baby shower

Totoro Sugar Cookies

November 20, 2011 By Misono in Kitchen Concoctions Tags: baby carriage, baby shower, baking, cookies, onesie, onesies, royal icing, sugar cookies, Totoro

For the baby shower we threw for our friends Megumi and John last week, I tried my hand at making sugar cookies with royal icing for the first time! Because Megumi loved the film Totoro, I made Totoro cookies! It involved some research and preparation ahead of time, but it was a fun process and I wanted to make sure I document it!

A few people asked me how I was able to create the shape of Totoro, since it’s such a unique shape and it’s not like they sell Totoro-shaped cookie cutters just anywhere. This was the first major hurdle I encountered, but upon doing a quick search on Google, I found this awesome tutorial on how to create a custom shape cookie cutter — a Totoro one, no less! We grabbed a regular circle cookie cutter, and Dan shaped it into a Totoro shape for me with his tools. (I’m lucky to have a hubby who is very handy with tools and is always willing to readily lend a helping hand in all my crazy projects!)

Once the cookie cutter was made, I made the dough for the sugar cookies (supplied by my aforementioned sugar cookie expert friend Megumi!) and cut the shapes out, and popped them in the oven to bake. I literally squealed with delight at how well they came out when they were done baking!

While the cookies were baking, I made the royal icing and colored it using icing colors to get a bright shade of blue. (I considered making a blusih gray, but found it too hard, and thought the bright blue was more cheery.) Relying on Megumi’s tips on using the flooding technique for royal icing, I piped and flooded the icing onto the cookies, making sure to leave the stomach area un-iced, since I’d be filling that portion in with white icing later. After this first round of icing, I let them sit out to dry for 24 hours.

I also iced a bunch of baby-themed cookies: onesies and baby carriages, in pink and white!

The following evening, I filled in the tummy of the Totoros with white icing, and iced on the eyes, nose, and the blue markings on the chest. I also decorated the details on the onesies and baby carriages.

Totoro cookie — Completed Totoro sugar cookie.

Not too bad for a first try! — I'd like to think they came out pretty good for a first try!

Sugar cookies for a baby shower — Baby shower sugar cookies.

I’d definitely like to try making these again, as I’m sure they’d be a hit with kids! I’m also looking forward to trying other unique shapes and testing out new ideas for sugar cookies with royal icing in the future. Although it’s a multi-day process and decorating can be tedious, I love that there are endless possibilities in what you can create. I’m definitely hooked! 😀

A Baby Shower for Megumi & John

November 18, 2011 By Misono in Creative Corner, Family and Friends Tags: baby, baby food, baby girl, baby shower, cupcakes, dirty diaper, DIY, game, games, gifts, John, Megumi, onesies, presents, royal icing, sugar cookies

Last Sunday, we hosted a baby shower for our dear friends Megumi and John, who are expecting a baby girl around Christmas next month! It was my first time planning and preparing a shower, but it was a lot of fun to put together! (I did realize how much work goes into them, though, and awakened within me a deeper appreciation for all the effort friends have put into the brial shower and baby showers they threw for me in the past.) I’m glad that we had this opportunity to gather together as friends to celebrate this new life and welcome Megumi and John’s beautiful baby girl into our lives!

Megumi is a big fan of Studio Ghibli films, especially Totoro, so I created a Totoro-themed calendar for the guests to guess when the baby would arrive.

little umbrella favors — Little umbrella favors for the guests to take home.

baby shower favors — ...complete with personalized tags.

And what is a shower without some delicious food? As baking is more of my forte than cooking, I made the desserts — cupcakes and sugar cookies!

chrysanthemum cupcakes — Chrysanthemum cupcakes. The cream cheese frosting was a little runny, so it looks a little like the mum petals are melting.

This was my first time making sugar cookies with royal icing, but they turned out decent, thanks to some awesome tips from my dear friend and sugar cookie guru, Miss Megumi Kaminaga (different Megumi from the one we hosted this shower for). Thank you Mamagumi, and hope I’ve made you proud!

Totoro, onesie, and baby carriage cookies

For the main course, we had a Korean platter, with bulgogi, japchae, and dumplings. Thank you for cooking everything, Kayo!

And a special thanks goes to Ann Helen for the delicious salad (not pictured) and the veggies, hummus, andÂ homemade guacamole!

Mio with Mama — Mio took everything in as her Mama ran around preparing and setting up.

