Mio’s been going to a lot of birthday parties lately! A lot of her friends seem to have birthdays in late August and early September. We went to a birthday party for 3 year old Kosei and 5 year old Dojoon a couple weeks ago in Hyattsville, and then last Sunday we drove over to Gaithersburg (also in Maryland) to celebrate Maya’s 3rd birthday! We have yet another birthday party to go to this coming weekend, too! So many occasions to celebrate. 🙂 Mio has no problems with that, as she loves birthday parties as they involve cake, good food, and getting to see a lot of her little buddies! She can’t say “birthday” quite yet, but she’s been repeating “Happy Kosei~” “Happy Dojoon~” “Happy Maya~” the past couple weeks, coupled with “It’s so fun!!!” The parties are definitely a lot of fun for her!
Here are some pictures from Maya’s birthday on Sunday.
The kids anxiously waiting to eat the cupcakes.
Maya turned three! Maya-chan is a quarter Japanese, and I’ve known her mama Erika since we were kids ourselves!
Mio patiently waiting to have some cake…
Sharing a cupcake with mama… though it was mostly Mio, who just ate the top off.
Mio was very suspicious of baby Charlotte possibly stealing her cupcake. No need to be so worried, Mio!
The mamas hanging out on the deck while the kids played in the sun outside.
Sweet 11 month old Charlotte!
Some of the kids playing with the hose. Mio got soaked!
She dried off pretty quickly in the sun, though, and had fun kicking the ball around with Daddy and Maya’s dad.
Is she a future Mia Hamm? (Or shall we say, Mio Hamm? lol)
Maya opening her presents. Happy birthday sweetheart!
Thank you to the Ichijo’s and Maya’s whole family for having us over at their lovely home. We had a great time chatting with our fellow parent friends and letting the kids play together.
Mio turned two yesterday, and while we opted not to have a big birthday party with friends this year, we spent the daytime playing outside and had a little get-together with the family in the evening to celebrate with BonChon Chicken dinner, birthday cake, and opening presents! Here are some snapshots and video from throughout the day…
We had another little Easter egg hunt in the backyard in the morning.
But then she got distracted by the swing.
Smiles of delight on the swing.
And no day is complete without climbing onto furniture! Mio loves to climb to the top of the sofa and straddle like a horse.
Wearing tupperware as a hat. Silly girl.
Eating BonChon chicken for dinner. Mio always says “kokko-” (short for “kokekokko”, or “cock-a-doodle-doo” in Japanese) while eating chicken!
The birthday cake I made for Mio!
I love this video that Dan took of Mio while we sang “Happy Birthday” to her. She seemed to know exactly what was going on, and that she had to blow out the candles at the end! I love her excited smile and clapping at the end…
…but then of course she thought the candles were candy and stuck one in her mouth! Very much a Mio thing to do. haha* You can see how much she loves eating the cake in the following video:
Mio with a mouthful of cake!
Mio + cake = happy girl.
Mio and Mama both share a love for desserts and all things sweet!
Dan says Mio and I have the same face here. lol
“Whatcha lookin’ at, Daddy?”
After cake, we opened some birthday presents together! Dan and I got her a dollhouse, while my parents got her a family of dolls to match. Her reaction was more than we had anticipated — she was ecstatic! 😀
She also got some sweet and generous gifts from Uncle Ted and Auntie Elisa!
An AquaDoodle from Uncle Ted and Auntie Elisa…
…and a toy medical kit to play doctor! Conditioning her early… 😉
Curiously looking at the stethoscope.
While it was a small birthday celebration in comparison to the birthday party we threw her for her first birthday last year, it seemed to leave quite an impression on her. Afterwards, she kept saying “two” in search of the candle shaped like a 2, and has been carrying it around with her ever since! I also caught her serving her stuffed animals toy cupcakes and singing to them “Happy~ to you~” (since she can’t say “birthday”) yet. It warms my heart to see how much she enjoyed and appreciated the family celebrating her birthday and how much love she must’ve felt!
Mio wouldn’t let go of the 2-shaped candle! Happy birthday sweetheart. ♥
Last Sunday as a busy day for us! For lunch, we drove over to Bowie, Maryland to visit our friends Will & Clair and their adorable one year old son Joseph! We had a great time at their lovely home, making homemade pizza for lunch and letting our little ones get to know each other…
Cutiepies! Mio meeting almost-1-year-old Joseph.
Making homemade pizza for lunch!
