We were invited to celebrate Anna’s fourth birthday at Mobu Kids playgym in Falls Church! The girls had a blast and we loved seeing and catching up with Anna, Cara, Pat and Theo. 🙂 Thanks so much for inviting us to be a part of sweet Anna’s birthday celebration — can’t believe she is four already!
At one point, Mirei went under the parachute and got lost under there, which made us panic for a moment:
Dan also captured the funny moment:
Singing “Happy Birthday” to Anna!
Today I wrap up my last week as a stay-at-home mom. I feel fortunate to have been one, and I will always look back on and cherish these three years that I was able to spend at home with my young daughters. I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to freelance, which granted me the flexibility to create and adjust my own hours so that I could spend more time with them. I will remember with fondness the slow-paced days we spent together. Cuddling and sleeping in. Long afternoons spent at the parks. The moments on the swing set when I would watch them swoop back and forth and realize that someday these afternoons will have seemed to have flown past in a blink of an eye… and I would pause mid-push to savor the experience while it lasted.
This past week, I’ve felt a sense of mourning and have cried many tears as I bring this chapter of my life to a close. It feels like I’m saying goodbye to my girls, even though I’ll still see them every day, but just for much less hours. But I made the decision to go back into the workforce full-time for my career, sanity, and better financial security as a family. I’m not really well-suited to be a stay-at-home-parent, and while I probably realized that a long time ago, it took me a few years to be able to admit it and be at peace with it. I so wanted to be the super SAHM that could fill their kids’ days with fun activities, playdates, learning and lessons, and be able to relish and love every second of it. I certainly made the effort, and there were plenty of times that I loved being able to spend so much time with them and watch them grow. But there have always been worries and doubts plaguing the back of my head, as well as a longing to have more time to focus and dedicate to myself and career. Perhaps someday, I will be able to find a better balance so that I can still enjoy more time with our daughters as they grow, but for now I will hope they get a lot of social interaction at their daycare and make more of an effort to be present, patient, and appreciative of the time I spend with them on the evenings and on weekends. They grow up so fast and time passes by so quickly, whether I am at home with them or working, so I just have to do my best to cherish every minute.
I’ll close this week with some photos and videos I took of the girls when I took them to the park this week…
On the swingset at Borge Street Park:
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Mulch-loving Mirei!
Mirei climbing the playground:
I’m experiencing the gamut of mixed emotions right now, but I’m excited to start my new job on Monday and am hoping for a smooth transition for all of us.
We spent this past weekend at Camp Shehaqua, a family camp at Hickory Run State Park in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. We arrived on Friday afternoon and left on Sunday afternoon, so it was a fun three days and two nights spent with friends and their families in the great outdoors!
Mirei with her friends:
While I’m not a very outdoorsy person and camping usually is a challenge for me, it was nice to unplug and get away with other families and friends, and spend time in nature together. The kids definitely enjoyed it, and we’re looking forward to going again in the future!
Last Thursday, Mio and I went over to Maryland to meet up with some of my fellow Mama friends in the area and their kids. Together, we went on an outing to Watkins Park there and had a picnic, played on the playground, and then strolled around the farm section. It was great catching up with them, and seeing how much their children have grown… we’ve all known each other since our pre-motherhood days, so it’s really amazing to see each other with our own families now! We were a group of seven parents (including myself) and ten kids, so it was quite rowdy and a whole lot of fun!
Mio was exhausted from all the excitement of playing with so many other kids and seeing all the animals that she napped almost the whole way home! I love that she has so many friends here that she can play with every time we are back in the area. Thank you Lan and Mie for organizing the fun outing! 😀
Happy Halloween! This year marks our first Halloween together as a family of three! Halloween is one of my favorite festivities of the year, and I love thinking of creative costumes every time. I especially like costumes that go together in some sort of a theme and last Halloween, I was just at the beginning of my second trimester so I was pregnant Quinn and Dan was Finn from the TV show Glee. This year, Dan was Mario from Super Mario Brothers, I was Princess Peach, and Mio was… ::drumroll please:: Toad (the toadstool mushroom)! Dan and I had actually thought of the idea of being Mario and Peach for Halloween and had prepared our costumes two years ago, but I got deathly sick that Halloween and so we hadn’t been able to use them! But I suppose it was for the better, because our costume idea was made exponentially better with the addition of Toad Mio!
We had a busy Halloween weekend — on Saturday, Dan and his coworker friend co-hosted a baby-friendly Halloween party in the neighborhood, and on Sunday we drove into the city for an evening of Halloween bowling in the Presidio with our friends from Nakayoshi! Check out all the photos of the Halloween fun from this past weekend…
Bowling at the Presidio Bowling Center with Nakayoshi. (I believe this is the first time we’ve taken Mio into the city!)
Hope everyone has a fun Halloween! Perhaps next year Mio can go trick-or-treating!!! I’m already thinking of more family costume ideas….