The program for Lauren's performance
This morning it was Lauren’s turn to show all the dancing she’s been learning at school this fall! I was lucky enough to be able to attend and had a blast. Lauren definitely enjoys being up on stage and did a great job with all the steps she’s learned.
There were lots of laughs and smiles, some tears – but all in all good times. In the newsletter they send each day they captured what the kids said when they asked them about the day:
“Lauren: I like my daddy coming to watch me. I dance with my daddy.”
Yep, that made my day 🙂
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on November 30, 2016
Every year as a fundraising event, some families from the girls’ school rent out an outdoor ice rink downtown and invite everyone to come have some skating fun. We headed down this year and it was Daddy’s turn to get out on the ice with the girls. Maile is pretty much out on her own these days, but I got some quality skating time with Lauren.
We started out hugging the wall:
But soon enough we were out on the ice properly:
My skating date 🙂
I took a few spins with Maile Girl too - she isn't completely embarrassed by me ... yet.
We fell.
Still upset about the fall.
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
by Papa K on November 29, 2016
For only the second time in my life, I didn’t head to Boston for Thanksgiving. After our big trip to Minneapolis a few weeks ago, we decided to stay local and Grandma and Papa Boston along with Auntie Elyssa and Uncle Stephen came to us. We rented a house up in Healdsburg and had a California-style Thanksgiving.
Grandma and Papa with Maile and Lauren on the deck outside our rental house
Mommy had the great idea to kick things off with a full family turkey trot. 1.5 miles and the girls did awesome. Christine and Maile ran ahead. Lauren and I followed behind – and Lauren ran the whole way – didn’t stop once! I was very proud of her.
We're bundled up and ready to trot!
The whole family got involved in the trotting!
Maile Girl at the finish line
Maile came back and ran the last yards with Lauren
Very proud of my little runner!
After that we cooked up a storm at the house – it had a huge kitchen that was perfect! The girls loved having so many people to play with, read books, play games and goof around with.
Cooking with Grandma
All in all, it was a fantastic extended weekend and a nice start to the holiday season. We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!
by Papa K on November 21, 2016
The holidays seem to start earlier and earlier every year, don’t they? This weekend Lauren got a jump start and put together a letter for Santa. We don’t know what she asked for because she insisted that the letter was for Santa’s eyes only!
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on November 15, 2016
This past weekend we headed to Minneapolis to help our cousin Aidan celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. The whole extended family came in and we had an absolute blast playing with our cousins. We spent some solid time in temple and the girls did great, but certainly the best part was the party on Saturday night. I don’t think the girls left the dance floor for more than 2 minutes – I was quite proud of my little dancing machines!
Maile and Lauren with Aidan and Caleb
More cousin goofiness!
Family Picture (Maile - 7 and Lauren - almost 4!)
The grandparents and their grand children...
The full crew: Lauren, Aidan, Maile, Caleb, Harlow and Lexie
Just the sisters looking good for temple
A lot of excitement as the day started... I hope we are able to hold on to that regardless of this outcome.
Christine and I got Maile and Lauren all excited tonight about the election. We went down to a Wellesley party in our Hillary gear ready to celebrate. When it became clear that things were going to take a while to sort out and it was getting late, I took the girls home and put them to bed … with Maile asking the whole way who won?
I’ll caveat this by saying that Maile is only 7 – she knows a bit about Trump, but really his only policy she knew much about was “the Wall” – she wasn’t really exposed to the racism or misogyny. There are a bunch of complicated aspects of this related to race and gender that I’m sidestepping here.
In any event, this is how I imagine our conversation going tomorrow morning…
“Last night Donald Trump won the presidency and Hillary Clinton lost.
It’s not the result we talked about or that we wanted and that is frustrating. Your mommy and I really thought that Hillary Clinton would become the first female president. That’s not going to happen … today. But it will happen someday.
When you turn 18 you get a chance to vote. All across our country in every state millions of people voted. Some of those people agreed with Mommy and Daddy that Hillary Clinton should be president. And some thought that Donald Trump should be president.
