Halloween, Coffee Picking and Mara’s Birthday

by Kirsten on November 9, 2011

In October, I went back to the east coast for a week. What a great trip that was. I saw so many friends and family and it was great to reconnect with everyone.

Then there was lots of snorkeling and some boogie boarding. Nothing too exciting to note except that Chuck took Mara out twice and she saw sea turtles swim beside her. She did great and loves snorkeling!

Then we had Halloween. On Halloween night, we started at this “Candy Land” that a group puts on every year. They have booths set up that give away candy and lots of carnival type games. Plus music, bouncies, free food and sweets, and of course candy, candy, candy galore. All for free!

Jack-o-lantern Mara

Candyland

After that, we went trick or treating in the neighborhood next to ours. Our neighborhood is not set up well for trick or treating and I didn’t even bother buying any candy because I didn’t think we’d get a single kid. Well apparently half of Kona thinks this is a good place to go and there were cars and trucks lined up and down all the streets and tons of people out. Still, it was super fun. I just felt bad for the people who live there who must have spent $200 in candy.

Chuck’s parents came in on Thursday and its nice to have our first guests. I’m so happy to share our island with people.

Saturday morning we all went to a coffee festival near the kid’s school. It’s in this tiny artist town that’s lined with galleries and tons of coffee farms had booths with free coffee.

Later in the afternoon, I took Beckett to a Karate Tournament. I knew he’d love seeing the kids ‘fight’ each other and of course, now he’s even more excited to do karate lessons.

On Sunday, I took the kids to a coffee farm for the annual coffee picking contest (its Kona Coffee Cultural Festival week here). They competed against other 5-7 year olds and whoever picked the most red cherries (ripe coffee beans) won. Neither kid won, but they did great and had a good time.