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matt

4th of July Weekend at Carmel Valley Ranch

by Papa K on July 5, 2017

For the past few years, a bunch of our friends have been going down to Carmel Valley Ranch for 4th of July. This year we decided to join the fun and we had an absolute blast. There were 9 families in all and 18 kids – all under the age of 8! Having the 4th on a Tuesday made for an awesome long weekend. The kids did a “camp”-type thing each morning until after lunch and then we all had fun together at the pool, playing tennis and running around. On the 4th itself they had a bunch of fun games like the three-legged race, water balloon toss and pie eating contest. We took a ton of pictures, but here are some of the highlights…

CANNONBALL!

Maile doesn't actually like eating s'mores, but she enjoyed making them.

Lauren doing her best attempt to join in on the chubby bunny fun!

Hannah and Maile - they've known each other forever and whenever they get together fall right back into the fun 🙂

Maile and Lauren doing the tube thing...

(Almost) all of the kids - a couple little ones were already asleep...

Younger sister posse - Willa, Kate and Lauren

Pool side snow cones with the crew

Hot tub!

Mommy crushed after dinner Jeopardy with the kids...

Lauren took her first tennis class with her friends...

We are ready for the water balloon toss!

Three-legged race - Lauren and Dexter

A big sister is the absolute best partner in a three-legged race

We got A LOT of swim time in 🙂

Maile Girl taking flight!

Lauren is a little lighter than Maile Girl - Daddy didn't adjust well enough on the first toss 🙁

Love my girls

Mommy and Lauren getting some quality pool time in

And we're done. (Ride home 🙂

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Spring Break 2017 – A Return to NYC!

by Papa K on April 16, 2017

(Dad note: I guess it’s safe to say I am officially out of the habit of posting on the blog 🙁 I will work to see if we can get it back in the mix!)

The girls had their spring break this past week and we headed to New York City for some fun in the big city! It wasn’t the girls’ first trip – they each had been before – but it was our first as a full family. Overall, the girls were a great age to run around the city – and we definitely took advantage of that. (Truth be told, I wore Lauren on my shoulders a fair amount – so maybe another 6 months for her would have been perfect – but we really covered a lot of ground.)

Grandma and Papa Boston joined us for the first few days and we had a blast exploring and eating with them. As you’ll see below Grandma took the girls to the American Girl Store and that was indeed the highlight of their trip – they are still talking about it. It blew their little minds. (To be clear, we also went to the top of the Freedom Tower, visited the Statue of Liberty, went to the Met and Whitney museums, saw Blue Man Group and The Lion King … but yes, the American Girl Store was the “blew their minds” event 🙂

Here are some pictures of our adventures…

Christine found a list of a bunch of cool graffiti down in the Lower East Side so we wandered around and found a bunch of them...

Grandma Jill with the girls at the American Girl Store

I mean look at those smiles - they are in heaven!

Lauren and Mei Mei ready to eat

One last pose at the American Girl Store cafe

Goofing around at one of our many eating stops with Grandma and Papa

We spent a morning up in Central Park and started it off with a horse carriage ride - don't worry, we didn't let Maile and Lauren drive 🙂

We're walking through Central Park and all of a sudden Maile yells - It's Balto! - she remembered this sled dog from one of her books at school.

We checked out the new Museum of Mathematics - it was a fun couple hours, but not amazing - has some potential though

Family shot on Liberty Island

Maile Girl ready to get her art on at the Met

One. Big. Dinosaur.

Maile and Lauren taking in some more grafitti

Watch out - 4 tyranosaurs!

Hitting up Gray's Papaya for some hot dogs and papaya drink!

Papa and his girls

We had a blast at Blue Man Group - the girls loved it!

We did a lot of street walking - hardly took any cabs - mostly subway and walking - got our steps!

High jumping on the high line!

We met up with one of Maile's classmates, David, to check out the Freedom Tour and Statue of Liberty

Lauren is so over the Freedom Tower

Maile Girl and I high, high above NYC

Maile and Lauren meet the Fearless Girl down near Wall Street

Before we headed out to the Statue of Liberty, Christine took the girls on the Sea Glass carousel

4 lovely ladies...

Lauren enjoying some seriously good ramen at Ivan Ramen

Striking some poses at the Met

We hit up Koreatown for some seriously good Korean BBQ cooked right at the table

We ate and wore a lot of ice cream!

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Chinese New Year Celebration at PKS (2017)

by Papa K on February 5, 2017

This weekend we headed over to Presidio Knolls for the annual Chinese New Year celebration. Every year it gets bigger and bigger as the school continues to grow. It’s basically setup as a big carnival and the girls had a blast running around and trying out all the various activities. Maile and Lauren both also had performances throughout the day and they both did a wonderful job with their classmates.

