travelled all around the island, but I thought I'd post the beach pics first, cos that seems so iconically "Hawaii" to me! Look Diamond Head!

The boys were watching some boats out to sea.

Look Dad, a plane! LOL! Jai, totally distracted.

We took his little boat from home, but he really just wanted to swim in our arms, so we only used it the once.

The first time we went down to the beach we spent about half an hour playing in the breaking waves. Jai was squealing and laughing at the top of his voice, he was having a ball! He was so loud with his constant enjoyment, that he actually drew a little crowd of people who stopped to watch this little fellow, having the time of his life in the waves! It was so funny! Will and I couldn't stop laughing! {hearts rising from head}

More wave jumping!

Look Mummy, paradise!

I was so happy that Jai loved the beach. Like, he LOVED the beach. You could see a bit of the ocean from our hotel balcony, and if Jai saw it he would start flapping his arms and legs saying "Ga GA! Ga Ga!!" which is his word for water, both his drinking water in his sippy cup, and any other body of water like and ocean or river! Too funny! As we were walking down the path to the beach, you could tell when he caught sight of it cos the flapping would begin and he'd start pointing and the pitch of his voice calling "Ga Ga!" would get higher and higher! {giggles}

Here's my usual "Holiday Feet" pic. See Will and Jaimeson on the beach?

So that was our first day at Waikiki Beach! What a fantastic time it was! The water was a little cooler than when we'd been before, and there was no surf at all! But we loved it! Can you tell by the pic?
Stay tuned for more posts and a lot more pics!!
:) C

Some stuff off my desk....

Hi y'all!
Sometimes I have a offcut of paper on my desk, and I get really inspired to do something with it, right now!! {dashing around madly gathering complementary supplies!} This is not hard to imagine, seeing as my desk is covered and I only have a tiny clear area within which to work, there is bound to be something inspiring hiding there amongst the crap!

I had this pink spotty paper, egging me on to use it! For the first card I used my "Up in the Air" set by Stampin Up and some plain yellow BG paper. I stamped the sentiment included in the set on another spotty piece of paper I had hanging around on my desk. The little birds stamp is in the Up in the Air set too, I {heart} them! I finished the card off with some ribbon and jewels and voila! Done!

Next up I used another Stampin Up set, it's a retired Hostess set, but I can't remember it's name right now! D'oh! LOL! I thought this guy was pretty cute, but needed a bit of feminising with a pink hat and shirt! LOL! {giggles}. The black scallop rectangle I cut ages ago using my Nestabilities and it was hanging about on my desk too. Hooray for using it up! More of the ribbon (this time in a bow), more jewels and some corner rounding and this one was done too! Yay!
Hope you're having a good week!
:) C

On the beach (but not Hawaii!)

Seeing as we're on holidays, I should post a page about another holiday this year! Another Overseas holiday too {so spoilt!}.

So here is Jaimeson, on the beach at Orewa, in Northlands, North Island, New Zealand back in March. Oh thats a mouthful of N's! We went for a walk along the beach, and Jaimeson would not stay in my arms and wanted to hop down and feel the sand between his toes! When he got onto the sand, he was a bit confused about the weird gritty stuff! LOL! Clearly, it wasn't a very hot summer last year or we would have been to the beach a bit more. I hope it's a warmer one this year! I need the beach!!
I {heart} the background paper! I know it's Christmas, but I didn't care! I think it worked out quite nicely on this page! After all, it wasn't a warm sunny day at the beach! LOL!
Fun stuff: the paper!, my favourite Doodlebug lettering stickers, the artisan shape journalling spot; my gorgeous boy! (he's fun stuff!)
:) C

Oh Baby Baby!

Hi y'all!
I'm setting this to automatically post while we're away, I'm not making cards on holidays. LOL! I'm probably sipping on a Mai Tai right now, or shopping my heart out at Ala Moana Centre! YAY!
I make a lot of Baby Cards for my card box. I think they are my most bought card! I guess people are always having babies aren't they?!

I really enjoy making baby cards, I think I have a lot of sweet stamps to use and I like the sweet soft colours!  This Owl is from Maya Road, and I paired it with some sweet pink and brown papers (a gorgeous colour combo) and the sentiment is from Stampin Up.

I'm sure I've made this card before, using the cute Kaisercraft Elephant stamp and some Stampin Up stars! I love it though, so I've made it again! The sentiment is from Stampin Up.
Sometimes I like to break out of the "soft box" though, and go with something a bit brighter, like this Tiger.

He's so cute! He is from Kaisercraft too. They have a great range of individual animal stamps! I have a few and I love them. They make great kids birthday cards too!

How about a Penguin? I {heart} this guy! He looks pretty cool in pink! How about adding some yellow ric rac? Yeah, looks cool!

I have also done him (or her) with a toothpick "flag" with the sentiment on the end, for Xander's birthday. Love it!

Back to the pastel cards, this time, with a Hero Arts owl and Stampin Up sentiment.

And a similar card in a different orientation.
Have you been making cards this week?
:) C