This morning I stirred at 6:10 AM. I quietly walked over to Maile’s room and opened her door. She was on her bed doing some Chinese exercises on the iPad (her latest move these days since she wakes up so early).

“Hey, would you like to snuggle for a bit?”

(Big smile!)

“Yes, Daddy I would!”

It might have been her birthday, but it made my whole day.

—-

As I was tucking her in tonight, she looked up at me.

“Good night daddy, thank you for an awesome birthday.”

She was mostly excited about her presents, but still, I’ll take it.

—-

Maile at 8 is definitely in between. Growing up fast. Driving us a little crazy along the way. So. Damn. Smart. But still our little girl. Often in ways that delight and sometimes in ways that frustrate. An incredible big sister … and every once in awhile … not. Gaining confidence every day, becoming more daring. Pushing the boundaries where ever they fall in both impressive and maddening ways.

—-

On the eve of her birthday, Maile and I finished a book we’ve been enjoying – The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm. One the quotes and main takeaways of the book is:

“Believe in the impossible possible.”

Indeed.

Happy Birthday, Maile Girl. We love you!

(Click here for the video.)

For the past few years, a bunch of our friends have been going down to Carmel Valley Ranch for 4th of July. This year we decided to join the fun and we had an absolute blast. There were 9 families in all and 18 kids – all under the age of 8! Having the 4th on a Tuesday made for an awesome long weekend. The kids did a “camp”-type thing each morning until after lunch and then we all had fun together at the pool, playing tennis and running around. On the 4th itself they had a bunch of fun games like the three-legged race, water balloon toss and pie eating contest. We took a ton of pictures, but here are some of the highlights…

CANNONBALL!

Maile doesn't actually like eating s'mores, but she enjoyed making them.

Lauren doing her best attempt to join in on the chubby bunny fun!

Hannah and Maile - they've known each other forever and whenever they get together fall right back into the fun

Maile and Lauren doing the tube thing...

(Almost) all of the kids - a couple little ones were already asleep...

Younger sister posse - Willa, Kate and Lauren

Pool side snow cones with the crew

Hot tub!

Mommy crushed after dinner Jeopardy with the kids...

Lauren took her first tennis class with her friends...

We are ready for the water balloon toss!

Three-legged race - Lauren and Dexter

A big sister is the absolute best partner in a three-legged race

We got A LOT of swim time in

Maile Girl taking flight!

Lauren is a little lighter than Maile Girl - Daddy didn't adjust well enough on the first toss

Love my girls

Mommy and Lauren getting some quality pool time in

And we're done. (Ride home

(Dad note: I know its been over a month since I posted. Life got busy and, bluntly, I got out of the habit of posting. Not quite sure what my plan is yet, but as school ended on Friday, I wanted to make sure I posted for that.)

Maile and Lauren’s last day of school was Friday. Hard to believe another year is already done. Both girls grew so much this past year – I was blown away when I looked back at their first day of school pictures compared to now…

Maile and Lauren on the first day of school (August 2016)

Maile and Lauren on the last day of school (June 2017)

Maile on the first day of school (August 2016)

Maile on the last day of school (June 2017)

Lauren on the first day of school (August 2016)

Lauren on the last day of school (June 2017)

The last day was a half day – Maile ran around with her friends and they had a nice ceremony in Lauren’s class where the teachers called up each child one at a time and said a few words about them. It really is special how well the teachers know the kids – and it sounds like the teachers will continue with Lauren and her classmates next year as well which will only deepen the bond.

I think Lauren was a little tired from the week - when they announced her name for certificate she was all tears and Mommy had to provide the assist...

Maile Girl and friends on the last day of school

I had to step out for a few minutes at the end of Lauren's party, but she wanted to make sure Mommy took a picture showing that they were serving our favorite crackers

On Friday, Lauren did show and tell at school. She was excited all week long leading up to it – every day she asked “how many days until I get to do show & tell?” The assignment was to bring in something she had made, so Lauren decided to bring in these little animals she made out of recyclable materials while in NYC at the Museum of Natural History.

Every night, Lauren’s teachers send a great recap of the day and Friday’s was all about Lauren’s show and tell session. The teachers always do a great job of capturing what the kids are saying (in Chinese and English) – and they translate it for the parents too (thanksfully!). All the Chinese in the write-up below is what Lauren actually said – pretty cool!

