A day spent with the 6 and under crowd

Yep, you read that correctly. I'm pretty popular with the 6 and under crowd. I'm expecting a nickelodeon award soon for coolest old person of 2010. I'm also up against Justin Bieber and the Fresh Beat Band but I think I've got a pretty good chance at winning.

See, today I went to my second 3rd birthday party with Miss Vicki, everyone's favorite preschooler teacher. After getting to spend some

Vicki @ Cafe Laufer

quality time with the bestie and her entire class of 3 year-olds (bouncy house included), I hung out with my sister for the rest of the day. Like not just go home and watch tv and sleep like I was sorely tempted to do. Salena got in to the car as I picked her up from my mom and told me that she'd like to do something fun..."like go play games." By "fun," she meant Fun Factory and I did not feel like doing that so I suggested a Halloween costume hunt with her after letting her know that Fun Factory is closed today (hey, don't judge me for my little lie. It was for the greater good, trust).
Anyway, she didn't object too much and had her heart set on being Sleeping Beauty so off we went to the Disney store, only to find out that everyone else had the same idea as we did. After she tried on a few princess shoes (that lit up!) and I had convinced her that sleeping beauty was a bad idea since she'd get hot with the long sleeves, she decided on being Belle from Beauty and the Beast. As we stood in an abnormally long line of parents and kids clutching various costumes and accessories, I looked again and the $50 dress we were about to waste my money on. "Hey Salena? I bet I can make this for you," I said with sudden Sascha-like gung-ho-ness (oh groan, you say?). Well she jumped on the idea of doing a project together so we ended up buying her $16 shoes and $10 crown (to go with her dress, duh) and we walked out with a renewed pep in our step. I mean, why go the simple route and just buy the damn dress when clearly, there are much more complicated ways to go about arranging a Halloween costume for a 6 year old...sigh
....Long story short, a cheaper $30 Target-version of the dress + $17 of material later (I know, I lost on this one but it sounded like a great idea at the time), we were at home dissecting the cheap, itch-inducing dress. I mean, the end result what nothing short of fantastically brilliant, but, it was a lot of work. Oh well, I did get a "I had fun today, Sascha," so it was worth it.

The $50 Disney Store version.

The back.

The $150 Disney Store Belle dress I was determined to out shine.

The end result of a Salena-Sascha collaboration.

The back. I wish I took a picture of the "before" dress to show you the difference. We took off the sleeves, the ugly skirt and pink flowers and then added those gold flower that we made on our own, a big bow in the back, a pink sash like the one from Disney store, none itchy sleeves and the fabulous glittery tulle skirt. Good job us!

The real Mickey Mouse Club.

A quick stop at cafe Laufer for some Italian cream sodas (and *ahem* a cream puff) with Vicki before hanging out with mini me.

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Out & About

Normally, I would profusely apologize for take a month hiatus but that would just sound like my last update so I'll just get straight to the point...here's some pictures...*ahem* sorry, I meant TONS of pictures :)...try to keep up if you can:

First, let me start by saying Engrish is awesome. If you can't read what's written, it says "Mixican Red Peppers"

I'm sure it's just because the cactus didn't translate as a "y" but this was still pretty awesome.

Btw, I wonder what ume cactus honey tastes like...

Vicki, Salena and I went to a new restaurant called "Hot Pot Heaven..."

And that we were...yum!

We went to the new dessert store next door after we ate...it was called snow.

It looks like there's more than you'd think...It was very light and I almost prefered it to ice cream...

...That is, until I went for a scoop of ice cream with Brent right after at Bubbie's

Besides the awesome ice cream, I love the awesomely creeptastic names of their ice cream cakes...like "come here little girl"

 I got to enjoy a sushi party at a family friend's place. they had all sorts of great sushi making things and we got to make our own sushi....you get surprisingly full off of this.

 They also served up very expensive wine...it was pretty delicious.

 Brent taught a class for "National Dance Day" at the Boys & Girls Club

 Then we went for shave ice!

 As always, Waiola's is ever crowded but soooo worth the wait.

 Brent and I checked out a new store at Ala Moana called Q-Pot. They sell intensely intricate jewelry and accessories with a food theme. The Golden Burger is a pendant that you get to customize by putting together any of the toppings....crazy!

  The layout looks more like a sweet shop than a jewelry store.

 That night, Brent, me, Salena, my momma and MakKen went to Los Chapparos for some mexican. Apparently, Brent was craving a taco salad..

Ironically, Brent ordered a HUGE burrito instead but the food was delicioso!

We got churros for dessert!

 I think this was a Sunday: My momma, Salena and I went for a drive to Kailua...

 ...in order to meet up with MakKen for brunch (at 1pm).  I guess others had the same idea because we ended up waiting for an hour.

 The crazy thing was that the restaurant's closing time is 230p...and it was still this busy!

 If you were wondering if the food was worth it, it absolutely was!

 On First Friday, I babysat! Just kidding,

 We went to our first First Friday event at the Hawaii State Art Museum in Downtown.

 They had live entertainment and a lot of food booths. It was cool to see the mix of people gathered.

Entrance to HiSAM

 They had a little cafe inside the place called Downtown.

 We learned that although they're only opened for lunch, once a month (during First Friday), Downtown does a Latin tapas-style dinner menu.

 Obviously, we had to try the food...I mean it's only opened once a month! Here's lamb on couscous.

 Here's a risotto with sausage. Both delicious!

 August 10th was Hiroyo's birthday! 

 So we all went to dinner at Tanaka of Tokyo.

 Hi mom!

 Artistic angle.

 Gang's all here!

Tonight I went to my first bonodori (Bon Festival) in a long time. My momma and sister got dressed up...as did I :)

 Although it was a different atmosphere from the ones I had been to in Japan, the bonodori here was just as lively and much more diverse!

It was cool to see others get dressed for the occassion and even cooler to see visitors trying out the dance. 

They had food stalls...this really made me miss Japan. I haven't been back in years :(

 They even sold masks like they do in Japan...

And yes, my sister got one.

 I heart my family!