Ever since Maile started dancing, Grandma Jill has wanted to see her perform in a dance recital. Well, she finally got her wish on Sunday as the stars aligned for Maile’s second hip hop dance recital at Nagata Dance to take place while Grandma and Papa Boston were visiting.
I’ve mentioned before, but we really love the vibe at Nagata Dance. Maile had all the fun of a dance recital, but in a relaxed, cool, family-like environment. For the final number, Lauren even got to join Maile and dance around a bit. Good times!
Here’s the video from Maile’s number:
The proud dancer with flowers from yours truly...
A recital Grandma Jill (nor the rest of us) will soon forget 🙂
Last Friday Maile didn’t have school, so she hung out with Kelly and Lauren for the day. Kelly took the girls down to the Creativity Museum and, shockingly, Maile found an exhibit to give her some screen time for a performance 🙂 Lauren was a little intimidated by the setup – she’s more of an old school solo artist, no need for the fancy gimmickry. But Maile was in her element. I was mostly impressed that she knew the words to both songs so well – although I guess I shouldn’t be.
Maile and Lauren on the mics against the green screen
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
This one is from May 8, 2011. Particularly cracked me up because Lauren has become an ace at the green bike. It sat in our house for four years hardly used by Maile Girl, but Lauren loves it. I’ll try to get a video of her this weekend on it.
For now, back to what it was like “riding bikes” with Maile:
Have a great weekend – and happy mother’s day to all!
I’ve mentioned this before, but Maile is obsessed with these “how to” videos that kids make and post on Youtube. She watches the drawing ones, the rainbow loom ones, and she especially loves the Japanese ones that focus on unboxing Japanese toys and foods.
Well, on Saturday afternoon, Maile disappeared for awhile – locking herself away in our bedroom and asking not to be disturbed. She came out a little while later and presented her first “how to” video she had filmed all by herself about how to make a Rainbow Loom bracelet.
She was VERY excited. Except she wasn’t too pleased with how the camera work came out. So she recruited me to be her “assistant” and we made a second video…
Fair warning, these videos are 9 and 11 minutes long respectively – but you have to watch a little bit – they are incredible. I loved helping Maile make these. Afterwards we discussed all the things she wants to try next – she was asking me about camera angles and that we need to find a way to make it so the camera can see her AND whatever it is she is doing.
She asked me to help her make it so others could see them, so we made her very own Youtube channel. She decided to call it “Crafts 4 Kids By Maile” because she is “going to do more than just Rainbow Loom bracelets”.
I told her she had to write something for the “about” page and she came up with: “I’m Maile. I’m 5 years old. I like to do crafts, like rainbow loom. I’ll show you how!” Then I told her she needed to create a sign for the page and she drew one up and posed for her profile photo.
Crafts 4 Kids By Maile one-sheet
Maile posing for her Crafts 4 Kids profile photo...
I have a feeling a few more of these will get created in the coming weeks – stay tuned!
For Christmas we bought Lauren a scooter – she tried it a few times, but it didn’t really take. Its been hanging around the house unused for months. Apparently, our nanny, Kelly, took Lauren to Japantown on Monday and she became fascinated with a little boy riding his scooter. She came home and figured out how to ride it. She’s already pretty good – and as is her style, fearless…
In other news, Maile Girl is slowly, but surely making progress with the roller blades. She is now incentivized to keep up with her little sister 🙂
Also, this is classic city living with us doing roller blades and scooters in the main lobby of our building. We did go out to hit the streets, but it was pretty windy … and probably best is Lauren masters this thing away from traffic!
The video below is of Lauren performing the “Elsa song” – the current favorite in the clubhouse. Like her father, she doesn’t really know the words, but she tends to be able to line up the sounds right at the end so it sort of sounds like she does 🙂
Make sure you stick around for the hand motions 40 seconds in.
Lauren got a big envelope in the mail yesterday. And apparently “big envelope” means the same for preschool as it does for college – she’ll be joining her big sister at Presidio Knolls next year!