We also planned some fun games to play during the baby shower. The first was the Dirty Diaper game, in which we melted chocolates within these “diapers” and the guests had to guess what type of chocolate each diaper contained. (i.e. Butterfinger, Crunch, Mr. Goodbar, etc…)

John and Megumi examining the diapers — The guests of honor, John and Megumi

Mio watches as everyone plays the game. — A curious Mio watched as everyone played the game.

Aika and Easton — Aika and her adorable 5-month old son, Easton.

He got all of them right! — John got all of them right and was the winner!

The next game was the baby food guessing game. I soaked the labels off of baby food jars and the guests had to pass them around and guess what type of food each jar contained, from smell and (if they were brave enough) taste.

The last game we played was the classic “Guess the Mommy’s Belly Size” game, where we measured out tape to however length it was around Megumi’s baby bump.

Measuring out the tape. — John with the daunting task of taking the first guess.

Megumi still looks so petite for 8 months! She looks great!

She's so small! — Kayo measuring out Megumi's belly to get the actual measurement.

A few people came pretty close, but Kaz was the winner!

After the games, we went onto an activity of decorating onesies for Megumi and John’s baby! I’d seen variations of this where people used fabric paint, but I thought it would be a lot less messy and perhaps look nicer if we cut out fabric and attached them to the onesies with iron-on adhesive and peel-n-stick adhesive. Even the guys got into it and created some great custom clothing for baby!

Even Dan made one! — Dan exercising his creativity.

The results were spectacular! Look at how cute everyone’s onesies turned out! I was so impressed! 😀

We had John and Megumi each pick their favorite designs out of all the great onesies everyone created. It was not an easy decision!

Kai and Koreana won John's choice! — John chose Kai and Koreana's collaborative onesie creation.

The winner: Ann Helen! — Megumi picked Ann Helen's lovely design!

Finally, it was time to open presents! There were such cute goodies for their baby girl…

They were so cute!!! — Aika crocheted this adorable hat and mitten set for the baby!

Special thanks go Kayo, who cooked for the shower and MC-ed the games! I couldn’t have done it all without all the help from her, Kaz, and Ann Helen.

John and Megumi holding Mio — John and Megumi getting some practice entertaining a baby... and Mio just enjoying all the attention.

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the baby shower — I think it was a great success! 🙂 Congratulations to Megumi and John — we can’t wait to meet your sweet baby girl!

Church Baby Shower

March 16, 2011 By Misono in Family and Friends, Pregnancy & Parenthood Tags: baby, baby shower, church, Oakland Hills, Starlight Papasan Cradle Swing

This past weekend was a weekend of showers, as the day after Saturday’s beautiful baby shower, we were blessed on Sunday afternoon with another baby shower organized and attended by some of the lovely ladies from our local church and my mother-in-law. (This one was a ladies-only affair, so Dan did not attend.)Â It was hosted at the LeRoy’s gorgeous house in the Oakland Hills. Kayo cooked some amazing lasagna and my mother-in-law made some awesome California rolls and inarizushi for lunch! We spent the afternoon chit-chatting over the delicious lunch, playing baby shower games (some of which were actually surprisingly difficult!), and opening presents over tea and cupcakes.

lovely decorations — Lovely decorations at the shower

Kayo did a great job organizing the games!

Monica kept us company :) — Monica kept us company (and on our toes!)

Mother-in-law and friends — My mother-in-law and friends guessing the size of my belly.

comparing guesses — Comparing guesses... Koreana came the closest!

cupcakes from Love at First Bite! — Amazing cupcakes from Love at First Bite.

green tea cupcake — Of course, I had to have the green tea one with the cherry blossom on top!

the lovely ladies at the shower — The lovely ladies at the shower. Thanks so much for coming!

an adorable baby blanket from Rebecca and Chris — Opening everyone's thoughtful gifts.

More California Baby! :) — California Baby products from Ann Helen. I've heard so many good things about California Baby; can't wait to use them!

Dan’s parents also got us the very generous gift of the Starlight Papasan Cradle Swing! I really wanted it, but we hadn’t bought it because it was pretty pricey. I heard swings are invaluable during the first few months because it enables you to free up your arms and get stuff done while the baby is rocked, comforted, and entertained. This will definitely be a huge help!

The stars on it light up if you want to use it in the dark. 🙂 Super cute!

A heartfelt thank you to all the ladies who put this baby shower together and contributed to it — especially Ann Helen, Kayo, Kazue, and of course my mother-in-law! It was delightful and I feel so fortunate to have all of you in our lives.

Showered with Love.

