This morning, we took Mio to the local community Easter egg hunt in the lawn of the Freeman House in Old Town Vienna. There were a lot of kids there, and Mio had fun partaking in some of the Easter festivities!
Easter egg hunting!
While a lot of the kids were trying to quickly collect as many eggs as possible, Mio was slowly taking her time… I think she was still a little sleepy as the egg hunt was in the morning.
Mio with her friend Junna-chan
Mirei getting a photo with the Easter bunny.
As for big sister… the Santa Claus effect happened once again. ::sigh::
The weather was BEAUTIFUL today. The sun’s shining, the flowers are blooming… spring is finally here!
Getting a photo with Mirei by the flowers.
With both of my sweet girls!
Mirei looking about.
They also had a moonbounce, craft activities, and an egg roll!
After the Easter events, we headed over to the farmer’s market in Oakton. It was a pretty small market and not quite like the ones we’re used to from living in California, but they still had some delicious offerings, including some homemade tropical fruit punch and the most amazing cilantro hummus that we picked up.
Applesauce and pickled goods at the farmer’s market…
I love them. ♥ Today was such a beautiful and happy day!
On Saturday, we ended Mio’s birthday week with a party with a bunch of her little friends at Mobu Kids in Falls Church! Mobu Kids is a local private play studio (similar to Gymboree) and we thought it’d be a fun place to host the party so that the kids could have enjoy all kinds of play and activities. The staff there were great in that they really engaged the kids, helped out a lot with set-up and did most of the clean-up, and kept the party on schedule. It was still a little chaotic (as is expected with 20+ toddlers and preschoolers), but our stress level was significantly reduced because of them!
The tables set up for the party, complete with party hats and noisemakers.
Mio checking out the party room before her friends arrive.
Mio with her scrunchy-face she makes when she’s super happy!
With more of a normal smile this time!
Cupcakes with custom acrylic toppers that I designed and Dan cut out of with a CNC cutter.
Mio loves ice cream, so I decided on an ice cream shoppe theme for her birthday party. These are cupcakes I baked in cake cones to look like ice cream!
Homemade sugar cookies, also in the ice cream theme.
Mio got an early start on playtime in the gym while the guest started arriving.
Instructor-led play in the gym.
Making music together!
Pat with her adorable girls Cara and Anna
The kids shaking their little egg shakers to the “Milkshake!” song.
Playing with the parachute!
A video of the kids playing with the parachute:
The bubbles were also a huge hit!
After nearly an hour of playtime, the instructors got the kids cleaned up and moved to the party room, where we enjoyed pizza and desserts!
Time to eat! The kids all looked so adorable in their party hats!
The party room got quite loud with all the noisemakers going off, too.
Cutiepies eating at the table.
This may just be the cutest photo from the party… Mie and 7 month old Avonlea!
We got a video of everyone singing Happy Birthday and Mio blowing out the candle. Mio looks so happy!
Mio enjoying her cupcake cone. Look at that content smile!
With Daddy and Mommy… Mio is too focused on her cupcake.
Finally got her to look at the camera!
Ice cream-themed goody bags I made for the kids to take home. They were filled with stickers, ice cream cone punch poppers, erasers, and more sugar cookies.
Mio and Kailee squeezing in some more playtime before the party was over.
Cutiepies. So glad Mio and her friends had fun!
We’re so glad all of Mio’s friends and their families could make it out to celebrate Mio turning three. Some of our guests came from pretty far, so we’re really thankful that they made the trek out! It was so great seeing everyone, and Mio had so much fun — she’s been talking about the party ever since. Thank you to everyone who helped make her birthday so special for her! ♥
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!
On Sunday, we went as a family to our very first Maker Faire! Dan’s hobby drone group was participating and attending, and he took us along to join in all the geeky fun! Maker Faires are part science fair, part craft fair, and showcases creations by designers and engineers of all ages, and the purpose is to inspire more creations within the community. I remember when we were living back in the Bay Area, we had considered going to the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo (which is of course much larger, as it is where the Maker Faire started in 2006 and is one of the flagship faires) a couple times but always somehow couldn’t make it due to scheduling conflicts. This year was Northern Virginia’s first official Mini Maker Faire, and was held at South Lakes High School and Langston Hughes School in Reston. Despite being a “Mini” Maker Faire, it attracted 5,000 attendees that preregistered, and they estimated about 3,000 more registered at the door — it was really crowded! We’re really glad we went to check it out this year – it’s so valuable to expose children to creativity and science from a young age, and show them all the ways people are harnessing technology and their creative minds in exciting and fun new projects.
Mirei slept most of the time we were at the Faire, making it easy for us to walk around and check out all the exhibits. We’re sure she’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future to take part in the fun!
Mio checking out the entropy gym
Operating remote control vehicles.
This boy very patiently explained to Mio how to build things with these “Strawbees.”
A very interested Mio.
Building with the Strawbees.
There were also a lot of booths with craft activities available for younger children. Mio and I spent a lot of time at them while Dan walked around with Mirei checking out the booths with more serious exhibits.
Mio and I at a craft booth, beading spiders.
Stringing beads onto the pipecleaner legs of the spiders.
Mio also got to decorate and make a mask…
…and a kite!
Showing off her completed spider.
Checking out more booths with Daddy
“How does this work exactly…?”
Coloring with Mama
Making homemade silly putty.
Mio enjoying a lollipop she got at one of the booths.
There were some food trucks at the event, so that people could grab food to eat while at the Faire.
Mio hugging Mirei during our lunch break.
Waiting for the shuttle back to our car. Mio fell asleep after experiencing all the excitement!
The Maker Faire was interesting and educational fun for everyone! (Well, maybe with the exception of Mirei, who was sleeping the whole time.) We might make it an annual tradition to go, since it’s enjoyable for the whole family and the girls will probably enjoy it more and more as they grow older.
