Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful moms out there, including my own amazing mama! I never fully appreciated all her love, patience, and sacrifice until I became a mother myself. Thankful for our precious daughters who bring me more joy, challenges, and laughter than I ever imagined.
Hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Mother’s Day weekend as well!
It’s DC’s most beautiful time of the year… sakura season! Γ’Ββ¬ On Saturday, we went out to DC with my parents, my brother and my sister-in-law to go see the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin in DC. I’ve gone every year since returning to DC, but last year we went a little late and missed the peak bloom. We had better luck this year, though, and were able to catch the blossoms in full bloom, just in time for the main Sakura Matsuri weekend event during the National Cherry Blossom Festival! Mio was so excited to go from the moment we told her we were going the night before, and she kept exclaiming, “We’re going to see the cherry blossoms! My name means ‘beautiful cherry blossom!’ We’re going to go see them!!!'” I love that she loves the meaning of her name, and can get so excited about the flower that is her namesake.
Mio giggling her way through the cherry blossoms:
After seeing the cherry blossoms, we had lunch in DC together (we wanted to eat at Daikaya, but we ended up going to Full Kee instead because the wait was two hours!), and then took the Metro back home in the afternoon. DC was so crowded and we got a lot of walking in, so we were exhausted! All of us took a nap when we got home. We’re so glad we could see the cherry blossoms together with almost the whole family this year!
We had a very busy Saturday on Easter weekend, as we went to two Easter egg hunts! The first one was at Van Dyck Park in Fairfax, and then we headed over to the Lee’s for their now-annual (?) Easter egg hunt event!
Rushing the field to pick up the eggs!
After the egg hunt, we took some time to let the girls run around and play, as Van Dyck Park has a fairly large playground! It was so windy that morning!
Mio dashing around the playground!
Some of the climbing action!
Mirei with her Easter eggs:
Mirei learned how to dip her French fries into ketchup!
After lunch, we headed over to the Lee household for the egg hunt they organized with all their family friends! We had so much fun with them last year and the year before, so we were excited to join them again this year!
Let the egg hunt begin!
After the egg hunt, we enjoyed a delicious Easter-themed lunch and snacks prepared by Stephanie and Chwan, and they kids enjoyed playing with all the toys inside! The grownups had a great time chatting and catching up while the kids had their fun. On the short ten minute drive home that afternoon, both the girls fell asleep and continued to nap for a couple hours when we brought them inside. They were tuckered out from all the excitement!
Mio’s definitely at the age now where she can appreciate decorating Easter eggs, so I picked up a dyeing/decorating kit for us and had some creative family fun with it on Saturday night!
We had such a great time at the Vienna Easter egg hunt last year that we knew we wanted to take her and Mirei again this year! The egg hunt takes place on the lawn of the Freeman House in Old Town Vienna, and there’s also an inflatable bounce house, an egg roll event, and an opportunity to take photos with the Easter bunny! Unfortunately, the day they picked this year was freezing, so we bundled the girls up and quickly participated in the egg hunt and photos with the bunny, and left pretty shortly afterwards. The girls still had fun, though!
Here’s a video I captured of the girls during the egg hunt:
Even though it was extremely chilly and windy, Mio still wanted to get in line for the bounce house, so Dan took Mirei to warm up in the car while Mio got her bouncing in:
