Last Saturday, my high school girlfriends and I threw our dear friend Mimi a bridal shower! After getting engaged with a very romantic proposal last October, Mimi and Sujay just tied the knot earlier this month in San Diego with a spur-of-the-moment, intimate marriage/elopement(!) ceremony. While some of our friends were able to attend the beautiful ceremony, half of us couldn’t make it because of scheduling conflicts, and we all wanted to gather to celebrate this wonderful occasion with Mimi! Our friend Juli rallied all of us together and assigned us different tasks to create a lovely and memorable post-wedding bridal shower for the bride.
My best friend Debbie and I were put in charge of cooking and baking all the food for the shower, and we had a great time planning the menu together and cooking together the day of. Thank you Angel for letting us use your kitchen and stepping in to help us with the cooking — we couldn’t have done it without you!
I baked and decorated these sugar cookies for the shower in the days before. Mimi had had a henna night prior to her wedding ceremony, so I piped some henna-inspired decorations on the purple cookies. The amount of detail was challenging, but I’m happy with the result!
The bestest hard at work making matcha frosting. She was the true star chef of the day!
Me piping Debbie’s olive oil cupcakes, filled with blood orange jam.
A delicious banh mi bar.
Debbie’s amazing gluten-free chocolate cake with matcha frosting. SO GOOD!
Another look at my sugar cookies.
I assembled these easy strawberry feta skewers with mint leaves.
A simple favorite: mini baked potatoes topped with sour cream, chives, and bacon bits.
The glowing bride arrives!
Mimi telling us about her wedding day, followed by bridal shower games!
Mimi is all smiles! 🙂
Time to open presents.
Everyone watching Mimi open her gifts.
Some of the ladies at the bridal shower! (Missing Xiaolu and Stephanie and some other girls who had to leave early…)
Hugs!
Thank you Juli for organizing everything and making sure it all went off without a hitch!
Special thanks to Angel for hosting, and to Michelle and Xiaolu who handled the decorations and favors!
Chefs for the day Debbie and I with the bride. We love you Mimi!
A picture of us high school girlfriends together! I love these ladies. 🙂
I’m so happy we could come together to shower Mimi with love and wishing her the best! She looked so happy with a newlywed glow to her, and just seeing her and Sujay makes us so happy. They are such a great couple and are just so adorable together when you watch them because you can see how in love they are. With that, I’ll end with this breathtaking picture from their wedding that shows just that!
Happily ever after ♥ Congratulations Mimi & Sujay!
Last Saturday, we took Mio to Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon, a historical farm where you can see all kinds of animals and experience farm life from the 1920’s. We met up with our friends Stephanie and Chwan and their adorable son Danny, who is three months older than Mio! We’ve been wanting to have a playdate for the two cuties to meet, and this was the perfect opportunity, since both of them love animals!
One of the cows at Frying Pan Farm.
Mio and Danny were focused on the cows as the mommies chatted away.
Mio and Danny watching the piglets nursing.
There was a sandbox filled with corn kernels (instead of sand) for them to play in. What a great idea — a whole less messy than sand!
Mio playing with the corn kernels.
Staring in amazement at the baby goat.
Face to face.
One really cool attraction they had there was cow milking! Even I’ve never seen a cow getting milked, so it was very cool to see and experience! I was trying to explain to Mio that they were squeezing the “minmi” (Japanese baby word for “milk”) that she drinks out of the cow, and she started pulling on her ears. Dan and I were confused for a few seconds, but then it dawned on me that she was confusing the word with “mimi” (which is Japanese for “ear”). I couldn’t help but laugh!
Mio pulling her ears by the cow.
Mio learning how to milk the cow (with some help from Daddy)
What an experience!
Because Frying Pan Farm Park is a historical site and they showcase farm life from the 1920’s, they have a lot of old-fashioned traditional machines that have survived for almost a century! This machine de-kernels corn, and it’s the original machine from the 1920’s! I couldn’t believe how well it still worked, and so efficiently too (it uses very little gas to operate)!
Danny and Mio watching a machine de-kernel corn
The kiddos were just as interested in the machine as the adults!
Hitting their de-kerneled corn cobs together.
Mio trying to climb up the bars of a fence… typical Mio behavior.
Another neat machine they had was one in which you’d throw apples in, and the apples would get transported up into a mechanism that would turn the apples into apple cider! They handed out apples for kids and their parents to throw into the machine, so that we could watch them go up.
Mio and I threw some apples in together into the machine.
After seeing a lot of the farm life of the park, we walked over to the carousel and playground area.
Mio of course had a ball on the playground, going down the slides over and over!
Having a fun time learning to count.
Riding the carousel!
She had a great time!