Lauren's creations that she brought to school for show and tell

Lauren had the class in the palm of her little hand

Lauren explaining all about her creations

Lauren: 大家好, 这是我跟我的婆婆做的. 还有是我去museum 做的 (Hello, everyone, this is I made with my grandmother. And I went to the museum to make it). 我做了两个 (I made two). 这一只是我跟我的婆婆做的 (This one, I made with my grandmother). 这是一只狗 (This is a puppy). 我用再用循环材料做的 (I used recycle materials to make it).

Teacher: 你是怎么做的呢 (How did you make it)?

Lauren: You first get a top of the head. 然后做了身体 (Then I made the body). 我放了两只眼睛在上面 (I put two eyes on it). 还有耳朵根头发 (And ears and hair). 我还放了胡须在上面 (I also put whisker on it). 我的姐姐帮我做了另一只狗 (My sister helped me to make the other puppy). 我用粉红色的软绵包着 (I used pink wrapped around). 我还放了耳朵跟鼻子 (I also put ears and nose). 我加了食物在一个盖子里 (I put food inside a cup). 是狗狗的食物 (It’s the puppy’s food).

Kaia: 你为什么去博物馆做这个 (Why you went to the museum made it)?

Lauren: 因為我喜欢自己做 Because I like to make it by myself.

Zahava: 你是怎么做的 (How did you make it)?

Lauren: 我用再用循环材料做的 (I used the recycle material to make it).

Ford: Why you didn’t make food for the pink dog?

Lauren: Because I don’t have enough time to make another one. But they can share food.

Emma: Why didn’t your mommy make it with you?

Lauren: .我的婆婆跟我的姐姐帮我做的 (My grandmother and sister helped me make it).

Julianna: Why did you use recycle materials to make it?

Lauren: I didn’t bring it. I got it from the grownup table in the museum.

(Dad note: I guess it’s safe to say I am officially out of the habit of posting on the blog I will work to see if we can get it back in the mix!)

The girls had their spring break this past week and we headed to New York City for some fun in the big city! It wasn’t the girls’ first trip – they each had been before – but it was our first as a full family. Overall, the girls were a great age to run around the city – and we definitely took advantage of that. (Truth be told, I wore Lauren on my shoulders a fair amount – so maybe another 6 months for her would have been perfect – but we really covered a lot of ground.)

Grandma and Papa Boston joined us for the first few days and we had a blast exploring and eating with them. As you’ll see below Grandma took the girls to the American Girl Store and that was indeed the highlight of their trip – they are still talking about it. It blew their little minds. (To be clear, we also went to the top of the Freedom Tower, visited the Statue of Liberty, went to the Met and Whitney museums, saw Blue Man Group and The Lion King … but yes, the American Girl Store was the “blew their minds” event

Here are some pictures of our adventures…

Christine found a list of a bunch of cool graffiti down in the Lower East Side so we wandered around and found a bunch of them...

Grandma Jill with the girls at the American Girl Store

I mean look at those smiles - they are in heaven!

One last pose at the American Girl Store cafe

Goofing around at one of our many eating stops with Grandma and Papa

We spent a morning up in Central Park and started it off with a horse carriage ride - don't worry, we didn't let Maile and Lauren drive

We're walking through Central Park and all of a sudden Maile yells - It's Balto! - she remembered this sled dog from one of her books at school.

We checked out the new Museum of Mathematics - it was a fun couple hours, but not amazing - has some potential though

Family shot on Liberty Island

Maile Girl ready to get her art on at the Met

One. Big. Dinosaur.

Maile and Lauren taking in some more grafitti

Watch out - 4 tyranosaurs!

Hitting up Gray's Papaya for some hot dogs and papaya drink!

Papa and his girls

We had a blast at Blue Man Group - the girls loved it!

We did a lot of street walking - hardly took any cabs - mostly subway and walking - got our steps!

High jumping on the high line!

We met up with one of Maile's classmates, David, to check out the Freedom Tour and Statue of Liberty

Lauren is so over the Freedom Tower

Maile Girl and I high, high above NYC

Maile and Lauren meet the Fearless Girl down near Wall Street

Before we headed out to the Statue of Liberty, Christine took the girls on the Sea Glass carousel

4 lovely ladies...

Lauren enjoying some seriously good ramen at Ivan Ramen

Striking some poses at the Met

We hit up Koreatown for some seriously good Korean BBQ cooked right at the table

We ate and wore a lot of ice cream!

