On New Year’s Day last week, Mio hosted a little party for Dan and I and her doll friends using her new kitchen. We also let her play with her cupcake set (which our friend Katie got for her last year) and she was super excited to bake cupcakes just like Mama! She knew exactly what to do because she’s always watching me closely while I’m baking.
Taking the cupcakes out of the oven. She even wore her oven mitt and said “Acchi-cchi!” (Japanese sound for when something is hot to touch.)
Putting frosting and candles on the cupcakes.
She made sure everyone got a cupcake. (Poor girl scratched herself in her sleep so there’s a scratch next to her nose. Thankfully, it’s already healed and disappeared!)
I helped Mio decorate the cupcakes. By the way, this cupcake set by Melissa & Doug is awesome! It comes with a cupcake pan, removable “frosting” and dry erase “icing” markers that you can draw on the cupcakes with. And it all wipes clean when you are done.
Daddy and Mio admiring the cupcakes.
Mio was so happy with her cupcakes!
Dan teaching Mio how to properly drink tea (pinky up! lol).
A video that I took during Mio’s “party”:
It was so sweet to see how much Mio loved playing with the cupcakes along with her kitchen. She’s definitely a dessert lover — she’s so quick to spot them in a book or at a restaurant, and will point and says “kei-ki” (her way of saying “cake”) obsessively. A girl after my own heart! ♥
Last Saturday was sunny and hot, so we took Mio to Alameda Beach so that she could have a fun beach day! We invited our friends Tarrin and Jason along, since they live in Alameda, and they suggested the delicious idea of having brunch at Off the Grid which is now in Alameda on Saturdays. Off the Grid is a gathering of food trucks and tents selling all kinds of yummy street foods, and we’d actually never been to the weekly ones in San Francisco nor Berkeley, so this was our first time!
Excited to eat delicious street food!
Mio staying cool with her shades.
I decided to try the Hiyaaa! truck.
My bulgogi on a roll from Hiyaaa. There was kimchee inside, too!
Dan got the Peruvian burger and potatoes from Sanguchon
Digging in!
Tarrin and Jason also got some delicious andouille poutine from Fins on the Hoof for us to share, and we picked up a lemon lavender cupcake from a cupcake truck and a chocolate cream puff from Pacific Puffs for dessert, and headed over to the beach together.
We’ve taken Mio to the beach before when we went to Santa Cruz last Labor Day weekend, but she was young and not very mobile so she couldn’t really get the full experience, and it’d been cold so we didn’t put her int he water at the time. So this was Mio’s first true full experience of the beach, where she could walk around and play in the sand and water!
Trying to coax Mio into the water…
Mio is stunned by how vast the ocean is!
We changed her into her bathing suit and got her in the water!
Mio’s first time in ocean water! She was loving it, and kept trying to move into the deeper water.
“Jump! Jump!”
She kept lifting her legs up so they were flat against the water… lol.
As you can see from the video below, she’s quite the waterbug! She was really loving the water, and later the sand… definitely a beach babe! 😉
Mio finally had enough of the water, and started walking towards the shore…
First time playing in the sand… and eating, it too! ::sigh::
Walking about, exploring the sandy shore… she was really interested in the other kids.
A contemplative Mio, deep in thought as she looks out at the ocean. As Jason put it, “very Hemingway.”
There are no words to describe how much her expression here tickles me!
She soon fell asleep in Mama’s arms and took a little nap on the beach.
After all the fun in the sun, it was eventually time to go home…
Mio riding on Tarrin’s shoulders as we head back to the car.
Auntie Tarrin is so good with Mio… Mio really loves her!
Thanks Tarrin and Jason for making our beach outing so much more fun and memorable! We loved that we could spend the day 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!
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!
Setting up for the baby shower!
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.
Guess when the baby will arrive!
Little umbrella favors for the guests to take home.
...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. 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!
My first time making sugar cookies with royal icing.
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, and homemade guacamole!
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…)
The guests of honor, John and Megumi
Ann Helen and Aika take their guesses
A curious Mio watched as everyone played the game.
Aika and her adorable 5-month old son, Easton.
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.
John with the daunting task of taking the first guess.
Megumi still looks so petite for 8 months! She looks great!
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!
Dan exercising his creativity.
Daddy-to-be John worked on making one, too!
Everyone hard at work.
Ironing on the letters.
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!
Having a hard time choosing...
John chose Kai and Koreana's collaborative onesie creation.
Megumi picked Ann Helen's lovely design!
Finally, it was time to open presents! There were such cute goodies for their baby girl…
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 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!
For the Halloween party on Saturday, I made some Rocky Road cupcakes decorated to look like pumpkins! While the cupcake base ended up being a bit of a flop (somehow, the cake came out to be oddly dense), the frosted decorating turned out decent and was a lot of fun, so I wanted to share it here! We looked around at different baking blogs and sort of took techniques and tips from a bunch of them to decorate these:
Rocky Road cupcakes, out of the oven. (Please let me know if you have a Rocky Road cupcake recipe that is really good! The one I used was pretty disappointing...)
The mini marshmallows inside the cupcakes caused the surface to break. But no matter, since it gets covered with frosting!
For the frosting, I chose to color some cream cheese frosting orange… because I LOVE cream cheese frosting! But buttercream and most other light-colored frostings can be used and colored, too.
Orange-colored cream cheese frosting
To achieve the sparkly rough texture, you then roll the frosted cupcake in some orange sugar. You can buy the colored sugar, or color regular granulated sugar yourself with food coloring, as we did.
Rolling the cupcake in the colored sugar.
Cupcake frosting dipped in orange sugar.
The cupcakes, frosted and sugared.
Taking a toothpick or chopstick, press the edge against the top of the cupcake and repeat a few times around the cupcake to get the ridged look of the pumpkin. Then use some green colored frosting (we used the same cream cheese frosting and had set aside some before we colored it orange, and colored the remaining portion green) to pipe on vines, stems, and leaves. (Another baking blog showed how you could use green string licorice to create the vines, which I thought was really neat, but we had no idea where to get green string licorice and didn’t really have the time to go look for it, either. Cool idea, though!)
Piping vines onto the cupcakes
A video of the piping… (Please excuse my text message alert and Mio’s sigh towards the end. haha*)
The decorated cupcakes
The finished cupcake! Not too bad for our first try, although next time I want to pile on the frosting to make the "pumpkins" look rounder!
Halloween pumpkin cupcakes!
I loved this decorating idea, and hope that it can be an inspiration to others, too! I think it’s a great idea for not only Halloween, but for Thanksgiving and throughout the fall season. Trust me — if I can do it, you can do it! I’d like to thank my sous chef Dan as usual… it’s awesome having a hubby that doesn’t mind being an assistant to all my baking endeavors!
