Eloise at the Plaza

Oh my. I cannot believe we are through the first week of summer. It FLEW by. The girls are absolutely LOVING summer camp. Mia tried zip lining twice today! Emi was very excited to practice archery…just a great time. Ten is out on a boat this evening with a friend, and the kids and I made the long drive into New York to one of the river towns to visit a friend. It was an hour drive after finishing camp. Throw in a flat tire and trip to fix that, and you can imagine that we have had an eventful week.

Anyway, catch up continued. Two weekends ago Mia got invited to The Plaza in the city for a birthday party. Magical. I was so excited for her. I have been contemplating taking the girls to the Eloise tea there since this is one of our favorite books, so this was a good introduction to The Plaza. Good luck following those rambling sentences that I do not intend on fixing.

Hmmm…what’s in this bag? I think it was 6 new Eloise books for the girls to share.

Starting a bit at the end, but each girl came home with a few Eloise trinkets. A notepad, pencil, a door hanger, lip gloss, etc. Very cute.

This was an all girls party, so they were able to do very girly things. One event was to choose your own outfit for a fashion show. Mia went with an all white ensemble. She looks like an angel.

The usual pizza was pushed aside for tea sandwiches and fruit. Mia really liked the fruit but said that the bread was kind of dry/almost stale….hmmm…wonder what was up with that…and wonder if she would like the actual tea luncheon at The Plaza…mental note made.

The girls spent time coloring and decorating little bags to bring home. Our coloring sheets are still tucked away in our Eloise bag in the girls’ room.

You can’t have an Eloise party without a reading about Eloise.

Enjoying cupcakes

The girls got a chance to walk down the red carpet and model. This was apparently the best part of the party.

Mia had such a good time at this party, and Ten said it was one of the best parties that he has ever been to. The girls were all very well behaved, and they had such a fun time. I was so happy to be spending the morning with Emi and Kai at a different event, but I am dying to go to The Plaza for an Eloise tea party…because I am mentally 6 I suppose.

Before heading home, it looks like Mia got to stop by Ten’s office for a little cheesecake….because you know cheesecake after cupcakes….much needed.

This weekend made me so thankful that my kids get the best of everything here. Beach life, suburb life, and city life. Mia was a city kid for a while, so it’s always nice to get to go back in and hang out for an afternoon.

Statue of Liberty

 So, a little out of order but here are some pics of when Ten, Nana, PaPa, and Mia went to the city to visit the Statue of Liberty. Emi and I decided to sit this one out because she wasn’t feeling all that well and there was a heat advisory. It would have made for a miserable morning for a two year old.

So while I wasn’t there, I did get several pics and updates of their day.

They all made it to Grand Central. I love Grand Central. I feel like I’m in a movie every time I get off the train.

  

They headed straight to Battery Park to ride the ferry to Liberty Island. First, they made a stop at the Seaglass Carousel so that Mia could ride it. Looks so beautiful in pictures, but this group wasn’t impressed. I still want/need to see it in person.

  

….on the ferry…

  

….and then getting lunch immediately after. They had alreadt been gone all morning by this point.

  

Hi! Ten is clearly the photographer for the day.

  
    
  

Love this picture.

  

…but this is probably my favorite of the day.

    

An overcast day, but the city still looks so pretty.

    
  

The original torch inside of the pedestal.

  
    
    
  

Saying bye.

  
   

Tanabata 2017

 I’m going to skip a few days of our vacation (but will get back to working on those tomorrow) and talk about what we did for Tanabata. We make such a big effort to celebrate both American and Japanese  holidays, and I still think we need to balance things out a little more….but doing the best we can.

Anyway, so on Sunday we went to the Japan Society in the city to celebrate Tanabata. I personally find the Tanabata story just really sad….even the ending where the two get to be together….because it’s only one day!! …and only if it doesn’t rain!!! Kind of depressing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about…..Google can help.

So, on Sunday morning, the girls put on their jinbei and we caught a train to the city. It is just a lot cheaper than driving, and I don’t have to fight traffic. I also packed food for everyone , so we wouldn’t have to spend money eating out.

