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The Endless Stories of Dan & Misono & Their Beloved Mio
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Aubrianna’s First Birthday

December 9, 2012 By Misono in Family and Friends, Foodie Love Tags: Aubrianna, birthday, cake, California rolls, Centreville, mussels, Shin Nan, Yewon

Gorgeous birthday cake

 

Last Saturday was our friends’ daughter Aubrianna’s first birthday party! The three of us were happy to go celebrate the special occasion with them, and they hosted a lovely party for sweet Aubri. Here are some photos from the party!

 

Mio at Aubrianna's birthday party
Mio reaching for a balloon at Aubrianna’s birthday party.

 

The spread at the party was amazing — so much good food! We all stuffed ourselves.

Mussels!
Yewon made mussels with garlic — heaven for a seafood lover like me!

 

Marinara mussels
Mussels with marinara sauce, cheese, and hot sauce.

 

Chinese chicken!
Chinese chicken!

 

California rolls
California rolls made by Shin Nan.

 

She was constantly eating!
Everyone was impressed (or rather, aghast?) at how much Mio was constantly eating… lol.

 

In the Korean tradition of Doljanchi, there were items placed in front of Aubrianna for her to choose something that represents her future calling. (Very similar to the Japanese tradition of Erabitori, which we prepared for Mio’s first birthday.) Everyone watched with anticipation to see what little Aubri would choose!

What will she choose?

 

She was intimidated by everyone watching her.
Aubri was intimidated by everyone watching her, and burst into tears.

 

The PlayDoh!
After getting comforted by Mommy, she chose… the PlayDoh!

 

She then chose the toothbrush!
…and then the toothbrush! Future dentist, perhaps?

 

The beautiful cake again
Celebrating with one of the prettiest birthday cakes I’ve ever seen! Yewon’s friend is a professional cake decorator and made this gorgeous cake for Aubri.

 

The birthday girl and her mama
The adorable birthday girl and her lovely mama!

 

Daddy's girl.
Daddy’s girl sitting in Dan’s lap.

 

Mio had a great time playing with the other kids at the party, and especially enjoyed indulging in all the delicious food offerings! Happy first birthday Aubri!

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

December 6, 2012 By Misono in Foodie Love, Local Gems, Recreational Fun Tags: garden, grandparents, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, Mio, Vienna, Virginia

I love how the colors turned out in this one.

 

On Tuesday, Mio and I drove over to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna with our parents for an early afternoon stroll. My parents used to take my siblings and I here all the time as kids, and we always called it “duck pond” because of all the ducks and geese we’d see there every time we went. It was really nostalgic to revisit the park for the first time in almost twenty years, and share one of my childhood memories with Mio and make it hers, too. 🙂

Arriving at Meadowlark
The entrance to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

 

Nutcracker dolls lining the pathway
During the holidays, large nutcracker dolls flank the path to the entrance.

 

magical decorations
Snowflake decorations hanging from the ceiling. So magical!

 

experimenting with exposure
An experiment in exposure…

 

a different look
A second picture, a moment later. Such a different look! I love playing with different settings on my phone camera.

 

the water shimmered at the end of the path
We could see the water shimmering at the end of the winding path.

 

geese crossing the path
Geese crossing the path! Mio immediately started quacking at them.

 

watching the geese by the pond
Watching the geese by the pond

 

Mio watching intently.
Mesmerized.

 

Mio trying to feed a leaf to the goose.
Mio trying to feed a leaf to a goose.

 

An afternoon with the grandparents.
Together with the grandparents.

 

On a sled!
On a sled inside the visitor’s center.

 

Lad na for lunch
Enjoying some lad na for lunch afterwards.

 

Tree-Trimming!

December 3, 2012 By Misono in Creative Corner, Seasonal Celebrations, Videos Tags: Christmas, Christmas tree, decorating, holidays, time-lapse, timelapse, tree-trimming

My favorite picture from yesterday's tree-trimming!

