May day...lei day

May day is lei day at Kapiaolani park and schools all over Hawaii. Kids do presentations for their parents wearing beautiful Hawaiian flower and plant leis. Kapiolani park hosts a lei competition and ceremony for the lei queen. All of these gorgeous flowers strung together are found growing on trees and shrubs around the island.


The old native kapa cloth skirts or wraps worn below are made from plant fibers pounded and woven together and dyed with plant dyes from various trees and shrubs to get the different browns.


On Memorial Day evening, I missed an event that I had been looking forward to; the floating of thousands of hand made lanterns on Ala Moana beach. (The island is going to my head! ...Okay, I agree, I always forget stuff like this! Anyway, click on the links for the local report. I watched it here too; great music, wonderful ceremony, perfect sentiments if you've ever lost a loved one. Watch this for a while, and remember that person.)

http://www.lanternfloatinghawaii.com/
http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/17638/245/

Our Hawaiian life

We are kama 'aina!...That's Hawaiian for "folks who are living in the islands." We have routines, schedules, and we know our way around to most important places. That doesn't mean we don't lean heavily on the GPS when setting off on an adventure, but finally, a trip to the grocery store or library no longer fits into the category of "adventure." We've made good friends, and many new interesting acquaintances. Our 7 year old started at the local school where they teach Japanese and where he feels "smart" in math. Our 10 year old is working on reading every book in the Kailua library and eagerly awaiting a visit from his friend who will be here for 2 weeks. We snorkel at Hanauma bay every Monday morning, Susan is singing in the church choir, John and Noah are paddling in the canoe clubs, there's papaya at the farmer's market each Thursday, and recently, we had so many social engagements that we over-booked! So it's a sign to me that we've created a spot for ourselves in this new community.