March 13, 2011 By Misono in Family and Friends, Pregnancy & Parenthood Tags: baby, baby shower, California, Megumi, Oakland, West Coast

Dan and I felt like the luckiest couple in the world yesterday, having the pleasure of several of our friends in the Bay Area come together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our baby girl. A huge thank you to Megumi and Sam who hosted and organized such a wonderful West Coast baby shower, along with other friends who helped them decorate, cook, and put together what was one of the most beautiful showers I’ve ever attended. â™¥

Classic Pooh print! — The theme was cherry blossoms and Classic Pooh!

Cherry blossoms with cookies — Real cherry blossoms decorated the tables - this one featured sugar cookies and espresso brownies!

They each had our names on them! — Megumi's signature sugar cookies! They each had our names iced on them with bears and cherry blossoms.

Can't wait to dig in! — The hors d'oeuvres were amazing!

grilled cheese sandwiches atop tomato soup — Shot glasses of tomato soup, topped with grilled cheese sandwiches

spam musubi... gotta love the stuff! — Spam musubi... gotta love the stuff!

Tarrin's hot crab dib! — Tarrin's awesome hot crab dip!

Graig's somen salad — Graig couldn't make it, but he sent his awesome somen salad.

cutely wrapped utensils — Cutely wrapped utensils!

too pretty to eat! — Everything was almost too pretty to eat... but at the same time, I couldn't wait to dig in!

lovely desserts — But wait... there's more! Can't forget the dessert table.

hummingbird cake! — Megumi's hummingbird cake... yum!

matcha cupcakes — Matcha cupcakes from Aileen

Amazing strawberry cupcakes, also made by Aileen!

Dan & I with Yumi & Mark — It was so nice seeing Yumi & Mark, since we hadn't seen them since their wedding in Hawaii!

Thanks for coming! — Thanks for coming, Yumi!

The Wax team! — With my boss and some of my coworkers - who also happen to be amazing friends!

Guessing the baby's arrival — Let the baby shower games begin - we started off with guessing the baby's arrival.

Sam and I — Guessing the belly measurements!

Aileen guessing — Everyone overshot... do I look that big? lol

An entertaining game of drinking from baby bottles.

sucking down the juice — Sucking down the juice.

Apparently, it's a lot harder than it looks! Kudos to those babies for their suction power.

comparing bottles — Comparing how much everyone was able to drink in one minute.

The baby bottle contenders. It was a close race...

me with the winner! :) — ...but it was Tea who came out on top as the winner! 🙂

Poor Jason spilled the juice all over himself...

Guessing which candy bars are in the diapers.

candy bar diaper game — Everyone writing down their guesses.

Dan spinning Matt — Dan blindfolding and spinning Matt.

time to open gifts — Thank you everyone for the generous, thoughtful gifts!

quilt that Megumi made for the baby! — Megumi HANDMADE this quilt for the baby. We still can't get over how beautiful it is, and the fact that Megumi made it herself amazes me! (It's folded up here, but I'll have to post a photo later of it in its full magnificent glory some other time.) I don't think I've ever received anything that had so much time and effort put into it...

Dan & I with Aileen & Haruka — Thanks Aileen & Haruka for coming - we always love seeing you guys!

Brent & Estella with Dan & I — With our favorite OaklandersÂ - Brent and Estella!

Jason acting pregnant — Jason pretending he's pregnant too.

They worked so hard! — And finally... thank you ever so much to Megumi and Sam, who really went above and beyond, and worked so hard to put everything together for us. (Megumi planned it all the way from LA!)

gift basket favors for the guests — Gift basket favors for the guests, containing strawberries and cherry blossom-shaped cookies!

such pretty favors! — Such beautifully assembled favors!

lovely tags on the favors — ...complete with lovely tags to remember the event.

(See more photos from the baby shower!)

We were so humbled and moved by everyone’s thoughtfulness and generosity, and for the time and effort invested by our friends in putting such a lovely baby shower together for us. We’ll remember it for the rest of our lives, and we can’t wait to show these pictures to our daughter in the future, to show her how much she is loved. 🙂

More Than Words

March 4, 2011 By Misono in Family and Friends, Pregnancy & Parenthood Tags: baby shower, photographs, photos, pictures, Vinci

I just received these photos from our baby shower back in Virginia from December — they were taken by our talented friend Vinci! Looking through the photos brings a huge smile to my face; we really loved seeing everyone again and it meant so much to us that we got to celebrate with them during our short visit back East. We’re so blessed, and we will remember it forever.

I love seeing the smiles and laughter on everyone’s faces in these pictures — they speak millions. â™¥ Thank you for taking these, Vinci!

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