New hobbies, Rock Band 2 and P90X

Its been a while... I have some new hobbies. Rock band 2 and P90X.

We got Rock Band 2 from a Best Buy gift card from my parents. My wife and kids love to play Rock Band 2, we have the entire set. We have the guitar, the drums, and microphone. My son loves to play the drums, he doesn't really play he just thinks that he plays and beats the drum. My daughter loves to sing the songs....

she dances, holds the mike and sings just the chorus of 4 songs. My wife is the better guitar player and drummer. I think its because she knows how to play the piano. The game is pretty addicting, I have yet to play guitar hero world tour.

About P90X, I got it for Christmas from my Dad. Its awesome...I got my buttkicked from the first workout, it was a Chest and Back workout. I started last week but put it on hold this week because I'm overcoming a cold... but I've been following the diet. I lost 3 pounds since I started! We'll see how it goes...

Daddy belly

So its been 2 months since the last blog. No excuse just lazy. I had two pretty intense classes, Finance for Managers and Business Strategy. We've had some family emergencies. We have to move out of our apartment because the owner wants to sell it and my wife is expecting our 3rd child. So I'm pregnant too, I'm always hungry and my mood changes sometimes. It seems that whenever my wife is pregnant I gain a little weight. So to offset that I've been trying to workout atleast 3 times a week. I'm following a "Men's Health Belly Off" program. Its pretty good. I know I get a good work out because I'm all sweaty when I finish one of the work outs. I use to have a six-pack, that was when I was single and danced at the Polynesian Cultural Center and worked out 3-4 days a week. Sigh, like in the movie, "The Incredibles", 'the glory days'. I now have a 'Daddy belly', you know the belly that your kid can sit on your tummy while you're holding them while standing. I gained like 25 pounds since I've been married.
I just saw the movie on DVD, "Run Fat Boy Run", it is hilarious. I laughed so hard with that movie. It kind of motivates me to continue to workout. Its about this out of shape and out of luck guy, Dennis who ran away from his girlfriend, Libby who was pregnant at the altar. Its now 5 years later and Dennis wants to run a marathon to earn the respect for Libby who is the mother of his 4 year old impressionable son and most of all to compete with her handsome boyfriend. Its British humor and I think its funny. I won't tell you what happens at the end. You have to find out for yourself.
The last movie I saw in the movie theater was High School Musical 3, Senior Year. It was surprisingly really good. I loved the singing and the dancing. The acting was pretty good. The best movie of the series. Yes, I have seen all 3 HSMs. I have the soundtracks. I have seen the first movie over 20 times. Its because of my daughter liked to watch it alot. Yeah, right.
Back to working out. I would love to get a 24 hour Fitness membership but its so crazy expensive. Hmm 4oo bucks for 3 years and I gotta pay up front, what if I don't go as often? Lose money if you're lazy. What a cool concept, pay a fee to work out for 1-3 years upfront. These guys that started gyms are smart. Yeah, diet can help too. I don't eat as much as I did in college. Just gotta eat smarter like an adult. I tend to eat my kids leftovers. I didn't know that men can gain weight eating they're children's left overs. There have been studies on this. Sorry I forgot the article title. Its just the Hawaiian culture, no waste especially food.

TV or read?

I just read an article online from msn.com about TV and if there is a link to ADHD. It says that that TV affects children's ability to concentrate and pay attention. Kinda scary because I let my kids watch TV in the morning. Playhouse Disney and Nick Jr. is our morning choice of TV programming. My kids love "Little Einstein", "My Friends Tigger and Pooh", "Dora the Exporer", and "Yo Gabba Gabba". So its about 2 hours worth of TV in the morning. Then I have them watch good ole "Sesame Street". Yeah, I guess thats too much. I did talk to few moms at church and some let their kids watch TV all day. But they only let them watch Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel. I usually sometimes let my kids watch a DVD, a kid one like "Curious George" the movie. My son gets that glazed look when he watches, he can be a couch potatoe. Its kinda scary sometimes when I call him and he doesn't respond after 3 times. Here's the article for TV and ADHD:

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/adhd/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100161248

I noticed my daughter who is 4, usually gets bored from TV shows after 15 minutes and leaves to play with her toys. She does not like to read or have us read to her as often as her brother. My son loves to be read to. He loves to open books and look at the pictures and I can hear him sometimes pretending to read outloud. I bought my kids the Bob Books, to help them to read. Its simple reading and repetitive. I did not like to read when I was kindergarten age, my wife, my opposite, loved to read. She still does. Maybe thats why shes so smart. My wife and I try to read to our kids everyday. We borrow books at the library. Our kids get excited because its a novelty thing. New books, yayy!

Believe it or not our kids are much smarter than we were and they are learning faster and better because of improved education and teaching methods. I really gotta get on the ball in educating my kids more than letting Mr. TV teach them. On that same article mentioned above it said to continue to teach your child the subject or object that was displayed. Like on "Sesame Street" if the letter of the day was "M". Continue to help your kid understand words that start with "M" and point out objects at home, like "mat", "man".

Video Games

Its been a while since my last blog. Been busy with classes and homework, family, and other things. One of those other things has been video games. I've been playing Madden 09 on my Playstation 2. Its pretty good. Not much more different than that of the year before. I guess all the cool newer features for the game are for the PS3 and the Xbox 360. I seen the demos, tons more better than the PS2.
Alright so you're wondering when do I have the time to play? I play at night when the kids are sleeping and at naptime. Yeah, I am suppose to be working out during naptime or clean the house during that time. So I've been up late or early in the morning playing till my eyes can't stay open. Video games is like an outlet for me, like working out. We have a Nintendo Wii also, I don't play it as much since I got the new Madden game. I'll get a PS3 after I get a HDTV. That will be next year Christmas time. We can't afford it so we won't buy it. I think preschool payments take priority then our entertainment gadgets. Oh, can't forget my student loan...one day we will buy a house....one day...some day.

The beach and playground wisdom

At Windward Mall

Kakela Beach, (Alligator Rock)

We had a great time being in Laie with my wife's side of the family. We stayed the entire last week there and had fun with another sister in law and her son. The best beach for the kids in the Laie Hau'ula area is Kakela beach, the Alligator rock side which is all the way to the right side of the beach. I heard that by Shark's Cove there is a spot where there's tide pools which is good for the kids also. I heard that Ko'olina Resort is a nice place also for the keiki.

The picture above is my son riding on a mano, a shark. That playground area at Windward mall is the best place for the kids. Except when really dumb parents leave their little kids there and go shopping and have other parents watch their kids. There was this wild kid who was pretty rough with all the other kids. He almost pulled down my son from the play boat area until my sister in law pulled him away and scolded the rotten kid. And where was his parents? Oh no where to be found. The mom just left him there by himself, a 5 year old being watched by strangers. Man, some people no more common sense. As my wife's tutu would say, "Some people they get a nerve, yeah?"

Lupulu is grindz! Part Ua

Yes I made lupulu again. Now I write the recipe

Ingrediments:

Palm Corn beef (the round can, made in New Zealand)
Taro Leaves
Coconut milk (canned is okay)
Onions
Salt and pepper

Tin foil
Cake pan or foil pan

Sorry I didn't take any pictures.

Instructions:

• Open the cans with the can opener, this can be done with a knife. (I seen this done before but you kinda need strong and steady hands and a sharp knife. I seen this done with my knife by my roommate. Don't try it if you're a wimp and safety conscious.)
• Prep the tin foil, pulling out 2 sheets for one lupulu serving. Have the 2 sheets laying perpendicular, so you have like an "x".
• Cut the stalks off the taro leaves and place the leaves facing up on your "x" tinfoil. Maybe 5-10 taro leaves.
• Then shape the foil to a wide bowl with the leaves on it.
• Put the desired amount of corn beef onto the leaves.
• Put the desired amount of chopped onions and salt and pepper on the corn beef.
• Pour half to the whole can of the coconut milk on to the meat and onions.
• Then fold in the leaves.
• Fold down the tinfoil and try not to spill out the coconut milk.
• There you have one serving. It can be big or small depends how much leaves and meat you put inside. Repeat the making process for as much as want.
• Place the wrapped lupulu in the pan. If you have more than you can fit in the pan. Don't stack it on top of each other. Get another pan. I made that mistake because it won't steam evenly.
• Put in the oven for 400 degrees for 3 hours. If after 3 hours and you taste it and your tongue and throat is itchy, put it back in for a little longer.

Small kine tips

Where can you get taro leaves? Foodland and Tamura's have taro leaves. But I heard that a store called "Wong's" and another called "Masa's" has the best taro leaves. One is in Hau'ula and the other is either in Kahana or Kapahulu. I forget which is which. Both stores are along the Kamehameha Hwy. The store Masa's sells the best kine of coconut milk to cook your lupulu with. How I know all this? I asked my Tongan friend. Please leave comments if you have a better recipe or know where to get taro leaves in Utah.

The Little Princess Party

We first had the kids swim in the pool outside. You notice in the picture the Princess Aurora/Sleeping Beauty bathing suit that my daughter has on. Thanks mom. The kids had fun playing in the pool because the past week it had been raining but not during our scheduled time. The pool ofcourse is the little fill up kind that you inflate air for the sides. I broke the water hose while trying to fill up the pool. There were a few kinks in the hose when I turned it on and one of the kinks burst open and I had a nice sprinkler in the middle of the hose. So I had my sprinkler hose to fill up the pool. I better go buy my in-laws a nice good hose at Home Depot. My wife got some cheap water guns so my son had fun shooting his sister and cousin. My niece also got some scuba masks and the scuba air tube. I forget what its called. The pool is like less than a foot deep. But I had nice use of the scuba tube and used it to blow water on the kids.

My wife was very creative for the activities. After the pool, the kids decorated foam visors with these little foam stickers that came with letters, floral designs, and butterflies. As you can see above Mikayla is modeling it well. She was so happy and thrilled to do a little craft activity. She just did everything on her own. My wife bought everything at Walmart.

After the visor decorating, it was...dipping oreos and pretzels in chocolate! My niece and I ate most of the things we were dipping. You just take some chocolate chip morsels put it in a microwave bowl. Then put in the microwave for a minute, then mix it and put it in the microwave again for another minute. Mix. Then dip. Oh yeah, the bowl is hot be careful. You can dip strawberries, bananas, anykind of fruit. After you dip your cookie or whatever, you put it on wax paper. To harden the chocolate just stick the wax paper of goodies in the fridge for a good half hour or so. I forgot that its kind of hard to transport the wax paper of chocolate covered goodies when there is no solid flat surface underneath. Don't forget to put a cookie sheet pan under it all. This little dipping technique comes from my mom. Again this little activity was my wife's brilliant and fun idea! I take no credit. I just had fun doing the activities.

We then ate lunch consisted of hot dogs, spam musubis, and chips. All of my daughter's favorite foods. All really simple to prepare and good on the budget. Soon after was the singing of Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles on the special doll cake. Mikayla was thrilled to see the doll cake and also she loves singing Happy Birthday. What kid doesn't like their birthday? Above you can see the wonderful doll cake crafted by my awesome wife. It was a tradition in my wife's family where their grandma would make a doll cake for each of her sisters for their birthdays. It was one of wife's favorite memories. The dress is the cake. You can't eat the doll. The whole process of making the doll cake is secret so I have to ask my wife.... okay I don't remember how she did it. I was keeping the kids occupied when she was making it...

The birthday girl opened presents and then we headed outside for the pinata smashing.

We were all ready for a nap when it ended. Man, the adults were all tired. There was my sister in law, my mother in law, my wife, and I. My daughter was happy and estatic so that meant we did good. Thanks ladies.