Jinbei for the day as yukata just seemed like a big hassle on the long ride/walk in the city. They are excited!

  

Lots of posing going on…or dancing?

    

We entered the room and it was decorated so nicely. It’s hard to see in this picture, but there was blue fabric and silver starts on the ceing.
  

The program began with a telling of the Tanabata story. Here is “older sister” telling the story.

  

Here comes the princess singing the Tanabata song. All of the actors are professional either here in the US or in Japan. She had a beautiful voice, and the kids enjoyed singing along.

  

This fabric represents the Milky Way dividing the two friends. I loved how the story tellers really helped the children understsnd how much Orihime and Hikoboshi meant to each other. Such a sweet way they showed them playing together.

  

The magpie came to help the two cross the Milky Way, but of course a few kids were chosen to help the magpie. There is Mia! She got chosen because we actually know one of the actors. 🙂

    

Yay reunited!

  

Seriously this story just makes me really sad…haha… even though kids love it. BTW the male actor is pretty famous and even starred in Rent in Japan.

  

Happy again….and concluding the story by telling all of the kids that they need to work and study hard…and always listen to their parents. A theme of the story.

After the performance, we chatted with so many nice people including a grandma who scolded us for not going to Japan! She basically said “what’s wrong with you!” to Ten…hahaha. We are working on it grandma.

  

Getting ready to write wishes.

  

Mia hanging hers.

  

Emi up next.

  

So what did they wish for…. Emi basically wants to see Elsa and Anna.

  

So blurry but Mia wants Santa to come soon….hahaha.

  

OK. So, when the show started the actors were walking through the room and mingling. Well one walked up to us and started talking when she looked at me and at the same time we both recognized each other! This was Mia’s teacher (in the blue) when she was just a tiny baby in the city! She was so excited to see Mia and was telling everyone about how she used to teach Mia. We love Asuka sensei so much! Such a small world….and apparently she has done a lot of acting in Japan on stage. I had no clue….she acted with a famous group…crazy, small world.

    
 

Happy family.

 

 So that was Tanabata this year. I feel like we should have done more but maybe the best I could do this year. It was such a nice event though.

Disney Packing and Hotel Stay

Ok. Here we go. On Thursday, we took Mia to school while we packed for our trip. I read a lot of useful blogs that talked about making goody bags for kids before you go to Disney. I thought that this sounded like such a good and fun idea. So, I packed these in our carry on to have for when we checked in to the hotel.



Mia’s bag included 2 t-shirts, pajamas, some stickers and activity books to keep her busy ar restaurants, sunglasses, and a litle Minnie Mouse.



Pretty much the same for Emi plus a hat since she needed one for the trip and summer in general.



Ten also got two Disney shirts along with a Babe Ruth shirt.



Shirts for myself along with a new hat. Yes, I’m sorry Grandma….and my fellow Missourians….I totally rock a Yankees shirt. I have married into the team if you know what I mean. My first loyalty goes to the Cardinals, but I also support the Yankees.

Anyway, when Mia got out of school, she had a light lunch and then we loaded up the car. We quickly swung by the town hall and registered Mia for soccer and then drove to the airport. The airport is only 40 min from us, but we decided to stay at an airport hotel for the night. Mia and Ten get very bad motion sickness, and we honestly didn’t want to wake up early in the mornig, so we stayed at a hotel. We parked our car at the Mariott and then went and checked in.

The hotel was nice and clean, and they had an area where you could check into your flight as well. Very convenient.



We had a really awesome view of the runway. Mia and Emi both loved watching the planes take off, and surprisingly it wasn’t all that loud.



Mia just cracks me up. She claimed this bed as soon as we walked into the room. She got under the covers and opened up her little bag full of snacks. Just made herself right at home.



Emi was also excited to stay at the hotel. She loved walking back and forth through the room and looking at herself in the bathroom mirror.

For dinner, we ordered a pizza and had some jasmine tea that we had brought with us from home. Then we a showered and headed to bed.





