Celebrating 4th of July Hawaii Style

So I did get to do something other than work on July 4th. Yay! I ended up walking to Ala Moana Shopping Center to watch the fireworks. Here's the details and pictures.

My apartment is super close to the mall so walking was no problem for me. Unfortunately, I got there right when most of the stores closed including my favorite gelato place at Nordstrom! I was so sad! So I walked all over trying to find someplace with some cool treat that I would want to eat. Then Barnes and Nobles saved me. I got a tiramisu parfait from them. It was so delish! I almost forgot to take a picture before I devoured it.

Bee had met me at the mall after an afternoon of skateboarding. What else would he do on his day off? Anyways, he wasn't in the picture taking mood. I'll have to remember to take off his hat next time because I really do not like how his head looks with it on. Haha! Shockingly, I don't look that bad considering that I was sweating like crazy while walking to and around the mall.

Below are some fireworks! I didn't upload all of them because I did not want to kill the speed of loading for anyone. If you can't tell, it was super spectacular. Some guy was super smart because they were flying an R/C helicopter near the fireworks with some kind of device to record it. So whoever it was had the best view. Surfers like to paddle out and watch from the ocean.

Here are the throngs of people leaving the beach park to go home after the show. Sorry it's such horrible quality. My camera is kind of old and not too brilliant at taking pictures in the dark. It was a sight to see though. Bee asks, offhanded, "What if those were zombies?" To which I responded, "Well, shit. We're screwed. I hope they can't climb stairs and are so dumb that they take forever to find the ramp." Excuse my language but I tend to be serious about zombies. Thank you dad for making me sit through every single game of Resident Evil with you.

Getting off subject here. I hope you all had a fantastic Independence Day! A shout out to all the troops that protect and serve our country, thank you! I had a great time.

Did anything interesting? Let me know what you did!

4th of July Activities

Happy July 4th everyone! I hope you all have fun things planned out because I don't. I got work in the morning and then no plans at all. So have fun for me! If you live in Hawaii, here are some fun events to check out that will be going on.

Ala Moana Center: They always have free concerts and then a fireworks show at night. It's super awesome and I went the past two years. Definitely worth seeing. Just make sure you bring chairs or a mat to sit down on, an umbrella, and park close to the exit. It gets so packed that it's hard to get out when it's all done. We actually walked from my apartment since I don't live too far.

Maunalua Bay Festival: I never went to this before but it sounds super fun with live entertainment including a hula performance. It sounds like a great event for the whole family with things that kids would love also. Face painting, what kid doesn't love that? Bubba would be all over that.

Turtle Bay Resort: I wish I could go to this! Such great performers and bands performing. Wish I could go watch Kapena but man is that a drive for me. If only I didn't have work. Seriously, if anyone goes to this one, I want to know how it was.

Did anything fun for Independence Day? Let me know!

Shane's Grad Party (4th One)

I had another grad party over the weekend on Sunday. This one was for another cousin of mine, Shane. I'm so proud of him and excited to see him succeed. He graduated from Kamehameha Schools! His grad party was at Side Street Inn. One day, I shall do a full post just on that restaurant alone because it seriously has some ono kine grinds. Enough about how much I love to eat, here's all the pics and stories from the party!

Here is Shane and one of the previous graduates hanging out together. Baseball, my brother, had to go and turn away so he wouldn't be in the picture. It's alright, I can be sneaky about pictures when I want to be. I remember these boys when they were half my height! Time goes by so quickly.

Here ar the Nuuhiwa's and my stepfathers mother sitting in the back. My Uncle can sing some mean falsetto. I love listening to him sing. If you ever come to Hawaii, you gotta hear someone sing some good falsetto live. It's totally worth it.

There's Bee sitting down and looking at the little menu. My two uncles who happen to be twins looked away on purpose. There is Bubba, my brother sitting behind the balloons. We had just gotten to the party. Yes, I did snap those previous pictures before bothering to sit down.

Here is my mommy and my stepfather. That iPod on the right would be my sister taking a picture at the same time as me. It's actually quite hard to catch them together, smiling, so I'm glad I managed to get this pic.

