Closing out the week with a picture of Lauren going mobile. I love the look on her face – she loved racing up and down the halls…
Lauren is loving the carpeted hallways in our new building!
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From the monthly archives:
December 2013
A couple weeks ago we had a parent teacher conference for Maile. One of the things her teacher, Ruth, was most impressed about was how Maile’s Mandarin is really progressing this year. We’ve noticed it too, but obviously a bit harder for us since we don’t speak the language. With that said, we’ve seen her develop from individual words to full sentences and being able to express herself. It’s been really cool to watch … and even better, she can often explain to us what she is saying.
At the parent teacher conference, Ruth showed us a video from back in October when Maile got back from Auntie Elyssa and Uncle Stephen’s wedding. You can see it below – basically she is doing a show and tell to the class telling them all about the wedding … in Mandarin. My understanding is that she first is telling them that she actually had 2(!) dresses, one purple and one pink that she got to wear. That there were two parties she went to and then she goes on to tell them that I gave a speech and Grandma and Papa too.
Pretty awesome – I also thought it was cool how seamlessly she moved from Mandarin to English when she didn’t know a word (like “wedding”)…
(Click here for the video.)
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Never one to let photos go to waste, here are some shots that we chose not to use for this year’s holiday card…
Ahh, Maile's fake 4 year old smile...
Banzai!
Help.
And I'm done.
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Hard to believe that Maile has already been in preschool for 3 years and that next year she heads to Kindergarten!
Maile's school picture for 2013 (4.5 years old)
Check out how much she’s grown up!
Maile's First School Picture (2.5 years)
Maile's School Picture 2012-2013 (3.5 years)
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Lauren Girl here! On Sunday afternoon, Mommy, Daddy, Maile, Grandma and Papa took me to get my first Christmas tree! I was pretty overwhelmed by all the trees, so Maile took the lead on picking out the tree – I think she picked a really nice one.
My very first Christmas tree picked out my big sister Maile
Guess what? I wasn’t the only one getting a Christmas tree for the first time. It was Papa’s first time too!
Papa was excited too!
This is pretty cool – Papa had a fun idea to get a picture of me getting a bird’s eye view of the trees.
Lauren's bird eye view (11 months)
And it’s almost the same picture that Maile and Daddy took the first time she went to get a tree!
Maile's bird-eye view (5 months)
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The house we rented was on a vineyard and actually had a decent amount of land that we could hike around and explore. Maile went on several explorations over the week – was nice to stretch the legs and spend some quality time outdoors in nature for a city girl.
Which way should we go first?
Quality time with Grandma Jill
Maile and Grandma went on a scavenger hunt to find some statues that were hidden around the property...
Follow me Grandma!
Girl on bridge
Thank you, Grandma Jill!
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On Friday, Mommy, Daddy and Papa Mike took me on a safari! Do you know what a safari is? It’s basically a zoo without any fences! At first I was a little nervous and thought maybe the animals would eat me, but they were really nice. The guide told me that if we are nice to animals they will be nice to us … usually anyways. That makes sense to me.
The safari was super cool. I liked the pink flamingos and the giraffes the best. I took LOTS of pictures.
Papa Mike and I ready to get our safari on!
What's that Daddy we should look behind us?
Woah.
Look how close we got! So cool!
I took pictures.
Lots and lots of pictures...
Say cheese!
(Dad note: The safari was pretty cool. I’d say Maile was a little too young – she was great, but it was a long day – ~3 hours. The guides were super knowledgeable, we learned a lot!)
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Lots of firsts this year for our Thanksgiving celebration.
Lauren enjoying her first Thanksgiving.
Mommy cooking her first Thanksgiving turkey.
Daddy spending his first Thanksgiving away from Boston ever!
Since we were just in Boston for Auntie Elyssa and Uncle Stephen’s wedding, we decided to stay in California and Grandma and Papa Boston came out to celebrate with us. We rented a wonderful house in Santa Rosa and set about making it a Thanksgiving to remember.
While Mommy cooked the food, Maile Girl focused on the table decorations.
With guidance from a Kiwi Crate she made place cards for everyone in our family...
... and was quite proud of the results.
Mommy cooked it and Daddy carved it - and it came out great!
Lauren wasn't feeling 100%, but she still was excited to get involved with Thanksgiving (and Mommy made sure she had turkey too...)
I'm stuffed!
Love.
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(Dad note: I apologize for missing a couple days of posting last week. We headed up to Santa Rosa for Thanksgiving and the internet wasn’t fantastic in the house we were staying at. Everything else about the house and our time away was amazing though … as you’ll see over the next few days!)
Grandma and Papa Boston arrived on Wednesday morning just in time to help the girls celebrate Hanukkah. It was Lauren’s first Hanukkah and the first time we used a Menurkey (thank you to Uncle Stephen’s mom, Liz, for sending one our way!)
Lighting the first night lights with Papa Mike...
We always read the card first...
Maile loved the Lego house that Grandma and Papa gave her...
.
... no, really, she loved it. We played with it all weekend and spent ~2 hours over the first night and the next morning creating one of three houses in the kit
Haha! While they are distracted, I will open my gift!
ARRGGGHH! Wrapping paper is soooo hard to get off!
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