End of Day 1

4th of July Weekend 2014

Fourth of July was pretty spontaneous here in these parts. The weekend before we had this conversation:

Ten: “What are we doing for the 4th?”

Me: “Hmm….nothing.”

Ten: “Really?”

Me: “yeah”

I mean we weren’t going to see the fireworks this year since they moved them to the East Side, and Mia and Emi are just too little to drag down there. So, we were just going to hang out at home. Then July 2nd rolled around, and we were both like…we need to get out of the city. Yes, there was a hurricane coming, but we decided it would be way more fun to be stuck in a hotel with a pool than in our apartment.

So, we thought a little bit about it and decided to head to Greenwich, Connecticut. Lots of people go there for weekend getaways, and it isn’t too far by train. This was really important since Mia has been getting major motion sickness recently. So, we waited for a break in the weather on the 3rd and as soon as it looked like the skies were clear enough to travel, I booked two nights at the Hyatt in Old Greenwich. One night was free with our points, and we got a really great price for the second.

Anyway, and now for the massive photo dump of our trip.

 

I asked Mia if she wanted to go to a hotel for the weekend with a swimming pool. She immediately ran and grabbed her Totoro hat and jumped in the stroller. Apparently, we don’t need clothes for these types of outings.

On the train. Super excited to be escaping for a few days. No classes, no work, no cooking, no cleaning.

We were able to catch the shuttle from Old Greenwich station and arrived at the hotel a few minutes later. I think the whole trip took maybe an hour and half, so not too bad.

Arriving in the room and unpacking. Getting settled. It was around this time that we realized that Mia’s swimsuit wasn’t packed. Oops! We did have swim bottoms though, so we made it work.

We had a king bed for the three of us to sleep in, and we requested a crib for Emi. In all reality, we all ended up in the bed every night.

Small entrance area to the room. I always like it when there is a place to store our stroller and shoes. A barrier to the outside and where we sleep. Just makes things feel a bit cleaner.

 

Bathroom was a good size and nice and clean.

The view from our room. The hotel had a really nice and relaxing atrium. I should have gotten some more pictures 😦

The first night that we were there we arrived a little bit late in the evening, so we ran over to a shopping center and grabbed some Subway. We got back to the hotel at just about the time the storm rolled in.

Mia and Emi hanging out on the bed. Mia finishing up her personal pan cheese pizza. She didn’t eat it all, so we all had a small piece for breakfast the next day.

The next day (on the 4th), it rained and rained and rained some more. Hurrican Arthur was in full force, so we definitely didn’t head out at all. I think Ten went out once to grab some food. Me and the girls ran up and down hallways, found other kids to play with, and spent a decent amount of time banging on the hotel’s piano. Ten may have also bought a small Buzz and Woody for Mia to play with since we had brought no toys with us. We just didn’t have the space, but after using up diapers and things, Buzz and Woody weren’t hard to carry back home with us.

Friday, we spent lots of time at the hotel pool and me and Ten took separate turns watching the girls and going to the gym.

 

Spa time.

Playing in the “big bubbles” as Mia called it.

 

Hanging out in the atrium looking at the water fountains and indoor stream. Very nice.

 

Swimming in the pool and playing with beach balls. We were going to let Emi get in, but we thought the chlorine just smelled way too strong for her skin.

They have so much fun together in the pool.

I didn’t want to leave Emi out of this post, but this is basically what she was doing most of the time. Sleeping in the carrier…harder than I imagined taking a picture of her while she was strapped in.

Like I said, the weather was pretty terrible on Friday, so we ended up spending quite a bit of time in the room as well.

Mia in the zoo. She was seriously pretty content to hang out in the baby jail as well call these things.

For dinner that night, we just grabbed some things from the supermarket. Ten and I had these huge meaty sandwiches (God bless the USA), and Mia had mac and cheese and fried rice….balanced dinner I know.

Ten and I were really just relaxing while watching the Yankees game. The TV stand was kind of like our command center. Water, diapers, and Takis….everything you need for a rainy day.

