AngelFish Swim Event

Every Wednesday night, Mia has a private swim lesson. We really don't like the expense of private lessons honestly, but we found a program that we really felt was worth the additional cost. We have swam with AngelFish for the past year now, and we have just really loved all of the instructors and how great they have been with Mia.

On Friday, our swim school hosted a client appreciation party in Greenwich. Ten got off of work a little bit early, so we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and check it out. I honestly didn't have high expectations for the event, but it turned out better than I thought it would. This doesn't sound awfully great of me, but just honest.

When we arrived they had all kind of activities set up, a DJ, and a pizza truck *yum.* We decided to grab pizza and drinks first since it was already 5:00. Emi and Mia had cheese, I tried the buffalo chicken and jalapeno sausage, and Ten had a lot a bit of everything.

Mia enjoying the brick oven pizza. Something about eating outside makes her actually eat which is always nice.

Emi is such a cutie. I felt so bad for her since she was just too little to do almost everything. We basically just watched big sister and dad have all of the fun.

Bounce House fun!

Yep, they had a bounce house. When I asked Mia if she wanted to go to the party, she said no. She just wanted to stay at home and play with her toys. However, when I said that there would be a bounce house....she quickly changed her mind. Honestly, this is what convinced me to go...I'm all about a free bounce house.

Mia could not get enough of the bounce house, though we did eventually have to pull her out because it was getting overrun with big kids.

While Mia jumped around and went down the slide a few dozen times, Emi and I decided to play with some balls and yard games that they had sat out.

Emi getting ready to throw the ball.

Next, checking out the Frisbee.

After playing for a little while, the girls decided to sit down for more pizza! This made us extremely happy since they (especially Emi) survive mainly on air and chocolate.

Dancing to the Chicken Dance...haha...she loves that song!

Ten has the wonderful ability of taking the most flattering photos. Ha

Mia getting in on the dancing action. The girl loves to dance.

After two hours and some ice cream for the girls, we decided to head back home. I'm so glad we went. Got out some energy and I didn't have to cook!

Moving

I have set up a new blog! Yay! I no longer have to look at these terrible orange and blue colors every time I publish something. You can now find me here:

http://creatingourownhappiness.wordpress.com/

Thanks for being patient with my long, long break from blogging.

Randoms

• We have had two massive failures in the kitchen within the course of a week. I attempted a crockpot curry and Ten concocted a healthy mayonnaise. They both were terrible. Lessons learned: Don't trust a recipe created by someone who has only eaten the food once and then made up their own version. Don't think you can make a healthy mayo that tastes like the original.
• We are now officially members of the Children's Museum of Manhattan. Mia gets to play with sand tables, kid sized trucks to crawl in and out of, and more. It will be our new playground once we have a second baby.
• I have 7 more 17p shots to go. It has not been a pleasant experience physically or financially. I think we should have a celebration after the last one.
• I am on my way to finishing reading a book. It isn't the most interesting book, but I'm actually making progress.
• We are once again trying to improve our living space. We have new bedding and a host of organizational things on their way to us. It is a never ending project but helps a lot.
• I recently read this blog about creating momentum in your day, and it has really been working for me. I'm also breaking projects down into set time slots (thanks Michelle Duggar) so I feel like and actually do get more done each day. For instance instead of trying to fold all of the laundry, I just try to fold as much as possible in 15 minutes. It keeps me sane and helps me get a variety of things done over the course of a week.
• I am finally watching the 5th season of Big Love. I'm glad it only lasted 5 seasons because I'm losing interest, but overall it was a good show.

Anyway, happy midweek everyone.

New Year's 2014

We are now in the second week of the New Year, so I hope everyone is still going strong with those resolutions. We had a really low key celebration at home. We decided to just eat a lot of the traditional Japanese foods and hang out inside. It was snowing and cold...story of our lives recently....and Ten only had one day off, so we just relaxed. 

Here are some of the pics of what we devoured over the holiday.

New Year's Eve Dinner: mikan, tomato and cucumber salad, fried ham cutlets (trying to get rid of Christmas leftovers), and soba (cold because easier for Mia).

On New Year's Day we had osechi, and you know what...it is not nearly as bad as what Ten said it was. Seriously 90% of it was quite enjoyable.

Ozoni that I made that morning. Mochi, naruto, carrots, spinach, and chicken in a nice broth. This is easily our favorite part of New Year food.

Yum.

Mia unwrapping the osechi.

Lots of really good food...and some that wasn't so good. Mia especially loved the fish eggs. She called them "snacks."

In other news, I've decided that this year I wouldn't be making any specific resolutions. Don't get me wrong. I have a big list of things that I would like to get done by the end of the year, but they aren't necessarily resolutions. They are things like finish Mia's baby book and register our second baby at the Japanese embassy. Things like that.

I have, however, decided to pick a theme word for my year. This seems like a pretty popular thing to do, and I like the idea that you can choose a word that you can use to improve all aspects of your year. 

Anyway, so I was thinking hard and kicking words around like "happiness," "focus," and "self-discipline." However, none of them felt right. They weren't what I exactly wanted to achieve this year. Then while I was up way too late last night, I finally came up with my word.

It is "simplicity." I love the simple life, and I think that that is something that we have gotten away from here. We are gaining clutter, we were eating quite unhealthy, and spending a little bit too much. I mean if I look at Mia's toys alone, she has toys that are basically the same thing but just different versions. If I look in my closet, we have DVDs that we don't watch. We own 5 cutting boards. All of these are symptoms of a life that needs to be simplified.

So, that is what I want to focus on this year. I hope to report back in a few days with the first part of my project to simplify things.

Anyway, Happy New Year!

Christmas Day 2013

This post has a lot of pictures. I just couldn't choose which ones I wanted to share from the huge amount I took, so I'm just throwing a whole lot of them together.

On Christmas Eve, Ten got home a little earlier than usual, so we spent the afternoon getting ready for Christmas. I think Ten and Mia watched "The Grinch" and "Frosty" while I got dinner ready. We also went to the park and quickly realized it was just way too cold and almost came straight home. Seriously, our coats weren't helping...and Ten was only wearing sandals and a hoodie...no idea why he thought that that would be a good idea.

Anyway, after our failed park attempt we came home and started getting our Santa cookies ready. We decided to go with the pre-made gingerbread men, so we could just enjoy getting to decorate them.

First cookie out of the bag...he didn't last very long.

Ten icing a cookie for Mia so that she could add her candy.

Going much better than the gingerbread house!

Our finished products...Mia's is on the top and by far the best. Ten's has two green gloves, and I'm not sure what is going on with mine. Sorry this picture didn't rotate properly.

After Mia went to bed, we tore down the train track and reorganized the apartment a little bit so that we could fit everything under the tree and still have space to move in the morning.

Like I mentioned before, everything was wrapped and ready to put under the tree. Saved us a bunch of time.

Ten did have to stay up pretty late putting together Mia's table and chairs along with this kitchen though. I don't think he got to bed until 2:00 a.m.

Mia's Minnie table and chairs.

Mia ran in first thing in the morning and went straight to Totoro. We knew this would be a big hit with her.

Followed by a rush over to her new kitchen. This things keeps her so busy, and she is picking up so many words from it. We all love this toy. Once again....sorry this didn't flip when I added it to Blogger.

Treats in her stocking from a good friend in Japan. Thank you so, so, so much.

The beginning of the unwrapping marathon.

Deciding to have a tea party with Totoro in her new socks....midway through unwrapping.

After we unwrapped a good amount of presents, we took a break for breakfast. We had this really good casserole, and you can find the recipe here. I decided to make something sweet because I thought we may have a better chance for Mia to eat some.

Of course, Mia wanted us to all eat at her new Minnie table.

Mia in her first outfit of the day. She seriously had to put on every article of new clothing that she opened.

It just isn't Christmas without a toy drum.

....Mia enjoying her afternoon tea with her new tea set.