These were just a small part of the pupus that they had available. Me, being hungry, grabbed this before they brought out the other pupus which consisted of tons of poke and two different salads. I really love edamame though, so I'm glad they put that out. The tako poke on the left went to Bee. He loves his seafood.

I managed to get Baseball in a picture! My sis just moved out of my way when I had the camera ready so I snapped it right away. He was watching soccer on the T.V. Eventually, a grouchy aunty came by and kicked them off of the bar because they are underage. They weren't drinking any alcohol though, just coke.

A small sampling of all the food we had to eat. The chicken was so ono! There was salad too with eggs and ranch dressing. I'm a huge fan of eggs in salads so that was delicious. They also served catfish which Bee loved. I actually don't normally eat cooked fish, only raw fish, but that catfish was so good even I enjoyed some of it. So much good food!

It was a great party! So glad I got to spend more time with my extended ohana. They crack me up. Good luck to Shane as he goes to college up in Oregon! May he be as successful in college as he was in high school and then some.

Attend any grad parties lately? Share the details!

June Conscious Box Review

If you'd like to learn more about Conscious Box, feel free to check out the information in my Subscription Box List. For those that don't know what it is, Conscious Box is an eco box. They send a variety of organic and natural products every month. If you want to see a previous review, here is my May Review.

    

Here is the first look. I didn't post the picture of the outside box. Conscious Box is pretty much a box in a box. The outer box is thicker while the inner box has this little window.

    

What you saw in the window was the backside of their card that tells you a little on what inspired their box. There was also that gorgeous postcard! Jessica, the winner of my giveaway, should be getting it soon along with her prizes. I love postcards but never have a reason to use them so I'm so glad I got to send it. The second picture is the list with the information on the products included. I'm so glad that include a list, it's such a great help.

So that is what it looks like when it's all packed nicely in the box. Then I took it out and could not fit it all back in. The great thing about them is that they put so much stuff in one tiny little box! I mean, seriously, I don't know how they do it.

Nature's Baby Organics Shampoo and Body Wash ($9.95): The price is not the sample price, just so you know. That's the price for an 8 oz. bottle but I don't want to try estimate how much a sample costs. I'll just say this, it smells amazing! I love, love, love how it smells. It smells just like an orange creamsicle. If you've never had one, go eat it, it's delicious and perfect for fighting the summertime heat. This works great as a shampoo. I didn't test it as a body wash yet but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna buy more just to smell it.

Greek Island Labs Natural Joint ($45): That price was the only price I could find for the pills online. It was being sold on e-bay and contains 30 pills. So this would probably amount to $7-8 worth of pills. We did not try this one. It's claims are not supported by the FDA so I don't really want my grandparents or anyone I know with joint pain to try it. Not sure what we'll do with it, probably throw it away. As you can see, Jongy had to oversee my shooting of this one.

Earth Friendly Products Organic Lemongrass Hand Soap ($3.49): The price is for 17 oz. The sample bottle was 4 oz. To be honest, I'm glad they didn't send a whole bottle. This soap smells good, cleans good, but it stripped the moisture from my hands. Now I don't normally have dry hands. My hands are usually good and I never have to use lotion on them at all. This soap cleaned my hands really well but made them feel so dry that I had to put lotion on them. So I'll probably just leave this on the sink and let all my family that come and go use it all up.

Molly Muriel Soft As Silk Shampoo Bar and Volcanic Bliss Bar Soap ($6 each): So that price is for a 5 oz. one. I got the sample size which I say is a decent size for sampling. The shampoo bar was tested by Bee. He really liked it. It lathered up really well and it was super soft. He didn't even condition his hair after and it still felt nice and soft. I'm thinking of getting more for him. The bar soap is a bit...umm...abrasive. Bee used this one too. He said it took some time to get used to the bits of, what I'm guessing is, bits of charcoal. He liked scrubbing his back with it because his back is always itchy. So we probably won't get this one but it worked really well. He felt absolutely clean after.

Sneakz Organic Yummy Veggie Nutrition Milkshake ($2.08): Yes, that is the exact price according to amazon. After my experience with the last healthy drink they sent me in May, I did not want to be the one to test this. Lucky for me, my youngest brother volunteered. We'll call him Bubba. This is his exact reaction, "Mmm, not bad...eww! That's disgusting!" So he said that the first taste is the chocolate flavor and then the aftertaste is all the veggie flavor, which he didn't like. My other brother, who'll we'll call Baseball, said it tasted almost like soy. Bubba ended up throwing it away. He couldn't stomach the veggie flavor.

