It’s that time again… for one of our favorite holiday traditions: building and decorating the gingerbread house! I’m finding that it gets more and fun with every year, as Mio becomes more capable and involved in the decorating process… she placed a lot of the candy herself this year, and gave us some art direction! Mirei was asleep this year (probably for the better, since she probably would have tried to wreck our creation) but maybe next year she can help decorate, too!
Getting ready to start the gingerbread house! (Mirei asleep in the background)
I see you eyeing that candy, Mio…
Watching it all come together…
Mio placing the candy all over the house.
She loved being able to do a lot of it herself!
The completed gingerbread house – a collaboration between Mio, Dan and I. I love that it has character!
Mio admiring (read: drooling over) her creation.
In the days since, she’s been asking if she can break off a piece of candy off the house to eat almost daily. Eating it is part of the fun, too! 😉
See past years’ gingerbread houses: 2013 • 2012 • 2011
Happy Halloween! Our girls’ costumes this year are nigiri sushi: Mio is salmon, and Mirei is shrimp! They are just so cute that I could gobble them up…
This was my first time making their costumes and while it was a long and challenging process because I don’t have a sewing machine and had to hand-sew everything, it helped that Mio was really excited about the idea of being sushi for Halloween and kept excitedly exclaiming “Mio going to be SAH-MON SUSHI!!!” during the weeks leading up to Halloween. She was definitely my cheerleader and motivator to get the costumes completed and not give up! I’m pretty pleased with the final result, and the girls (well… Mio at least) seem to really like it! I don’t know if I’ll attempt to make another costume on my own again, though, until I have a sewing machine… I kept getting frustrated towards the end that it would have been faster and cleaner-looking if I had one! For those who want to know, I followed this awesome tutorial (note: it’s in Hebrew, so you’ll need the help of Google Translate!) that I found via Pinterest, and added some customizations of my own (I sewed the “rice” body from some white chenille fabric, and added green felt “baran”/grass to the headband, behind the wasabi and ginger). The costumes have definitely been a hit at the Halloween parties and events we’ve gone to this year, and it was a welcome departure from the typical princesses and fairies that we dressed Mio in the past couple years.
Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween weekend!
We had a busy weekend, attending a couple birthday parties on Saturday and then BrickFair LEGO Convention on Sunday with friends! See all the weekend fun below…
Dan holding Mirei at Clara’s birthday party.
Mio wading in one of the pools that were set out in the front yard.
The kids having fun with the water balloons.
The theme of the party was Frozen, and Mio loved all the Frozen-themed snacks!
Mio was having so much fun, but we had to leave Clara’s birthday party a little early so that we could also attend Augustine’s first birthday party, which was held at Westwood Country Club in Vienna.
The beautiful spread for Augustine’s first birthday! I had the honor of designing the backdrop. Look at those amazing cake pops and cupcakes!
Mio getting her face painted.
Hello Kitty!
Mio smiling at herself in my phone camera.
There were cute props at every table!
Guest’s wishes for Augustine hanging on a tree. Such a beautiful idea!
Xiaolu meets Mirei
Doljanchi tradition… Auggie picked the ball! Future athlete!
Auggie with his parents and grandparents!
Mio was so excited that the balloon twister made her a ninja turtle balloon!
The birthday party had so much detail and thought put into it, and was extravagant like a wedding! Ploi did such an amazing job of throwing a birthday party to remember!
My brother stopped by the house while Mio was eating Pop Rocks for the first time (they were in a goody bag), in this pose. He asked, “What are you doing, Mio?” to which she deadpanned, “I’m popping.” lol
On Sunday, we got to go to the BrickFair LEGO Convention at the Dulles Expo Center because our friends had extra tickets! It was the largest gathering of LEGO enthusiasts in the area and there were quite a lot of impressive LEGO creations to see!
Mio and Kosei with a minion made out of LEGOs
LEGO Egyptian civilization
LEGO castle and soldiers
I particularly liked this theme park made out of moving LEGOs!
Mirei getting lots of hugs from Kosei. He’s got the big brother thing down!
Special thanks to the Smith family for inviting us along to BrickFair! It was a lot of fun for the whole family! 🙂
Mio received a birdhouse kit from her friends as one of her birthday presents, and so we decided to put it together this week! She first built it by assembling the pieces with Daddy, and then painted it with me on Thursday.
Mio was pretty particular and wanted to paint each panel/surface a different color.
Leaning back to admire her creation!
The completed birdhouse!
A collaborative creation between Mio, Daddy, and Mama.
Thanks for the great gift, Kosei, Avonlea, and Smith family! 🙂
The National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC kicked off on March 20 and in its first weekend, they held an event called Family Day at the National Building Museum, where children of all ages could participate in making crafts inspired by Japanese culture and also enjoy performances such as taiko and dance on the stage. We went on Sunday afternoon and Mio really enjoyed all the creative activities that she got to participate in (with some help from us, of course).
NCBF Family Day at the National Building Museum
They had some characters that you could take pictures with, and we thought for sure Mio’d like seeing Cookie Monster, but to our surprise, she burst into tears! This is what I’ve come to call “the Santa Claus effect”… (Strange, because she loved meeting the Sesame Street characters at Dan’s company picnic last year.)
Mio didn’t want to meet cookie monster.
Trying to salvage the photo opportunity…
Our first craft activity was to decorate cherry blossom trees with glitter and popcorn.
Mio placing the popcorn “blossoms” on the tree.
The finished cherry blossom tree!
At the next craft table, we made a cha-shitsu, or Japanese tea room, by assembling and decorating a box.
Mio loved using the stamps!
Our collaborative cha-shitsu creation!
At another table, creating a Japanese garden out of pipe cleaners and colored tissue paper.
The completed Japanese garden!
We took a break to watch the taiko performance.
Mio was actually really interested! Posing with the huge cherry blossom balloons behind us.
While I was feeding Mirei, Dan took Mio to do some additional crafts…
Mio fell asleep on the way home in the Metro. It’s been a while since she’s fallen asleep in my arms like this!
We didn’t really take any photos of Mirei during the event, but she definitely kept us busy with several trips to the bathroom on her first trip to DC. She had two up-the-backer poops (resulting in two outfit changes) and also spit up all over my shirt! Of course, these things always happen at the most inopportune times. After a very messy afternoon, though, Mirei flashed us her first real smile as we were pushing the stroller through the Metro station on our way home from the event. Dan chuckled, “Awww she’s so cute!” and quickly pulled out the camera and captured the moment:
Mirei’s first smile! (Unfortunately, the picture is a little blurry…)
It was a very eventful and memorable day for the whole family!