Later that evening, we went to Gymboree Play & Music in Burke to celebrate our friends’ son Danny turning two! Mio and Danny had met a few months ago when we went to Frying Pan Farm Park. This was our first time going to a party at Gymboree, but it was a lot of fun and we can see why it’s so popular!
Mio at Gymboree play gym, looking intense. Playtime is serious business.
Butt sticking out of the tube tunnel
Sticking her head out: “Coast is clear!”
Everyone was supposed to hop on the “train,” but Mio ran away from the group activity.
Mio with the birthday boy Danny, who loves trains!
Mio is doing her own thing (again) while everyone’s collecting balls.
What finally piqued her interest were the bubbles!
Mio’s favorite was music time: she loved hearing the instructor sing, and enthusiastically shook her maracas along with the song.
Danny with his lovely mama Stephanie.
Mio also loved the parachute! The kids had fun running around under it.
After an hour of fun-filled playtime, it was time to eat!
Beautiful cupcakes for Danny!
Happy birthday Danny! The beautiful family. 🙂
Mio chowing down.
Mio had a lot of fun! She was especially fond of her party hat that she got at the party, and still likes to wear it even a week later… 🙂
Continuing from Part I and Part II of Mio’s birthday party posts, here’s the finale portion of Mio’s first birthday celebration — the smash cake! While we had made plenty of cupcakes to go around for our guests (in lieu of a birthday cake), we had a dedicated birthday cake all for Mio to enjoy! For those who are not familiar with a smash cake, it’s a common first birthday tradition where the child is encouraged to attack the cake with her fingers, fists, or face — no utensils required! It typically makes a huge mess on both the baby and the surrounding area, but it’s a whole lot of fun for the grown-ups to watch and get a good laugh out of it. And I’m sure most children don’t mind digging into a sweet dessert without restraint, so it’s a win-win for all!
Dan with Mio's smash cake
Because we haven’t really exposed Mio to anything with sugar in her diet yet, and would like to avoid giving her sweets for as long as we can manage, I did some research before making her smash cake, to see if there were any wholesome cake recipes that didn’t contain sugar and artificial sweeteners. Thankfully, it seems that there are many other mothers out there who feel the same, and I was able to find some helpful resources and recipes! After going through various recipes, I decided on making a carrot cake that used applesauce and apple juice concentrate as sweeteners in place of sugar, and that used whole wheat flour instead of enriched white flour. (I took a taste of it when it came out of the oven, and it actually still tasted pretty sweet, thanks to the natural sweetness of the apples and carrots!) The frosting was the toughest part, as most frosting depends on sugar to achieve its thickness and ability to crust, and many of the sugar-free recipes I found on the web used artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes like Equal and Splenda, which I think are just as bad (if not worse) for a baby to ingest. I ended up using a stabilized whipped cream recipe, which used gelatin to help it hold its shape, and added some meringue powder as well to help with stiffening the frosting. I then added icing colors to achieve the hues I wanted as I frosted roses onto the carrot cake. Even stabilized, the whipped cream was melting down the sides of the cake (see picture) while I was frosting it, and I had to keep it in the freezer until right before the party began to make sure it held its shape. I guess something’s gotta give when you are working with limited ingredients! I am just happy that I was able to make a cake that was pretty healthy and wholesome and still enjoyable to eat.
Mio went to town with the cake and really worked the crowd (she’s quite the entertainer!), but you can see for yourself here in the video, or scroll further down to see the cake demolition step by step!
Mio staring at everyone while we sang "Happy Birthday" to her.
My little birthday girl!
Reaching her hands in...
Scooping up the frosting...
Fistfuls of frosting!
Bringing it to her mouth!
"Go Mio! Go Mio!"
Surrounded by paparazzi!
Going for more...
An impressive cake beard.
She just keeps going...
The cake didn't stand a chance.
Breaking into the cake
A sheepish smile.
"Banzai! I am victorious against the cake!"
Me surveying the damage.
Mio trying to hand me a handful of frosting. "Here, have some!" No thanks, Mio...
The demolished cake.
Afterwards, Mio changed out of her caked dress and we gathered around to open presents.
Thank you Sarah for the adorable lamb hat!
Mio with her lovely new ruffle shoes!
Because Mio had been up from 6:45 am, and didn’t take her morning nap due to all the excitement, she was noticeably cranky and tired by the 3 o’clock hour when we were opening presents. I can’t believe she was able to stay up that long!
Starting to whine.
Getting more and more cranky.
We tried to carry on opening presents, despite all her protests.
Mio ended up curling up in Daddy's lap, crying with her eyes closed.
