The Platt Family

Friday, August 2, 2013

Hawaii!!! (2 days of flying and Day 1 on the island)

In April (yes, THAT long ago) we went to HAWAII!!!! Dad and Carol decided that the family needed some time together, and what better place than Kauai? So Bob and I packed up the girls and headed for the west coast....

This was on our layover....they tried to catch some sleep. It didn't really work. Anyways, we finally landed at LAX. Made it to Beth's house, turned in (they were all already asleep), woke up, piled into the shuttles, and made it back to the same airport.....less than 12 hours later. And boarded the plane for HAWAII! No pics from that trip. All I remember is that we all slept at some point. Then we hopped over to Kauai, rented our cars, and drove up to the hotel. Dropped off our bags and decided that the hotel restaurant was about as far as we could handle. It was super yummy -- we visited again later on in the week!

Wednesday morning we woke up, had breakfast in our room, and then Bob and girls and I headed out for a trip to Ke'e beach. Bob and I actually watched the sunset on this beach on our honeymoon, so it's pretty special to us! 30 seconds after we arrived, Ashley was covered in sand. How that happens is a mystery to me.

And yes, we still had a little bit of 'sleepy eyes'....

But sand is FUN! The girls got right to work building castles!!

Cheese!

What better backdrop can you have?!?!? The Napali coastline is SOOOO pretty!!

Yay, a picture with Daddy!

After spending a couple hours as the beach, we packed it up and headed back to the hotel...where a 'surprise' waited for us. Carol rented a lanai (read cabana) on the pool for us to celebrate Dad's birthday!! (My dad, Grandpa Jim.)

And we had fun!

...my excited girl....

Grandpa got to play with his grandkiddos in the pool!

Swimming and trying out their snorkels...I think that Darren with Grandpa, Austin cruising on by, and Danielle is testing out her goggles.

Aunty Beth giving it a try....and I have no idea who is underwater....

Darren being a fish!

Ashley free-styling down the slide!!

Zach had too much fun....

....and so did Grandpa! Mission accomplished!!

That night Dad and Carol hosted dinner -- grilled ribs, chicken, hot dogs and lots of yumminess!

And after that, we went to bed.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Easter Eggs!

Has is really been so long?!?! I'm so sorry -- it's been a bit crazy and hectic around here. But this is me making an effort to catch up....

On Good Friday, we introduced the girls to dyeing eggs. They thought it was fantastic!

Mommy had hard-boiled the eggs, then Daddy lined up all the cups with different colors and we had fun trying them all out.

On Sunday, we had our own mini egg hunt -- Daddy hid the eggs in our front yard! (Yes, only in the front yard, and yes, we found them all!)

Ashley's is inspecting their 'camping hill' for some....

Danielle found one balanced in a bush...

...another on the chair!

...and one last one by the lamp post!

Easter baskets from Grandma and Grandpa!!

Beautiful flowers for the day from Dad and Carol!!

After church we were off to Uncle Raymond and Aunt Mary's -- kids galore, all looking to have fun!!

Off and running!

Counting as she's picking them up....

Showing two off!!

We had a WONDERFUL day celebrating our amazing Lord and his victory over death!!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Snowman!

We had a 'late' storm last week -- and built a snowman!!

Danielle did most of the rolling, then Daddy helped her to stack them on top of each other.

...working on his face...

...and his arms...

Ashley had fun rolling herself in the snow. Literally.

TA-DA!!

...and Ashely 'shoveled' some snow...(this means seeing how far to could fling it off the shovel)

Being a goof ball!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The fort....

A little while back, the girls wanted to build a fort. Daddy was happy to oblige! As it was snowing out, the living room made for the perfect site:

Blankets and chairs all set up....

....and Daddy's work light made for a perfect reading light...

Later on that day Ashley made her own 'fort' to hide out in!

Monday, February 11, 2013

The Barn Cake!

All righty then....I've been catching up so that I could show the BARN CAKE!!! Ashley has been asking for months to have a 'cow birthday.' Hm....what on earth could I do for it? I did a minimal amount of research and found an adorable idea -- complete with DIRECTIONS!! (I can follow directions....)

Step 1: bake a cake mix in 2 rounds, cut a chunk out and piece them together. Trim a pound cake to shape the barn, stack three cupcakes for the silo.

Step 2: frost the base green, with a white spot that will be covered with blue food-gel for a pond, frost the barn and silo white. Stick pull-apart licorice to the barn and silo. Use cereal (Life) for roof shingles.

Skipping ahead a bit. Lay pretzel sticks flat and use melted chocolate chips to 'glue' cross-bracing for fence sections. Coat 'pond'. Pipe white frosting door and windows, add pretzel details, add fences to cake. Add cupcakes for even more cuteness! The cupcakes were great!! The pigs were frosted pink, chocolate chip eyes, pink starbursts cut in half for the ears, then a marshmallow cut in half and dipped in pink sprinkles for the nose. The chicks were frosted yellow, chocolate chip eyes, yellow sprinkles (because I can't stand coconut, which is what it said to use), then jelly fruit slices cut up for the wings and beaks. The cows were frosted white, chocolate chip eyes, same marshmallow nose as the pigs, but then piped chocolate detailing.