Sunday was dance performance day and the girls did not disappoint! They got all dressed up in their performance outfits and we headed down to Nagata Dance for their quarterly performance. Of course, we took video – the long ones that only grandmothers watch until the end I have to say that both girls impressed – Lauren is coming into her own as a little dancer and Maile continues to amaze with how she keeps all the moves from all the different routines straight!

Maile and Lauren striking a pose on our way to their performance!

First up was Lauren performing to “Singing in the Rain”…

And then Maile and her crew closed out the show with a routine to “Good Morning”…

And then, per tradition, the show was closed out with a family dance to “Lean On Me” – in the past the girls brought Mommy or I up to dance with them, but this time they just wanted to dance with eachother…

Very proud of Maile and Lauren and the whole Nagata Dance crew!

The full Nagata Dance crew

(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
(Click here for the third video.)

Okay, so it was a couple weeks ago already – but A LOT has happened since then This year for mid-winter break, Grandma and Papa Boston came out to San Francisco to spend the week with the girls. The girls had a blast running all over the city and keeping Grandma and Papa on their toes…

When they weren't running, they were cuddling and reading...

Checking out the scene down at Pier 39

Say cheese!

Showing Papa our furniture climbing skills...

One of the many good eats

Maile and Lauren getting their dentist training in with the play doh set...

Grandma and Papa always take the girls on adventures exploring the city...

Papa steps out from behind the camera with his girls!

And yes, the girls showed Grandma and Papa every corner of the playground...

A special treat getting a pedicure with Grandma

It was cold, but that didn't slow them down...

And, of course, a trip wouldn't be complete without some baking

It’s been a long time since I posted – the longest gap since Maile was born 7.5 years ago. To say things have been busy out here in San Francisco is an understatement. So let’s catch up.

First, we’ve moved! We’re still in San Francisco, but moved about three miles to an area called The Richmond. We’re pretty excited – its a great new apartment with the number one feature being the girls will each get their own bedrooms. Once they get them setup, we’ll do a tour, but needless to say they are both pretty excited. Last night was our first night in the new place and the girls did great (Christine and I half expected to find them in the morning in the same room – but they stuck to their own beds for now.)

To say we made a lot of memories in our old apartment is an understatement - and perhaps this wall of heigh measurements captures it as well as anything.

Right now there are A LOT of boxes in our new apartment - but we're happy and we'll get it all sorted soon enough!

The other reason my posting has been light the past couple of months is that last Friday we closed a deal to sell my company, Pocket, to Mozilla. It was a lot of work to get to this point and I’m very happy with the outcome. We’re going to remain an independent subsidiary – which means I’m still working on Pocket, just have a much bigger company backing us and should make these next few years quite interesting. If nothing else the past few months have underscored for me even more that our focus on helping people find quality content on the internet is very much needed and I’m looking forward to the next set of challenges that come our way.

So that’s what has been going on (or at least some of it

After months of practice the big day finally arrived on Saturday – the Chinese New Year Parade!

We headed down with the girls mid-afternoon and met with the parade crew, got everyone ready, ate a little bit, practiced one last time and then headed down to Market Street to get in our positions. The girls were fantastic! Maile danced up a storm and Lauren waved, smiled and blew kisses from her cart the whole way through.

Here’s a video of all the fun:

And some videos from the festivities…

Lauren and Marni - they shared the cart together and made people smile the whole way through...

Our parade girls - ready to rock!

The whole PKS crew!

A view of the scene as we get in our places for the start of the parade...

(Click here for the video.)

A few weeks back we had a birthday party for Lauren. We had so much fun (and some of the other parents are really good photographers!) so Christine and I really didn’t take many pictures. We just got some pictures though – so we can share a bit more about the good times.

The theme was “Fantastic Four” – super hero themes as there were four girls celebrating their fourth birthdays together. We held the party at a kid’s gym here in SF and the kids had a blast!

Na na na nah nah - Bat Lauren!

Maile Girl getting her zip line on...

In swoops Super Lauren!

Super buddies

The cakes - a friend of one of the other girl's family baked two incredible birthday cakes...

The Fantastic Four and their capes

Yeah, she loved the zip line

And the trampoline!

20+ kids = madness

What's a birthday party without bubbles?!

Happy Birthday Girls!