Last week Lauren got a mild case of Hand Foot Mouth. We took her to see the doctor and while we were waiting she was serenading us with some of the new Chinese songs she’s been learning at school. (As a side note, pretty crazy how fast she is picking up the songs!)
Christine and I got a kick out of the fact that whenever she wanted to change songs, she “swiped” herself to the next tune. Maile thought every screen could be tapped and touched. I guess for Lauren she just thinks life, in general, can be swiped.
At school, Maile’s first grade class has been learning about maps – so when our good friends told us that they had been going out geocaching with their boys and they had really been enjoying it, we thought it might be the perfect activity for us. What is geocaching? “Geocaching is the real-world treasure hunt that’s happening right now, all around you. There are 2,729,753 active geocaches and over 6 million geocachers worldwide.” Here’s a video that explains it:
Sure enough – there are tons of caches all over San Francisco. Maile and I did a test run down in Japantown on Saturday and then Sunday morning we went out with some friends for the real deal in Golden Gate Park. The geocaching app basically turns your phone into a map/compass and the kids had fun taking turns guiding us around as we looked for the treasures. Once we found them, the kids could exchange little trinkets and sign their names. It was a cool experience for the adults too – we found some new parts of Golden Gate Park we had never been to before.
Here’s a video of Maile finding her very first geocache in Japantown – as you can see the caches aren’t all hidden in the woods – they are apparently all around you!
Recently, Lauren has started taking more of a liking to playing with Legos. I love playing with Legos … with my children. We realized though that our Legos are kind of a mess right now – just a big jumbled mess. Not at all what Maile’s experience was like. So we’ve started the processing of organizing things a bit better – we’re thinking at a minimum doing some sorting by color to make things easier to find.
Maile has a been a big help and we spent an hour this morning tackling the project a bit. I loved this picture I took of her…
Last weekend we had a quick, but fun visit from Grandma and Papa Hawaii. They arrived on Friday afternoon and left on Sunday, but we certainly packed in some fun in between.
Right from the airport they headed to school and spoke to Maile’s class about visiting all 50 states. The first grade is doing a unit on maps and the world and Grandma and Papa had fun sharing their adventures and answering lots and lots of questions.
On Saturday morning, Grandma and Papa had a treat watching both Maile and Lauren’s dance classes. Mommy and Daddy slipped out in the afternoon to take advantage of the visit and have a mini afternoon date. And in the evening, we took Maile to her swim class and Grandma and Papa were blown away by how far she progressed with her swimming.
First thing Sunday morning, Papa, Maile and I went to volunteer at the Food Bank while Grandma, Mommy and Lauren had some quality time. Sooner than we knew it the visit was over, but we had lots of fun!
Maile and Papa getting ready to dig in sorting oranges at the Food Bank...
Headed to bed tonight on the eve of our anniversary and I found this picture just lying on the ground near the girls’ art supplies. I imagine in due time it will turn into an art project ode to mommy. But for tonight it is simply a reminder of what a lucky man I am.
This afternoon I was in our bedroom sending a few emails. From the living room I heard some nice music playing and Maile and Lauren excitedly chattering away. I ducked my head out and found this scene…
Hard at work on both hair and makeup for Mommy...
It was amazing. And hilarious. Maile and Lauren had setup their very own salon and were furiously working away on Mommy’s hair and makeup. Watching our girls and Christine play like this melted my heart a bit – it was exactly how I imagined having two daughters would be like.
Was looking back for a good #tbt post and came across this video from October, 2012 – just a few short months before Lauren joined us. Maile Girl being her chatty self, cracking us up over dinner.
Saturday was a beautiful day in the city. We decided to head down to swim class a little early and hang out on the grass. We ate some popsicles and then the girls ran around.
We’ve mentioned this a few times, but Lauren copies everything Maile does these days. She’s a little shadow. This video captures it pretty well…
They played like this for 15-20 minutes – Maile running around, realizing Lauren was copying her and just making up games and goofing off seeing if she’d keep up. Sometimes the copying results in tears (when Lauren can’t quite keep up -or- Maile gets tired of having a constant shadow) – but that wasn’t the case this time – so Christine and I sat on the grass in the sun and watched these two have fun. We could have done it all day long 🙂
Today was the SF Aloha Run – a really nice 5K they organize to support a Japanese community center here in SF. In addition to the 5K, they have a “keiki” run of a mile for kids 6-10 and a 100 yard dash for younger kids. We thought it’d be fun to sign the girls up.
Maile and Christine ran the mile – and they absolutely rocked it. Lauren ran the 100 yard dash and came in first place in the 2 year old heat! (She had some great coaching from her big sister).
Here’s Maile in the homestretch of the mile – check out that speed!
And here’s Lauren doing her 100 yard cash – just absolutely focused on that finish line 🙂
I think we have another thing where the girls are taking after their mommy – and we couldn’t be happier 🙂
(Dad note: technically this wasn’t Maile’s first race – back in 2013, she did a fun run out in Oakland. Remember that?)
Mommy and the girls ready to rock (Lauren was being shy, but gave us a nice view of her racing number)...
Mommy and Maile right before the start.
On the run...
A post-race Maile showing off her medal...
Coach Maile giving Lauren a post-race pep talk!
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
