Saschathon: the HI life.

This past weekend was a busy and eventful one. It wasn't eventful as in a roller coaster ride of good and bad. It was the sort of eventful that gives you this positive high the following week.

On Friday, I finally got to help through my mom the best birthday surprise party-ever. Promise. I even took the day off of work for it. It's very difficult to keep a secret from my mom but everyone managed to do it and she was surprised. I think it worked because it wasn't on her birthday and she thought that she was going to a regular lunch meeting. She was greeted by a room full of her friends and family (MakKen came too).

Unfortunately for me, Brent and I got there just after she did so we were doing some serious espionage tailing and hiding while she cluelessly walked towards the restaurant, Beijing, at the Royal Hawaiian Center. Why were we late? I was in charge of buying the cupcakes, which I ordered through Frosted Hawaii, a company whose website was designed by Chiri (also how I found out about them). Although Brent and I picked them up in the morning, the pick up place was closer to my house so we took them to my place, went on a balloon hunt (failed) and then ended up going heading in to town where, of course we hit traffic.

The good news was that the cakes turned out to be super cute and were a huge hit. I ordered three flavors: Monkey business--banana cake with a peanut butter center and chocolate frosting (with the Paul Frank monkey face), Coconut with a coconut frosting and topping (the coconut shreds were dyed blye to look like water and she topped it with yellow surfboards) and mint dark chocolate with mint chocolate frosting (topped with yellow flowers). I decided to order the minis so that everyone could get a taste of all of the flavors...because I knew that I wanted a bit of each. They were all awesome but my favorite was "monkey business." The rave reviews the cupcakes got were well worth it.
That night, Brent and I went to see Shrek Forever After in 3D--yet another brilliant movie in the Shrek franchise and one that will definitely be added to our DVD collection down the road.

On Saturday morning, Brent came over to pick me up early (and by early I mean 930ish...maybe it was 10am) and he surprised me with a drive out to the North Shore for a brunch at Kono's. I had the banana mac-nut waffles while he got some freakin' French toast. It was delicious! After we ate, we went to the beach and saw sea turtles (too bad they didn't show in this picture) and sea-snail called pipi'i (pictured). It was nice to just chill for a bit before Brent insisted on going to Matsumoto's for some shaved ice. Of course I got excited and over-ate. I ordered a small azuki (red beans) and ice cream cone with strawberry cream-flavored shaved ice...topped with condense milk. I was pretty proud of the amount I ate. Brent kept saying, "don't worry, it's all just liquid anyway..." and egged me on till I nearly finished the entire thing. Now that was a challenge. I couldn't believe that I ate two full meals in less than two hours. Can you say chubbin?

We left shortly after and then went to my place to get ready for his dance battle at Fresh Café where he had been asked to be by 330p....Needless to say, we waited for a long time before Brent and Hype Beasts went on ( I think he did his first battle at around 9pm). You can watch the dance battle on Brent's blog...they won, duh :) I could tell that he was really enjoying himself out there, especially since he's been the judge for the past few times there's been a battle (and I know he was itching to dance). It was also nice that MakKen made it in time to watch Brent battle and afterward, we all went to Millions to celebrate.

Sunday was my mother's actual birthday so after sending her off to surf, my sister and I started our dinner preparations. My mom said she just wanted a simple dinner, "like spaghetti is fine," so that's what I made, spaghetti....and eggplant parmigiana, meatballs, salad, French bread and wine :) I'm sorry, there's no such thing as half-assing a dinner for an occasion like my mother's birthday. She enjoyed it. I made sure everyone was present: MakKen, Hannie, Brent, Salena and Harada. The only person missing was Junior and that couldn't be helped because he was on tour in Japan.

Junior came home on Monday but since he won't be here for Father's Day, we decided to do dinner yesterday. Grandma, Grandpa, Salena, Mommy, Brent and I went to dinner at Maile's Thai Bistro in Hawaii Kai. The food was awesome and I overate, again. When we came home, Ken and Makke were here so we got to spend some family time with the gang again.

Today, my mom, sister and I went to the Farmer's Market. I ran in to my favorite English teacher from high school and was pleasantly surprised that she remembered me. I guess she's a regular at that particular market as well so she said, "I'm sure I'll see you again soon!"

As I look back on my past week, I can't help but notice how lucky I am. Great family, great boyfriend, great friends and great life in Hawaii. I'm not high nor do I mean to ge all emotional on you or anything, but seriously, lucky I live Hawaii and lucky to be me :)