After school today, Maile hit the courtyard for some trick or treating. Our neighbors were wonderful – we’re not a hot spot for trick or treaters, but they all made sure they had something for Maile Girl!
Okay, here I go - trick or treating time. I covered this with Mommy and Daddy: ring the bell, say trick or treat, get a treat, say thank you and Happy Halloween. Piece of cake!
Ok, deep breath, here we go...
Wait, Daddy, can we review this one more time?
Score!
(Dad note: Truth is that Maile asked what the treat was first. She actually “rejected” the candy at one house because it was chocolate. We had to explain that the real purpose of Halloween was to get candy for Mommy and Daddy, so she really should just take everything even if she doesn’t like it.)
Off we go to the next house!
Long time readers know that Maile Girl is very lucky because every year her Grandma Gail makes her a costume for Halloween.
In 2009 she was Totoro.
In 2010 she was a monkey.
In 2011 she was Elmo.
And, this year, she’s a PURPLE FLOWER!
Watering our new purple flower...
I'm growing! I'm growing!
View from the back
Why a purple flower? A few months back when Grandma Gail was visiting, she, Mommy and Maile were brainstorming ideas of what Maile could be for Halloween. When Mommy mentioned that once Grandma Gail made her a flower costume, Maile was sold! She wanted to be just like mommy.
And sure enough, here’s a picture from October 30, 1981 where word on the street is Mommy took 3rd place at the Big Save costume contest…
5 year old Mommy as a yellow flower
THANK YOU GRANDMA GAIL FOR ANOTHER WONDERFUL COSTUME!
The other night Mommy, Daddy and I made our very own pizza. Right in our own house! How cool is that? I made a cheese one and then I helped Daddy make a pepperoni and mushroom one. I’m not sure why Daddy bothers with those other things, the cheese is CLEARLY the best part of the pizza!
The key to a good pizza is a BIG handful of cheese!
It's really important to make sure the cheese is evenly spread - you don't want clumps.
Saying cheese next to some cheese pizza 🙂
The pizza was all full of cheese, so I just ate the rest by hand!
(Dad note: Maile’s pizza was DELICIOUS!)
It’s been awhile since we did a Maile Minute-type video, so in this one you get a full 5 minutes of Q&A with Maile Girl (well, 4 minutes with Maile and a minute at the end where Maile turns the table on me…)
(Click here for the video.)
On Saturday, we headed over to Ocean Beach to checkout a sandcastle competition that was going on. Maile was so excited by the sand that we actually didn’t spend much time at the actual competition. Maile (along with Sophie) were focused on building their own creations – well, the building is only a part of it – the true fun is in the destroying of the castles!
Ocean Beach here I come!
Maile Girl building her entry for the sand castle competition
Hard at work on her castle...
YOU - get to work on the castle!
Building sand castles is fun!
But stomping on the castles is MUCH...
...MUCH MORE FUN!
The Blue Angels were in town this weekend and we headed down to Marina Green to check out the festivities. Maile and I were inspired by the planes put on our own “air” show…
Fly, Daddy, Fly!
Maile Girl was an excellent co-pilot...
Dad note: Always fun to look back on an annual weekend like the Blue Angels visit. Here’s Maile Girl in 2011 and here she is in 2009. 13 weeks old in that last link – hard to believe!
We realized we hadn’t taken a family picture in awhile, so we let Maile pick out our outfits, and we set the timer on the ol’ camera. Turns out its a getting a bit more challenging to nail the picture these days…
Wait! We need Daddy...
Hmm... that's not right.
Daddy! Move your knee and duck down lower. Geez.
There we go! Daddy, Maile and Mommy (September 2012)
by Papa K on September 23, 2012
Maile Girl and I traveled to Chicago this weekend to visit with the great grandparents and other Chicago-based family members. We had an amazing trip and will cover some of the highlights over the next few days.
The trip home, however, did not go very smoothly. We ended up being delayed 5 hours and had to switch planes TWICE. Switch planes as in, board the plane, get everything settled, pack everything back up again, de-board the plane, wait around for awhile, board another plane, get everything settled, pack everything back up again, de-board the plane, wait around for awhile, board another plan, get everything settled … and finally, take off for home!
Needless to say, quite the adventure traveling solo with a three year old. I have to say – Maile was a rock star. She had one mini melt down over some confusion between the two of us during our second boarding where I thought she said she needed to go potty, but she insisted she didn’t, but I decided better safe than sorry and Maile decided she doesn’t subscribe to that philosophy.
Other than that though – she was great. She ate lots of snacks, danced some ballet in the waiting area, chatted up the Chinese couple with the baby in the seat behind us (in Mandarin no less!) and only made me read the same three books we brought a half dozen times.
The trick for me while we were waiting on the runway for 5 hours was when to go to the iPad. I knew I had a four hour flight ahead of us once we finally took off, so I didn’t want to go to it too early (and risk a VERY long flight with a little girl who was no longer interested in the magical screen). The iPad was like my water in the desert – I wanted to keep it available just in case that mirage in the distance wasn’t actually us taking off for San Francisco. I’m going to pat myself on the back and say that I made it all the way through the delay without going to the iPad (thanks to the aforementioned old school books and a very timely art project purchase Grandma Jill sent along with us).
In the end we made it home and Mommy was waiting for us at the gate – Maile Girl gets an A+ for being a travel rock star – she can be my adventure wing girl any time!
Home in San Francisco ... at last!
by Papa K on September 11, 2012
Enjoying some quality story time with Maile Girl
by Papa K on September 5, 2012
We took advantage of the long weekend and headed over to Sausalito on Sunday. We mixed things up and decided to take the ferry. Boy, was that a great choice – Maile had a blast cruising across the Bay!
Daddy and Maile watching San Francisco fade away...
Look Mommy! Look!
Maile and Daddy trying to see if we could find our house - Maile swears she could see it 🙂
Maile has a future as a ferry tour guide - she pointed out every big boat, island and sea gull we passed...
Maile's first Karate Kid pose!
Maile and Daddy jumping on the sea wall in Sausalito!
(We had a great time – and props to Mommy, as always, for taking such great pics!)
