by Papa K on December 24, 2016
With Lauren fast approaching four, we are now in the sweet spot for Santa visits. No one is scared and every one is looking forward to him stopping bye for a quick hello while on his rounds. This afternoon the girls were playing around the house when all of a sudden there was a knock at the door…
Maile, in particular, was very concerned because Papa Cal had been running errands the past couple of years when Santa came by to visit. Luckily, this year he was in the house and got to say his hellos!
Katie and Santa
Emily and Santa
Maile and Santa
Lauren and Santa
One last group shot before Santa was off to visit some other children...
Merry Christmas (and Happy Hannukah too!)
(Click here for the video.)
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.)
One last post about our trip to Hawaii before we return to San Francisco.
Lots of fun with Grandma and Papa Hawaii, Uncle Steve and, especially, Katie and Emily. It continues to amaze that despite the language gap, it really doesn’t seem to matter – the girls communicate with shrieks and giggles. They run all over, inside and out, splashing, swimming, laughing, creating fun projects with Grandma, coloring, playing games, dancing, singing – it’s a really nice way to end the year and start the new one.
Grandma Gail and Papa Cal with their girls, Emily (6.5), Maile (5.5), Lauren (2), Katie (8.5) - all in their homemade shirts 🙂
Thank you Grandma and Papa for a wonderful visit!
Today was Lauren’s second birthday! Will cover the festivities here in San Francisco a bit later this week, but before we left Hawaii on Friday, we celebrated Lauren’s birthday with Grandma and Papa Hawaii and Katie, Emily and Uncle Steve.
Yes, Lauren, that present is for you!
Mommy made the cupcakes and the rest of us took care of eating them ... after Lauren, Grandma and the girls blew out the candles.
As the video shows, Lauren hasn’t quite mastered blowing the candles out yet … maybe next year!
Per tradition we took a picture of Lauren in her kimono in front of the kadomatsu.
Previous kadomatsu pictures are here and of Maile here.
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on December 30, 2014
The girls have been having lots of fun in the sun! Between playing in the backyard to the beach to the pool at GG Kiyoko’s there are very few moments when the bathing suits aren’t on and the water isn’t flowing.
The Slip N' Slide we bought a couple years ago is still a big hit with the girls!
Katie, Maile and Emily posing post slide. (Lauren was inside napping...)
Maile loves playing in the sand at the beach...
... Lauren not so much - notice how her feet aren't touching the ground? Yeah, she doesn't like how the sand feels...
Maile and Uncle Steve doing some pool gymnastics...
A big jump for Maile GIrl - can't tell you how awesome this was to see - it wasn't so long ago that she was afraid to do something like this - swim lessons are paying off big time!
by Papa K on December 26, 2014
As you might expect, it’s been an exciting couple of days around here. The big man, Santa himself, made time during his rounds to visit the girls. And then this morning we got to see what all those colorful packages contained under the Christmas tree.
Earlier in the week, Maile made it known that there were four little girls waiting for a visit from Santa...
After dinner on Christmas Eve, Maile began her stake out...
Santa called Maile's name first and she jumped right up to see him - no more running for cover like years gone by...
Even Lauren was (pretty) brave - Mommy still came along, but no tears!
Lauren is really just wondering how much longer she needs to hold things together in order to keep her gift...
Christmas morning the girls were up bright and early and ready to rock!
Katie (8), Lauren (almost 2), Emily (6), Maile (5.5) - one last picture in front of the tree with all the presents before tearing it all apart...
Just a little bit excited...
... this one too!
Thank you to Grandma Gail and Papa Cal for making it a very special Christmas for the girls!
Maile Girl here – aloha from Hawaii! We’re still visiting with Grandma and Papa, but I’m very sad to report that Katie and Emily already went home to Japan. I miss them so much already! I had so much fun playing with them – check out all the fun things we did…
First things first, I showed them my new baby Lauren - they hadn't met her before - they hit it right off with her. I knew they would!
We attempted many times to take pictures all in the same purple dresses that Grandma got us - they didn't all work out, but we still had fun trying...
Grandma and Papa taught us Pokeeno - which is kind of like Bingo. None of liked losing, so that made things interesting.
We did LOTS and LOTS of art projects with Grandma and Mommy...
Grandma Gail read us stories and let us play the puzzle game on her iPad...
Katie, Emily and I decorated the whole back patio with chalk!
And we pretended we were Hawaiian warriors with the toys Uncle Steve got for Katie and Emily...
I love you Katie and Emily! Lauren and I can’t wait to see you again next year!
by Papa K on December 31, 2012
On Sunday, Grandma and Papa Hawaii treated Maile and her cousins to a princess transformation at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Basically, it’s a beauty salon where they give little girls princess makeovers which includes a fancy hairstyle and makeup. I’ll be the first to admit that Christine and I weren’t thrilled, but we weren’t going to have Maile sit out while her older cousins got to play princess … and Maile absolutely loved the experience!
Remember that wavy, curly hair now ... because it's about to get slick!
Yes, they put enough hairspray on to require the use of a face mask 🙂 Maile actually loved this thing, might need to get one for when Mommy braids her hair normally...
Profile shot, hairstyle coming together...
Are you ready for your crown Princess Maile?
Yes, yes I am!
The final touch, a wand that sprinkles glitter over everything (Dad note: And I mean everything. I'm still finding glitter on my clothes two days later...)
Sound the horns, Princess Maile has arrived!
Princess Maile and Daddy
Princess Maile and Mommy
I give thee the royal court: Princess Katie, Princess Emily and Princess Maile
Thank you Grandma Gail and Papa Cal for making our little girl’s princess dreams come true for a day!
by Papa K on December 29, 2012
On our second day at Disneyland, we got down to business and met some princesses! We actually spent the day at the California Adventure side of the park and started our day at Ariel’s Grotto where we had breakfast alongside “real” Disney princesses. Maile and her cousins were blown away that they actually got to meet the princesses. (With the exception of Minnie – Maile Girl still isn’t a fan of the non-human characters 🙂
First up, Maile and her cousins met the hostess, Princess Ariel:
And then it was just an ongoing stream of princesses while we ate breakfast (Belle, Cinderella, Princess Minnie and Aurora)…
Maile Girl was particularly tickled to meet Belle - she has a Belle dress that Grandma and Papa gave her...
Cinderella!
Seriously, I can't believe this is really happening!
Don't worry, it wasn't all princesses - we also hit some rides like the tea cups!
Grandma Gail and Papa Cal will go anywhere with their girls!
(Click here for the video.)
