Dan surprised me with the unexpected gift of a Kate Spade purse! It’s the Lawrenceville Slim Kenny, and is the perfect black purse!
My first thought was, “Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?” Don’t get me wrong — Dan is a wonderful husband, but I’ve never known him to have such stellar taste in fashion. And then I remembered that I was perusing the Kate Spade surprise sale online a couple weeks ago and that the purse had caught my eye. I had shown it to Dan but he told me that even on sale, the handbag was too expensive and that we needed to save with all of the extra expenses we have with Mio. I was disappointed but agreed, and quickly forgot about it. Little did I know that he went online to order it himself later as a surprise for me. The occasion? None, except that he wanted to reward me for “working so hard, balancing motherhood and work.” I do admit it that I have been pretty stressed out and exhausted lately. I’m just looking forward to going home to Virginia at the end of the year and getting a much-needed respite from it all!
This was a truly sweet pick-me-up and I can’t wait to go out with it! I can see myself using this handbag for years — something tells me this is only the beginning of a long, enduring friendship! 🙂
Adorable bows on the sides!
Love the polka dot interior!
Thank you, hubby!
I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such a thoughtful and loving husband, and the sweetest daughter we could have asked for. This is our first Thanksgiving as a family, and we have so much to be thankful for! 🙂
Last Sunday, we hosted a baby shower for our dear friends Megumi and John, who are expecting a baby girl around Christmas next month! It was my first time planning and preparing a shower, but it was a lot of fun to put together! (I did realize how much work goes into them, though, and awakened within me a deeper appreciation for all the effort friends have put into the brial shower and baby showers they threw for me in the past.) I’m glad that we had this opportunity to gather together as friends to celebrate this new life and welcome Megumi and John’s beautiful baby girl into our lives!
Setting up for the baby shower!
Megumi is a big fan of Studio Ghibli films, especially Totoro, so I created a Totoro-themed calendar for the guests to guess when the baby would arrive.
Guess when the baby will arrive!
Little umbrella favors for the guests to take home.
...complete with personalized tags.
And what is a shower without some delicious food? As baking is more of my forte than cooking, I made the desserts — cupcakes and sugar cookies!
Chrysanthemum cupcakes. The cream cheese frosting was a little runny, so it looks a little like the mum petals are melting.
This was my first time making sugar cookies with royal icing, but they turned out decent, thanks to some awesome tips from my dear friend and sugar cookie guru, Miss Megumi Kaminaga (different Megumi from the one we hosted this shower for). Thank you Mamagumi, and hope I’ve made you proud!
My first time making sugar cookies with royal icing.
Totoro, onesie, and baby carriage cookies
For the main course, we had a Korean platter, with bulgogi, japchae, and dumplings. Thank you for cooking everything, Kayo!
And a special thanks goes to Ann Helen for the delicious salad (not pictured) and the veggies, hummus, and homemade guacamole!
Mio took everything in as her Mama ran around preparing and setting up.
We also planned some fun games to play during the baby shower. The first was the Dirty Diaper game, in which we melted chocolates within these “diapers” and the guests had to guess what type of chocolate each diaper contained. (i.e. Butterfinger, Crunch, Mr. Goodbar, etc…)
The guests of honor, John and Megumi
Ann Helen and Aika take their guesses
A curious Mio watched as everyone played the game.
Aika and her adorable 5-month old son, Easton.
John got all of them right and was the winner!
The next game was the baby food guessing game. I soaked the labels off of baby food jars and the guests had to pass them around and guess what type of food each jar contained, from smell and (if they were brave enough) taste.
The last game we played was the classic “Guess the Mommy’s Belly Size” game, where we measured out tape to however length it was around Megumi’s baby bump.
John with the daunting task of taking the first guess.
Megumi still looks so petite for 8 months! She looks great!
Kayo measuring out Megumi's belly to get the actual measurement.
A few people came pretty close, but Kaz was the winner!
After the games, we went onto an activity of decorating onesies for Megumi and John’s baby! I’d seen variations of this where people used fabric paint, but I thought it would be a lot less messy and perhaps look nicer if we cut out fabric and attached them to the onesies with iron-on adhesive and peel-n-stick adhesive. Even the guys got into it and created some great custom clothing for baby!
Dan exercising his creativity.
Daddy-to-be John worked on making one, too!
Everyone hard at work.
Ironing on the letters.
The results were spectacular! Look at how cute everyone’s onesies turned out! I was so impressed! 😀
We had John and Megumi each pick their favorite designs out of all the great onesies everyone created. It was not an easy decision!
Having a hard time choosing...
John chose Kai and Koreana's collaborative onesie creation.
Megumi picked Ann Helen's lovely design!
Finally, it was time to open presents! There were such cute goodies for their baby girl…
Aika crocheted this adorable hat and mitten set for the baby!
Special thanks go Kayo, who cooked for the shower and MC-ed the games! I couldn’t have done it all without all the help from her, Kaz, and Ann Helen.
