Pictures with Santa

By in Milestones, Seasonal Celebrations Tags: , , , , , , , ,

photos with Santa

 

We got a decent photo with Santa this year! We had only taken Mio to see Santa Claus once before two years ago, and that didn’t end well. We just skipped it last year because she didn’t seem crazy about Santa then either, but this year she has actually been talking about him a lot, maybe because preschool has been hyping him up and partially because she’s able to grasp the idea of him a little better at this age. She’s had only one thing on her Christmas wish list this year (“pink octopus”, a Beanie Baby octopus she saw in a store a couple months ago), and she was determined to tell Santa in person to be certain he knew what to bring her for Christmas. This was Mirei’s first time meeting Santa Claus, of course, and she handled it surprisingly well!

When Mio spotted Santa, she dashed to him, yelling “I WANT PINK OCTOPUS FOR CHRISTMAS!” but I guess he hadn’t planned on having any further conversation with him, so once he sat her on his lap and asked her more questions, she was silent, looking slightly uncomfortable and awkward…

 

photos with Santa

 

photos with Santa
I can just see her thinking, “Did he hear me ask for pink octopus? I have nothing else to say to this man…”

 

photos with Santa

 

Well, I’m glad that we got at least one photo of Mio smiling with Santa, and although Mirei just looks kind of startled, at least she’s not in tears the way big sister was the first time meeting him!

Lily’s First Birthday Party

By in Family and Friends, Recreational Fun, Videos Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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 Birthday Party
Dan & Mirei at Lily’s Frozen-themed birthday party. So appropriate for the season!

 

Lily's Birthday Party
The birthday girl! Loved her outfit!

 

Lily's Birthday Party
She’s such a sweetheart.

 

The kids got to romp around in the soft playroom for an hour.

Mio crawling in the playroom
Mio, being the wild and active girl that she is, thoroughly enjoyed the playroom.

 

Mio playing in the playroom

 

Mirei joins the fun
Mirei joining in the fun

 

Lily and her mama
Lily and her mama Moe-chan

 

Mirei & Lily together
Mirei & Lily together

 

Mio being interesting
Mio being interesting…

 

M&M in the ball pit
M&M in the ball pit together

 

Dan rocking Mirei
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!

beautiful snowflake birthday cake
Look at this gorgeous birthday cake!

 

Frozen-themed treats
Frozen-themed treats!

 

Lily's birthday cupcakes
Cupcakes looked amazing, too!

 

Lily's birthday smashcake
Lily smashing her birthday cupcake.

 

Mio ready to have some 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!

Flint Hill Holiday Craft Fair

By in Creative Corner, Mio, Seasonal Celebrations Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Flint Hill Elementary School was having a holiday craft fair on December 6, so we took the girls to go check it out! The school is the elementary school that I attended growing up, so it was nostalgic to walk through its halls again, decades later and with my own young children. Our primary purpose of going was to see Santa Claus, since we had read that he was going to be making an appearance there, but sadly his visit had been cancelled. (This seems to happen often with us.) Mio was discouraged, but she got to enjoy some holiday crafting before we left:

Mio making ornaments at Flint Hill
Mio with an ornament she made.

 

Mio making ornaments at Flint Hill
She looks perplexed.

 

Mio making ornaments at Flint Hill
Decorating a pinecone ornament this time.

 

Mio making ornaments at Flint Hill
She was fascinated by all the older kids around her.

 

Mio making ornaments at Flint Hill
Carefully placing the pompoms…

 

FHES Craft Fair
“Where’s Santa? I need to tell him I want pink octopus for Christmas!”

 

Alas, visiting Santa would have to wait until another day…

This Year’s Gingerbread House

By in Creative Corner, Mio, Seasonal Celebrations Tags: , , , , ,

It’s that time again… for one of our favorite holiday traditions: building and decorating the gingerbread house! I’m finding that it gets more and fun with every year, as Mio becomes more capable and involved in the decorating process… she placed a lot of the candy herself this year, and gave us some art direction! Mirei was asleep this year (probably for the better, since she probably would have tried to wreck our creation) but maybe next year she can help decorate, too!

building the gingerbread house
Getting ready to start the gingerbread house! (Mirei asleep in the background)

 

building the gingerbread house
I see you eyeing that candy, Mio…

 

decorating the gingerbread house
Watching it all come together…

 

decorating the gingerbread house
Mio placing the candy all over the house.

 

decorating the gingerbread house
She loved being able to do a lot of it herself!

 

the completed gingerbread house
The completed gingerbread house – a collaboration between Mio, Dan and I. I love that it has character!

 

Mio with the gingerbread house
Mio admiring (read: drooling over) her creation.

 

In the days since, she’s been asking if she can break off a piece of candy off the house to eat almost daily. Eating it is part of the fun, too! πŸ˜‰

See past years’ gingerbread houses: 2013 • 2012 • 2011

Mirei Eats Corn for the First Time

By in Mirei, Videos Tags: , , , ,

Mirei tried corn for the first time the other day, and we decided to just give her a whole corncob to see if she’d be able to successfully eat the corn off of it now that she has five teeth. She actually ate the corn pretty thoroughly, but we couldn’t help but laugh at some of the faces she made while she was gnawing on it!

Mirei eating corn for the first time

 

Mirei eating corn for the first time
She got the hang of it pretty quickly…

 

Mirei eating corn for the first time
Mirei vs corn

 

Mirei eating corn for the first time
Tearing it up! A corn-eating champ!

 

View more of Mirei’s corn-eating here:

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