Yesterday afternoon, we set up and decorated the Christmas tree! It was actually our first time decorating a tree together, because Dan and I never bought a tree while we were in California because we didn’t really have the space for it a lot of times, and were lazy. But tree-trimming is one of my favorite childhood memories of the holidays, so we wanted to make sure we revisited the tradition this year with Mio! 🙂

Tree-trimming pictures from yesterday.

Earlier in the day, we met up with our friend Stephanie and she inspired us by showing us an awesome stop motion video she created of her pumpkin carving! (Check out more of her creative work at her blog, From Woo to You.) It definitely made an impression because when we returned from lunch and started unpacking the Christmas tree from my parents’ basement, I excitedly suggested to Dan, “Let’s make a stop motion video!” …to which he responded, “You mean a time-lapse, in this case? A stop motion would take forever.” And I said, “Yes! Time-lapse. That.” (Take no offense, videographers, I do indeed know the difference — just used the wrong term in my moment of excited inspiration!) So below is the result. Thank you so much Stephanie for inspiring us! We hope you all will enjoy this fun, short video of our first tree-trimming experience as a family! 😀

Post-Thanksgiving Fun

November 28, 2012 By Misono in Family and Friends, Foodie Love, Local Gems Tags: Aiko, Akiho, Anthony, Black Friday, Borge Street Park, Centreville, Clara, holiday, Honey Pig, Joelle, Liz, Mio, Oakton, playdate, post-Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, weekend

Instead of hitting the malls and going shopping on Black Friday, we spent the day meeting up with friends who were in the area! It was food-and-fun-filled holiday weekend — this is what the holidays are all about! 😀

Lunch date with Akiho at Sushi Yoshi
Lunch date with Akiho at Sushi Yoshi. She has just finished her PhD and is now a licensed psychologist!

 

It was great seeing Aiko and Anthony!
We met up with Aiko, my friend of 25 years, and her husband Anthony. They were visiting from Boston and got to meet Mio for the first time.

 

Aiko and Mio
Hanging out at the park. I’ve known Aiko since we were 5 – I can’t believe how much time has passed since then!

 

Honey Pig!
Later in the evening, we went to Honey Pig in Centreville to celebrate Liz’s birthday!

 

With the birthday girl!
With the birthday girl!

 

Luice and Jeremy at Honey Pig
It was our first time seeing newlyweds Luice and Jeremy since they tied the knot in August. They’re the cutest couple!

 

Dan and Mio chowing down
Dan and Mio chowing down

 

So much good food!
So much good food!

 

Playdate with Joelle and Clara
On Saturday, Mio had a playdate with Joelle and Clara. Here are the cuties together!

 

And I shall conclude with our adorable burrito Mio!

Too cute to handle.

 

Sweetheart.

 

My 30th Birthday Wish

November 26, 2012 By Misono in Milestones Tags: 30th birthday, birthday, birthday wish, charity: water, clean water, water

On December 25, I’m turning 30.

For my 30th birthday, I wanted to do something special and memorable. That’s why this year, I’m giving up my birthday to charity: water. Instead of getting me a birthday present, taking me to dinner, or writing on my Facebook wall, please donate $30 (or any amount you are comfortable with — every cent counts!) for my 30th birthday, and help me bring clean water to people in need. It breaks my heart to know that millions of children my daughter’s age do not have access to clean, safe water, and because of that, will not live to see their fifth birthdays.

Go to my campaign to donate: http://mycharitywater.org/misono

What’s really cool is that 100% of the money we raise will directly fund water project costs in the field, and charity: water will prove every single dollar. When the project we help fund is complete, they’ll send us a digital completion report with GPS coordinates and photos of the community we helped. Here’s an example.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than by giving the gift of clean water to people in need. Please join me to make this birthday count, and make my only birthday/Christmas wish come true!

 


Water Changes Everything. from charity: water on Vimeo.

Special thanks to my friend Estella for inspiring me to do this when she gave up her own birthday a few years ago!

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