ALOHA

Kyle got the opportunity to work for a measly little week in Hawaii. This was very upsetting as there was a 6 week job earlier this year. We were hoping to get that so the boys and I could go over for 2 or 3 weeks in the middle. With only a one week trip it would cost too much for all of us to fly. Once I realized Kyle would be gone over our anniversary it was even more annoying. Then my dad offered to buy a plane ticket for me to go as an anniversary gift. The grandmothers took two overnighters each and I was off.

IT WAS AWESOME!
It snowed at home while I enjoyed 80 degree weather.
SUPER AWESOME!
I had a lovely time. I enjoyed the weather, did tons of walking and hit the beach and pool. Kyle and I did a lot of window shopping. Oh and we ate...a lot! We had Hula Pie at Duke's that had enough calories for a week.
I stayed at the Waikiki Beach Marriott. It had a Seattle's Best on the first floor and a Starbucks a few doors down. PERFECT! I totally saw Robert Patrick in the lobby. That was my only celebrity citing.
Kyle actually had off on our anniversary, also St. Patrick's Day. We decided to get out of Waikiki for the St. Patrick's Day parade and headed to the North Shore. We met up with my friend at the Cafe Haleiwa and I got to meet her new baby...10 months old already.
We also stopped at the a beach we liked when we went in 2006. There are frequently turtles there. We hit the jackpot. They were coming up on shore and there were 3 visible in the water. The Malama na Honu
were out to protect the turtles from the crazy people that do weird things to the animals when they come out of the water. I asked the volunteer guardian a bazillion questions. It was very cool. We did not get even one photo of ourselves! But we had a great time. Now I'm trying to convince Kyle to apply for the Pearl Harbor Shipyard so we can move there.

I'm Earning FREE Stuff!

Woo hoo! My Thirty-One business is pretty exciting. They announced there would be a March Mini-Motivator a week or so into the month. I was really happy to learn I had already fulfilled the requirements. They said with $1000 in sales we'd get a prize valued at $100 dollars. I was totally blown away when I received my "prize" box.This is what I got!

A Cinch It Up Thermal Lunch Tote, a strawberry coin purse, a zipper pouch and a hostess exclusive rolling tote. I got all that for free just for doing my job. Woo HOO! I love free stuff. I'm so happy with Thirty-One so far.

This is my cute new bag! It's the Organizing Utility Tote. This bag has 5 exterior pockets. On the front side in between 2 pockets I had it embroidered with "Benza Family." It is super cute. I love this fabric, Harvest Floral. Anyone can buy this bag for $25, but you can also earn it free if you host a party and someone books a party from your show. It's a pretty sweet deal.
You can check it all out at my website!

The Artist

For the last sixth months or so Reese has been intently practicing his drawing skills. For awhile he called himself an "art worker." For some reason I felt the need to correct him, so now he calls him self an artist. He seems so much more grown than when he said art worker. :(

He has been using his Klutz Marvel and Star Wars books with tracing paper practicing his complex tracing skills. He does a fantastic job, but has still been hesitant to free hand draw. Lately there's been lots of desire coupled with lots of "I can't do it." FINALLY he's making the attempt without my prompting. We actually had some spring like weather and went out to play. Before I knew what was happening I saw this:

"self portrait"

"dog"

"cat"
All these drawings were done completely by Reese with sidewalk chalk. I didn't even have to encourage him to try it himself before asking for help. He just took the initiative himself and was very proud of results. I am SOOOOO proud he is moving past that "I can't" stage and giving this a try. I am totally impressed with his drawing skills. This time last year I was looking at his preschool classmates drawings and beginning to worry Reese would never catch up developmentally. He wasn't even attempting stick figures a year ago.

When we went inside he drew these astronauts. The black area is the helmet. The outline around the stick figure body is the space suit. Now that he's perfected the stick figure he's started drawing actual bodies. They resemble a 4 point starfish a little, but he's trying so I'm happy.

Gus is mostly just scribbling at this point. He flatly refuses to pose or even smile nicely for pictures. I always get this squished face!

Grandpop's Visit

Just like at Reese's party I failed to take photos of the boys with Grandpop while he was visiting for Reese's birthday. On the morning he left at the crack of dawn the boys finally woke up just as we were about to walk out the door (though every other morning they were in his room waking him up way earlier.)

I got a couple of goodbye photos.

When I returned from taking Grandpop to the airporter the boys were riding the new plasma car raring to go, while I had been hoping to go back to sleep.