by Papa K on February 28, 2016
Big time milestone this weekend for Maile Girl (and sort of Lauren too). Maile had her first friend sleepover! This has been high on the request list for a little while now. At the beginning of the year we decided to use it as a carrot to get Maile to stop waking us up in the middle of the night. It worked like a charm and Maile now stays in her room until at least 6 AM (yes, this is a huge improvement!)
Maile had a good friend from school, Gemma over. I was a little nervous, but they were wonderful. Everyone behaved and got along, Maile and Gemma did a really nice job including Lauren in their playing. They had a little trouble going to sleep, but that’s to be expected and everyone slept through the night. All in all, a success(!) and we’re looking forward to the next sleepover … especially if its at the friend’s house 😉
Lauren, Maile and Gemma having fun at their first sleepover!
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on February 24, 2016
Hello! Lauren here. It’s been awhile. I mostly let my Daddy do the talking around here, but (a) he wasn’t here for this and (b) it was just too awesome not to share myself.
So tonight, Daddy and Maile went out to dinner by themselves. That means Mommy picked me up at school and we came home just the two of us. You know what that means? I got to pick up the mail AND since there was a package I got to open it with Mommy AND since that package had packing material that pops I got to play with it all by myself!
Seriously.
I didn’t have to share. I popped every since piece. Me. No taking turns. All for me.
Look, I get it. Sharing is important. But sometimes its pretty awesome when your big sister isn’t around and you get to pop the whole string of bubble wrap by yourself. And by “pretty awesome” I actually mean “THE BEST”!
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on February 23, 2016
Some friends from Presidio Knolls have started a newspaper aimed at kids called Xyza. We’ve really enjoyed the first few issues – a little while back Maile started asking about the “news” – but nothing really was well targeted for a 6 year old. This is – and we’ve had a lot of fun reading through the stories so far.
For Chinese New Year, they included a recipe for dumplings and Maile asked if we could give it a shot. So Sunday afternoon we finished our Chinese New Year celebration with some good ol’ dumpling making. Here’s the girls telling us how its done…
Mommy showed the girls how it was done and then they were off...
Lauren working hard on her first dumpling...
The lineup - we got a little creative with our shapes.
All cooked and ready to eat!
Yum!
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on February 22, 2016
Okay, technical difficulties have been resolved and we’re ready to share all the details of Saturday’s Chinese New Year Parade!
This was Maile’s second year participating in the parade and once again we had an absolute blast. We headed downtown as a family at 3 PM and helped the kids get ready for the big parade. It was a long afternoon – the parade itself didn’t kick in until ~6:15 PM, but the kids barely noticed – they were having too much fun taking in all the sites and goofing around with each other. Once the parade started they were all business – the practice really paid off and they nailed their dance number to Uptown Funk each of the oh 30+ times they performed it along the route.
Here’s a close-up of Maile performing the complete number during a pre-parade practice…
And here are some fun shots from along the way…
Lots of helping hands getting Maile and friends ready for the parade...
Here she is - ready to rock!
Maile and Gemma
All the Presidio Knolls kids - notice Maile looking at the only camera that matters 🙂
Family selfie right before the start...
Maile and Isobel
Maile Girl - smack in the middle of the action as always!
The picture of jealousy.
Don’t worry, Lauren, next year you’re in!
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on February 21, 2016
(Dad note: I had some technical difficulties tonight so a full debrief of the Chinese New Year Parade is going to have to wait until tomorrow, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share this awesome TV footage of the kids. Maile is at the top of the frame during the beginning of the segment – the kids got some pretty great air time!)
I couldn’t embed the video, so you’ll need to click through here to check it out:
Maile & PKS Friends at the Chinese New Year Parade
More to come!
by Papa K on February 18, 2016
From 2013 – Maile works on her first marketing campaign…
Facetime. For when you stub your toe and your daddy is at work...
by Papa K on February 17, 2016
Grandma Jill and Papa Mike took the girls on an adventure to Monterrey for the past couple of days. They’re having a great time – we know this because Papa Mike sends us texts throughout the day with pictures and captions as only he can provide of their adventures!
by Papa K on February 15, 2016
Maile and Lauren are two very lucky girls. Last week, while we were traveling, Grandma Gail and Papa Cal took good care of them and kept them busy with all sorts of projects and activities. This week, during school vacation week, its Grandma Jill and Papa Mike’s turn and they are kicking things off with all sorts of fun adventures.
And all along the way they send us photos so we can eavesdrop on all their fun 🙂
by Papa K on February 14, 2016
Been awfully quiet around here, right? Apologies! For the past 10 days Christine and I have been off having adventures in Washington, DC and Mexico. We made it an “all the way” vacation and that meant even taking a break from the blogging – the longest break I’ve taken since Maile was born 6.5 years ago.
One of our adventures had us repelling down into a cenote (a sinkhole)!
And while Christine and I were having some awesome adventures (and lots and lots of down time!), Maile and Lauren were in very good hands with Grandma Gail and Papa Cal. By all accounts, our time away was a success. The girls had a wonderful time and Grandma and Papa really got to spend some quality time seeing what their day-to-day lives are all about.
This selfie was taken on the very last day before we came home - everyone is all smiles!
Thank you, Grandma and Papa for letting us escape – we are forever grateful!
While we were waiting for our lunch on Sunday, we paused for a moment of zen…
Maile zen
Lauren zen
Mommy zen
Daddy zen
(Dad note: Christine and I are heading away for the next week and a half tomorrow. Grandma Gail and Papa Cal came in from Hawaii to watch the girls. Not sure what the posting will be like while traveling, we’ll see…)
