Posts tagged as:

maile

Maile’s First Art Show

by Papa K on December 14, 2014

Last week Maile’s after school art class held an exhibit. And Maile had a very special guest in attendance – Papa Cal needed one more trip to achieve status for the year, so he booked a one night trip to come see us in San Francisco (and somehow managed to dodge all the bad weather we’ve been having too!)

The artist at age 5

The artist at age 5

Explaining all her influences to Papa Cal

Explaining all her influences to Papa Cal

The artist and her Papa

The artist and her Papa

A Girl Walking in the City by Maile Girl

A Girl Walking in the City by Maile Girl

The starting point for each piece was a chinese character - here you see tree on the left and home on the right.

The starting point for each piece was a chinese character - here you see tree on the left and home on the right.

The front side of Maile's portfolio

The front side of Maile's portfolio

And the reverse

And the reverse

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#TBT “Rainbow Day”

by Papa K on December 10, 2014

If you haven’t heard, we apparently have a big storm coming our way tonight and tomorrow. This led me to go searching the blog for old posts I’ve written about the girls playing in the rain.

And while I found some good ones, I also found this video – which gave me a good laugh…

(Click here for the video.)

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It’s been awhile since we’ve posted a family picture. This one was from Boston over Thanksgiving – we headed into town and explored Faneuil Hall for the day.

Mommy, Lauren (23 months), Daddy and Maile (5.5)

Mommy, Lauren (23 months), Daddy and Maile (5.5)

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Christine took some great photos at the hip hop recital yesterday…

This is going to be awesome...

This is going to be awesome...

Huddling up to get ready for the big performance...

Huddling up to get ready for the big performance...

Getting big for some big hip hop moves...

Getting big for some big hip hop moves...

My hip hop moves are fierce - bring it!

My hip hop moves are fierce - bring it!

Standing tall...

Standing tall...

Dancing joy!

Dancing joy!

My sister is the coolest.

My sister is the coolest.

Striking a pose...

Striking a pose...

My turn now?

My turn now?

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Earlier in the summer, Christine heard about this new dance studio opening up right near our house in Japantown called Nagata Dance. They were offering Hip Hop class and Maile said she wanted to take it. All fall, Maile has been going on Wednesdays after school – I never really get a chance to see her dance because I’m still at work, but Christine has raved about the class and the teacher. The class is currently really small (only 4 kids), but the main teacher, Ms. Nagata, is fantastic with the kids.

Today they had their first dance recital … and it was fantastic. It just had this great down-to-earth quality to it, but we also saw all the kids had learned and I was floored by Maile’s routine. You could tell the kids were having a lot of fun too – but that they also respected their teacher – all good things in my book!

I think you’ll enjoy it too.

Here is Maile’s Hip Hop routine:

And at the end they did a final number where each student was able to bring a parent or friend onto the dance floor – Maile, of course, chose Lauren 🙂

And, finally, here is a longer version of the recital – we’ll call this one the “Grandma cut” 😉

(Click here for the hip hop routine.)
(Click here for the final number.)
(Click here for the full routine, aka the Grandma cut.)

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Dear Santa (2014)

by Papa K on December 3, 2014

We let Maile watch a show in the morning and a show at night. Recently, she’s been paying more and more attention to the commercials. It’s pretty fascinating (and scary I suppose) watching how the marketers work their way into her little mind. Every once in awhile a particular toy will catch her attention and she’ll start pitching me on all its benefits – “Daddy, look its a stuffed animal that can talk when you press its belly. I think it would be good for Lauren to play with. She could learn stuff.”

A couple weeks ago, she became fascinated by this watch that you can play games on and also has a built in camera. The VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch. It’s basically, Maile’s Red Ryder BB Gun.

She decided to write a letter to Santa to ask for it. We’ve been working on her spelling and she wanted to make sure she got it right, so first we wrote the words of the letter on a draft piece of paper and then she created the actual letter to Santa. You can see the draft in the left in this picture:

Maile Girl hard at work on her first letter to Santa...

Maile Girl hard at work on her first letter to Santa...

The complete letter reads:

Dear Santa,

I bin good

Ples send me this Vtech Kidizoom Smartwatch Pink

Love Maile

It’s amazing.

Maile and her completed letter - we hope Santa gets it in time!

Maile and her completed letter - we hope Santa gets it in time!

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Thanksgiving Fun 2014

by Maile Girl on November 30, 2014

Maile Girl here – it’s been awhile since I’ve written and thought I’d say hi and tell you a bit about our Thanksgiving so far in Boston.

It looks like Daddy already covered the snow … which was awesome! If you could take the temperature in Hawaii and add snow to the mix, I think that would basically be the best thing ever. We should talk to Olaf.

Just two California Girls bundled up and enjoying the beginnings of winter here in Boston...

Just two California Girls bundled up and enjoying the beginnings of winter here in Boston...

It’s definitely a full house here and Grandma and Papa’s and Lauren and I have been taking full advantage. Papa, Grandma, Auntie Elyssa and Uncle Stephen are all here and that doesn’t even count the other people that have stopped by to say hi and play with us.

Lauren and I in our Big Sister/Little Sister sweaters - (Thanks Susie!)

Lauren and I in our Big Sister/Little Sister sweaters - (Thanks Susie!)

On Wednesday and Thursday there was LOTS of cooking going on for our Thanksgiving feast. The whole house smelled so yummy. I even chipped in this year making mini Apple Pies that I learned to make at cooking camp a few weeks back.

