Dan’s birthday was on the 13th, and he turned 32 years old! At his request, we just had a quiet celebration at home (you can’t really go wild for your birthday with two little ones at home anyway!) with Thai takeout and BonChon chicken, and his favorite cheesecake for dessert.
Mio’s excited, as if it were her own birthday!
Turning out the lights for the birthday song
The girls’ expressions are so funny here.
Blowing out the candles.
Elisa and Ted came over too, and we enjoyed board games and a scary movie together afterwards!
The next day, we went out to enjoy all-you-can-eat crabs as an extended birthday celebration for Dan. My sister and dad came along, since they also love crabs!
Ready to dig in! Between Dan and I, my sister and dad, we killed about three of these trays.
“Mi” Club (Mirei not pictured)
Happy birthday to a husband and father who fills our lives with immeasurable joy. We love you Dan! ♥
Mio had such a great time going to Trunk-or-Treat around town last year, so we definitely wanted to take her and Mirei again this year. Mio has been looking forward to Halloween for a while now, and had been carrying her pumpkin bucket around practicing shouting “trick-or-treat!” I’m pretty certain that Halloween is her favorite time of year. 😉 We went to both Vienna Baptist Church and Emmanuel Lutheran Church again this year. Here are some photos of all the trick-or-treating fun!
Mio and her friend Junna at Vienna Baptist Church.
Mio ready to trick or treat as a salmon nigiri!
Playing games at the Fall Festival at VBC.
Playing with an owl finger puppet toy she won.
Playing the fishing game again. (We remember this from last year!)
Mio getting her face painted.
Showing off Mirei’s shrimp costume!
Mio was a salmon, and Mirei was a shrimp!
Let the Trunk-or-Treat begin!
Some of the trunk decorations were very well done! Here’s one with a huge spider.
We loved this Lion King-themed trunk!
Mio carefully depositing her candy.
Sorry you can’t have any yet, Mirei!
Our little shrimp in Daddy’s arms.
Mio playing the playground of Emmanuel Lutheran, where she goes to preschool.
Mio had such a great time at Trunk-or-Treat, and she’s been admiring her candy loot in the days since! She likes to dump all of it out on the floor, carefully examine, comment, and count each one, and then put it all back and select a couple to eat every day. She’s surprisingly been pretty good about not trying to eat all of them at once, and has been exercising admirable restraint for a 3-year-old in listening to us when we tell her she can only have one or two treats a day. And the best part of it is that she’s willing to share, much to our delight! 😉
Last Saturday, we were invited to a pumpkin carving party with the Lee family! There were lots of Halloween-themed treats and games for the little kids, and our whole family had a great time taking part in the festivities with friends. Stephanie and Chwan were wonderful hosts and really threw an awesome Halloween party full of fun for all ages!
A decorate-your-own-cupcake station! Such a great idea.
Delicious Halloween treats!
Mio checking out the cupcake spider.
Mimi holding Mirei 🙂
Mio sharing a pizza with Daddy
Mirei loved exploring in the new environment!
Mio’s decorated cupcake
Mio with her cupcake that she decorated!
There were lots of cool Halloween games that Stephanie set up for the kids.
Dan with our nigiri girls
Our girls dressed as sushi! We’ll have to post better photos of the costumes later.
Mio loved playing with Danny’s hammer toy
Mio decorated her pumpkin with these cat face foam stickers.
The carved pumpkins! Everyone did such a great job carving!
Dan carved the raven one (in the very back). Good job, hubby!
We went to the first annual Tysons Harvest Festival earlier this month, and got to enjoy some fall family fun! There were lots of activities, great food, and cool vendors to check out.
Mio with her unicorn face paint
She is very into unicorns lately!
We met up with Pat’s family at the festival! Here’s Pat and her adorable mini-Pat! 🙂
Mio checking out the petting zoo at the festival.
Sleepy Mirei watching from her stroller.
At the craft table.
Mio coloring a Halloween crown.
Making our way around the festival, checking out various vendors.
We had some delicious banh mi and pho from this What the Pho? food truck!
Dan carrying Mio while in line for the bounce house.
Unstoppable Mio:
Mio came alive in the bounce house! She loves inflatable houses and was in her element climbing, sliding, and bouncing around in them.
Climbing up!
Sliding down! She was supposed to only go up and down three turns and then exit for other kids, but she refused to leave and went for about 5 turns instead…
Mio at the Yelp booth, making a lollipop spider out of tissue paper, pipecleaners, and googly eyes.
With her completed lollipop spider! She immediately wanted to disassemble it and eat it.
Mio and I. If my face looks strained, it’s because I’m lifting her up and trying to fit my face in at the same time…
Mio is a beer girl here.
With an Olaf pumpkin carving! According to Mio, she is Princess Anna (occasionally switching to Elsa) and Mirei is Olaf. lol… I suppose Mirei’s lack of hair does make her resemble the snowman!
We checked out the Lee District RECenter the other weekend, which includes Chessie’s Big Backyard and Our Special Harbor Spray Park in Alexandria. Admission is free and Mio had a blast splashing around at the spray park and then running around at the adjacent playground afterwards. Although it is a bit of a drive for us, we’ll definitely be back!
Mio at Our Special Harbor Spray Park in Alexandria.
Having fun splashing around
Mirei and I didn’t go into the spray area, but we had fun watching from the tented areas on the sidelines.
Mio on the pirate ship at Chessie’s Big Backyard
Mirei doing her signature expression, tucking her lips in.
An extra shot from the weekend, when we went to lunch at Pazzo Pomodoro the day before. Mio and Mirei are in matching shirts!
