ALO-HA!

As most of you know - Rachel and Sari take Hula lessons from our bishop's wife, Kuulei Johnson. She is an amazing Kumu (hula teacher):

At the end of the year, she throws a hula. Usually she kills and cooks a pig in the ground, but she didn't this year. We still had kalua pig, it was just all pig roast instead of the whole pig. I think there were some old Hawaiians there who missed the ears ... (yuck!)

This year Kuulei really kicked it up a notch and wanted to do a Lei Day celebration, like what they have in Hawaii, with the Queen, King, and all the Princesses, dressed in colors from each island.

After the conch sell blowers (Sloan and Darien Kraus- how did I miss getting a pic of them?!) the pu'ili bearers went up, bearing the ... pu'ilis. They were Ben and Samuel Johnson. They got to STAND at the front all night long - three hours. Lucky!

Next came the Queen. Traditionally, the Queen is the girl graduating from High school. I will spare you ALL THE DRAMA associated with this year's queen. Except to say that she behaved in a most unroyal manner.

Because I am so disgusted with THE QUEEN I refused to take any other pictures of her. Here, she is being escorted by Miles, a very nice boy, who is the King.

Rachel was one of the princesses. And that's my dad. He took off his Hawaiian feritility lei for the occassion.

Because Larry was out of town, my dad, her Grandpa Hathaway, was Rachel's escort. All the princesses had escorts and all nine of the islands were represented. I will spare you and the space on my blog pictures of all of them.

Above was a nice picture, but this one below is my favorite. I think I shall frame it:

The motorhome in the background was the changing room.

This hilarious picture won a place on my blog because I caught Todd winking. Haha. That's not his wife. Luana's kids got sick so Todd, whose wife is my good friend, FayeLisa, got wrangled into escorting her. He didn't want to do it, but he is a good sport. And you get to see another dress that my Cindermama and I sewed.

There's the whole court. Yep, Cindermama and I sewed all those dresses and sashes and capes.

Let's let the dancing begin:

Miss Sari rocks the Hula world.

She looks tired... but usually she is biting her lip. I just realized that I am biting mine while I am typing this so I guess it runs in the family...

Are you having a hard time finding Sari? She's in the orange dress.

I did NOT make the dress with wings for sleeves. Another long story that I will spare you the details ...

I really love the ancient hulas. This is Sari's costume for those dances. The oranges dresses are for the modern dances.

This year the keikis painted muslin to look like tapa and they wore them as keikepas.

They were very cute.

Now for Rachel's dancing:

I loved the modern dress.

Can you see the train sort of thing off the back? I think it is so elegant and simple and beautiful. Cindermama and I sewed about 45 of them, I think?

I didn't sew these. One of the students picked them up at the Aloha stadium swap meet. Rachel borrowed Tearzah's.

Blurry. Bummer.

Rachel mastered hiding behind other dancers so we (five cameras going) pretty much have NO pictures of her dancing in her ancient costume. You can go here to see last year's luau and her ancient dress, if you would like.

The princess dance:

I had to hike over half the yard to get a picture without the queen dancing in front.

I do heart my Rachel.

And my Ben who is watching her with brotherly disinterest in this picture and that makes me laugh.

Then the rest of the women danced with the princesses.

At the last minute this year, because I had NOTHING else to do, I put Matthew and Joseph into Hula to help Kuulei have more keikis (kids). The keikis always steal the show.

Yes, some of you may recognize that little girl as CoCo, Kristine Stevenson's daughter. Her real name is Katherine and we call her Katherine now. I miss the CoCo days, though, back when Rachel babysat her.

Joseph, Matthew, Katherine, and Hailey (Katherine's cousin). Kristine made the blue dresses for Katherine and Hailey. They were exqusitie, of course.

This year Kuulei did a lot of layered dancing, where a lot of different classes danced the same song, with coordinating choreography. It was cool. Can you see my boys kneeling at the front?

One of the songs the keikis do is a Tahitian and I have to say - Joseph has got it going on! He has Elvis hips, Baby.

Can you see what I mean?

No one you know, but Cindermama and I made all those dresses, too:

The finale:

The people at the Luau:

My dad and my Cindermama.

I spent most of my time counting Joseph's freckles. Gosh, I love this kid!

And while we are on the topic of kids I adore.

He's a little pillhead, but I sure do love him.

Makes me wonder, why did we stop at 6? Let's have some more of these cute thangs. Then I remember puking a lung for 7 months, vertigo, and my favorite - a uterus with a hole in it - and then I say, Oh, THAT'S why.

It's all good.

Steven and his kiddos - Zoe, Zina, and Zane.

My darling, thoughtful niece, Christa.

My birthday-buddy niece, Katie. This expression captures Katie perfectly!

Yep, I love this kiddo too.

Christa and Daniel.

Two more nieces. Camry is a lovely young woman. Zina is full of surprises. For the first time in her life she acknowledged my existence in this world. I was honored.

Mom and Dad Sant with the little boys before they changed into their hula gear.

Our Spokane BFFs the O'Donnals. We want to box them up and move them to Louisiana with us but they won't come. Rude!

And now, some behind the scenes:

Rachel and Ben before the Luau.

Rachel and fellow princess Emily waiting for the show to start.

Joseph, Katherine, Hailey, and Matthew before the show.

Ben and oops - is that the queen again? Well, I must not have taken this picture. Plus, Ben is smiling, so I for sure didn't.

Grandpa Hathaway and Ben.

Also there, but no pictures (?) was Aunt Kathryn. Thanks so much to the family who came out to see a 3 hour dance recital! We love you all!

Oh yeah! And there was food. The food was first, actually! There was a lot of food. Here is Grandma and Grandpa Sant in line.

There were a lot of people there. A LOT.

Copious amounts of people.

Can you see Matthew and Joseph at the bottom?

Camry, Christa, and Katie waiting in the LONG line for food. Such cute, good girls! And Daniel hamming it up, as usual.

By the time we got through the line most of the dishes were empty.

I have issues with potlucks. I want to know who made my food and what their kitchen looks like. Do they have cats? Do they let them on the counter? Do they wash their hands, etc.

Sari, Emma, Tearzah, and Tearzah's cousin eating the dinner. Sari does not share my issues.

I am sorry that my girls won't be dancing hula anymore, and I miss the Luau's but I will NOT miss sewing for them.