This afternoon, Maile’s school had a Halloween party. Grandma and Papa went over early and helped set up and get all the kids in their costumes. Chris and I were able to head over as well and we’re really glad we did – it was ridiculously adorable!
It was definitely organized chaos, but the teachers did a good job walking the kids around in small groups where they "trick or treated" at each of the different classrooms...
One little boy came running up to Maile and gave her a big hug - turns out he thought she was the real Elmo!
For the second day in a row, Maile threw a fit when we tried to get a family shot...
... but we finally got that Maile smile we all love back at my office!
All in all, Halloween this year was a big success!
Hi, I'm Maile Elmo!
Grandma Gail really outdid herself this year. Keeping with the annual tradition, she made Maile’s halloween costume. This year, Maile actually was able to request her costume – Elmo!
The best part of Grandma Gail's costume was that she was able to deliver it in person! Thank you Grandma Gail!
The costume is amazing and Maile had a lot of fun wearing it (well, truth be told, she had a lot of fun wearing it all weekend and then strangely pitched a fit when her friends came over to trick or treat with her). Maile invited a few friends over and we did some trick or treating practice around the courtyard (baby steps before heading out into the big, bad city!)
I'm Maile Elmo. Cool. I'm Hannah Sailor. Cool.
Firemen, sailor, golfer, leopard, Elmo, oh my!
After trick or treating, we didn’t think the kids had enough sweets, so we headed inside and Mommy helped everyone decorate Halloween cookies!
All in all it was a fun start to Halloween! Happy trick or treating!
(Click here for the video.)
Nothing like a playground accomplishment to close out the week…
Have a great weekend!
(Click here for the video.)
On Sunday, Jasper and Everett came over for dinner. They live in New York and were in town visiting their Gramma. I slaved away at my kitchen all afternoon, but for some reason Mommy decided to serve them food from our other kitchen. I guess she thought my donuts didn’t come out nicely.
We did have lots of fun though. Jasper is a couple years older than me and he can read. He read me a book! Dreamy, right?
Jasper, Everett and I being interrupted during our dinner by annoying pictures...
Apparently, I impressed every one with my hospitality (that’s a big word!) because Everett covered the dinner party on his blog too!
Today was Maile’s very first school picture day. Before she went to work, Mommy dressed Maile up all pretty … and then Daddy did his best not to ruin anything. Luckily, we made it to school with everything together. Before we went, I tried to get Maile to do some practice shots – she wasn’t very interested.
Daddy, please no pictures, I don't want to waste my good smiles on you!
I'm not going to look at you...
(Dad note: I’m dying to see how these pictures came out. The thought of trying to take a picture of all 18 kids is exhausting to me…)
Maile's preferred way of riding her tricycle
We made some progress on the bike riding front this weekend. Mommy taught Maile how to use the pedals to get around. We’re still working on the steering component, but definitely getting closer to adding “tricycle riding” to Maile’s ever expanding bag of tricks…
(Click here for the video.)
Maile Girl here. Just an FYI to all the under 2 set hanging out in the greater Bay Area – the O-Zone (that’s what I call my friend Oliver) and I are the BEST at tailgating. Andrew Luck takes care of things on the field and we take care of business right outside Gate 12. Check it:
Maile Girl - oh no, did we forget the bottles of water!?
Don't worry O-Zone, I gots you covered!
Chug! Chug! Chug!
Maile, this hat is pretty badass, right? Totally, O-zone. Totally!
Maile, what was in that bottled water? I'm wasted.
On Saturday afternoon, we headed down the peninsula to Palo Alto to celebrate Sam’s first birthday. It was great to see all of our friends that have moved down to Palo Alto – certainly miss seeing them all the time in the city. Christine took a ton of pictures – some highlights involving Maile Girl…
Fun on the big cement slide - so big that you needed to sit on a piece of cardboard to make it down...
Maile and Allison hadn't seen each other in months, but fell back into playing just like old times!
Daddy and Maile
Bubble time - behind the scenes note, Mommy blew the bubbles AND took the pictures. Such talent!
Maile made Sam a birthday card - she took giving it to him very seriously...
The whole group - our family of friends is definitely growing!
Party time!
Eating cake with Wills
And by eating, I mean shoving as much as possible into her mouth as fast as she can...
Our neighbor, Lizzy, heard that Maile was a soccer player and invited us to one of her games. On Saturday, we went to check things out. Maile and Mommy made a “Go Lizzy!” sign and Lizzy’s team won 1-0!
After the game, Lizzy gave Maile some pointers…
Lizzy taught Maile some great moves and reinforced the "no hands" rule!
… and then she schooled Daddy with a great drive to the goal!
(Click here for the video.)
When I got home from school today there was a green box waiting for me. Daddy said it was a present just for me. When I opened the box there was all this really cool stuff inside – lots of colors and art projects. Mommy showed me that one project was to make colorful tops to spin and another was to create “stained glass” with tissue paper – we didn’t do that one yet, but it looks like it will be a lot of fun!
I said to Daddy, where did this magic box come from? He told me that he found it online at a place called KiwiCrate. He said he got it for Mommy and me to do art projects together after school and that I’d get a new one every month! How cool is that? Thank you, Daddy! I can’t wait to show you all the cool things we make…
Look at all the fun stuff that was inside! And all for me too - I can't wait to work on all these projects with Mommy...
I showed Daddy how you color the paper with all the pretty colors ...
... and then Daddy showed me how all the colors turn into pretty designs when you spin the top! Cool, right!?
Dad note: how do we know that Maile liked her KiwiCrate? This is what happened when we told her it was time to stop playing for the day....
