This one is from 4 years ago – January 22, 2012. It’s one of our favorites…
It’s actually somewhat timely – Lauren has been on a big “Lauren and Mommy, Sometimes Maile, But Definitely NOT Daddy” phase too. In fact, this AM when we got to school she got mad at me because I wanted her to get on the sidewalk instead of the street and then insisted that I walk at least 20 feet ahead of her while walking into school. Not Daddy, indeed.
(Click here for the video.)
Enjoying some old videos...
At dinner last night we were telling the girls a funny story about how Maile used to say “Vah-milla” when she asked for ice cream. We were laughing about it and then I asked Maile if she remembered how I used to pretend that I was going to order all these funny/crazy ice cream flavors. She, of course, didn’t remember this.
But, of course, nowadays that isn’t a problem because we have videos of everything! A quick search and we found the one in question:
(Bonus points because it turns out Maile is just around Lauren’s age in that video.)
Dad note: I its mostly good that we are able to do this, but I’m sure there are some downsides. It does remove some of the “story” part of the “storytelling” I think – harder for these tales to run away from you and take on a life of their own when you have the hard video evidence. Still noodling on what all that means – immensely interesting to me – to consider another time…
(Click here for the video.)
I’m sure we are not alone here, but it always seems like our girls are at their zaniest right as we’re trying to get them to ease into bedtime.
Case in point, the video below – which is some sort of bootie dance the girls are quite proud of. Christine and I say “Okay girls, let’s start calming down and getting ready for bed…” and this is what we get…
Back to the drawing board.
(Click here for the video.)
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.)
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…
