by Papa K on September 1, 2016
So not a very long #tbt, but I was thinking today about the family reunion we had a few weeks back and how much fun we had – and especially the kids with all of their cousins. On Saturday night, the kids decided to put on a little bit of a talent show. Never one to shy from the mic, Maile Girl quickly jumped up and performed “A Small World” and got the whole family joining in for the chorus…
And, of course, once she got up there, she stayed for awhile – moving on to singing and dancing with her cousins to Uptown Funk, Shut Up and Dance, Whip Nae Nae and even some Chinese songs with Lauren. No stage fright here 🙂
(Click here for the video.)
With school starting, Lauren is in full on “teaching” mode. The session the other day was yoga…
Her “peaceful” look about 15 seconds in is my favorite…
(Click here for the video.)
And just like that the summer is over and the first day of school has arrived. Today Maile started 2nd grade and Lauren started her second year of preschool. Both girls are old pros at this point and were very excited to be headed back to school. Drop-off went super smooth and the girls were excited to see their friends, meet their new teachers and check out their new classrooms. Definitely a successful first day!
The sisters at home right before we headed off to school...
Maile Girl, the second grader
Maile and Lauren outside Presidio Knolls
Lauren and her 3 year old smile 🙂
Maile was excited to see her long time friends, Tori and Isobel
Finding her name on the 2nd Grade Blue door
Maile's new classroom - she's in a new building this year and very excited!
Lauren and her friend Marni were the first to arrive in their new preschool classroom...
Here’s to another wonderful year!
On the last weekend of summer, our family expanded by two! I know, hard to imagine in our SF apartment, but we made it work. Please meet Blueberry and Ariel – Maile and Lauren’s new fish 🙂
Very excited to get Blueberry and Ariel set up in their new home!
Here’s a video of us putting them in their new home…
The girls are very excited and so far, two days in, have done a very nice job keeping the fish fed. We’ll see if we can keep it up!
(Click here for the video.)
Grandma and Papa Hawaii took the girls to Disneyland this week and they’ve been having a blast running all over and taking in the sites. Lauren’s little head is blown every time she provides us an update 🙂 Of course, a highlight for both girls was meeting all the Disney princesses…
All ready for the meet and greets...
NOTE: Christine is sleeping and I’m not sure I can nail all the princess names, so that might need to come later 🙂
The girls said this was the best one (and Grandma said the line suggested Maile and Lauren weren't the only ones who thought so 🙂
… and even better was when they got to become princesses themselves!
Princess Maile and Princess Lauren
... and then they went punk!
Once again we headed to Michigan for a family reunion with Grandma Jill’s side of the family. We had an awesome weekend running around and playing with our cousins. We fished (using marshmallows!), went paddle boating, swimming, slip n’ sliding, water ballooning, glitter tattooing (thanks Maile!), we sang and danced, we shared stories, ate s’mores over the fire and, of course, made amazing memories!
Paddle boarding cousins!
Maile doesn't actually like eating the s'mores, but she sure enjoyed roasting the marshmallows 🙂
A rare family picture (Maile 7, Lauren 3.5)
Maile and Aiden _loved_ spending time together!
Auntie Elyssa and the cousins (at least some of them)
(Almost) full family shot!
On Wednesday, we all converged on Chicago to start a midwest visit of Daddy’s side of the family. Grandma Jill and Maile arrived from Boston, while Mommy, Lauren and I arrived from San Francisco. We didn’t get any pictures of videos of it, but suffice to say Maile and Lauren were very excited to see one another! (And Maile was only slightly less excited to see Mommy.)
On Thursday we spent the morning visiting with GG Bea (after a pit stop to get an apple pancake at Walker Brother’s, of course). It was really nice seeing GG and she loved seeing the girls. We checked out her new place, played some games and took GG out for lunch at a local hot dog spot.
Maile Girl and GG Bea
A wonderful visit with GG Bea!
While it’s true that we’ve only been away from Maile Girl for about 1.5 weeks – I look at this picture that Papa Mike sent this evening and I feel like she’s grown up years in just that amount of time!
7 going on...
We’ve been getting some quality park time in with Lauren this weekend and Christine caught an awesome picture of her today in full “swinging joy”…
Swinging. Is. The. Best.
With Maile in Boston, Christine and I have been getting some quality time with Lauren. Been fun and strange having just one little 3.5 year old running around and occupying our time. I think Lauren has been enjoying the extra attention, although she’s made it very, very clear she misses her big sister. Apparently, Maile is much better at playing “princess baby” than Daddy is.
Goofing around with Daddy without any big sister distractions!