John and Megumi getting some practice entertaining a baby... and Mio just enjoying all the attention.
Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the baby shower — I think it was a great success! 🙂 Congratulations to Megumi and John — we can’t wait to meet your sweet baby girl!
Last weekend, our friends Mie and SunJae were visiting from Maryland to show their film Ai Means Love in San Francisco! (Coincidentally, my sister Miwa is in the movie! Click over to the movie site to find out more about the movie.) They brought their adorable 15-month old son Kosei with them, and a whole bunch of us got together to have dinner at De Afghanan Kabob House in Fremont. It was actually my first time trying Afghan food, but I am now a huge fan! I’m already craving me some more of that juicy, tender kabob meat…. It was definitely some of the best meat I have ever had!
I forgot to take photos of the food, but here are some we took with everyone!
Mie and I with our babies!
Mie and Kosei had met once before back in June, when we had visited DC, but they were able to interact a lot more this time! Here are some pictures and video footage of 7-month old Mio with 15-month old Kosei!
Kosei giving Mio a hug. Aww!!!
Mio got so excited, she wouldn't let go of Kosei.
Mio getting some lovin' from Auntie Mie.
We had a great time with you guys!
Thank you so much for making time to have dinner with us despite your busy schedule, Mie and SunJae — we wish you the best in the rest of your film tour, and are looking forward to seeing you all when we visit the DC area during the holidays! 🙂
Last Friday was Dan’s mother’s birthday, so on Saturday we went out to dinner with the family to celebrate! Mio of course got to partake in the festivities. She loves her Grandma!
Happy birthday, Grandma!
Our friends Bethel and Brian were also in town this past weekend, so we met up with them for lunch! Bethel and I were roommates for a year in college. She and Brian got married a month before us, and are a picture perfect couple. We hadn’t seen them since our own wedding, so it was nice to see them again after three years! 🙂
Mio had a lovely time meeting Auntie Bethel and Uncle Brian! 😀
Happy Halloween! This year marks our first Halloween together as a family of three! Halloween is one of my favorite festivities of the year, and I love thinking of creative costumes every time. I especially like costumes that go together in some sort of a theme and last Halloween, I was just at the beginning of my second trimester so I was pregnant Quinn and Dan was Finn from the TV show Glee. This year, Dan was Mario from Super Mario Brothers, I was Princess Peach, and Mio was… ::drumroll please:: Toad (the toadstool mushroom)! Dan and I had actually thought of the idea of being Mario and Peach for Halloween and had prepared our costumes two years ago, but I got deathly sick that Halloween and so we hadn’t been able to use them! But I suppose it was for the better, because our costume idea was made exponentially better with the addition of Toad Mio!
We had a busy Halloween weekend — on Saturday, Dan and his coworker friend co-hosted a baby-friendly Halloween party in the neighborhood, and on Sunday we drove into the city for an evening of Halloween bowling in the Presidio with our friends from Nakayoshi! Check out all the photos of the Halloween fun from this past weekend…
Mio and I as Toad and Princess Peach.
Cedar was an alligator, and Cristina was the alligator tamer.
Mio looking up to Cedar.
Toad Mio with Mario Daddy.
Standing with some help from Daddy.
She was a little overwhelmed by all the people...
Jasmine and Emme, the older girls at the party.
Pocahontas Sofia pointing... adorable!
Going after Mario's fireball.
Kayo and Jinwoo.
S & S!
Gorgeous view of the skyline and San Francisco city lights, taken from the balcony.
A family picture at the end of the night.
Bowling at the Presidio Bowling Center with Nakayoshi. (I believe this is the first time we’ve taken Mio into the city!)
The Toad mushroom hat we had originally bought for Mio.
The hat was ginormous and way too big on her, so we opted for a different one that was a little more manageable...
...much better!
Jamie lives in San Francisco now! She's my dear friend from Virginia Tech. I'm so thrilled that she's in the area now!
Mio got lots of lovin' from her Nakayoshi aunties and uncles.
Mio's first time meeting Graig... and she loves him already!
Wow, look at that chin. Fat angle much? hahaha*
My happy mushroom, aglow under the black lights.
Graig was so good with her!
The masked men: army man, wolf, and storm trooper.
Basketball star Graig and Little Red Riding Hood Aileen (with mushroom hat)
My new friend Hisae-san! Loved her hat!
With lovely Sam... so glad we got to see her!
With Haruka and Aileen! Mio has known them since she was one month old! 😀
Standing around.
"There's a smile!"
She looks like she's about to break into a dance.
Mio's first encounter with a bowling ball.
Jason took this cool picture of Mio in front of the bowling lanes!
She's loving it! She is as round as a bowling ball.
There she goes, scrunching her face again in an all-out smile...
Mio loves Auntie Jamie!
Couldn't resist putting the giant mushroom hat on her one last time...
Hope everyone has a fun Halloween! Perhaps next year Mio can go trick-or-treating!!! I’m already thinking of more family costume ideas….
