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!
Mio drew her first family picture the other day! She had taken a long time to get to the point of drawing faces, so we were surprised and impressed when she drew our family!
According to her, Daddy is the big blue face, Mio is the pink one next to him, Mama is the yellow one in the upper left, and Mirei is the small purple one in the top right corner.
Great job, Mio!
I’m looking forward to how her drawings of our family will grow as she gets older… 🙂
This summer, in addition to ballet class and gymnastics class, I enrolled Mio in a program called Variety Zone, in which she can sample a little bit of each of the children’s programs offered in the county. In this class, the children rotate through different programs, experiencing two days each of Preschool Picassos, Gym Jam, Magic Kitchen, Wild about the Wild and Adventures in Gardening, over the course of eight weeks (one day a week).
Here are some photos and videos I took of Mio at the classes over the past couple months.
Making glitter fireworks for 4th of July for Preschool Picassos.
Adventures in Gardening class
Planting peas, garlic, and a sunflower.
Learning about the growth cycle of apple trees in Adventures in Gardening
Shaking up the whipping cream in Magic Kitchen. I think Magic Kitchen was Mio’s favorite among the programs, because it involved eating the creations. 😉
A video of Mio shaking the whipped cream, chopping up the fruits, and eating the completed snack.
Making marshmallow spiders!
Look at that smile! (Magic Kitchen, week 2)
Making girl and boy cookies out of crumbled graham crackers, cheese, pretzels, and raisins.
Gym Jam! It was also a hit with Mio, since she loves bouncing around and being active.
Our little athlete had a great time!
The program was a really fun way for Mio to sample a variety of fun activities over the summer, and she was always excited every week to go to the class! (I think she had more fun with it than gymnastics and ballet.) I really recommend it as a nice way to keep the kids occupied, especially during the summer when they’re out of school.
A bonus video of Mio from one of her last ballet classes:
There was no shortage of street food vendors, but some of the restaurants were also offering some great discounted prices on platters, so Dan jumped at the opportunity to get some Indian food!