 

Saturday was our last day in Old Greenwich. We had to be back in Manhattan that night so that everyone could rest up for Mia’s swim class on Sunday (which was a really big deal and another post in itself). However, we decided to have breakfast at the buffet and then go be creepers and walk around our soon to be neighborhood and spy on our soon to be house. I didn’t take pics of the house though…because I didn’t want to look too crazy.

Mia wanted to go to the buffet…..she didn’t realize the buffet meant restaurant…and needless to say, she was pretty disappointed…haha

My plate. A bit heavy on the meat and carbs, but hey…it is vacation, right?

Mia went to the omelet station and had them make this beauty. Yep that is melted cheese and ham…no eggs. She was pretty pleased with her creation.

Ten thought her choice was pretty comical…haha

 

For the rest of the weekend, we pretty much just hung out (besides going to one swim class). Mia also got her very own pack of water balloons which you would have thought was the greatest thing in the world. I mean she was so happy just to sit outside and play with them. It kept her busy for well over an hour.

Playing with the balloons on our rooftop deck. You know, I really, truly will miss city life….like desperately so.

Hmmm…how many water balloons can I carry at once?

Ms. Boss

Me and Emi watching the fun. I am going on about -5 hours of sleep here…so so tired…and apparently Emi looks hungry since she is eating her hand.

Seriously cute

 

P.S. Here are a few pictures from hanging out at the park near our soon to be house and the library. They are from my phone, so a last minute addition here. Seriously, biggest photo post ever.

 

Sports Day or Undokai

At the end of last month, Mia was able to attend her first Sport’s Day (or undōkai ) at a Japanese private school here in Manhattan. I have always been a bit stressed or sad about the fact that Mia would miss out on a lot of things that Japanese kids get to experience now that we live in the U.S. However, with a little bit of effort it looks like we can have the best of both worlds.

Anyway, we were invited to the event because of our involvement with the school’s summer camp this year. I got the invitation in an email and immediately sent in my RSVP. Mia didn’t need to attend all of the practice events due to the fact that she is only 2 so would only be participating in a few little games.

On the train. Excited and ready to go.

The event was held in the school on the second floor. Since we are in Manhattan and space is limited (like really, think shoe box), the kids were divided into different times for their age groups. Mia attended with the kinder students from 9-10:30.

Posing in front of the sign with the school’s name and the name of the event.

Emi and I sat this one out, so I received the following pictures from Ten on my cellphone while they were there. He also took maybe the cutest videos known to man. I mean seriously. Mia dancing with a group of kids to the Shimajiro theme song…I have never ever witnessed anything more adorable…besides maybe Skype conversations between my nephew (Seth) and Mia where they seriously speak in T-Rex tongue and run around in their respective houses….hilarious.

Standing with all of the regular students getting ready to dance. You can tell she is having a great time.

…and the photo dump continues….

Getting ready to participate in her very first race! The little girl in the picture will be her classmate for summer school. This was also in front of a large group of people, and Mia wasn’t shy in the least. Definitely takes after her dad.

Eating anpan that the kids got after the race was over. Mia didn’t even wait to sit down before she started eating. She just went for it…haha

 

Getting her medal after the race. She still loves to play with this at home and associates it with Shimajiro for whatever reason. Is it obvious that we have a big Shimajiro obsession going on here?

“I am THE champion.”

Throwing the bean bags in the basket. Seriously I wish I knew how to get this video from Ten as well because the intensity of Mia trying to throw them into the basket cannot be matched, and she was having a ball with this.

 

Chatting with some of the older kids during the break. She was actually supposed to be sitting with her age group, but she loves hanging out with older girls and boys.

Sport’s Day was a huge success! Mia and Ten had a great time. They went to Magnolia Bakery for a snack after, and she was non stop talking about Shimajiro for a week straight. She was also speaking loads of Japanese. After events like this, I am so confident in our decision for Mia’s pre-school education. We have decided to send her to Japanese pre-school from the ages of 2-5. After that, she will enter the US public school system, but for now we think that a Japanese cultural/language environment is what is best.

I cannot wait for both Mia and Emi (and future kids…keeping the door open you know) to take advantage of all of these fun events in the coming months and years!