Happy Halloween! This year marks our first Halloween together as a family of three! Halloween is one of my favorite festivities of the year, and I love thinking of creative costumes every time. I especially like costumes that go together in some sort of a theme and last Halloween, I was just at the beginning of my second trimester so I was pregnant Quinn and Dan was Finn from the TV show Glee. This year, Dan was Mario from Super Mario Brothers, I was Princess Peach, and Mio was… ::drumroll please:: Toad (the toadstool mushroom)! Dan and I had actually thought of the idea of being Mario and Peach for Halloween and had prepared our costumes two years ago, but I got deathly sick that Halloween and so we hadn’t been able to use them! But I suppose it was for the better, because our costume idea was made exponentially better with the addition of Toad Mio!
We had a busy Halloween weekend — on Saturday, Dan and his coworker friend co-hosted a baby-friendly Halloween party in the neighborhood, and on Sunday we drove into the city for an evening of Halloween bowling in the Presidio with our friends from Nakayoshi! Check out all the photos of the Halloween fun from this past weekend…
Mio and I as Toad and Princess Peach.
Cedar was an alligator, and Cristina was the alligator tamer.
Mio looking up to Cedar.
Toad Mio with Mario Daddy.
Standing with some help from Daddy.
She was a little overwhelmed by all the people...
Jasmine and Emme, the older girls at the party.
Pocahontas Sofia pointing... adorable!
Going after Mario's fireball.
Kayo and Jinwoo.
S & S!
Gorgeous view of the skyline and San Francisco city lights, taken from the balcony.
A family picture at the end of the night.
Bowling at the Presidio Bowling Center with Nakayoshi. (I believe this is the first time we’ve taken Mio into the city!)
The Toad mushroom hat we had originally bought for Mio.
The hat was ginormous and way too big on her, so we opted for a different one that was a little more manageable...
...much better!
Jamie lives in San Francisco now! She's my dear friend from Virginia Tech. I'm so thrilled that she's in the area now!
Mio got lots of lovin' from her Nakayoshi aunties and uncles.
Mio's first time meeting Graig... and she loves him already!
Wow, look at that chin. Fat angle much? hahaha*
My happy mushroom, aglow under the black lights.
Graig was so good with her!
The masked men: army man, wolf, and storm trooper.
Basketball star Graig and Little Red Riding Hood Aileen (with mushroom hat)
My new friend Hisae-san! Loved her hat!
With lovely Sam... so glad we got to see her!
With Haruka and Aileen! Mio has known them since she was one month old! 😀
Standing around.
"There's a smile!"
She looks like she's about to break into a dance.
Mio's first encounter with a bowling ball.
Jason took this cool picture of Mio in front of the bowling lanes!
She's loving it! She is as round as a bowling ball.
There she goes, scrunching her face again in an all-out smile...
Mio loves Auntie Jamie!
Couldn't resist putting the giant mushroom hat on her one last time...
Hope everyone has a fun Halloween! Perhaps next year Mio can go trick-or-treating!!! I’m already thinking of more family costume ideas….
Dan and I had a great time going to the ballet for the first time together, as we went to see the Universal Ballet‘s performance of Shim Chung: The Blindman’s Daughter at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. Dan’s parents bought us tickets to the ballet as an early anniversary gift, and offered to watch Mio while we went out to relax and enjoy ourselves for the night It was so thoughtful of them, and we really had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful ballet!
The ballet was performed at the opulent War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, and it was our first time there — the venue alone was lovely, a perfect setting for the brilliant ballet we were about to see.
The chandelier at the War Memorial Opera House
The stage with the curtains drawn before the performance.
The ballet Shim Chung is a modern day classical masterpiece that combines a traditional Korean folktale with western classical ballet forms. It’s a beautiful and touching story about how the main character Shim Chung’s devotion to her blind father moves heaven to restore his eyesight, and illustrates ‘Hyodo’ (å), dedication to serve one’s parents, which is considered a great virtue in Korea. I remember reading this story when I was young and was really moved by it even as a child — watching the story come alive in the form of ballet was truly a spectacle.
The acts followed the basic storyline of the folktale — here is a synopsis from the program.
Learning that an offering to the temple will allow her father to regain his sight, Shim Chung accepts a bag of gold coins from a Sea Captain, willingly agreeing to be thrown overboard to protect the captain’s ship from the furies of the Sea Dragon King.
After the ship’s captain takes her to the ship, a storm arises, and Shim Chung, offering a ritual dance and prayer, plunges into the sea to save the ship.
Under the sea, Shim Chung is welcomed warmly by the Sea Dragon King, who asks her to marry him and share his kingdom, but Shim Chung has learned in a dream that her father is still blind, and pleads with the king to send her back.
