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 had such a great time at the Vienna Easter egg hunt last year that we knew we wanted to take her and Mirei again this year! The egg hunt takes place on the lawn of the Freeman House in Old Town Vienna, and there’s also an inflatable bounce house, an egg roll event, and an opportunity to take photos with the Easter bunny! Unfortunately, the day they picked this year was freezing, so we bundled the girls up and quickly participated in the egg hunt and photos with the bunny, and left pretty shortly afterwards. The girls still had fun, though!
Waiting for the egg hunt to begin!
Diving under the yellow tape when the egg hunt began!
Feverishly picking up the eggs
Mirei among the egg hunt madness, sporting her bunny hat for the occasion.
Here’s a video I captured of the girls during the egg hunt:
A photo with the creepy Easter bunny. Why are his eyes pink?
Even though it was extremely chilly and windy, Mio still wanted to get in line for the bounce house, so Dan took Mirei to warm up in the car while Mio got her bouncing in:
The girls back at home, after returning from the egg hunt.
Someone is quite giddy about all the candy they got!
Warm and cozy at home! Hoping spring weather is around the corner…
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!
Flint Hill Elementary School was having a holiday craft fair on December 6, so we took the girls to go check it out! The school is the elementary school that I attended growing up, so it was nostalgic to walk through its halls again, decades later and with my own young children. Our primary purpose of going was to see Santa Claus, since we had read that he was going to be making an appearance there, but sadly his visit had been cancelled. (This seems to happen often with us.) Mio was discouraged, but she got to enjoy some holiday crafting before we left:
Mio with an ornament she made.
She looks perplexed.
Decorating a pinecone ornament this time.
She was fascinated by all the older kids around her.
Carefully placing the pompoms…
“Where’s Santa? I need to tell him I want pink octopus for Christmas!”
Alas, visiting Santa would have to wait until another day…
We had a busy weekend, attending a couple birthday parties on Saturday and then BrickFair LEGO Convention on Sunday with friends! See all the weekend fun below…
Dan holding Mirei at Clara’s birthday party.
Mio wading in one of the pools that were set out in the front yard.
The kids having fun with the water balloons.
The theme of the party was Frozen, and Mio loved all the Frozen-themed snacks!
Mio was having so much fun, but we had to leave Clara’s birthday party a little early so that we could also attend Augustine’s first birthday party, which was held at Westwood Country Club in Vienna.
The beautiful spread for Augustine’s first birthday! I had the honor of designing the backdrop.
Look at those amazing cake pops and cupcakes!
Mio getting her face painted.
Hello Kitty!
Mio smiling at herself in my phone camera.
There were cute props at every table!
Guest’s wishes for Augustine hanging on a tree. Such a beautiful idea!
Xiaolu meets Mirei
Doljanchi tradition… Auggie picked the ball! Future athlete!
Auggie with his parents and grandparents!
Mio was so excited that the balloon twister made her a ninja turtle balloon!
The birthday party had so much detail and thought put into it, and was extravagant like a wedding! Ploi did such an amazing job of throwing a birthday party to remember!
My brother stopped by the house while Mio was eating Pop Rocks for the first time (they were in a goody bag), in this pose. He asked, “What are you doing, Mio?” to which she deadpanned, “I’m popping.” lol
On Sunday, we got to go to the BrickFair LEGO Convention at the Dulles Expo Center because our friends had extra tickets! It was the largest gathering of LEGO enthusiasts in the area and there were quite a lot of impressive LEGO creations to see!
Mio and Kosei with a minion made out of LEGOs
LEGO Egyptian civilization
LEGO castle and soldiers
I particularly liked this theme park made out of moving LEGOs!
Mirei getting lots of hugs from Kosei. He’s got the big brother thing down!
Special thanks to the Smith family for inviting us along to BrickFair! It was a lot of fun for the whole family! 🙂
