There’s nothing Mio loves more than to sit down with a good book! I think reading is so important for kids, and because I was such a bookworm myself as a child, it fills me with so much joy and pride to see Mio taking an interest in books at such an early age. We read to her often every day, but there are also many times when she’ll just sit down and flip through the pages and “read” to herself in her own babbling language.
Here’s a cute moment I captured of Mio having some reading time with my sister. She takes such great care of Mio! 😀
Kicking back with a good book.
Mio’s favorite books are the ones with flaps that she can look behind.
Uh oh! It looks like Mio caught me spying on her reading time…
…and then she pounced, and I died from the cuteness. 😉
Yesterday was Veteran’s Day — a reminder for all of us to remember and thank those who have served, and are serving, our country. They are the true heroes of this nation, and I will always be grateful for everything they’ve done to protect our freedom.
Mio and I came down with the cold late last week, and so we spent much of the long weekend resting, but we still managed to go out and have a little fun. Here are some snapshots from the past week, including the weekend.
Halloween costume redux for Shin-kun’s birthday/costume party on Tuesday. (This was actually last week, on Election Day!)
Happy birthday, Shin-kun! He was dressed as Woody, and Erri did such an amazing job of making a Toy Story-themed party. We were all so impressed at how she was able to do all this as a working mama!
Playing with a balloon.
Fast forward to the weekend, we drove to the Japanese school in Bethesda on Saturday morning to check out a bazaar where we got to pick up some children’s books and DVDs in Japanese. She was so excited, and immediately started looking through the books in the car.
Afterwards, we took her to Clemyjontri Park in McLean. It was our first time visiting the park, and it was huge! Literally a mini theme park for toddlers. Mio squealed as soon as we approached the entrance to the park, and we spent a good couple hours there, letting her run free and explore everything.
Just look at this aerial photo of the park! (There was even a carousel in the middle, but it wasn’t running when we were there.) If you live in the DC area and you have a young child, I definitely recommend checking this park out. 🙂
The perfect comfort food, especially when I have the sniffles…
Some more snapshots from the rest of the weekend…
Mio’s face while watching Sesame Street looks more like that of a 50 year old man studying quantum physics…
Sushi lesson from Daddy while we wait for lunch at Sushi Yoshi on Sunday.
Amazing lunch from Sushi Yoshi.
On Monday, we went on a little family date to Reston Town Center.
The Christmas tree and ice skating rink are already set up at Reston Town Center. It’s definitely the holidays!
There’s nothing sweeter than a family outing with s’mores. Excitement for everyone! 😀
Mio’s first encounter with s’mores! She was mainly obsessed with the graham crackers. Thankfully, she didn’t even notice the chocolate, and she took a nibble of the marshmallow but apparently didn’t like it because she didn’t want any more of it.
What I also love about Veteran’s Day is that it’s the first of all the holidays that follow throughout the winter season — I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is already next week!
Last Saturday, a bunch of my high school girlfriends and I took a Thai cooking class at Sur La Table in Arlington to celebrate our dear friend Xiaolu’s birthday! This was my first time taking a cooking class (aside from my cake decorating class earlier this year), so it was a new and fun experience for me! I love learning how to cook new dishes, and Thai is one of my favorites, so it was really exciting, and the fact that I could learn with all these girls that I love made it all the more enjoyable and memorable! 😀
The ingredients for Thai coconut curry
Chopping up the ingredients for cucumber salad
The birthday girl sharing a laugh while cooking… 🙂
Thai coconut curry!
Taste-tesing.
Listening to the chef.
Cucumber salad! This was so delicious!
Taking a break to eat our first course of the curry and cucumber salad. It was delicious!
The bestest and I, reunited!
The chef teaching us how to cut mango for mango with sticky rice.
Cooking pad thai in the wok.
…while the other girls look on.
Xiaolu and Mimi, all smiles!
Angel and Mimi hard at work.
The completed pad thai!
Mango with sticky rice! Yum!!!
Surprising Xiaolu with her birthday cake.
Taking a group picture in the cooking mirror!
Together with our chef, who was a great teacher!
Happy birthday, Xiaolu! Thank you for letting us celebrate with you ♥
Congratulations, President Obama, on four more years! I believe in our president.
“I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.
America, I believe we can build on the progress we’ve made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.
I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.
And together with your help and God’s grace we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.â€
Some captured moments from Election Day 2012, an election day that held particular significance for me in that I felt so strongly about it, and how much of a difference I feel we were able to make here in Virginia, which was once again a swing state.
Standing in line to vote at James Madison High School. I thought we were early, waking up at 6am, but the line was already so long!
The freezing temperatures and long lines did not stop us! This was my first year voting at the polls. (I voted all previous elections via absentee ballot.)
“My Mama and Daddy voted, and so should you!” Make your voice heard.
I dragged my sister out so she could vote for her first time!
Four more years!!! President Obama is re-elected!
The Old Dominion looks so beautiful decorated in blue! ♥ After a long night, Virginia finally goes to Obama. Our vote made a difference!