After all of the unwrapping and cleaning, naps were much needed. We then got up and ate a really late Christmas lunch. I honestly didn't have the time to make everything that I wanted too, but it all turned out pretty good.

Tossed spinach salad, deviled eggs, rolls, spiral ham, green bean casserole, and an apple pie. Notice that we actually had serving dishes this year. Thanks Ten for the Christmas presents...and thanks mom for the matching dish set!!

My plate...so full we had to skip the pie. We also had baked potatoes, and I love putting salsa on mine. Not very traditional for Christmas, but very good.

So, that is a glimpse of our Christmas morning. I was so exhausted once the 26th rolled around. Anyway, now just to get the New Year's post up!

Lead Up to Christmas

I started this blog post on Christmas Eve, and I'm just now getting the time to sit down to finish it. We had a great Christmas and week or so leading up to Christmas. I got to watch my all time favorite Christmas movie (A Smoky Mountain Christmas), the presents were wrapped well in advance, and we decided to keep Christmas dinner simple. There really wasn't a whole lot to worry about leading up to the big day. Now, from the 25th on....things have been crazy...trying to reassemble the apartment and figure out how we will survive with the limited space that we have. As I tell Ten, we will make it work because we have to.

Anyway, here is what we have been doing leading up to Christmas.

Mia got a couple of new pairs of pajamas. She has refused to sleep in them in the past, but now she loves PJs. Here she is in her Christmas PJs, my shoes, and a butterfly wand. Outfit coordinated by her. 

Also, Mia hasn't really been interested in food recently unless we connect it to something that she loves. For example, she loves broccoli because it is a Totoro tree. So, I decided to try my hand at my first bento for her. This took me seriously like all of 5 minutes, so it obviously could have been a little bit better. However, I knew she wouldn't care if it wasn't perfect.

Mikan, grapes, steamed broccoli, popcorn chicken, and Anpanman made from nori, carrots, cheese, and ketchup.

In more Christmasy related news, on the 22nd we took Mia to see Yo Gabba Gabba! It was a holiday themed version, and we had a great time. I think Mia was slightly confused because Muno was there on stage...dancing...in person. The adults especially loved when Biz Markie came out and sang pieces from "Just a Friend." Biz Markie definitely looks pretty old in real life, but it was really fun. 

DJ Lance Rock and the Yo Gabba Gabba cast.

Christmas background while singing a lot of their typical songs from the show.

Mia and Ten dancing along to the songs.

Group picture...okay here Mia is definitely looking like she is having a good time. I'm glad we got the chance to take her.

Mia snacking on a sucker during intermission. I'm not going to lie....we brought in snacks and some juice boxes for Mia...and I'm glad we did because $12 for popcorn was a ridiculous amount of money to pay.

After the show, we went straight home and started to cook some spaghetti. It was only 7:00, but we were so tired. Yo Gabba Gabba was kind of like being in a crazy toddler rave where the DJ is constantly telling you to dance, wiggle, stop, etc....lots of work....haha

In other news, Ten came home one night after work with two little cakes for me and Mia. Very cute and thoughtful of him...even though I am trying super hard to watch my weight...sigh....never ending battle right there.

Me and Mia actually split one of these and the other she has been eating a little bit after lunch each day...and I mean a very little bit. We don't want her to have too many sweets.

Finally, Mia had been feeling a little bit under the weather a few days before Christmas, so we we had to cancel all play dates. We didn't want to get any other kids sick over the holidays...and we didn't want her to get any worse before Christmas. We were getting a little stir crazy, so one day we went out and got things to make a gingerbread house. Wow, it was a lot of work....and I'm surprised any candy actually remained on the house. Mia was eating the icing off of it faster than I was replacing it....haha. However, here are some of the photos of the event.

Getting ready to decorate.

Looking at the icing and deciding if she should taste test it.

After the taste testing...I'm guessing it was heavenly.

Looking proud of the house and mess that we made.

Finally, pictures of our house in all of its glory. I hope to have our Christmas Day pictures up sometime this week. I'm not going to worry about rushing to get all done before New Year's.