The local county fair, Celebrate Fairfax!, was this past weekend and we spent most of our Saturday there — there were plenty of rides, entertainment, games, crafts and food there to keep us busy!
Eating a lamb gyro before moving onto the rides.
Dan got a Polish hot dog which was pretty good, too!
Dan and Mio on the boat ride
Mio on the miniature drop tower. Our little thrill seeker!
Some funny video we got of Mio on the drop tower. Love how she chimed in with the other kids! lol
Bumblebee ride:
Fishing game:
Mio and I waiting in line for the caterpillar coaster ride.
Mio’s first “rollercoaster”!
Selfie video I took of Mio’s reactions on the ride. (At the end, she asks “can you more?” which means she liked it! haha*)
The sisters at the county fair.
They had a petting zoo there as well!
Mio petting a lamb.
Mio’s favorite was the tortoise! She’s really into turtles lately.
First time touching a real turtle!
Mirei got to see the animals, too!
Mio petting a goat.
This baby bunny was so cute!!! I wanted to take it home with me.
Riding the train ride.
Mio on the train.
Playing with the train table at the fair.
Mio with her balloon turtle. She loved it and named it “Crush” (like the turtle from Finding Nemo)
Mirei got a balloon heart.
Making a bunny mask with Daddy at the craft table.
Ending our day at the fair with some delicious ice cream from Blue Sky Creamery. It’s made using liquid nitrogen and was so smooth!
When we brought Mirei home from the hospital, we had a gift “from the baby” prepared for Mio, to help warm her up to Mirei and all the big changes she’d bring with her. We picked out this adorable ice cream toy set, knowing her love for ice cream and play food!
Sure enough, it was a huge hit and she has been playing with her ice cream shoppe every day since!
Mio playing with her new ice cream toy
Looking sheepishly through the “shop window”
Love how the box functions as part of the toy!
“Cheers!” with ice cream cones.
Doing a little dance with her ice cream.
Mio said “Thank you Mirei” and made an ice cream cone for her, too!
The real treat came this past weekend, though, when we rewarded for a great first week as a big sister! While she’s had her bouts of jealousy, as well as tantrums and meltdowns as a result, I can tell Mio’s trying her best to be a good sister and I wanted to make sure she knew that she was still our special first baby.
Mio’s definitely picking up words more quickly. I love listening to her talk while she’s playing with her toys — she used to just babble what sounded like nonsense, but now we can make out relevant words. If you watch this recent video of her playing with a seesaw toy and figurines, you can hear her saying, “dinosaur,” “bird,””seesaw,” snf “ice cream”… along with some “oh no”s sprinkled in. And then ending in “off!”
One of my favorite childhood memories was going to the local Friendly’s for an ice cream treat! We got to share the tradition with Mio the other day… Judging from her reactions, I think it’ll be a favorite of hers, too!
Waiting for our food. Mio was already content with her big girl cup and coloring pages.
Taking bites of some of the cheese fries…
And now for the best part: dessert!
Look at that smile!
Mio’s favorite part was the cone! She was playing with it as if it were a trumpet.
Dan watching Mio, amused.
Pure bliss! Sheer joy! Unadulterated elation! No doubt we will be back again. π
Dan and I brought home a little treat for ourselves, too! The Friendly’s Watermelon Roll is a childhood favorite of mine, and it features lemon sherbet on the outside, watermelon sherbet on the inside with chocolate bits.
Dan and I pulled out our ice cream maker on Monday to try making some home-churned Earl Grey lavender ice cream. I was craving Ici’s Earl Grey-flavored ice cream, and thought, “why not make it ourselves?” It turned out delicious — we’ll definitely be making it again!
with sprigs of lavender
It was gone within a couple minutes!
We used to make gelato, sorbet and ice cream all the time when we first got this ice cream maker three years ago while we were living in Berkeley. I found a few pictures of some of our creations from back then… can’t wait to try making them again!
Chocolate hazelnut gelato... this was one of our favorites!
I had a whole bunch of unused Chinese takeout-style paper containers left over from a design project at the time, and they were perfect for storing our frozen creations. We'd have 5 - 6 flavors at a time in the freezer!
I especially loved making sorbet -- here's a bowl with four flavors of sorbet I had made at the time: kiwi, strawberry, orange, and cantaloupe! Like I said, we went on bit of a sorbet-making spree at the time...
Since having Mio, we got a little lazy and our ice cream maker didn’t get to see much use, but as summer approaches, we hope to pull it more often again! π
