So much has been going on I haven’t even posted about Father’s Day last week. It was a beautiful day in the city so first we headed down to Marina Green for a picnic lunch and to fly some kites. We had a lot of fun running around and the wind was perfect for the kites.
In the afternoon, Maile and I headed out to ride bikes and I realized that it was time for a bike upgrade – she still had one of the coaster bikes and had definitely outgrown it. We headed over to the store and found her a new big girl bike with training wheels. When we got home we took it for a test spin around our courtyard. It reminded me so much of this old video I have of Papa Mike and Grandma Jill showing me how to ride my red bike back in the day. It was the perfect way to spend a father’s day!
Father's Day 2013 with my girls - Maile (almost 4!) and Lauren (5.5 months)
Lauren Girl enjoying the wind on her face
Heading out to fly some kites...
I'll just stay here, but don't worry, I'm watching...
Picking daisies...
I love this picture that Christine took of Maile...
Maile Girl on her brand new, big girl bike!
A little hard to get the pedals moving...
... but once you get going - no problem!
I had a blast on Father's Day teaching Maile how to ride her bike 🙂
We’ll end our milestone week updates with Maile finishing her second year of preschool at Presidio Knolls.
Maile's Certificate of Completion - we love how they did this, each child painted with water colors over the certificate - Maile's came out beautiful!
The teachers and kids put on a really nice end of the year ceremony – with some Chinese songs and then the teachers calling each child up one at a time and saying a nice, very personal blurb about them and giving them a certificate. For Maile, her teacher said:
Maile is an artist. She loves art, loves dance, and enjoys good music. It’s a pleasure to see her humming and start dancing in the middle of the playground. She would say, “Look Ruth Lao Shi, this is my ballet concert.” And then she starts twirling.
I have to add that Christine and I couldn’t be prouder of our little girl. My guess is there will be many years like this one where we reflect back and are absolutely amazed at how much she has grown. She really blossomed this year at school – the art and writing she comes home with on a daily basis floors us and it’s clear that the Chinese is really setting it. It’s become more than just a cute trick where she knows some songs and colors – she really can communicate in Mandarin now and it’s so cool to see that.
She’s still a little girl, but she’s also grown a lot emotionally and how she interacts with her friends. She still has her moments to be sure, but she also has those moments where you can’t believe how much she has matured in such a short time.
Maile Girl on her last day of year 2 of preschool - just one month shy of her 4th birthday...