(As always these videos are on the long side – posted for all, but mainly enjoyed by the grandparents 🙂

First up, Lauren and her class (Lauren is on the right side of the screen)…

Next is Maile and her class (Maile is in the front row on the left side of the screen)…

Finally, not the actual performance, but a close up of Maile and the Chinese New Year Parade crew doing their thing…

Maile and Lauren all dressed up and ready to go...

Family picture - Maile (7.5), Lauren (4) - in our Chinese New Year finest...

Taking in the show - in complete awe...

Close-up of Lauren on stage performing with her class...

Maile with two of her classmates, Gemma and Amelia

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

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Marching

by Papa K on January 24, 2017

Saturday was the Women’s March and we joined the festivities here in San Francisco. Christine took the girls over to a friend’s house and they spent the afternoon making signs and getting ready. We then all met down in Hayes Valley and walked over to City Hall. It was quite the scene – people every where, happy, positive energy, lots of great signs and costumes. I’m not sure the girls fully grokked it, but Christine and I both felt good about bringing them and exposing them to their first “protest”.

Maile and her homemade protest backpack with Mommy and Temple

Family shot (Maile - 7, Lauren - 4)

Maile Girl and I selfie - Christine said she really looks like me in this picture 🙂

A scene of the crowd - hard to get a sense of the size from the ground level

My two little protesters!

I’ll readily admit, that I’m not sure 10 years ago, it would have been something I would have attended, but I’m very happy that my life has changed as it has so that joining was a no brainer. I love being a dad of two little girls and married to an incredibly strong role model in Christine – and I’ll march with them where ever and whenever!

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Scenes from Disneyland & the Star Wars Half Marathon

by Papa K on January 22, 2017

(I know, I know … 2017 has not started out well for me posting-wise. I hope to improve…)

Last weekend, we headed down to Anaheim for a quick day trip to Disneyland and to support Mommy who was running the Star Wars Half Marathon! We headed down Friday night, hit Disneyland for Saturday and then supported Mommy on Sunday morning.

We had a great day at Disneyland on Saturday. Both girls are at a great age for it – Lauren really taking everything in for the first time and being amazed by the magic and Maile old enough to enjoy rollercoasters. Yes! Maile went on every ride in the park with me – it was fantastic. Just look at the joy on her face…

Here are a bunch of other shots from a very fun weekend…

Within minutes of arriving at Disneyland, we had a Minnie sighting - got the girls in the right mood for the fun to come...

Tea cup time!

One of Lauren's classmates was there too so we spent most of the morning running around the park with them.

Jazz Hands!

Maile Girl and I getting ready for Thunder Mountain - no fear!

Action shot of Maile and I on Splash Mountain!

Lauren the Hulk!

Mommy stopped along the way to take a picture with this guy...

... and then we found Mommy!

We were very proud of our Mommy for completing the half marathon!

After the half marathon, we hit Goofy's Kitchen for one last meal and fun with the characters...

(Click here for the video.)

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Lauren Turns 4!

by Papa K on January 4, 2017

It was a bit jet-lagged, middle of the week and rainy – but that didn’t stop us from giving Lauren a “great day” for her 4th birthday, full of some of her favorites. From the waffles in the morning (a special mid-week treat courtesy of a Mommy that woke up early) to an ice cream capper at night (we’ll ignore the classic 4 year old-style melt-down before bed), Lauren made the most of her birthday!

Per tradition, we started the celebration a few days early while we were still in Hawaii with Lauren’s favorite cake – Hello Kitty ice cream cake from Safeway!

Last night Mommy showed off her “handiness” by putting together the bike that Grandma and Papa Boston sent over. To say Lauren was overjoyed with her new ride is an understatement – I have a feeling she is going to put some serious miles on that thing before its all said and done!

I took a few snaps throughout the day – here are some of the highlights…

Did Lauren hear Mommy stirring when she got up early to make waffles? Of course she did ... and was rewarded with some quality time cuddling and book reading before the day really got going.

Lauren on her new bike - its raining, but she can't wait to get out and take it for a spin! Thank you Grandma and Papa Boston!

After two weeks of seeing them every day, Lauren really misses Grandma and Papa Hawaii - so a breakfast FaceTime was a special treat to start the day...

At night, Lauren picked our dinner and we headed to Japantown for some noodles - we were very excited and quite pleased to have every one taking her lead...

Noodles. Are. The. Best.

And here it is. Lauren at 4. Our little tyrant of a goofball. Love her.

