Dan’s birthday was on the 13th, and he turned 32 years old! At his request, we just had a quiet celebration at home (you can’t really go wild for your birthday with two little ones at home anyway!) with Thai takeout and BonChon chicken, and his favorite cheesecake for dessert.
Mio’s excited, as if it were her own birthday!
Turning out the lights for the birthday song
The girls’ expressions are so funny here.
Blowing out the candles.
Elisa and Ted came over too, and we enjoyed board games and a scary movie together afterwards!
The next day, we went out to enjoy all-you-can-eat crabs as an extended birthday celebration for Dan. My sister and dad came along, since they also love crabs!
Ready to dig in! Between Dan and I, my sister and dad, we killed about three of these trays.
“Mi” Club (Mirei not pictured)
Happy birthday to a husband and father who fills our lives with immeasurable joy. We love you Dan! ♥
Mirei’s friend Lily turns one on Christmas Day, but her parents celebrated her birthday early this month with a Frozen-themed first birthday party in Alexandria. I’ve known Lily’s mom since we were kids ourselves as we went to Japanese Saturday school together growing up, and we reconnected this year after finding out that we have baby girls born only a month apart (to the day!). We were so happy to get to be a part of Lily’s very special birthday celebration!
Dan & Mirei at Lily’s Frozen-themed birthday party. So appropriate for the season!
The birthday girl! Loved her outfit!
She’s such a sweetheart.
The kids got to romp around in the soft playroom for an hour.
Mio, being the wild and active girl that she is, thoroughly enjoyed the playroom.
Mirei joining in the fun
Lily and her mama Moe-chan
Mirei & Lily together
Mio being interesting…
M&M in the ball pit together
Mirei being rocked by Daddy
Video clips that Dan captured of the kids playing in the playroom. They had a blast!
Afterwards, we went back to the party room to have some birthday cake!
Look at this gorgeous birthday cake!
Frozen-themed treats!
Cupcakes looked amazing, too!
Lily smashing her birthday cupcake.
…and of course, Mio was happy to enjoy one, too!
Happy early birthday, Lily! Thank you for inviting us and letting us be a part of all the birthday fun. ♥ Let’s play again soon!
Thanksgiving is much anticipated in our household, and this year Dan took the reigns and handled most of the cooking, while I helped out here and there as sous chef. My mom didn’t have to lift a finger, and we got a delicious Thanksgiving dinner on the table for all to enjoy!
Our Thanksgiving dinner! And this doesn’t even include dessert…
The amazing spread
Mirei’s first Thanksgiving
Mio with Auntie Miwa on Thanksgiving
Mio with Daddy on Thanksgiving
post-Thanksgiving dinner selfies with Mio
I’m so thankful that these girls are healthy. That as a family, we laugh often. That despite all the ways I stumble along, they make me feel like I matter. That my husband is gentle, loving, and patient. That we have friends to love, who also care about us. That we have food on the table and a safe place to fall asleep each night. It makes me wonder how I’m worthy of so much. I still don’t have the answer, but oh, my heart could burst with gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Our local youth group organized a Halloween party and Trunk-or-Treat for the kids, so we took the girls to be a part of the fun on Halloween night! Dan decorated our trunk for Trunk-or-Treat, and was excited to show off his creation while handing out candy.
Our little Fit turned into a monster for the night!
Owin and the youth group leaders did such a great job of decorating!
Mio shouted “skeleton!” “ghost!” “bat!”, naming each decoration she spotted.
She REALLY wanted to go inside the “mystery room” that was locked up.
Peeking in.
Mirei was her typical exploring self, crawling everywhere.
Crawling and walking in the kitchen:
Mio participating in Trunk-or-Treat
Happy to get more candy!
Getting a photo with zombie hunter Owin
Mirei standing tall!
They had set up fun little games and activity stations outside.
Mio playing the fishbowl game.
Mirei crawling with baby Alex, who is a few months older than her.
My sweet little shrimp!
They had a photographer at the party, who took photos of everyone against a backdrop… Mio took full advantage — she kept going back in front of the camera, and even jumped in front of other people getting their photo taken and ruining their photos! She was so hyper at the party! (Special thanks to Yuseki Ota Photography for the pictures below.)
I realized that photos of the four of us are rare these days… so it was nice to get a family photo!
Showing off the girls’ sushi costumes
Posing like a pro in front of the camera!
There were a bajillion photos of her at the end…
She demanded, “Take a picture!” to the photographer. Little Miss Bossypants…
This might be my favorite!
A group photo with everyone who was in costume.
Thank you to Owin and all the other youth group members who did such an awesome job planning and organizing the Halloween party! Our whole family thoroughly enjoyed it — Mio didn’t go to sleep until 11pm that night because she was so excited from it.
Last Saturday, we were invited to a pumpkin carving party with the Lee family! There were lots of Halloween-themed treats and games for the little kids, and our whole family had a great time taking part in the festivities with friends. Stephanie and Chwan were wonderful hosts and really threw an awesome Halloween party full of fun for all ages!
A decorate-your-own-cupcake station! Such a great idea.
Delicious Halloween treats!
Mio checking out the cupcake spider.
Mimi holding Mirei 🙂
Mio sharing a pizza with Daddy
Mirei loved exploring in the new environment!
Mio’s decorated cupcake
Mio with her cupcake that she decorated!
There were lots of cool Halloween games that Stephanie set up for the kids.
Dan with our nigiri girls
Our girls dressed as sushi! We’ll have to post better photos of the costumes later.
Mio loved playing with Danny’s hammer toy
Mio decorated her pumpkin with these cat face foam stickers.
The carved pumpkins! Everyone did such a great job carving!
Dan carved the raven one (in the very back). Good job, hubby!
