Mio’s preschool had a Halloween parade and performance for parents and siblings to come see last Wednesday. All the kids wore their Halloween costumes, and Mio decided to dress up as Minnie Mouse, to mix things up a bit and she declared that her sushi costume was strictly “just for trick-or-treating.” Here are some video and photos I took!
Some video of the performances and the kids exiting afterwards:
Happy Halloween! The Halloween fun continued into this week, even though we’d already had a good share of activities over the weekend. While Dan had carved his pumpkin at the Halloween party on Saturday, Mio and I decided to paint our pumpkins at home this week. She’s still a little too young to be wielding a knife, so we thought painting would be a much safer alternative. 😉
Earlier this week on Tuesday, there was a little Halloween event at Mio’s preschool! Parents were invited to come by earlier than the usual pickup time, so we could sit down in the classroom as the kids sang to us. It was our first time really getting to observe our kids in the classroom setting, so I was really looking forward to it!
While Mio was quietly sitting in the circle with all the other kids in the class when I entered, as soon as she noticed me sitting at the table, she sprang up and clung to me, refusing to sit back down in the circle and sing with the other children… much to my dismay because I wanted to see her participating like all the other kids. Oh well… she’s the youngest one in the class (they let her into the class this year even though her birthday was just past the cut-off date), so I guess she’s still comparatively a bit of a baby and has some separation anxiety issues. After the kids finished singing their songs, they were invited to change into their costumes for their mini Halloween parade outside.
The 2.5 year old class is the youngest class, so that day they walked out into the parking lot, showing off their costumes to the older classes that were seated across from them. The older classes then sang songs to the little ones — it was really cute!
Happy Halloween, everyone! Hope it is eventful and full of fun. 🙂
We took Mio to see the Alameda Independence Day Parade yesterday for a Fourth of July celebration. Alameda’s parade is apparently the largest (with 160+ floats) and longest (3.2 miles) Independence Day parade in the country! It was a hot day, but we parked ourselves under some shade and watched the parade go by — Mio had fun watching her first parade!
After the parade, we walked back to our friends Tarrin and Jason’s house to enjoy a BBQ lunch — everything they cooked was amazing! Our tummies got to enjoy quite a feast!
We also got to hang out on their hammock — it was so relaxing!
All of us had a great time spending the day in Alameda! After eating all the delicious food and being out in the summer sun, we all took a long nap when we got home that evening. Hope everyone else had a memorable Fourth, too! 🙂
The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival was held the past two weekends in San Francisco’s Japantown. Dan and I took my sister on Sunday, the day of the Grand Parade, since Miwa had never been to the festival before.
I love going to the Cherry Blossom Festival, and haven’t missed it once since moving out here. This was my third year attending San Francisco’s festival, and although a lot of things are the same, it’s always great to see the celebration of Japanese and Japanese American culture and heritage.
Here are just a few of the photos. {See the whole set}
The highlight for me, as usual, was the taiko. If only I had better rhythm, I would totally want to take on taiko lessons. It’s a great workout for your arms and I just love the sound and energy of taiko drums…. Can’t wait to see Taiko Dojo again next year!