Organic Flavrz Drink Mixes ($1.23): That price is the cost of a single pouch according to amazon. Now where did I see this before? Oh yes! In my Love With Food box. Now while my sister said it didn't have that much flavor, Bubba really liked it. So I'm letting him have it.

Skout Bar ($3.17): That price is for a single bar according to amazon. I tried this one myself because they had an apple cinnamon flavor. I love apples and cinnamon. This isn't that bad at all. The flavor is pretty good though I wish it had more of a cinnamon flavor but that's just me. The only problem I had with this was the texture. I can't quite explain it but their is no variance in the texture so I couldn't finish it because it was too monotonous for me.

LARABAR Alt Peanut Butter Cookie Fruit and Nut Bar ($19.99): That is the price for a box of 15. Bee ate this and made me try a bite. It has a great peanut butter smell and taste but I don't like nuts. So I made him eat the rest. It tastes good though. So if you like nuts, unlike me, this is a great protein bar to try. Bee liked it.

Son for Men Soothe ($13.95): That price is for the 2 oz. bottle on the Conscious Box website. We didn't get to try this yet. I wanted Bee to use it before I posted up the review but then I realize that it's already July! I had to get all my June reviews up. So yes, we did not get the chance to try it. I'm excited to see how well it works though. I like getting things that Bee can use because he is always looking for good products to buy.

There was also a $50 Wine Gift Card. I don't drink wine or any alcohol for that matter so this was useless to me. I have no idea what to do with it since I also don't know anyone that drinks wine. Everyone I know drinks beer and that's about it.

There was a $25 voucher for paperculture which I used to buy stationary. I'm so glad I got this. They plant a tree with every order you make as well as printing on 100% recycled paper. I'm gonna get back into the art of pen pals so I need stationary. It came at the right time.

Overall, I loved this box so much more than the May box. Seriously, it was way better. There was actually stuff we liked in this box. The products were more useful to me too. I'm so glad I stuck it out for one more month. Since I don't know the exact value of the samples sent, I'm not even gonna try to calculate it. The $25 paperculture voucher was already worth more than the box, so I'm pretty happy. This is a great box for those who want organic and natural products to discover new things.

Did you get a Conscious Box? What did you think about the products this month?

Disclosure: I bought this box. I was not compensated in any way for this review. All opinions expressed belong to me or my family.

Makeup Win

I recently won a makeup palette from Jessica. You can find the original post for the giveaway here. I was so excited to have won this. It's actually the second time I've won something from a giveaway, my first time being a $25 Amazon e-Gift Card. I'd like to say thank you to Jessica for this! If you get the chance, check out her blog. She mostly blogs about fashion and beauty which makes sense since she gave away makeup.

When it first arrived, I had no idea what it was till I looked at the comments on what was inside. Then I got super excited because it had finally arrived. Seriously, winning stuff is awesome especially makeup stuff. She had it wrapped up in paper towels. It smelled like an airplane. No, I did not sniff it, that was just the smell of it when I took it out. I don't know how to describe it, just that smell that airplanes have. Maybe it was from it's long trip.

So this is what I won! Makeup tends to be the one thing that I wish were cheaper but I like good quality makeup so expensive it is. I'm so glad that I won this. It comes with two eyeshadows, lipstick, powder, along with brushes for applying them all.

Here is the look all together. I don't know why but I find it hard to smile when taking makeup pictures. I just don't feel comfortable smiling in them. It's weird but just know that I was happy when I took this. The powder didn't really show on my cheeks. Maybe it's my skin color or that my cheeks are naturally a little pinkish. The lipstick did show though, it made my lips a shade darker than they really are.

A close up of my eye! I was a little iffy on posting this but decided to so you could see the eyeshadow colors. One is a shimmery light brown color and the other is a darker brown color. I love them both! I'm such a big fan of natural colors.

Overall, I love this palette and I'm totally gonna be using it for as long as it lasts me. Such a great win! Thanks again to Jessica for my new makeup!

Win any makeup recently?