Hapa Haole — Growing up with a little of both and the lessons learned along the way

Maile’s Body Map

by Papa K on July 10, 2016

Maile and Lauren have been having a blast at summer camp so far this summer – they are just about to start their third week at camp. Lauren has been spending her time at PKS – they mix things up a bit in the summer time and she’s been having a lot of fun with her friends.

Maile is old enough that she can attend some of the other camps throughout the city and there are some really great options out there. Her first week, she spent at Sprout Cooking Club – she spent the week going around to real restaurants throughout the city and learning to cook everything from pizza to empanadas to carving a chicken at a farm. She had a blast – her love for cooking is really growing.

Last week, she spent with the Renegade Girls Club and they did an in depth week on the human body. It was great – every day Maile came home with new facts she learned about the body. Check out this video of the “body map” she made…

Of course, all this body talk led to her asking Christine and I tonight how babies get out of a mommy’s tummy. Yay!

Next week Maile is off to musical theater camp – the show tunes are coming 🙂

(Click here for the video.)

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4th of July Weekend Bike Riding

by Papa K on July 5, 2016

As I’ve posted, the girls have been getting more and more into bike riding. Up until now, Christine and I have mostly run around behind them and our rides have been pretty limited. I finally thought Maile was ready to ride along side me, so on Sunday, I brought my bike out and we headed out for a family bike ride. Well, a split up family ride. Christine went running with Lauren beside her on her scooter bike (she said it was the perfect pace actually) and Maile and I rode up ahead. We went down to Golden Gate Park where they close off the streets and had a really nice ride for a couple miles.

Not the most demanding pre-PMC training, but fun all the same!

The crew - ready to rock!

Its only a matter of time before this one is lapping all of us!

After our ride we met up again and Lauren had the good idea to do some geocaching - so we went in hunt of a treasure!

... and after some good searching we found the cache!

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Creeping After Bedtime…

by Papa K on July 4, 2016

Lauren has been having trouble going to sleep. With Maile, it sometimes takes a little bit to get her into her room, but once her head hits the pillow, she is pretty much out. Lauren is a bit different – for the past few weeks, she pops out of her room after we’ve put her to bed with all sorts of excuses around why she can’t sleep (often involving wanting something from Mommy).

Tonight was amazing. Christine caught this video of her creeping out of her room.

I think her philosophy was that if she couldn’t see us, then clearly we couldn’t see her either.

I love her.

(Click here for the video.)

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Maile Girl, Tomb Raider

by Papa K on June 26, 2016

The day before we left Kauai, Maile and I went on an adventure. It was a kayak hiking trip to check out a small waterfall on the island and, most importantly, go on a rope swing. Maile was most excited about the rope swing.

Maile and Daddy ready to rock our kayak adventure...

Maile got her very own paddle and actually did a good job manning the front of the kayak.

Maile showing off some of the pretty flowers she collected along the way...

Kayak part done, now off to hike to the rope swing...

Maile Girl leading the way...

We had actually gone on this trip once before a couple years ago – that time we compared Maile to Dora the Explorer, but this time she was indeed more of a Tomb Raider! She didn’t even hesitate with the rope swing – she walked right up and jumped on – our little girl that used to hesitate at the top of the slide has come a long way!

One unfortunate part of the trip was that despite using bug spray, poor Maile’s legs got eaten alive and she developed a slight reaction and developed pretty big welts on her legs. They were super itchy and I felt so bad for her. Going in the cool water at the rope swing helped her out and she was a trooper all the way through. The bites were bad enough that I took her to the doctor the next day before we left for home and he prescribed some stronger medicine that really helped get the bites under control. She is indeed my daughter – but didn’t let that stop the adventures!

(Click here for the video.)

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Kite Flying with Papa

by Papa K on June 23, 2016

Today, I took Maile out for a kayak/hiking adventure (more to come on that). While we were away, Lauren got some quality time with Grandma and Papa (and Mommy too). With two little girls competing for their attention, its nice some times to get some 1:1 time!

The wind was blowing nicely, so they decided to head out and fly some kites. Lauren had a blast!

Go go gadget kite!

Quite proud that she her kite way up high!

Papa Cal helping Lauren keep an eye on things...

Something about flying a kite that just makes you smile…

(Click here for the video.)

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Non-stop Water Fun

by Papa K on June 21, 2016

A trip to Kauai means lots of time in the water for our girls – they basically become fish.

Beach time with Papa Cal!

Sometimes the water is fought over with water guns...

... even Papa Cal got involved!

On Tuesday we spent the day at the Marriott pool and spent hours goofing around...

Maile is no longer afraid of the big throw from Daddy!

Lauren most have gone down this water slide 50 times...

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Little Surfer Girl

by Papa K on June 21, 2016

Apologies for the long delay in posting! We’ve been quite busy. I know we haven’t posted fully on all of our end of school activities – we’ll need to circle back on some of that. School ended last Wednesday and we took off straight away for Hawaii – we arrived here on Thursday and have been having a blast with Grandma and Papa and enjoying lots of quality out door time.

To start us off, here is our little surfer girl, Lauren:

(Click here for the video.)

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Good times at the PKS End of Year Picnic

by Papa K on June 12, 2016

Today was the end of year picnic for Maile and Lauren’s school. Hard to believe we have another school year in the books! We had a lot of phone running around the park with our friends and playing all the different field games they had from three-legged race to the tug o’ war.

Lauren didn’t need official games there – she and her friends just enjoyed launching themselves off this cement stoop. They must have done this for about an hour…

Lauren, how high did you jump? Wow!

And then it was Maile’s turn to crush the tug o’ war with her friends…

Maile's game face for the tug o' war!

Maile and Mommy

(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)

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Maile’s End of Year Performance

by Papa K on June 9, 2016

Hard to believe the end of the school year is almost upon us! On Tuesday, Maile and her first grade classmates put on an end of the year performance for the parents. They sang songs in both English and Chinese and they also read us books that they wrote (in English and Chinese).

Maile and friends ready to perform!

Maile’s reading has definitely come along way this year – her English reading is better than her Chinese, but she’s making good progress with both. And her writing is awesome – it was fun hearing the stories she came up with (even though Christine and I had a little trouble following along with the Chinese one 🙂

Reading to a very proud Mommy and Daddy 🙂

Here’s a video of Maile performing a song about Harriet Tubman. She loses the verse in a few places – but nails the chorus!

(Click here for the video.)

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Maile & Lauren Complete 1 Mile Run!

by Papa K on June 5, 2016

One of the parents in Maile’s first grade class ran track in college and offered to train some of the kids for a mile run. Over the past couple of weeks we met a couple times at a nearby track and he taught them about running as a group, how to pace yourself, etc. The goal was for them to complete the mile run without stopping.

As it turns out, Lauren tagged along for the training sessions and ended up chasing after Maile and her friends. In the training she finished the mile without problem and became kind of a mascot for the team. So when we signed Maile up for the run, we signed Lauren up too.

Today was the run – called See Jane Run over on a course in Alameda. We headed out in the morning and had a great day – and all the kids did an amazing job. Not only did they all finish, but they also cheered each other on – and in Lauren’s case, Maile and some of her friends ran back and finished the mile with her. Christine and I were quite proud of the girls.