Dan wanted to fly a kite with Mio, so we recently purchased a delta kite that is great for beginners to fly. Mio was really excited to see a kite in flight for the first time, so we flew it in the backyard on Friday evening. There wasn’t enough wind to really pick the kite up very high, but it was still a really fun experience for Mio!
Below are some videos I took of Dan and Mio’s attempts to fly the kite…
We’ll have to try again another day when we have more wind! 🙂
Mio received a birdhouse kit from her friends as one of her birthday presents, and so we decided to put it together this week! She first built it by assembling the pieces with Daddy, and then painted it with me on Thursday.
Mio was pretty particular and wanted to paint each panel/surface a different color.
Leaning back to admire her creation!
The completed birdhouse!
A collaborative creation between Mio, Daddy, and Mama.
Thanks for the great gift, Kosei, Avonlea, and Smith family! 🙂
The Mosaic District in Merrifield was hosting a Mother’s Day party for mamas and their kids on Sunday, May 4, a week before actual Mother’s Day. You could sign up/apply to be invited, and they chose their invitees by lottery. Luckily, we scored an invitation so I decided to go with Mio while Dan took Mirei with him to go shopping and run errands.
Mio hanging out at the party.
We weren’t told a lot about the party except the location and that there’d be refreshments, Zumba, and a photobooth. I was most excited about the refreshments, least excited about the Zumba. haha* I guess I have this perception that Zumba is for older ladies in their 40s and 50s (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, and no offense to those who do it) plus the prospect of dancing in public on the lawn was pretty embarrassing to me! But I stepped out of my comfort zone so that Mio and I could enjoy the party together. And sure enough, Mio had a grand time dancing — a lot of the time, she was just doing her own dance moves, but there were definitely times when she was actually following the instructor’s moves!
Mio doing Zumba.
Little Zumba dancer.
Some video that I took of Mio:
This photo is from Mosaic District’s Instagram and precisely the kind of thing I was worried about — that there’d be a photo of me awkwardly dancing out on the world wide web. BUT it cracked me up to spot Mio right next to me, passionately doing her little dance moves (just in the opposite direction of everyone else). hahahaha*
After a half hour of Zumba, we were free to go hang out by the photobooth and enjoy the refreshments. Here are the photos of Mio and I from the photobooth.
They had this chalkboard up for the kids to write/draw about their mommies.
Some of the refreshments for moms and their kiddos.
Free lunch of sandwiches and wraps for everyone!
The sandwiches were delicious and worth the embarrassment I had just suffered.
Mio loved the food, too!
Dan came to join us after finishing his errands and got to enjoy some of the free food, too!
The weather was so beautiful, and it was so nice to enjoy lunch outdoors.
Thank you Mio for making me such a lucky Mama!
Can’t forget Mirei! I’m twice as lucky this year.
And of course, Daddy gets some love too.
Sunday also just happened to be the grand opening of Mosaic District’s Farmer’s Market, so we decided to check it out after the party. There were a lot of vendors with gourmet offerings!
Nicecream factory’s liquid nitrogen ice cream: they make and freeze the ice cream right there in front of your eyes!
The flavors all sounded amazing. We really enjoyed the chocolate sea salt ice cream!
Dan picked up a chocolate cherry tomato plant to add to his edible garden.
Runaway sisters! Mio kept pushing Mirei’s stroller everywhere at the market.
Afterwards, we headed over to our friend’s baby shower over in Maryland. It was a very eventful and fun-filled day!
Our family spent Saturday afternoon at the Taste of Merrifield in the Mosaic District. We love going to the Mosaic District because of the Target there as well as its various shopping offerings and delicious restaurants, so when we heard there was going to be a food festival there along with activities for children, we had to go check it out! 🙂 We’re so glad we did, because we got to enjoy a lot of good food (at pretty affordable prices!) and Mio had a lot of fun at the kids’ section, too!
I got a kick out of the name of this food truck. “Naan Stop” — very clever!
Mio enjoying a free ice pop. It was a really warm day so it was perfect!
Walking hand in hand with Mommy. ♥
Enjoying some tasty sliders from Matchbox.
They had a beer garden there, so Dan of course had to take advantage…
Dan enjoying his beer from Port City Brewing Company.
This beef concoction from Sea Pearl was AMAZING. So tender and it had a jalapeno kick!
Gourmet tacos — one beef brisket and one grilled chicken.
Mio can’t wait to dig in! She didn’t want to look up from the food.
With our tummies full, we moved onto the kids’ activities. Here we are waiting to get Mio’s face painted.
Mirei woke up but quietly waited in her stroller.
It was finally Mio’s turn!
A glittery penguin on Mio’s cheek. The lady did kind of a cruddy job IMHO…
Mio found the Lego building station and went right to work! She LOVES building blocks.
Our little builder!
Mirei and I watching Mio build away.
Mio wanted to stay there forever! We eventually had to tear her away…
Mio got to go on her first pony ride there, too! We asked her if she wanted to use the remaining tickets we had on more food or a pony ride, and she (surprisingly to us) picked the pony ride!
Dan captured some video of the pony ride!
Don’t be jelly, Mirei… You’ll eventually be able to eat delicious food and go on pony rides, too!
It was a really fun day for the whole family! We’re already looking forward to going again next year. 🙂
I’m so behind on blog updates! Mio and Mirei both went in for their wellness exams last week for 3 years old and 3 months old, respectively. They both checked out as healthy and growing within the normal range, but I wanted to post up their growth stats before too much time passed!
Here are the latest measurements in Mio’s growth…
Mio weighed exactly 33 lbs, putting her in the 70th growth percentile based on weight-for-age.
For height, she measured 36.75 inches long, putting her at 23rd percentile for height-for-age. (I’ve been noticing that she’s definitely on the shorter side among her peers. Maybe she has her Mama’s height…)
Mio’s head size was just short of 20 inches at 19.75 inches, which is in the 87th growth percentile based on head circumference-for-age.
During Mio’s appointment, the nurse and doctor asked her a bunch of questions, pointing to things in the room and asking her to identify them (to check on her vocabulary), and asked her to perform some physical tasks such as balancing on one leg and jumping up and down. She was able to complete everything with flying colors!
I know I keep saying this, but Mio is so sweet and fun right now. She can entertain herself for long periods of time playing blocks and working on puzzles, shows such creativity in the things that she builds, and I find her singing to herself a lot lately, too. I’m in awe of all things she’s now able to do! She is also becoming much more interactive and playful with her peers and talks about her friends a lot.
Mio built an “Elephant!”
“Ice cream cone!”
Gal pals Mio & Aubrianna
A new video of her singing the Japanese tulip song: