By:
On:
In: Food, Japan, Life

This is our third year of hosting Thanksgiving dinner. Unlike previous years where we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for all our Japanese and European friends, this year we hosted Thanksgiving for E’s Girl Scouts of America troop. It was our troops very first Thanksgiving since it was created a year ago. Everyone brought a dish and everything was incredibly delicious. Since everyone brought something to share, I only had to cook a few things instead of the entire dinner. One mom read a book about the first Thanksgiving and about the pilgrims to the girls so that they could appreciate this holiday. To make thisRead More →

By:
On:
In: Family, Life, Updates

Funny how I posted back in March but then everything went silent again. Yea, I do that a lot these days. To be honest, I was ready to toss in the towel with the blog. Social media is so popular and easy to use these days that I find myself posting a lot on Facebook and on Instagram. In fact, I have three instagram accounts. THREE!! I can barely keep up with those so it’s no surprise I can keep up with everything. However, last night Jason was looking through the blog to show E some pictures from when she was younger. He ended upRead More →

By:
On:
In: Family, Life

This month has been a very active month. So much traveling around, my in-laws visiting, science fair, E’s birthday, and the end of E’s kindergarten years. It has been a good month I think. By the way, I realized I never posted the one for February since we were in Kyoto at the time the month ended and things got so busy afterwards that it slipped my mind. So check out what our February looked like.Read More →

By:
On:
In: Life, Parenthood

It’s hard to believe that in one week, E will officially be a first grader. I’ve started pulling together all the bags and school stuff she will need from next week on. It feels a little weird to have to retire this bag that she’s used for almost 2 years and replace it with her brand new, yet-to-be-broken-in school bag. We’ve got one more week. One more week before she starts “real” school. No more snack time. No more park time. No more home lunch. I just hope she’ll adjust quickly or it’s going to be a long year ahead of us.Read More →

By:
On:
In: Life, Parenthood

This week was E’s last week at her school. We ended our time here by taking part in the annual school science fair and the spring picnic. First was the science fair, which happened earlier this week. This year, E’s class did a presentation on their class turtle, Alex. It wasn’t as exciting as last year since the kids didn’t actually do any science experiments but they did well talking about the turtle as a group. Like last year, E and I did a science experiment after the kids’ presentations. This year, we did the coloring milk experiment. The kids loved it when the dishRead More →

By:
On:
In: Life, Parenthood

Can you believe that 6 years ago, E was this tiny? (She’s technically a month old here) This little baby who changed Jason and my world forever turns 6 today. Six!!! Sometimes I can’t believe how quickly time has passed. She’s grown so much these past few years and is very much an explorer of her own world. She’s full of curiosity and is always observing the world around her and questions things she sees. Her imagination is so vivid and amazing and she is so articulate when she describes them to me. She’s also very shy and hates being at the center of attentionRead More →

By:
On:
In: Life, Reflections

Can you believe that the first month of 2015 is coming to an end already? This will feel like such a boring post for most people to read but I just want to document what our life is like right now. It may seem boring and uneventful now but years down the road when our memories are beginning to fail us, I’d like to look back and read posts like these and remember what our lives were like… This month has been a busy month as we returned from the US and had to reacclimate to life in Tokyo again. We were gone for almostRead More →

By:
On:
In: Life, Reflections

embrace [em-breys] verb (used with object), embraced, embracing. 1.to take or clasp in the arms; press to the bosom; hug. 2.to take or receive gladly or eagerly; accept willingly 3.to avail oneself of: to embrace an opportunity. 4.to take in with the eye or the mind. This year, I had contemplated on skipping resolutions, goals and the whole one-little-word thing. It’s been a hard few months on me with everything that had gone on with my grandmother and her death. To be honest, I was feeling a mixture of sadness, guilt and regret for not being there for her when she most needed her familyRead More →