Dirty Dash

I know it is hard to recognize the mud-covered people in this photo but just wanted to post a quick pic from last weekend's insanity--aka The Dirty Dash.


I'm not really a mud kind of person so I am not sure what I was thinking when I signed up to do this with a group from my EMBA class. Luckily, I was able to talk Simone into coming up so we could let the kids do the Piglet Plunge. It also took some explaining to my parents that no actual pigs are involved in the race. (Apparently, back during my dad's childhood they used to grease up pigs and let the kids catch them for fun--so he thought from the "Piglet Plunge" name that we were chasing some lil' porkers around :)

Anyway, the kids had a blast (well, that was up until I tried to get Tehani and Eva to take a cold shower. After tears and lots a shivering, we broke down and paid the $4 a piece to let them wash off in a warm shower--wimps)

And for those of you that want video proof, you have it (thanks to the overachieving guy in my group with a waterproof video camera :) And just remember, anytime you don't see me in the video, its because I'm holding the vidoe camera (Hello, I work at a TV station :)

Fashionista Fun (aka Tehani's B-Day Party)

One of the fun things about having a girl is getting to plan girl birthday parties. Well, I am proud to say that Tehani's 10th party did not disappoint...

Initially, we had a hard time deciding whether to hold her part on Friday night or Saturday (her actual birth day :) I was partial to holding on the actual day (because how often does that happen.) But the b-day girl had other plans, so Friday it was!

Tehani and friends decorated baseball caps with puffy paint, designed and modeled outfits out of toilet paper, decorated cupcakes, opened presents and everything else you would expect at a 10 year old's soiree. Tehani loved all of her presents--and I loved the fact that I can now cross this off of my mental "to-do" list...

Happy Birthday Tehani! I know that they next ten years with be just as entertaining (and fun) as the first :)

You must have my kid confused with someone else

So the kids have been in school for just over a week and we got our first email from one of the teachers the other night...

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Tevaga,
It has been really delightful to get to know Kobe over the past week and a half. He has a natural ability in being a leader and many of the students already look up to him and follow his example. As a teacher, I particularly appreciate this because Kobe is a very respectful student and he treats his classmates well. I am grateful to have his example in class and am looking forward to seeing more of his talents unfold throughout the duration of the year. Miss "Teacher"

Leader? Respectful? Are you sure were talking about the same kid here?? My kid's name is Kobe--you know, the one with the big afro hair. I mean this can't really be the same kid that occasionally likes to sigh and roll his eyes when I ask him to do something? Hmm...
(Well, he has always been a good actor...)

In other unbelievable news, the kids love, Love, LOVE school. They come home every day talking about what they did. It's been nice to get back into somewhat of a routine (and to get the kids out of the house all day) Kobe's taking Chinese so he sang me a song they are learning (though for all I know he could just be saying jibberish--and I'm telling him "That sounds great!)

Anyway, just to be safe I'm posting a pic of my "lil leader." Who knows--maybe I'm raising the future president of the United States?? (I'm going to assume that if we can have a black president, we can also have a half Samoan one too :) But if "Miss Teacher" happens to be surfing the Internet and comes across this pic, can you please confirm that this was the kid you were talking about?

It's Finally Here

My kids have literally been counting down the days. No, there is not some cool video game coming out. It's not even a trip to Chicago. They've been counting down the days until school would start and IT IS FINALLY HERE!

I didn't think they were going to make it. We had a bunch of neighbor kids that started almost two weeks ago. Everyone else we knew started last week. I thought my kids were going to poke their eyes out if they had to sit at home for another day, (Being the good mom that I am, I let them turn the TV room into one large blanket fort--we've had it like that for the last week or so!) Needless to say, we were all very ready for school to start (Yes, I know--what is wrong with these kids actually wanting to go to school!)

Kobe got up at 5am. He came in our room and asked if it was too early to take a shower (duh) Tehani got up much to early as well and spent the next two hours perfecting her hair and outfit for the day. School doesn't event start until 8:15--but the kiddos were ready to leave while it was still dark out :)

Now, any kid of mine should know that you are not going to leave for the first day of school without the obligatory photos out on the front porch. You'd think they'd learn that the sooner they can both a picture where they both have their eyes open (notice how Kobe is tying his shoes above with his eyes closed) and with normal looks on their faces, we could leave sooner...I beleive this was the picture I took after I said "Open your eyes!" I should have told Tehani that those insturctions were for Kobe only. The kids were sure that we were going to be late for school (which would've been ironic since they had our whole house up at the crack of dawn)

Anyway, after snapping this lil' picture the kids were officially ready for their first day back at Meridian school. Happy School Year kids! (Don't forget to learn something)

What religion are you?

I remember when I was growing up and would ask my mom what a word meant when I didn't know the meaning. Her standard answer was "Why don't you look that up in the dictionary?" I can honestly say that I didn't ever bother (which means she is the cause of my mediocre vocabulary skills:)

Anyway, now that the kids are back they've been double-teaming me with all of sorts of words--articulate, mortality, Pol Pot (Ok, I didn't know who that was but thats what Google is for anyway, right?) And these were just the "What does this mean" words from one day!

Just when I thought the "Word Quiz-o-Rama" couldn't get any worse, Kid #1 through me for a lil' loop at breakfast the other day:
"Mom, what's a virgin?

I gave the appropriate eleven year old answer (its a person that's never had sex before just in case you are wondering) and had to chuckle with the reply I received..."Oh. I've always thought it was a religion."

I can hardly wait to see what "unknown" words they come up with next!