Can't... stay... awake.
And within a minute, she passed out. Poor Mio was exhausted.
It was so noisy, but she didn't even stir. Even rolling a toy on her doesn't wake her up. She was out cold.
So we just continued opening presents on her behalf, in peace.
Thank you everyone for all the generous and thoughtful gifts!
In all my busy-ness running around during the party, I lamely didn’t take many pictures with our guests! I have what little photos I have with them from pulling them off of friends’ Facebook and phone uploads. Thank you to everyone who shared their photos with me, and if you have any more photos from the party, please feel free to send them on over! 🙂
Adorable Megumi and Sam with their mason jar mugs.
With lovely Sam!
With beautiful Megumi, who has spoiled Mio so much, from even before she was born!
With Jason! Thanks for coming from all the way across the bridge!
Hyang Sun was 8 months pregnant at the party and was still a month away from her due date, but she ended up having her baby girl a month early, the day after Mio's birthday party! Congratulations!
Special thanks to Wynn, Megumi, and Sam who came an hour before the party started to help with last-minute preparations and set-up! We couldn't have pulled it off without their help.
I didn't get to take a photo of the favor box until after all the favors were gone, but we gave away our homemade cookies in little packages for our guests to take home with them.
See below for a slideshow of all the photos taken at the party! (We couldn’t post all of them on the blog without crashing your browser.)
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Mio’s birthday party to celebrate with us! It was definitely memorable and we will treasure these precious memories for years and decades to come. Our first year as parents was definitely a challenge and had its fair share of ups and downs, but it is thanks to the love and support of our family and friends that we’ve been able to come this far. We look forward to many more great memories together with you! 😀
On Saturday, we threw Mio a birthday party to celebrate her turning one year old. We held it at Dan’s parents’ house because our own place is too small to accommodate all the guests, but it still got packed with almost forty loving friends and family, and we are so thankful to everyone who made it out to celebrate with us, despite the torrential rain earlier that morning. I had started planning this party about a month ago, and the past couple weeks had been all about preparations for it, and despite some stress and a couple anxiety attacks, I’m happy to say that it turned out to be a wonderful party, and even better than I expected! Thank you to our friends who helped with the cooking and grilling during the party, as well as those who swooped in to help with last-minute preparations. We couldn’t have had such a memorable, enjoyable party without you all! 🙂
Because we have over 300 photos to sort through and video footage that still needs to get uploaded, I’m going to split this up into a few blog posts, or else it will take me forever to get them up. (Additionally, I feel no shame in milking the party for as many blog posts as I can get out of it, because I-worked-hard-godammit! :P)Â So this first post will highlight the party decor, food, favors, etc., while subsequent posts will focus on the birthday activities. Enjoy!
Invitation for Mio's First Birthday Party
Mio's smash cake that I baked and decorated for her.
I made the cake topper with the bunting and lettering, too!
Custom mason jar mugs that doubled as party favors.
We created a stencil and frosted 48 of these mason jars so that each guest could take one home!
It took Dan and I almost a week to frost the mason jars, but people loved them!
Cupcakes with cherry blossom fondant
It was my first time making fondant, but it was fun!
Homemade macarons... (not the best batch ever, unfortunately.) The pink ones had matcha flavored filling!
Cherry blossom brownie bites
Fruit skewers. Special thanks to Sam, Wynn, and Megumi for cutting and assembling them last minute!
There was no shortage of desserts!
Sugar cookies I baked for Mio's birthday. I had a whole bunch more that I packed in 50 little bags as party favors, too!
Futomaki and California rolls
More California rolls! Thank you Grandma and Kimiko-san for making them!
Hummus and pita bread platter
The birthday girl! She was so excited that she skipped her morning nap.
Let the party begin!
Hanging crinkle fans and pom poms
Mio with one of her favorite aunties, Tarrin!
Happy birthday to our sweet daughter!
…and this doesn’t even include the hamburgers and spare ribs that were cooking on the patio. Special thanks to John and Brent for grilling them! 🙂
Three month old Izumi-chan joined us for the party.
So adorable! Hard to remember when Mio was this little, even though it was less than a year ago!
There were plenty of babies to be passed around.
…and a couple older kids for the babies to look up to, too.
Friends spilling out onto the patio to eat.
Mio with Uncle Ted
Lovely sisters Wynn and Sam!
We were reminded of how truly lucky we are to have such wonderful people in our lives, seeing the outpouring of love at Mio’s birthday party. Stay tuned for more posts in the coming days on the fun activities we had prepared for Mio!
