(Dad note: be sure to watch the final video in this post. You won’t be disappointed.)
We’ve been exploring more and more of the city on the weekends. On Sunday, Mommy led us on a fun excursion to the Seward Slides mini-park over in the Castro. The slides are these two long (and steep) concrete slides that you can ride down on pieces of cardboard.
All smiles ... at the bottom of the slide.
Facing the slides, ready to conquer!
The steps were steep - that's where a helpful big sister comes in...
Can you spot Maile Girl at the tippy top of the slide?
Mommy took this great shot of the three of us at the top of the slide...
Mommy and Lauren get ready to go...
So those were some shots getting to the top… how did it go going down the slide? Well…
Maile Girl started strong and then had second thoughts…
So Daddy agreed to go down with her the first time. Which was a good idea. Sort of. Daddy forgot that his younger daughter is slightly more adventurous than her big sister. So then this happened…
Awesome.
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
Our normal nanny, Kelly, was off last week, so we had one of our regular babysitters, Brooke, watch Lauren and Elena all week. Brooke is all a professional photographer so we received an excellent set of photos of Lauren and Elena living it up all week. Definitely captures life as a two year old. Looks pretty good if you ask me!
March Madness is always an exciting time around here (well, a very busy time in which I am eternally grateful for Christine picking up the extra slack while I spend some extra time on Team Rankings). We sat down tonight and set to work on our brackets. Figured we’d post this in plenty of time in case anyone wants to use Maile and Lauren’s picks.
Lauren hard at work on her bracket...
Maile and Daddy talking strategy for the Midwest region...
Maile is very proud of her bracket - go Duke!
And, of course, Lauren with her bracket too!
Maile’s completed bracket is … interesting. She’s big on the 15 over 2 upsets, taking New Mexico St, Texas Southern and Belmont all to advance. She also is knocking off #1 seeds Villanova and Wisconsin in round 1. In fairness, Wisconsin is playing Coastal Carolina and as soon as she heard “Carolina”, Maile wanted to pay homage to where Mommy and Daddy met. In better news – Maile also remembered how important Duke is to our family and gave us a little smile as she advanced them each round. She has Duke winning the whole thing!
Maile's complete bracket in case you want to steal some of her picks...
I’ve been interpreting Maile and Lauren’s brackets for years now and have gotten quite good at their pre-writing scribbles and lines. In looking at Lauren’s bracket, here are the highlights:
– She has Kentucky winning it all (seriously there is a line from Kentucky all the way to the middle!)
– She has #5 seed Arkansas going to the Final Four in the West Region
– She has #11 seed UCLA going to the Final Four in the South Region
– And she has Villanova going to the Final Four in the East Region
– She also likes #6 Xavier, #7 Wichita St, #5 W Virgnia and #10 Indiana to win a few games.
Lauren's completed bracket - a little harder to decipher 😉
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
Everyone knows that Lauren is a little sister to Maile. But did you know she is also a Mommy? That’s right – Lauren is very into being a Mommy to her dolls, or in her words, “babies”. We have “baby #1”, “baby #2” and “more baby” – and Lauren loves playing with them.
(Dad note: this is a bit different for us as Maile never really was super into dolls.)
Our nanny, Kelly, has been sending us pictures of Lauren interacting with her dolls and they are adorable (see for yourself below). I think Kelly sees a bit more of it because when we are around, Maile often is too, and she dominates a lot of the “play”.
Reading books to one of our babies...
Making sure baby is nice and tucked in...
Cuddling and talking to baby...
That's Lauren's seat she sits in when she is being naugty - maybe baby was naughty too?
On the bus, hold on baby I think this is our stop!
We had a fun visit this weekend from a couple of my really good friends from college that I’ve known since freshman year. They live down in Dallas now with their three kids and came out to visit us (and our other friends) here in San Francisco. On Sunday morning we got together for some hiking and fun at the Presidio Picnic.
Weather was fantastic and the hike was a really nice way to start the day. Looking forward to doing more of that, especially as Lauren gets a bit older. (She really did a great job though keeping up and having fun exploring with all the kids).
Speaking of all the kids – I’m not sure what it was, but it really hit home with this visit and seeing all the kids how far we’ve come from freshman year in college. Times do indeed change, but good that friends don’t always do the same!
On our way to start the hike - everyone is accounted for!
Making sure we don't leave anyone behind...
Sophie, Julianne and Maile having fun while Jake plans the route...
We found a bug! And we even touched it too - girls are getting braver 🙂
Lauren was a good little hiker
Maile and Julianne found a little stick hut and had fun playing house...
At the end of the hike - the whole crew on the tree line...
San Francisco in March FTW!
We arrived to prepare for the parade at 3 PM and didn’t finish up until 8:30 PM. What does one do during all that time? Lots and lots of pictures 😉
We had a lot of downtime before the parade started - Maile and her friends had a lot of fun goofing around in their costumes while the adults got the floats ready.
Getting her make up put on
Lauren got to play with the costumes too...
Roar!
Lauren and Maile - ready to rock!
Mommy helped out with painting everyone's faces...
Busted.
Family Picture (Lauren 2 and Maile 5.5)
Where's Maile?
The PKS contingent on the move...
Exhausted.
Kelly sent us this today - apparently things got a little crazy at lunch!
What a goofball.
Have a great weekend everyone!
This shot really puts it in perspective - she'll be dunking in no time 😉
These days, you leave Lauren alone for a few minutes and funny things start happening…
What? He said he was hungry...
Same same 🙂
Please, please, tell her to let me chew! I just need to chew!
by Papa K on February 26, 2015
From two years ago…
They’ve changed so much … but in the best way, they are exactly the same. Going to be a fun ride watching these two grow up together.