After a couple hours at the park, the cuties were hungry and ready to eat!
We ended the outing with a delicious Burmese lunch at Myanmar restaurant in Falls Church! It was a fun day spent with great friends. 🙂
I can’t believe it’s already October! The end of September just flew by, as the past few days have been pretty busy. On Thursday evening, we met up with my cousin’s husband Devin who was visiting from Arizona on business. It was his first time meeting Mio, and it was great catching up since the last time we saw him two years ago, and hearing about how my cousin Yuko and their kids were doing. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to see Yuko, Beni-chan and Sakura-chan soon! I’m sure Mio would love them, too.
Dinner with Devin at Blue Ocean Japanese Restaurant.
Friday evening, my sister and I met up with friends in Silver Spring, Maryland, to watch the Japanese rock band B’z perform live in concert!
B’z concert in Silver Spring, Maryland
With Erri, Akira, and Erri’s friends.
They were great live! We got to see them pretty close up! (photo courtesy of Akira)
On Saturday, we drove down to Richmond to attend our friend Stephanie and Danny’s wedding! Before we left, we dropped Mio off with a family friend in the morning so they could watch her for much of the day. They have a daughter who is only 2 months older than Mio, so I heard that they played very well together while Dan and I were in Richmond!
What was supposed to be a two hour drive ended up taking longer due to a huge funeral procession that was on I-95, but we made it just in time for the ceremony, which was held at the beautiful Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in the heart of Richmond. (Apologies for the poor picture quality — I only had my phone with me to take pictures!)
Waiting for the ceremony to start
The groom coming down the aisle!
Stephanie looked stunning as she made her way down the aisle…
A beautiful wedding ceremony!
“You may kiss the bride!”
Walking down the aisle as Mr. & Mrs. Om!
Congratulations Stephanie and Danny!
They were the picture-perfect couple!
The cocktail hour and reception were equally beautiful — the venue was lovely and all the food was so delicious!
Steph & Danny sharing their first dance as husband & wife
Talking to the bride and groom
We were so happy we could move back in time to attend their wedding!
With the beautiful bride ♥ I can’t believe I’ve known Stephanie for 11 years now – she was one of the first friends I made at Virginia Tech! Congratulations Mrs.Om!
With the lovely couple!
One of the most delicious cupcakes I’ve ever had!
Mimi and I – friends since high school! 😀
With the hubby!
Fun in the photobooth!
Sunday was devoted to spending lots of quality time with Mio, as I hadn’t gotten to spend any time with her Friday evening and all of Saturday.
Sidewalk chalk with Auntie Miwa. Mio’s first time playing with sidewalk chalk!
ãŠå§‰ã¡ã‚ƒã‚“ãŸã¡ã«å›²ã¾ã‚Œã¦å¬‰ã—ãã†ãªç¾Žæ¡œã€‚Mio loved all the attention from the big girls!
We had a pretty busy weekend, and instead of going into the details of the places we went and the friends we saw, I thought I’d just share some snapshots! I find that I’ve been leaving our camera behind a lot lately… while it takes great pictures, I’ve been lazy and just love the ease of using my phone to take quick snapshots and instantly share them online. I used to wonder what all the fuss was about Instagram, but after a few months of using it, I’ve been bitten by the bug and am now admittedly an avid Instagrammer!
So if you already follow me on Instagram, these pictures are old news, but here are some of our memorable moments from the past weekend!
Happy birthday Brent! On Saturday, we got to celebrate Brent's 30th birthday over in Dublin with amazing food and great company.
Cuties looking out the window, watching Brent BBQ-ing.
Staredown between Mio and cute doggies Miko and Dumpling.
Thanks Brent and Estella for having us over to celebrate with you all! 😀
On Saturday evening, we drove into the city to have a sushi dinner at Sanraku with Stephanie, who has been one of my dearest friends since college! She’s getting married in late September, and I couldn’t be happier for her! So glad that we could have dinner and catch up before she left to fly back to DC.
Mio checking out the drink menu...
On Sunday morning, Mio got to have some fun playing with a bunch of other tots in San Leandro…
In the afternoon, we went to Hayward to attend baby Easton’s first birthday party!
Smash that cake!
Chasing balloons...
It’s been pretty hot lately, so I’ve been having fun dressing Mio up in cute little sundresses. We’ve been staying cool indoors while enjoying frozen fruit! 🙂
Our friend Stephanie was visiting the Bay Area this past weekend, and Mio and I got to have dinner and catch up with her on Sunday evening before she caught her flight back to DC. Thanks for making time to come see us, Steph! 🙂
Here is Mio in the adorable Paul Frank outfit that Stephanie got fir her! We love it. ♥
