On Tuesday, the last day of March, my parents and I took the girls out for an outing to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, as the weather is finally starting to warm up! It’s my Dad’s favorite local garden/park to go to, so it’s become a sort of annual tradition to visit a few times a year! He took a lot of photos, so I thought I’d share some here on the blog.
Grumpy-faced Mirei
Mio by the water.
Obaachan feeding Mirei snacks
Mio looking out at the geese from the interactive children’s garden
The girls with their grandparents
A video of the girls at the Interactive Children’s Garden area:
Look at those towering plants!
Mio loves this park too, and she was happily skipping and running all over the place!
Mio running ahead of my parents
Some videos from when we got to the gazebo:
The girls sitting in the gazebo. I love the plaque that reads, “We are all meant to shine.”
Such sweethearts.
Mio giving Mirei a hug! So adorable.
Sisters, but they look so different.
No more nice sister! Mio yanking the water bottle away from Mirei.
Taking a rest before heading back to the car.
I love this photo of a couple sitting by the pond, watching the geese. The gardens will be even more beautiful when all the flowers come into bloom!
We have been getting a lot of snow lately! Here are some photos from Sunday, February 21, when we went outside and played in the snow! This was Mirei’s first time being in the snow, and she seemed kind of stunned and fascinated by it.
Mirei’s first time playing in snow
We built a snowman!
Showing Mirei the snowman
Mio loving the snow!
A video I took of the girls playing in the snow:
Mirei with a snowball. Ready to start a snowball fight?
Such a sweetheart ♥
Of course, you can’t have a snow day without a snowball fight! Mio joined in and had a blast!
We celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early this year, because I had plans to visit my best friend in Philadelphia with my girlfriends on February 14th. I took some photos of the girls matching in red to commemorate Valentine’s 2015!
It was impossible to get them to both smile in one shot! Sigh.
Smiling sweetly for the camera! ♥
Mirei’s expressions look so mature lately…
Dan and I got to have an early Valentine’s dinner date on Thursday, thanks to my sister watching the kids for us! We dined at Maple Ave Restaurant, which we had heard so many good things about! We were pretty excited to have a quiet romantic dinner together, and the food did not disappoint. Everything was so incredibly delicious!
Steamed PEI mussels with saffron coconut broth, chinese sausage, and crostinis as an appetizer.
I ordered the duck leg confit with caramelized brussel sprouts, truffle aioli, and apple cider gastrique.
For dessert, we had the chocolate dumplings with fried pastry shell, melted chocolate ganache, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce.
…and the “omg” flourless chocolate cake. Both were amazing!
Love you hubby! Thanks for a lovely and romantic evening.
When we got home, Mio delivered surprise Valentines gifts from Dan!
A sweet Valentine’s card from Dan and the girls!
Mio signed her Valentines to her classmates this year! This was actually her first time writing her name out. We’d been encouraging her to write her name for a while now and she always resisted so we’ve tried not to push her… but she willingly wrote it this time. So proud of her!
Mio’s Valentines haul from her classmates. She loved it, and has been treasuring her bag of Valentine’s cards in the days since!
On the same day (Friday), we received this card in the mail. Mio’s preschool class has been learning about the post office, and apparently they sent their Valentine’s to their parents out in the mail in time to get to us by Valentine’s Day! I will treasure this always.
Mio telling us about how she sent the Valentine in the mail.
Thank you sweetheart for such a beautiful Valentine! We love you and your sister so much!
The day before Mirei’s actual birthday, we threw a small, intimate birthday party to celebrate the milestone of her turning one! We were admittedly feeling a little overwhelmed (and a little lazy) about doing a big celebration, but we kept the guest list short and decided we’d just do what we could and that helped ease the pressure and stress on us parents. 😉 My brother Ted and his wife Elisa were gracious enough to reserve the party room at their condo for the celebration. Unfortunately, it snowed the morning of the party and some of our guests couldn’t make it because of the weather, but we still had fun with those who were able to make it, and we stayed warm and cozy as the flurries swirled outside!
First year poster for Mirei
Birthday cake for Mirei… intended to be smashed later in the party.
A tower of birthday cupcakes
Dan and I made these cake toppers — both the “one” atop the cupcakes and the one with her name on the smashcake.
hydrangea cupcakes
The items for erabitori
Cookies to be taken home as party favors.
lollipop party favors
First birthday sugar cookies
Don’t look too closely… it was my first time using gold dusting powder on sugar cookies!
Special thanks to Miwa, Hyo, and Elisa who all helped with getting the party decorations up!
Everyone crowding around the birthday girl!
The adorable kids arriving
The aunties
Cutiepies Mirei and Cara
So glad Nancy and her girls could make it! Welcome back to the States!
The birthday girl walking around
Pat and I with our baby girls. Thanks so much for coming! ♥
Mio with her aunties, posing for our makeshift photobooth.
We had set up our own little “photobooth” with an iPad app, and the kids had so much fun with it! It was really fun to see the collection of pictures at the end of the party:
We felt so blessed to be able to celebrate Mirei’s first birthday with such loving family and friends, and are so thankful that she is such a happy and healthy one year old! More posts to follow with the first birthday activities from the party — stay tuned!
We got some beautiful surprise packages in the mail this week from our dear friend Megumi! There was one small package for Mio, and a larger one addressed to me. We were so excited to open them!
Mio’s package contained an adorable little purple penguin (handmade by My Dear Darling!) and a card with a question…
Mio’s first time being asked to be a flower girl!
I think her face says it all… the answer is a resounding “YES!!!”
The package for Mio was amazing enough, so I couldn’t imagine what could be in the larger package for me…
She sure knows how to pop the question! I feel so honored and excited to have been asked to be a part of this dearest friend’s wedding. Love you Megumi! ♥
We loved all the amazing gifts in the package, and can’t wait until Megumi & Daniel’s big day! Looks like our family is definitely headed to Los Angeles in May for the wedding of the year! 🙂