And the capper was the frozen yogurt. A fun end to a fun day!

Happy Birthday baby girl – we love you!

(Click here for the video.)

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Lauren Learns to Ride a Bike

by Papa K on December 29, 2016

With Lauren fast approaching 4 years old, she’s started talking more and more about wanting to ride a “real” bike like her big sister – with pedals and everything. (Spoiler alert: she’s going to be very excited when she sees what Grandma and Papa Boston got her for her birthday 🙂

The family across the street had a Paw Patrol bike for their son and all week Lauren has been eyeing it enviously. With her older sister and cousins headed to the track for some running, we decided to walk over and ask if we could borrow for a spin. They had a balance bike too (just like her red one at home), but Lauren was emphatic that she wanted to give this whole “pedals, no training wheels” thing a shot. I was game too, so we loaded the bike in the car and headed over to the track.

Our little bike rider and a very proud daddy!

Well, I think its safe to say that Lauren’s time on the balance bike paid off because I barely needed to do anything before she was up and riding without any help from me. It took her a few minutes to get the pedaling motion down and she still felt the need to stop every once in awhile, but her balance was great and within about 10 minutes she was pedaling like demon all around the track. (BTW – track was an awesome place to do some bike riding practice!)

Here’s a video pretty early on in our practice session…

And then a short while after that she was already off on her own…

Very proud of our little girl! She’ll be burning up the streets in SF when we get home for sure…

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

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PKS Ice Skating 2016

by Papa K on November 30, 2016

Every year as a fundraising event, some families from the girls’ school rent out an outdoor ice rink downtown and invite everyone to come have some skating fun. We headed down this year and it was Daddy’s turn to get out on the ice with the girls. Maile is pretty much out on her own these days, but I got some quality skating time with Lauren.

We started out hugging the wall:

But soon enough we were out on the ice properly:

My skating date 🙂

I took a few spins with Maile Girl too - she isn't completely embarrassed by me ... yet.

We fell.

Still upset about the fall.

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

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Thanksgiving Fun 2016

by Papa K on November 29, 2016

For only the second time in my life, I didn’t head to Boston for Thanksgiving. After our big trip to Minneapolis a few weeks ago, we decided to stay local and Grandma and Papa Boston along with Auntie Elyssa and Uncle Stephen came to us. We rented a house up in Healdsburg and had a California-style Thanksgiving.

Grandma and Papa with Maile and Lauren on the deck outside our rental house

Mommy had the great idea to kick things off with a full family turkey trot. 1.5 miles and the girls did awesome. Christine and Maile ran ahead. Lauren and I followed behind – and Lauren ran the whole way – didn’t stop once! I was very proud of her.

We're bundled up and ready to trot!

The whole family got involved in the trotting!

Maile Girl at the finish line

Maile came back and ran the last yards with Lauren

Very proud of my little runner!

After that we cooked up a storm at the house – it had a huge kitchen that was perfect! The girls loved having so many people to play with, read books, play games and goof around with.

Cooking with Grandma

All in all, it was a fantastic extended weekend and a nice start to the holiday season. We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

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Maile & Lauren’s Fall 2016 Parent Teacher Conferences

by Papa K on October 16, 2016

Last week we had our fall school conferences for the girls. It’s always fun hearing about how the girls are getting along in school. The girls are at different stages of their educational journey so its interesting to see how the conferences change as the girls get older. For Lauren, her primary teacher is wonderful and talking to her its clear how well she knows our little girl. Lauren really seems to be adjusting well socially and the Mandarin learning is really starting to pick up steam – I have a feeling Lauren will go even faster than Maile did on account of having the support of her big sister.

For Maile, this year in second grade there was something new – mainly that Maile actually joined us for the conference and led part of the walk through providing us an overview of what she’s been learning to start the year. It was actually pretty funny because she started explaining everything in Mandarin until her teacher’s stopped her and asked, “Do your Mommy and Daddy know Mandarin?” “Oh yeah!”, Maile said and then switched to explaining in English for us. Thanks for tossing us a bone!

Maile and Mommy at Maile's parent teacher conference...

... and with Daddy too. Maile did an awesome job walking us through everything she is up to - it's going to be a great year!

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matt

4th of July Weekend at Carmel Valley Ranch

Spring Break 2017 – A Return to NYC!

Chinese New Year Celebration at PKS (2017)

Marching

Scenes from Disneyland & the Star Wars Half Marathon

Lauren Turns 4!

Lauren Learns to Ride a Bike

PKS Ice Skating 2016

Thanksgiving Fun 2016

Maile & Lauren’s Fall 2016 Parent Teacher Conferences

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