Mio’s showing so much personality these days! She’s so quirky and is always making everyone around her laugh. Here are some priceless moments that we’ve captured in the past week…
Love her expressions! They crack me up. Nemo peeking out from behind her is a funny touch…
Wild rider!
The road to potty training is long and arduous. Today Mio ran around wearing her potty seat around like it was a floatie. Starting to think she’ll still be in diapers when we send her off to college…
Interestingly, Mio’s favorite item from her trick-or-treating loot is this pair of fangs…
These last couple ones aren’t comedic moments, but they’re still cute so I threw them in. 🙂
Something I’ve always wanted to do with my children is bake with them. Ever since I was a little girl, I always loved baking cakes, cookies, and all kinds of treats for the family. (My mom was much more the cooking type so I did all the baking in the house from an early age.) I always imagined that baking together would be a fun way for mothers and daughters to bond and have fun in the kitchen together, and now that I’m a mom of girls, I am excited about fully indulging myself in such fantasies, whether my girls will like it or not! Mio’s at an age where she can understand and follow most directions, is curious and interested in doing grownup things, and usually eager to help. It was rainy earlier today, and I thought it might be the perfect opportunity to stay indoors and try some mommy & me baking for the first time together! The project? To make red bean buns shaped like Mio’s favorite characters! I’d never actually attempted this particular recipe before, so in hindsight it was probably a little too ambitious and involved for our first collaboration together… but I really wanted to produce something that Mio would love!
Mio helping pour the yeast into the batter.
Pouring the milk and eggs in. Such a good helper!
Some of the red bean buns out of the oven: Hello Kitty, Shimajiro, and Anpanman
Mio couldn’t stop staring at our creations.
“Enough pictures! I want to get to the best part – eating!” Mio seemed really pleased with our completed creations!
Though I of course ended up doing most of the work, Mio had a lot of fun being involved and helping with some of the steps here and there, and of course she excelled in the role she loves most — eating the finished treat! I’d say our first baking experience together was a success. I’m looking forward to many more countless baking adventures together with my sweet daughter(s)!
Happy Halloween! The Halloween fun continued into this week, even though we’d already had a good share of activities over the weekend. While Dan had carved his pumpkin at the Halloween party on Saturday, Mio and I decided to paint our pumpkins at home this week. She’s still a little too young to be wielding a knife, so we thought painting would be a much safer alternative. 😉
Painting our pumpkins at home together.
Mio kept saying, “Pumpkin! Paint!” and while we each had our own pumpkins to paint, she kept dabbing her paintbrush on mine to help me paint my pumpkin. So sweet!
With our completed pumpkins this morning. Happy Halloween!
Mio and I’s painted pumpkins next to Daddy’s carved pumpkin.
Earlier this week on Tuesday, there was a little Halloween event at Mio’s preschool! Parents were invited to come by earlier than the usual pickup time, so we could sit down in the classroom as the kids sang to us. It was our first time really getting to observe our kids in the classroom setting, so I was really looking forward to it!
The sign on Mio’s preschool classroom door showing the kids’ names.
While Mio was quietly sitting in the circle with all the other kids in the class when I entered, as soon as she noticed me sitting at the table, she sprang up and clung to me, refusing to sit back down in the circle and sing with the other children… much to my dismay because I wanted to see her participating like all the other kids. Oh well… she’s the youngest one in the class (they let her into the class this year even though her birthday was just past the cut-off date), so I guess she’s still comparatively a bit of a baby and has some separation anxiety issues. After the kids finished singing their songs, they were invited to change into their costumes for their mini Halloween parade outside.
Mio changing into her Snow White costume for the third time in a week…
The 2.5 year old class is the youngest class, so that day they walked out into the parking lot, showing off their costumes to the older classes that were seated across from them. The older classes then sang songs to the little ones — it was really cute!
Mio being bashful in front of the older kids.
The 3’s and 4’s classes singing to the 2.5 year old class children.
Taking a picture of all the kids in Mio’s class together… or trying to.
It was tough getting them all together in a picture, so this is just some of them. What a cute bunch!
Happy Halloween, everyone! Hope it is eventful and full of fun. 🙂
Mio had a fun-filled Sunday afternoon as we took her out for her first real trick-or-treating experience! We hadn’t introduced trick-or-treating to her the last two years, because we figured she was too young for candy, but now she’s definitely at an age where she can understand and appreciate the concept and of course the treats! A growing trend at community centers and churches in recent years is trunk-or-treat — it provides a safe and fun alternative to the tradition of going to door-to-door asking for candy. Volunteers gather in parking lots, their car trunks open and decked out in decorations and sometimes games, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. It’s also an easier option than the traditional walking door-to-door for younger kids (as they tend to easily get tired) because they can still get plenty of candy without having to travel as much. Mio’s preschool had a Trunk-or-Treat event which we went to first, and then we continued onto Vienna Baptist Church, which probably hosts the largest Trunk-or-Treat in the local community.
Trunk or Treat at Mio’s preschool.
She got the hang of trick-or-treating pretty quickly!
Mio making her way around the preschool parking lot.
Playing a game to win a treat!
The second Trunk-or-Treat event we went to had an accompanying fall festival for kids, with lots of games, activities, crafts, and face painting that they could partake in before they went trick-or-treating around the parking lot.
Mio throwing her fishing line over to get some candy.
She got some fruit snacks!
Getting her face painted.
The finished facepaint: an apple to go with her Snow White costume!
Time for Trunk-or-Treat, round two! There were about 30 cars to collect candy from.
Some of the decorations were pretty elaborate…
We ran into Mio’s friend Junna-chan (in the penguin costume) there, too!
Mio helping herself to candy. She made sure to say “thank you” at every station!
A vintage Ford Model A vehicle that was also at the event! Dan had a fun time talking to the owner about it.
A happy Snow White with her Daddy! Her bucket of candy was so full by the end of the afternoon that she was having a hard time carrying it.
Mio had a blast trick-or-treating for the first time, and she kept saying “Hooray! Candy!” and examining her loot in the car ride home. Mama and Daddy have to be careful in making sure the candy is rationed and she doesn’t eat too much at once. 😉