by Papa K on December 29, 2015
Lauren is at that age where she does NOT like having her picture taken. This has made getting a nice picture of all the girls together for Grandma and Papa’s Christmas card a bit of a challenge.
Grandma made the girls beautiful matching Christmas dresses … she even made one for Lauren’s new baby doll! We thought the “hey! everyone is wearing matching dresses – let’s take a great picture” line of attack might work. Well…
See Lauren, even your baby doll wants to take a nice picture with Katie, Emily and Maile...
Only if Mommy joins too? Well, okay...
... maybe if you are on this side of Mommy we can crop her out afterwards...
Look at yourself in the camera...
Stay still.
Maybe stand a little higher?
Argh.
by Papa K on December 28, 2015
We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday. We have been having a lot of fun here on Hawaii.
On Christmas Eve we had a visit from the big guy himself!
Lauren is definitely in full on “scared of Santa” mode, but with her big sister’s help, she did okay. She absolutely LOVED what Santa gave her though. Awhile back she said she wanted a Totoro doll from Santa. Uncle Steve came through big time with three Totoro dolls straight from Japan and Lauren absolutely loves them. The look on her face when she opened the present I’ll never forget. Sorry no picture, but this is from right after…
Santa brought Lauren Totoro dolls - she was so excited!
Incredibly, the girls actually slept until 6 AM on Christmas morning and they patiently waited until 7 AM for their cousins to wake up before seeing what was up under the Christmas tree.
Emily, Katie, Lauren and Maile on Christmas morning
Maile graciously pauses before diving in to her presents 🙂
We had a wonderful Christmas celebration. Speaking of wonderful, this is by far my favorite video from Christmas:
We got Maile this really cool step tracker from Unicef called Unicef Kid Power (see here: http://unicefkidpower.org/about). Basically, every step you take helps you complete missions that ultimately end up sending food to help end global malnutrition. As you can see, Maile is very serious about completely her missions 🙂
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
by Papa K on December 23, 2015
On Saturday evening, we drove over to Waimea to participate in their annual Christmas parade. Papa marches as part of an organization he is on the board of and last year he asked Maile to march with him too. The original plan was that Lauren would watch from the side with Mommy and Daddy, look cute and collect candy as everyone walked by.
She, of course, had other ideas and headed off to march along with Papa, Grandma and Maile. That left Christine and I to do our best collecting candy, but alas we were not nearly cute enough 🙂
The parade was an awesome way to start out holiday on Kauai – total small town feel, a beautiful night that held off the rain, and all the holiday lights and sounds you could ask for…
Maile Girl showing off her parade outfit...
Papa, Lauren and Mommy pre-parade photo op...
Grandma Gail and Maile
Maile Girl hard at work passing out candy as she walks the parade route...
Mommy and Lauren post parade holiday selfie!
Daddy and Maile - all smiles after a fun time at the parade 🙂
by Papa K on December 21, 2015
We are in full on Hawaii-mode having successfully arrived on Friday afternoon.
The girls are enjoying being in shorts and skirts again and running all over Grandma and Papa’s house. This afternoon they headed out with Papa to track down some chameleons. Christine was doing some work in the dining room and caught this picture through the window as they stalked their prey with their water guns…
Maile and Lauren, Chameleon Hunters - although actually not clear who is being hunted...
Hawaii is a strange and wonderful place for these two city girls…
by Papa K on December 18, 2015
… I was off in a galaxy far, far away…
by Papa K on December 16, 2015
Ever wonder what actually happens in a preschool classroom? We do all the time. At parent teacher conferences we get a taste sometimes from the videos the teachers share with us. Last week, one of the parents in Lauren’s classroom spent the morning staying in the shadows and photographing the kids. She got some great shots and shared them with all of us. Below are some good ones of Lauren doing her thing…
Lauren in music class singing along...
... building and constructing...
... running, running, running ...
... and, of course, crafting up a storm!
by Papa K on December 15, 2015
I wasn’t kidding, the holidays are in full effect out here in San Francisco! Tonight’s activity? Ice skating! Every year parents from the Maile and Lauren’s school rent out the ice rink down by Embarcadero Center for a few hours and a bunch of the families head down and do a little skating. Maile loves it and Lauren got into it as well this year. She was very proud that she and Mommy went around the rink “three” times. (And then they took their skates off, ate some pizza, and decided they wanted to go again, so we put skates back on and Mommy and Lauren went around another two times. And by “we” I mean “Lauren” 🙂
Hard to just stay standing so we'll forgive Lauren for not looking at the camera...
... this one on the other hand was all about the posing...
... no really, lots of posing 🙂
Here’s a good video that captures what Lauren and Mommy were up to as they made their way around the rink…
And here’s Maile Girl doing her thing…
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
by Papa K on December 14, 2015
One day last week, Christine texted me that one of the other parents invited the girls to visit Santa at their office after school so they were detouring there before heading home. When I arrived home, Christine said it was pretty funny watching the girls interact with Santa (and that little Lauren had trouble keeping her skirt below her belly). Today pictures of the event arrived and they did not disappoint. In fact, here they all are presented without further comment (they definitely do not need any!)…
by Papa K on December 13, 2015
This weekend made the 2015 holiday season official for us: we had the Pocket holiday party on Friday night and then on Saturday, we packed up the car for a one night get-a-away to Fremont to take a ride on the Train of Lights at Niles Canyon. While its only an hour away, we decided to stay at a hotel for the night do a little swimming in the pool and stay late(r than normal) with friends from school.
Lauren's class at school has been really into trains this year - so this was quite the adventure for her...
Maile, Lauren and Gemma on one of the train cars - they are all decorated and lit up...
And, of course, Santa was there! (Lauren is still a little shy around Santa...)
Maile Girl striking a pose with one of the many decorations...
Lauren loved that she got to stick her head out the window!
by Papa K on December 10, 2015
After the debut of Lauren, it was Maile’s turn to take the stage and rock some of the moves she’s been working on with her crew all fall…
As the routine was starting we realized that Maile Girl forgot to take off the watch. Didn't exactly compliment the outfit, but didn't get in the way either 🙂
Maile strikes her pose!
The Hip Hop Jazz dance crew at Nagata dance...
Here’s the full routine (warning like yesterday, long video ahead)…
(Click here for the video.)
