On Sunday, we celebrated Lauren’s 3rd birthday with a joint party with her good friend Sabrina. Lauren and Sabrina first met at swim class when they were two and now they are classmates at PKS. Born just two days apart, I have a feeling they will be sharing birthday festivities for some time to come…
For this edition, it was all about the bubbles. Mommy nailed it by inviting “The Bubble Man” to come put on a show for Lauren, Sabrina and their friends. The joy was palpable. Seriously, I haven’t witnessed pure joy like this in a long, long time. See a taste for yourself…
The party was a great success and even though the birthday girl is still a bit shy around the camera these days, I can assure you she had a blast!
You know who is not shy around the camera? This goofball.
After the Bubble Man did his thing, he let Lauren and her friends try their hands at the bubble making...
Bubble Maker in training for sure...
Birthday girl, her big sister and some friends...
(Click here for the video.)
Big milestone this week – since Lauren is now three, she’s graduated to the next level at swim class. Which means that she goes in the pool by herself. Or, in other words, DADDY NO LONGER HAS TO GO IN THE POOL!
Yes, I’ll miss swimming with Lauren, but I will NOT miss getting into the pool every week 🙂
Notice something? That's right no Daddy in the pool!
Lauren did fantastic during her first solo lesson. No tears at all and she seems to really like her teacher. And Daddy stayed dry. Amazing.
And now we are 3.
Today is Lauren’s third birthday(!) Yes, our little girl is three.
A year ago I wrote that Lauren was in her “I do it” phase – looking for independence wherever she could find it. As she turns three, that search has been successful and she has carved out her own place in our family. More than Maile ever did, she loves playing with her dolls – she mimics all the things she sees her Mommy, sister and teachers doing with her with her own little mini family. She’s gone from following Maile, to stepping up and demanding her own turns and her own way (often much to Maile’s chagrin). Don’t worry, she still worships her bigger sister – she just wants to make sure she knows there are two little girls around here 🙂
Lauren is also our climber, our adventurer, our fearless one. She runs, jumps, rides, falls and gets back up.
She yells. She wants. She demands. Often unreasonably so. She gets frustrated. She frustrates.
But then the laughter and smiles. Indeed! Like her sister, she’s very outgoing and friendly. She has her shy moments to be sure, but typically she finds her comfort zone quickly and lights up the room with her smiles, laughter and joking. Yes, she’s a joker. She cracks Christine and I up constantly.
And, of course, our birthday girl loves her bubble baths…
Happy Birthday, Lauren!
Still lots to cover from our time in Hawaii, but I thought for my first post of the new year, I’d share the girls’ school pictures.
First, we need to cover Lauren’s very first school picture.
Lauren, Coconut Tree Class (2.5 years old)
A truly epic school picture. When Christine and I saw this picture we almost died laughing. In many ways its the perfect Lauren pose. She is such a character. I got the feeling that the school photographer had already done 100 portraits that day and when Lauren wouldn’t put her hand down, he just said “ah, screw it…”
And then we have our first grader, Ms. Maile Girl. She always knows how to light up the room with her smile.
Maile, First Grade (6 years old)
And for comparison to Lauren above, here is Maile for her first school picture (a bit younger than Lauren pictured above)…
Maile's First School Picture (2011)
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…
