We had a very busy Saturday on Easter weekend, as we went to two Easter egg hunts! The first one was at Van Dyck Park in Fairfax, and then we headed over to the Lee’s for their now-annual (?) Easter egg hunt event!
Arriving just in time for the egg hunt to begin!
Mio’s ready to get some eggs!
Meanwhile, Mirei is pretty oblivious, happily held by Daddy…
Rushing the field to pick up the eggs!
After the egg hunt, we took some time to let the girls run around and play, as Van Dyck Park has a fairly large playground! It was so windy that morning!
Mio peering through the window on the playground
Mio dashing around the playground!
Mio climbing the rock wall at Van Dyck Park
Some of the climbing action!
Mirei with her Easter eggs:
Lunch at Tequila Grande after Van Dyck Park
Mirei learned how to dip her French fries into ketchup!
After lunch, we headed over to the Lee household for the egg hunt they organized with all their family friends! We had so much fun with them last year and the year before, so we were excited to join them again this year!
Ready for the second egg hunt of the day!
Listening to the egg hunt rules from Stephanie
Let the egg hunt begin!
Mirei participating, too!
Mio showing us the eggs she found.
Picking flower lollipops…
Group photo with all the kiddos at the egg hunt
Uh oh, Mirei’s got a lollipop…
“Look what I found!”
Sticking the whole lollipop, wrapper and all, in her mouth…
Mio & Mirei together after the egg hunt
After the egg hunt, we enjoyed a delicious Easter-themed lunch and snacks prepared by Stephanie and Chwan, and they kids enjoyed playing with all the toys inside! The grownups had a great time chatting and catching up while the kids had their fun. On the short ten minute drive home that afternoon, both the girls fell asleep and continued to nap for a couple hours when we brought them inside. They were tuckered out from all the excitement!
We were invited to celebrate Liam and Ellie’s joint birthday party to celebrate them both turning five! It was so much fun seeing our friends and getting our kids together for loads of family fun! There were lots of great food, a well-planned obstacle course, and exciting activities for the little ones. Thanks to the Jubb and Jenkins families for having us!
The spread for the party was impressive!
The kids running out onto the front yard for the obstacle course.
Waiting in line in their teams for the first part of the obstacle course…
…the egg race!
It was Mio’s first time competing in an egg race! She ended up being the last one to finish because her team got a late start and she was the last leg, and she kept dropping her egg, but the other kids cheered her on and she did great! Proud of her ♥
Mirei was too young to participate to participate in the obstacle course, so she stayed comfortable with Daddy.
Part 2 of the obstacle course: ball throw!
Part 3 of the obstacle course: a mummifying game, reminiscent of the toilet paper wedding dress game that’s often played at bridal showers. 😛
Setting up the pinata!
The finale of the obstacle course was the pinata! Here’s Mio taking a swing at it:
When the seemingly invincible pinata finally did get destroyed, the kids descended like vultures!
On Valentine’s Day, a bunch of my high school girlfriends and I drove up to Philadelphia for a day trip to visit our dear friend Debbie! (Dan was a great sport about watching the girls while I got to spend time with my friends, and we had already had our own Valentine’s celebrations in the days prior.) Jen, Mimi, and I headed out in the morning, and got to Philly in time to enjoy soup dumplings for lunch with Debbie! Juli flew in to join us afterwards for post-lunch dessert at Audabon Bakeshop!
Audabon Bakeshop with the ladies
Mimi and I at lunch right before.
Neat signage at Audabon Bakeshop
Delicious macarons from Audabon Bakeshop
Strawberry brick toast at Audabon Bakeshop
It was so amazing that it necessitates posting another angle of it.
Walking to The Barnes Foundation museum as the flurries fell around us.
Lovely Mimi!
Us at the Barnes Foundation
The snow made everything look so romantic!
Cool crystals hanging from the ceiling of the museum.
Juli, Debbie, and Jen at dinner
We enjoyed dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant called Kanella. We didn’t realize that we’d be dining off of their Valentine’s menu, so it ended up being quite a meal!
shepherd’s pie
lamb chops
Lobster from Kanella
Chocolate cake with lavender ice cream. My favorite dessert there!
This was also delicious.
Our day trip to Philly was quite eventful! It was a fun and memorable day, and it was so enjoyable getting to spend Valentine’s Day with these amazing ladies!
We got caught in a bit of a blizzard on the way so it took us a while to get home, but thankfully we made it back in one piece around 2 in the morning. Can’t wait until we are all reunited again!
Picking up from Part I and Part II of Mirei’s birthday party posts, the smash cake was the finale of her first birthday celebration! Mirei got a whole cake all to herself, to smash and lick to her heart’s content! The smash cake has become a common first birthday tradition where the child is encouraged to attack the cake with her fingers, fists, or face — no utensils required! It typically makes a huge mess but it’s very entertaining, as it was when we made one for Mio on her first birthday. I usually expect the birthday baby to have a similar method to Mio, where they just go at the cake full force, but I’ve seen other cases where the child only takes a little lick here and there, or just doesn’t want to touch the frosting at all because they don’t want to get their hands dirty! It’s always very interesting to see the differences in personalities and approaches to the smash cake, and we were really curious to see how Mirei would react to her own smash cake!
At first, she took a moment to look around and take in her audience.
You can watch Mirei with her smash cake in the following two videos:
“This is a good size cake they gave me.”
“Let’s have a lick-sy…”
Mirei’s first taste of cake!
Instead of smashing the cake, Mirei poked it several times (as you can observe from the holes on the side of the cake).
“Back off, sister… I’m still working on it!” Mirei savoring the smashcake
Digging into the top!
We were surprised to find that Mirei’s approach to the smash cake was much more tame than Mio’s, and that she did a lot less damage! (In fact, it was so intact that we were able to reuse the cake for her first birthday photos we posted earlier!) So interesting how siblings can be so different, even though they share the same DNA!
Dan and I with our birthday girl… with a photobomb from Uncle Ted.
A heartfelt thank you to all of our guests who braved the wintry weather to to celebrate Mirei’s first birthday with us! It is a sweet memory that we will keep with us for years to come, and Mirei is so lucky to have so many people that love her so much. Our first year as parents of two has been challenging at times, but we really can’t imagine a life without our sweet Mirei now, and we look forward to making many more wonderful memories as a family!
Just as we did with her older sister, we wanted to observe the Japanese first birthday tradition of erabitori at Mirei’s first birthday party. (We opted not to do the issho mochi tradition this time with Mirei, because it was a little heartbreaking when we observed it with Mio.) For those who aren’t familiar with erabitori, here’s a brief explanation.
ERABITORI (é¸ã³å–ã‚Š)
The literal translation for erabitori (é¸ã³å–ã‚Š) is “to pick and keep an item.” The following objects were set before Mirei. It is said that the first object that the baby selects will show her calling, or a tendency towards a specific career field.
WRITING BRUSH: Artist / Writer CALCULATOR: Merchant / Good with business BELL: Music / Performing Arts SCISSORS: Skillful hands / Fashion or Crafting STETHOSCOPE: Doctor or Nurse (Medicine) CHOPSTICKS: Chef / Culinary Arts, Never go hungry DICTIONARY: Scholar / Academic Excellence BALL: Athlete / Career in Sports
So what did Mirei choose? Watch the videos and see the photos below!
Explaining erabitori and the items
Mio kind of caused a scene with a potty emergency while I was explaining the items… ::sigh::
…back to the main attraction! Here is Mirei choosing her item(s).
Go Mirei, go!
Walking towards the items…
What will she choose?
Surveying her choices…
Touching the calculator at first…
…but then picking up the bell.
She was really into the bell!
A family picture after Mirei’s erabitori. Still holding that bell! 😛
It was fun to get a peek at Mirei’s possible future calling! Will she excel in business and/or mathematics? Or pursue a career in music and the performing arts? We’ll have to see! She might just be very busy, trying out various fields throughout her life!
Stay tuned for Part III, in which Mirei gets to enjoy her first birthday smashcake!