Check out the apple pies I made for Thanksgiving - my first Thanksgiving dessert!

Check out the apple pies I made for Thanksgiving - my first Thanksgiving dessert!

Helping Daddy carve the turkey - I think I might be ready to go solo next year. (Dad note: not quite, Maile Girl.)

Helping Daddy carve the turkey - I think I might be ready to go solo next year. (Dad note: not quite, Maile Girl.)

It’s not all cooking and eating though – we’ve also been spending a lot of time outdoors (even with the cold weather). Daddy has taken Lauren, Mommy and I on some walks and showed us where he grew up.

Wet leaves are FUN! I wish there were more of them in San Francisco!

Wet leaves are FUN! I wish there were more of them in San Francisco!

Daddy and I went to the beach to see what the ocean is like in the winter - I hope its different when we go to Hawaii next month!

Daddy and I went to the beach to see what the ocean is like in the winter - I hope its different when we go to Hawaii next month!

On Friday, we went to Daddy’s school that he went to for Kindergarten and met up with his old friends – people that he’s known as long as I’ve known Tori and my other friends! We played in the snow and then Daddy played football with his friends. Well, at least that’s what he called it – it didn’t look like the football games he watches on TV. At all.

StanFoot 2014 - Daddy says we'll be playing soon enough!

StanFoot 2014 - Daddy says we'll be playing soon enough!

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Evolution of the Snowman

by Papa K on November 28, 2014

(Dad note: apologize for the lack of posts this week – we’ve been caught up in all the fun here in Swampscott with Grandma and Papa. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and don’t worry we’ll be sharing some of the adventures we’ve been having.)

We arrived in Boston on Tuesday night – luckily just ahead of the storm so no delays or anything like that. Maile was very excited about the possibility of seeing snow. (Technically, she has seen it once before, but she was too little to remember). It rained all day Wednesday, but the forecast called for some flurries over night. We put Maile to bed Wednesday evening with the promise that if we saw any snow we’d wake her up.

Still no snow when Christine and I went to bed, but when Maile woke up at ~6:15 AM she looked out the window and thought she saw something that might be snow. She woke Christine and I up and through on shoes and our winter jackets and headed outside to check things out. Sure enough there was just enough snow on the ground to make a itty bitty snowman – Maile’s first…

Maile's very first snowman - just a wee little guy...

Maile's very first snowman - just a wee little guy...

A few hours later, after eating some breakfast and putting proper clothes on, the girls headed outside for more fun. Lauren is really into Olaf (from Frozen) – she’s never seen the movie, but she recognizes him from the books Maile has. She went to play with the first snowman, but he broke – she was very upset. So Maile made her a new one…

Maile and Lauren working on snowman #2...

Maile and Lauren working on snowman #2...

Maile with her creation, affectionately known by Lauren as Olaf

Maile with her creation, affectionately known by Lauren as Olaf

We thought that might be the end of it – the girls had fun, but I was still feeling like they didn’t get the full effect of snow since the snowing had mostly stopped and there really wasn’t too much on the ground. Luckily, Mother Nature agreed and dumped some more snow on us Friday morning – and this time it was perfect, big, beautiful flakes and still going when the girls woke up.

They bundled up and headed out again, this time with Papa in tow to show them how to do snow right!

When the real snow came, Papa headed out with the girls to show them how a snowman is done right...

When the real snow came, Papa headed out with the girls to show them how a snowman is done right...

Maile Girl catching snow flurries with her tongue...

Maile Girl catching snow flurries with her tongue...

... and, of course, whatever Maile is doing, Lauren is doing too...

... and, of course, whatever Maile is doing, Lauren is doing too...

Papa and Maile hard at work with snowman #3

Papa and Maile hard at work with snowman #3

Meanwhile, Lauren had enough of the cold and was warming up inside...

Meanwhile, Lauren had enough of the cold and was warming up inside...

Maile and Papa with their finished product  - a recycle friendly Olaf :)

Maile and Papa with their finished product - a recycle friendly Olaf 🙂

All in all a fun snowstorm (especially since we weren’t trying to travel through it!) and likely a snow experience Maile will remember now – maybe even Lauren too!

(Click here for the video.)

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Ready for the cold!

by Papa K on November 24, 2014

Boston here we come!

All smiles now - they have no idea what they are in for!

All smiles now - they have no idea what they are in for!

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Maile’s Family Tree

by Papa K on November 23, 2014

For the past month, Maile and her classmates have been doing a unit at school about their Personal History. The unit concluded this Friday with a presentation of family trees that each child made. Christine and I went for the presentation. Maile and her classmates sang a song in Mandarin – that I gather was about all the different members of the family and then they had their family trees posted around the school science fair-style. So you could walk around and each child would tell you about their family.

Maile and her classmates singing

Maile and her classmates singing

Maile with her family tree and her book about herself

Maile with her family tree and her book about herself

A close-up of the family tree

A close-up of the family tree

They also made books about themselves. Each page had a photo of them at a certain age (0 – 5) and a drawing and writing (in Chinese) of something they were able to do at that age. So at 0, Maile could drink a bottle and cry. At 1, she could talk. Etc.

(Dad note: The whole project reminded me of something I did with a preschool teacher when my Grandma Judy passed away. She worked with me to make a picture of my whole family. I have a vague recollection of the picture – maybe Grandma Jill can dig it up and we can show Maile over Thanksgiving!)

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