Arriving back in her homeland, she finds favor with the Korean King, who marries her, but still happiness eludes her until she finds her blind father. Embracing her father, Shim Chung’s tears of joy fall on his face, and he miraculously regains his sight.
The set and costumes were so striking and detailed, offering the audience a visual feast, and I especially enjoyed how they incorporated gorgeous Korean dress into the ballet. The act in the underwater sea kingdom was especially stunning, with a bejeweled set, and the ballerinas dressed in sparkling colorful costumes. Although I know very little about ballet, I could tell that the dancers’ skills and technique was top notch. They were all in sync with each other and the lead ballerina who played Shim Chung, Hyemin Hwang, was so graceful and expressive in her dance as she flitted across the stage almost effortlessly.
(All performance images above are courtesy of the Universal Ballet)
As the performance reached its climax and conclusion as Shim Chung was reunited with her father, I couldn’t help but tear up. The devotion, respect, and love that Shim Chung has for her father is really beautiful and is the epitome of the ideal of filial piety that is so treasured by so many Asian cultures.
Below are a couple photos I snapped at the end, when the performers received a standing ovation.
The Universal Ballet brings together Korean, American and Russian dancers, and its repertory has always mixed Western and Asian styles, with a strong Russian influence. Based in South Korea, is considered to be one of Asia’s leading ballet companies. They are currently on a World Tour, and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to watch them perform while they were in San Francisco. It was a very thoughtful and generous gift from Dan’s parents, and we thoroughly enjoyed it! 🙂
We were spoiled this weekend by the good company of visiting friends. Not only did we get to see Vee on Saturday, but my friend Sylvia flew in from New Jersey on Sunday for a business trip, so I got to see her over lunch as well! 🙂
After lunch, we grabbed some froyo at Yoppi next door. I’ve known Sylvia for as long as I can remember — we became fast friends at summer camp one year (we must’ve still been in elementary school!), and were pen pals for years. 🙂 I’m grateful that we still keep in touch and can see each other from time to time, even though we are on opposite sides of the country.
My college friend Veronica is staying with our friend Sue this weekend in San Francisco, so we spent Saturday in the city with them catching up over lunch and relaxing in the park.
Here I am with Sue, Vee, and my 35-week baby bump in front of City View Restaurant in the Financial District.
I just had dim sum a couple weeks ago with Juli in Palo Alto, but I can never get enough! Especially those shrimp dumplings… my favorite!
After stuffing ourselves full, we headed over to Alamo Square for the afternoon to enjoy the beautiful weather by picnicking in the park.
The view of the city from Alamo Square…
We had fun snapping polaroids with Sue’s cool new toy…
An outing with Sue is never complete without some jumping. 🙂
This one’s my favorite! I did a fine job capturing the moment, if I do say so myself! 😉
We stopped by Wonder Dog Rescue in Hayes Valley to see the puppies there. They were so adorable!
Here I am, falling in love:
Here’s to a Saturday well-spent with old friends! Thanks to Vee for snapping this photo of me and the hubby. (It’s actually one of our few photos together during the pregnancy… we haven’t really had a chance to take many.) Come back to visit again soon!
As I mentioned before, West Side Story is my favorite musical (and one of my favorite movies) of all time, and I grew up watching it over and over during my childhood. I watched it so much that the tape on the VHS wore down over the years, and I eventually bought myself the special edition DVD which I still watch once in a while to get my “fix.” The music in West Side Story is timeless and unforgettable, and it’s an ingenious reinvention of Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet to 1950s New York City, with plenty of social commentary thrown into the mix.
My dream has always been to see it live on stage… and my dream came true on Sunday! Dan surprised me last month with tickets, since West Side Story is in San Francisco at the Orpheum Theater for a month. Since my parents-in-law also have always loved West Side Story (since the movie came out when they were in high school, their generation was even more heavily influenced by the groundbreaking film), we got them tickets too! Dan’s father’s birthday was late October and his mother’s birthday is early November, so it made for a memorable birthday gift for both of them. 🙂
The show was amazing and did not disappoint! I was surprised that the original dialogue and scenes were kept mostly intact. The only things that were changed was that some of the order of the scenes and numbers were switched around, and parts of some of the songs sung by the Sharks and their girls were in Spanish, which I thought was a refreshing update. I don’t know Spanish, but since I was already so familiar with the original songs, I knew exactly what they were singing. I know every line in the original so well that I was finishing the cast members’ sentences in my head. Scary, I know….
If you live in the Bay Area, I really recommend catching a performance before it leaves San Francisco at the end of the month! If you live elsewhere, definitely go when it comes to your nearest city! 🙂
As I