We celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early this year, because I had plans to visit my best friend in Philadelphia with my girlfriends on February 14th. I took some photos of the girls matching in red to commemorate Valentine’s 2015!
It was impossible to get them to both smile in one shot! Sigh.
Smiling sweetly for the camera! ♥
Mirei’s expressions look so mature lately…
Dan and I got to have an early Valentine’s dinner date on Thursday, thanks to my sister watching the kids for us! We dined at Maple Ave Restaurant, which we had heard so many good things about! We were pretty excited to have a quiet romantic dinner together, and the food did not disappoint. Everything was so incredibly delicious!
Steamed PEI mussels with saffron coconut broth, chinese sausage, and crostinis as an appetizer.
I ordered the duck leg confit with caramelized brussel sprouts, truffle aioli, and apple cider gastrique.
For dessert, we had the chocolate dumplings with fried pastry shell, melted chocolate ganache, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce.
…and the “omg” flourless chocolate cake. Both were amazing!
Love you hubby! Thanks for a lovely and romantic evening.
When we got home, Mio delivered surprise Valentines gifts from Dan!
A sweet Valentine’s card from Dan and the girls!
Mio signed her Valentines to her classmates this year! This was actually her first time writing her name out. We’d been encouraging her to write her name for a while now and she always resisted so we’ve tried not to push her… but she willingly wrote it this time. So proud of her!
Mio’s Valentines haul from her classmates. She loved it, and has been treasuring her bag of Valentine’s cards in the days since!
On the same day (Friday), we received this card in the mail. Mio’s preschool class has been learning about the post office, and apparently they sent their Valentine’s to their parents out in the mail in time to get to us by Valentine’s Day! I will treasure this always.
Mio telling us about how she sent the Valentine in the mail.
Thank you sweetheart for such a beautiful Valentine! We love you and your sister so much!
The day before Mirei’s actual birthday, we threw a small, intimate birthday party to celebrate the milestone of her turning one! We were admittedly feeling a little overwhelmed (and a little lazy) about doing a big celebration, but we kept the guest list short and decided we’d just do what we could and that helped ease the pressure and stress on us parents. 😉 My brother Ted and his wife Elisa were gracious enough to reserve the party room at their condo for the celebration. Unfortunately, it snowed the morning of the party and some of our guests couldn’t make it because of the weather, but we still had fun with those who were able to make it, and we stayed warm and cozy as the flurries swirled outside!
First year poster for Mirei
Birthday cake for Mirei… intended to be smashed later in the party.
A tower of birthday cupcakes
Dan and I made these cake toppers — both the “one” atop the cupcakes and the one with her name on the smashcake.
hydrangea cupcakes
The items for erabitori
Cookies to be taken home as party favors.
lollipop party favors
First birthday sugar cookies
Don’t look too closely… it was my first time using gold dusting powder on sugar cookies!
Special thanks to Miwa, Hyo, and Elisa who all helped with getting the party decorations up!
Everyone crowding around the birthday girl!
The adorable kids arriving
The aunties
Cutiepies Mirei and Cara
So glad Nancy and her girls could make it! Welcome back to the States!
The birthday girl walking around
Pat and I with our baby girls. Thanks so much for coming! ♥
Mio with her aunties, posing for our makeshift photobooth.
We had set up our own little “photobooth” with an iPad app, and the kids had so much fun with it! It was really fun to see the collection of pictures at the end of the party:
We felt so blessed to be able to celebrate Mirei’s first birthday with such loving family and friends, and are so thankful that she is such a happy and healthy one year old! More posts to follow with the first birthday activities from the party — stay tuned!
Steamed black mussel with pan-roasted sea scallops in a Pesto basil white wine broth
This sparkling Australian wine was so sweet! I loved it.
I got the filet mignon…
…while Dan got the rack of lamb.
Bon appetit!
They gave us a dessert sampler since it was our anniversary. Everything was great!
A beautiful sunset greeted us after our dinner.
It’s been six years since our wedding and over 11 years since the beginning of our journey as a couple. We’re so blessed to have had so many wonderful years and memories together, and we look forward to several more! Can’t wait to see what the future holds. I know it’ll be a beautiful life as long as I have Dan by my side. ♥ Love you, hubby!
We spent Memorial Day at home, BBQ-ing and relaxing with the family. Of course, we can’t celebrate this day without remembering the ultimate sacrifice that those in the military have made for the rest of us. Thanks to those who make those sacrifices to defend and protect, we can live in peace and we honor them on this day. We are forever grateful for their service.
Chicken satay, kalbi, and shrimp skewers on the grill.
Mio on Memorial Day
Under the sun umbrella
Mirei under the umbrella, getting shieled from the sun.
Sucking on her bib.
You can see the umbrella’s colors reflected in Mirei’s eyes.
Our family spent Saturday afternoon at the Taste of Merrifield in the Mosaic District. We love going to the Mosaic District because of the Target there as well as its various shopping offerings and delicious restaurants, so when we heard there was going to be a food festival there along with activities for children, we had to go check it out! 🙂 We’re so glad we did, because we got to enjoy a lot of good food (at pretty affordable prices!) and Mio had a lot of fun at the kids’ section, too!
I got a kick out of the name of this food truck. “Naan Stop” — very clever!
Mio enjoying a free ice pop. It was a really warm day so it was perfect!
Walking hand in hand with Mommy. ♥
Enjoying some tasty sliders from Matchbox.
They had a beer garden there, so Dan of course had to take advantage…
Dan enjoying his beer from Port City Brewing Company.
This beef concoction from Sea Pearl was AMAZING. So tender and it had a jalapeno kick!
Gourmet tacos — one beef brisket and one grilled chicken.
Mio can’t wait to dig in! She didn’t want to look up from the food.
With our tummies full, we moved onto the kids’ activities. Here we are waiting to get Mio’s face painted.
Mirei woke up but quietly waited in her stroller.
It was finally Mio’s turn!
A glittery penguin on Mio’s cheek. The lady did kind of a cruddy job IMHO…
Mio found the Lego building station and went right to work! She LOVES building blocks.
Our little builder!
Mirei and I watching Mio build away.
Mio wanted to stay there forever! We eventually had to tear her away…
Mio got to go on her first pony ride there, too! We asked her if she wanted to use the remaining tickets we had on more food or a pony ride, and she (surprisingly to us) picked the pony ride!
Dan captured some video of the pony ride!
Don’t be jelly, Mirei… You’ll eventually be able to eat delicious food and go on pony rides, too!
It was a really fun day for the whole family! We’re already looking forward to going again next year. 🙂
