The green outfits were worn a day late because Mio’s preschool had a St. Patrick’s Day party on the 18th, but here are the girls dressed for the occasion!
March 3rd was Hinamatsuri (Girls’ Day in Japan), so we celebrated by giving thanks to the continued health and happiness of our daughters, and girls everywhere. We had the hinaningyo dolls on display (gifted from my aunt a couple years ago), and Mio loved admiring them. Dan’s parents recently went to Hawaii and sent a cute shirt for Mio they had bought there, remembering that she had had a similar-looking shirt with a Japanese girl/doll when she was a year old, around Mirei’s age, and suggested Mio and Mirei wear them together. It made for some cute photos of the girls matching! 🙂
Ohinasama on display
She’s disciplined enough not to touch, but she loves looking at them!
Can’t believe she is almost four…
13 month old Mirei
The perfect occasion to wear this outfit!
This is Mirei’s second hinamatsuri.
Dan’s mom also sent a whole bunch of hina-arare crackers for the occasion, so I gave some to the girls and they loved it!
Mirei stood on a stool so she could be tall like big sister!
Being goofy together. Love our girls!
Our daughters bring so much joy and laughter to our lives, and we are always so thankful that we are blessed to get be their parents. We hope they continue to grow healthy and strong, and wish for them a future of happiness, love, and abundant blessings!
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!
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!
Happy 2015! The girls were a little sniffly and under the weather the week of Christmas, but were feeling better afterwards… but I ended up catching whatever they had, which really worsened around New Years Eve! It was not the ideal way to kick off the new year, but I’m grateful I could spend it with my family and get enough time to dedicate to rest and recovery!
Mirei sleeping on New Years morning
Thankfully, my being sick didn’t really affect my appetite, so I could enjoy this delicious Oshogatsu dinner of temaki-zushi.
Ted & Elisa brought their dog Asher over, and Mirei kept trying to poke him.
*poke poke* These buddies were born only a month apart! Asher just turned one year old.
