Yellow Hibiscus with glimpse of beach....

Here is a picture of a group of yellow hibsicus flowers and even one bloom that isn't opened, with small glimpses of the ocean in the background. These blooms were as big as my hand! I am amazed at the wonderful flowers here on Oahu.



This photo was taken by me with my Sony DSLR-A350. My settings were f/8; 1/250 second exposure time, ISO-100, 50mm focal length, 4.97 aperture, auto white balance, no flash was used and no photo editing.

Night before School Starts Back.....

I think right now in my life the most amazing sound I could hear in the morning is the sound of the school bus coming to pick the kids up for school! MO had a family tree project to do during Christmas break and of course it is bedtime and he is still working on it! We have had tears and arguements over this project today. However we did learn interesting things like Grandad Lambert (from my side of the family) and Grandpa Dean (from hubby's side of the family) both worked for the city of San Diego at the same time. I never would have even thought that the families may have known each other in the past since my family is from the east coast and James is from midwest and west coast! We called my dad after finding the information about Grandad being a San Diego Police Department Taxi Driver and he confirmed the time frame of that. Grandpa Dean was working for the city of San Diego at the same time! MO wants to think that his great-grandfather's might have known each other. I think that is pretty cool!

Of course, today has been a struggle with all the kids for different reasons. I just think that it is too long of a break and that our routines have been shot. It is so time to get back in the routine of school right now. JO, of course, was well underway of getting ready for bed as MO was working on his project. In addition to posting pics here -- which I promise will be of Hawaii as soon as our routine can get to be normal again! -- I am trying to take at least one picture of each child all year long. I will start putting these into albums for them to have at the end of the year. I just think this is a neat thing to do. I walked in the bathroom and said, "what are you doing?" JO said, "what" back at me as she leaned her head back and I got this cute picture of her.

Well this is goodnight from us for tonight and hopefully I can get out and about tomorrow to snap some photos of the area where I live!

Night Shot of USS Oklahoma

by Kimberly

Here is a night time shot of the USS Oklahoma Memorial that I took. I was playing around with my son's little point and click camera on the way home from the movies and got what I think is a great shot!

To learn more about the memorial here is there website:
http://www.ussoklahoma.com/Pearl_Memorial.html

I am so amazing and blessed to live in such a great place!!

Highlight of New Year at Noon!

by Kimberly

This was the highlight to me of this year's new years celebration with our children! I am sure the kids were pretty excited too but the balloons may have been more memorable to them! LOL - You know how little ones are!

Nina (Wendy Calio) from Imagination Movers on Disne Channel was a special guest this year at the Honolulu Children's Discovery Center "New Year at Noon" celebration! She was promoting her dance studio here on Oahu, but the exciting part was she had a dance party with all the kids before the big ballon drop. The kids loved learning her dances and she even taught them a hula dance that she and the "Movers" have come up with. I am hopeful that we will see it in a future episode.

The photo was taken at the end of the event when she made time to sign photos for the kids. I just thought this was an amazing way to kick off the new year! Well, this the balloon drop and the apple juice toast!

Oh yeah, by the way, the little one's hand is up because he is trying to shaka! LOL!

by Kimberly

This was what I was blessed with seeing this amazing view this morning! This is a lilicaceae which is a true aloe plant. I didn't realize until today that they bloom an orange-red flower in the winter months. I did some research and found out that the flower stalk can get to be 10 ft tall! The beach, surfers and islands in the background just made these photos!

Where are the stingrays?

Photo By SeaLife Park Camp Staff

My kids have had a wonderful time at Sea Life Park Winter Camp. The were so thrilled to be able to snorkel with the stingrays. I am glad they were given this experience to learn about how to take care of sea life and to be able to talk to trainers to learn more about a profession that my daughter wants to do when she grows up! We still have plenty of time for that - first we need to teach her to swim with a snorkel mask! My son however looked like he did great from the pictures they brought home.

This photo was shot by one of the kids teachers with our underwater camera. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA, f/5.1, exposure 1/100 sec, ISO 80, 18mm focal length

Little Eyes

Little Eyes
photo by Kimberly

I am just captivated by the brightness and innonence in children's eyes! I think that we should protect our children's innonence by monitoring what they are watching, seeing and hearing! If you aren't sure about a show don't let them watch it until you have time to. Don't rely on the fact that "Tony's mom" let's him watch it.

I think the brightness comes from being full of life and not having many cares in the world! I hope that I have that brightness in my eyes when my children look at me! I don't want to show them stress and hurt thru my eyes!

With Aloha,
Kimberly

Photo Details: Shot with Canon PowerShot A620, f/4.1, 1/60 exposure, 29mm focal length.

Mele Kalikimaka

(Photo by Kimberly)
I am starting this blog to post at least one picture a day of paradise! All pictures will have been taken in Hawaii. I will be keeping my postings simple for December as I try to get in the habit of posting a photo a day for the year 2011!

Today my picture is going to reflect Christmas. This is a wonderful picture of Santa with these two beautiful litte girls. Santa was great telling us the secrets of getting a photo of a baby with him without the baby crying!

I took this picture with my Sony DSLR A350, f/4.5, 1/100, ISO400, 26mm focal length, with no flash. There was editing done to crop out the baby's mom from the photo.