Dan and I felt like the luckiest couple in the world yesterday, having the pleasure of several of our friends in the Bay Area come together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our baby girl. A huge thank you to Megumi and Sam who hosted and organized such a wonderful West Coast baby shower, along with other friends who helped them decorate, cook, and put together what was one of the most beautiful showers I’ve ever attended. ♥
The theme was cherry blossoms and Classic Pooh!
Guess the Baby's Arrival
Real cherry blossoms decorated the tables - this one featured sugar cookies and espresso brownies!
Megumi's signature sugar cookies! They each had our names iced on them with bears and cherry blossoms.
The hors d'oeuvres were amazing!
Shot glasses of tomato soup, topped with grilled cheese sandwiches
Sam's orzo salad... so good!
Spam musubi... gotta love the stuff!
Tarrin's awesome hot crab dip!
Graig couldn't make it, but he sent his awesome somen salad.
Bruschetta!
Sliders... so cute!
water and strawberry lemonade
Cutely wrapped utensils!
Everything was almost too pretty to eat... but at the same time, I couldn't wait to dig in!
But wait... there's more! Can't forget the dessert table.
Layered gelatin!
Megumi's hummingbird cake... yum!
Matcha cupcakes from Aileen
Melon balls!
Amazing strawberry cupcakes, also made by Aileen!
It was so nice seeing Yumi & Mark, since we hadn't seen them since their wedding in Hawaii!
Thanks for coming, Yumi!
With my boss and some of my coworkers - who also happen to be amazing friends!
Let the baby shower games begin - we started off with guessing the baby's arrival.
Guessing the belly measurements!
Everyone overshot... do I look that big? lol
An entertaining game of drinking from baby bottles.
Ready, set, go!
Sucking down the juice.
Apparently, it's a lot harder than it looks! Kudos to those babies for their suction power.
Comparing how much everyone was able to drink in one minute.
The baby bottle contenders. It was a close race...
...but it was Tea who came out on top as the winner! 🙂
Poor Jason spilled the juice all over himself...
Guessing which candy bars are in the diapers.
Everyone writing down their guesses.
Pin the Baby on the Belly!
Dan blindfolding and spinning Matt.
"Where's the wall?"
Go Sam!
The hubby's turn.
The results!
Good job everyone!
Thank you everyone for the generous, thoughtful gifts!
Megumi HANDMADE this quilt for the baby. We still can't get over how beautiful it is, and the fact that Megumi made it herself amazes me! (It's folded up here, but I'll have to post a photo later of it in its full magnificent glory some other time.) I don't think I've ever received anything that had so much time and effort put into it...
Thanks Aileen & Haruka for coming - we always love seeing you guys!
With our favorite Oaklanders - Brent and Estella!
With lovely Katie!
Jason pretending he's pregnant too.
And finally... thank you ever so much to Megumi and Sam, who really went above and beyond, and worked so hard to put everything together for us. (Megumi planned it all the way from LA!)
Gift basket favors for the guests, containing strawberries and cherry blossom-shaped cookies!
Such beautifully assembled favors!
...complete with lovely tags to remember the event.
We were so humbled and moved by everyone’s thoughtfulness and generosity, and for the time and effort invested by our friends in putting such a lovely baby shower together for us. We’ll remember it for the rest of our lives, and we can’t wait to show these pictures to our daughter in the future, to show her how much she is loved. 🙂
It’s Valentines weekend! My friend Megumi just dropped off these super adorable homemade Valentine treats! Red velvet cakesters and Valentines cookies. I already had one of each, and they are simply amazing. Thank you Megumi for the goodies! We love them. 🙂
 Valentine treats from Megumi!
Dan and I really don’t have any special plans for the weekend — we have a Valentines potluck dinner with friends tomorrow evening (which I will be making my own treats for), but nothing fancy for actual Valentine’s Day on Sunday. We tend to put more emphasis on celebrating our anniversary and each other’s birthdays, so Valentine’s often sort of falls by the wayside. We will likely have a quiet little dinner at home, since every single couple will be going out to eat. Some see the day as a stinging reminder of disappointments and betrayals of past relationships, unrequited love, or loneliness… some are sickened by the consumerism that surround the holiday. But at the core, Valentine’s Day is a time to reflect on and appreciate not only our significant others but everyone dear to us in our lives. So let us celebrate! Here’s to love and togetherness.
To celebrate, I’m going to post some things I love (in no particular order). I will update as I think or more…
cupcakes
design
cherry blossoms
my parents
sushi
chinchillas
snow
my siblings
cupcakes
staying home
crafts
reading books
musicals
friends
baby back ribs
grandparents West Side Story
blogging
sprinkled donuts
music
Japanese dramas
baking
photographs
offbeat humor
irreverent humor
dry humor
shopping
ramen
traveling
weddings
childhood memories
fonts
Christian Bale (in The Dark Knight)
Sorimachi Takashi (in Virgin Road)
John Krasinski (in The Office)
Hugh Jackman (in his non-hairy roles)
Hayami Mocomichi (in everything)
Danny Wanny (in real life)
gelato
green tea ice cream Zoolander
peonies
carnivals and festivals
yakiniku
unique proposal stories
watching figure skating
Korean BBQ
frozen yogurt with mochi pieces
turkey legs
the DMV area (DC • Maryland • Virginia)
cooking Glee
Hokie football
Shiba Inus
scarves
Japan
chocolate
Anthropologie
karaoke
the beach
peking duck
the changing of seasons
Virginia Tech Hokies
Etsy
dim sum
DIY projects
mysteries
fascinators • hair accessories
care packages
board games
knitting + crocheting