It’s okay to disagree. And it’s okay to lose. We don’t agree with many of the things that Donald Trump wants to do for our country. But regardless of that, we will continue to be good people – we will continue to support our friends and help people, whoever they might be, when they need help. Donald Trump said a lot of mean things during this campaign – but even though he won, it doesn’t mean that he will be able to make all of those things happen and it certainly doesn’t mean he is right.
We will learn from this and work harder so that next time the outcome is different. That’s what we do. We had a lot of fun these last few weeks and months being excited about Hillary – the result of this election doesn’t change that.
And, above all else, we love you!”
In many ways Halloween for us starts way back in June – that’s around the time that Grandma Gail takes requests for the girls costumes. She then works over the summer to create whatever the girls have requested. And the results are always amazing! The girls absolutely love their costumes – it really is a fantastic gift and makes the girls feel so special. So thank you, Grandma Gail, for once again making our Halloween fantastic!
This year, Maile wanted to be a Magenta Crayon and Lauren wanted to be Hello Kitty. And that is exactly what we got 🙂
Meet Magenta Crayon Maile and Hello Kitty Lauren
Look at that Kitty face 🙂
With Halloween on a Monday this year, we had a few different opportunities to head out for candy – we did some warm up runs on Saturday and Sunday before joining our normal Halloween crew, Jake, Sophie and Willa for some serious candy action on Monday night!
Our Halloween crew together again!
Ready to rock some candy collecting!
Hope everyone had an awesome Halloween!
On Sunday morning, my Uncle Lloyd passed away. He was 99(!) years old. The oldest member of my family on my mother’s side – and quite proud of it. He was an amazing story teller and sharp as a wit right up until the end.
We actually had a chance to see him this summer at our family reunion – he didn’t stay the whole time, but just enough for us to say hello and for him to enjoy seeing all the young ones frolicking around and having fun – I know it brought him great joy.
Uncle Lloyd with the youngest generation - most 90+ years younger(!) (August 2016)
I actually don’t know how much Uncle Lloyd read this blog – but I think he would have very much enjoyed what I’ve been doing here. My relationship with him actually picked up a bit in my late 20’s – in some small part due to writing a different blog. When I was in business school, I traveled to Thailand for a semester and wrote a blog about my travels. Uncle Lloyd got wind of it and started following along. He got a thorough kick out my entries and would often send me emails commenting on my various adventures, asking me all types of funny questions, and more often then not relating whatever I was up to some story from his own adventures.
To say he lived a full life is an understatement. His funeral was today and I’m told it was full of love and joy and many, many stories. I have no doubt that made him smile. He will be missed, but we’ll carry on the adventures on his behalf. I look forward to Maile and Lauren stumbling on this post one day and asking me about Uncle Lloyd!
On Sunday, Maile had her first performance as a member of the Young Women’s Choral Project of San Francisco. She’s been in the choir for about a month and a half and really enjoying herself. She practices twice a week (Wednesdays and Sundays) for a couple hours. She practices her songs and has been also enjoying learning how music works.
The performance was a really quick one – just one song – but Maile was very excited. She loved that she got to wear her “casual” uniform (for the big shows they were a more formal dress). And she and the rest of the choir did a really nice job. They didn’t allow videos, so you’ll need to just enjoy the pictures below of our proud little singer (and her hype girl, of course)…
Maile Girl and her hype girl, Lauren!
In full casual attire...
(Dad note: Sorry, sorry, sorry for the slowness on the posts lately – been very busy at work and I suppose life in general!)
Grandma Gail and Papa Cal came out this past weekend for a visit and to watch the girls while school was closed the past couple of days. We had a wonderful visit (despite the Red Sox losing and ruining Papa cal and I’s enjoyment of playoff baseball!) It was a great weekend in the city – sun was shining, the Blue Angels were flying overhead for Fleet Week and the girls really enjoyed spending some quality time with their grandparents. We even managed to get a picture of the girls and their grandparents!
Maile (7) and Lauren (3.5) with Grandma Gail and Papa Cal
Thank you for visiting – look forward to seeing you again soon … this time on your turf in Hawaii!
