Mio’s last day at preschool is April 10 (since we’re moving her to a full-day daycare), and she had a birthday celebration on April 8, the first day back from spring break. It was bittersweet because it was like a birthday party and farewell party in one! Her teachers and classmates all told her they’d miss her very much and were sad to have to say goodbye.
Birthday cookies we baked for Mio’s class.
Mio couldn’t contain her excitement while we were baking the cookies:
The happy birthday girl with her birthday crown!
At preschool, parents are allowed to bring a birthday treat and a book to read to the class on their child’s birthday. I chose Me… Jane by Patrick McDonnell, which is one of Mio’s favorites, and it seems like the class enjoyed it, too!
The next day, Mio got a birthday card from one of her classmates!
Such an adorable card handmade by Mio’s friend Elizabeth and her sister Emma
Mio was elated to get a birthday card from her classmate and friend! So sweet of them to think of her.
Mio has also said she’ll miss her preschool and her teachers and friends there, but she’s also expressed excitement about her new daycare! We’ve had a great two years at the preschool, and are so thankful for all the wonderful teachers and classmates there that have made it such a great experience for Mio and our family.
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:
Mio is turning into more and more of a silly goofball these days! She’s always been a little unintentionally quirky and funny (as is apparent in the many embarrassing photos I’ve posted of her that she’ll likely resent me for in ten years), but she’s been starting to develop her own sense of humor and tries to crack jokes recently. Her latest favorite thing to do is to pick up objects and then suddenly hide them behind her head or her back and say “___ is gone!” (or sometimes in Japanese, “___ doko?!” meaning “Where’s ___?!”) and play dumb, as if it’s disappeared and she had nothing to do with it… and then she’ll whip it back out in front of her after a while and say “It’s here!” It was funny at first in a “Aww it’s her first deliberate attempt at a joke” kind of way, but the “gone” disappearing act has quickly gotten old and lost its charm as she does it at least twenty times a day with various objects, and we’re far from thrilled when she chooses to do it with food since it inevitably gets in her hair or on her clothes when she tries to “hide” it. Still, it’s endearing to watch her personality emerge even more and see her attempts to make others smile and laugh. Below are some fun videos I’ve captured of her lately…
Boppy Lion: “I am Mio, hear me roar!” (Yes, that is my breastfeeding pillow…)
Family Members as Cookies: Mio has this adorable toy cookie set that our dear friend Megumi gifted her when we visited Los Angeles last spring. She loves it and plays with it often, and we always encourage her to “share” the cookies with everyone. In the past couple months, we noticed that she has decided on a specific cookie for each member of the family, including her grandparents and aunt and uncles, and the cookies she’s assigned them never changes. It seems Mio’s carefully selected a cookie for each family member based on her perception of them. It’s funny to see how she sees each of us in cookie form!
Peekaboo with Wipes: Ever since the arrival of baby Mirei, Mio’s suddenly taken an interest in pulling out wet wipes and playing with them. Her favorite thing to do is put them on her face, for some reason… maybe because her skin feels dry?
Several parts of the country are currently getting hit by a winter storm, and our area was definitely not immune! We got over a foot of snow last night, and woke up to our cars buried and much shoveling to be done. Dan is working from home today and needless to say, the girls and I will not be going out anywhere for a while… good thing I have my own little miss sunshine with us to brighten our days!
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!
Totoro-shaped cookies, out of the oven.
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.
Completed Totoro sugar cookie.
I'd like to think they came out pretty good for a first try!
Baby shower sugar cookies.
Totoro cookies in a row.
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! 😀
