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!
On Saturday morning, we decided to all go ice skating! I’m not very good at ice skating, so I stayed outside the rink with Mirei, but it was Mio’s first time skating on the ice and she seemed to enjoy it! Dan and his siblings did a great job of holding her hands and keeping her safe as she skated.
Dan putting ice skates on Mio
Mio and Mirei at Fairfax Ice Arena
Mio’s first time ice skating!
After half an hour, Mio got tired and wanted to take a break so she watched with me from outside the rink.
Mirei got to skate a lap with Daddy, before he was told that it wasn’t allowed for her to skate strapped to him.
M&M playing by the lockers while everyone else skated
After ice skating, we stopped by the Snocream Shavery bus to have some Taiwanese shaved ice!
Almond and milk tea snow and macaron
Later in the afternoon, we headed over to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is the National Air and Space Museum annex in Chantilly.
Mio taking a break in her stroller at the museum.
Mio loving the attention from Ted and Jackie!
Our family in front of the Discovery space shuttle
Lunch on Sunday at YeChon before seeing everyone off.
It was a short visit, but we had a lot of fun spending time together! It can be difficult for us to travel with two young kids, so we really appreciate whenever Dan’s family can come to us to visit. We look forward to the next time we’ll get to see each other again, and hopefully we can visit California in the new year!
Dan’s company had a holiday party at the McLean Hilton this year, and it was grand! It’s nice to get dressed up and go somewhere without the kids once in a while, and we thoroughly enjoyed the festivities!
Main course of filet mignon. My favorite part, though, was the ginormous cocktail shrimp they had among the hors d’oeuvres (not pictured). Heaven for a shrimp lover like me!
My favorite kind of bar = a hot chocolate bar! Dan got the Olaf and I got the Elsa and they were both amazing.
Fun in the photobooth ♥
Chocolates from Dan’s company as a gift for him helping them prepare for the party. Yum!
I’m thankful that Dan is such a hardworking husband and father — it’s thanks to him that we can provide for our girls, and we can enjoy company events like these from time to time. His company and his team are so wonderful too, and he loves his work — I’m so happy for him that he found this opportunity that brought us back to the East Coast two years ago.
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!
We spent a Saturday afternoon at the playground at Cunningham Park with the girls in late November — it was really brisk that day! Now that Mirei is walking, she can enjoy the playground a lot more alongside Mio.
The cold doesn’t stop these girls!
Bundled up and having fun!
Our purple Michelin baby coming towards me:
Going down the slide together.
Why so serious?
It’s so sweet to watch them begin to play together… 🙂
