the stories of us...: March 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Isla's Baby Shower

This weekend my Mom and Aunt Sandy hosted a beautiful baby shower for our Little Miss Isla Kawahito! It was such a special day. My Mom and Aunt did so many sweet and thoughtful things to make the day memorable and unique and it meant so much to me that they came in from Toronto and that so many of my girlfriends were able to make it as well. I'm so excited to meet this little lady and to see what kind of big sister Mikaella will be and the shower was such a wonderful way to welcome her arrival. Only a couple more months to go!

The adorable invites!

Cherry Blossoms are my favourite!!

The cupcakes were from Magnolia Bakery and were scrumptious!! http://www.magnoliabakery.com/home.php

The entire house was covered in fresh pink flowers~

Hilarious game that my mom played and we had to see how Daddy did! [the winners of the games won prizes to go to DryBar!]

My Mom asked everyone to sign a heart that she had sewn onto a piece of fabric so she could make Little Isla a quilt~!

Everyone recieved a pair of heart slippers.

Our amazing new bassinet that my mom and girlfriends picked out! I can't wait to see our little sweetie snuggled up in there :) http://www.montedesign.net/bassinet.html

So funny! A little gift for Mikaella to not have her feel left out.

One of the most creative gifts! A set of baby wash clothes rolled up into sushi roles to celebrate our Japanese heritage!

~Mammoth~

We had our first family adventure to Mammoth this month and had such a great time. Mikaella loved playing in the snow and watching everyone skiing and snowboarding. We considered having her take her 1st private lesson but decided to wait till next year when she would have a little more coordination but when we went to the mountain she found the hill where they teach the little ones how to ski and she was very eager to try and put her ski boot in pair of ski's she found and kept pointing to go up the chair lift! We have decided that we will make this an annual tradition :)
Here are some pictures from our trip there...

We went up with another family and the kids were so cute together. We would have hot chocolate in our chalet, hang out in the hot tub and pool and loved every minute. The drive there was spectacular and we stopped in at Erick Schats Bakery and it is a must for anyone else heading up there!! http://www.erickschatsbakery.com/

Monday, March 5, 2012

SIAAT a.k.a. "Sites I am addicted to!"

So, from time to time I want to share websites that have caught my eye [and that I may spend too much time on!] so I will be referring to them as SIAAT's.

Here's my latest craze....

http://www.houzz.com/

Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home

Tonight Jim, Mikaella, Honey and I went down to the beach which is at the end of our street and watched the sunset. It was exceptionally pretty tonight and made me think of all the amazing times we've had here. We met 7 blocks away at a little beach bar and have so many memories since we've been together. Jim surfs right by this pier at the end of our street and while I was pregnant with Mikaella we would go together almost every night after work. I'd watch him until the sun went down and I would feel Mikaella kicking away in my tummy and then when she was 2 days old we brought her here and from that day forward she has spent almost every day here exploring and playing and enjoying all that the beach has to offer. We would bring her here to practice walking since it's a very forgiving surface to take some tumbles! and now that we are pregnant with our 2nd little girl, we are enjoying all the same memories all over again but now with our little sweetie.

I've been thinking a lot about where is best to raise a family. We think it's very beneficial to be so close to the ocean but on the other hand what we forfeit is space. We will have to make a move in the somewhat near future as we will outgrow our current space as we hope to have one or two more kiddies and we need to figure out a better solution for our children's education as the public school district for our zip code is unfortunately not great. I've had to really educate myself on the different areas within Los Angeles that possess a strong school board as they are not as common as one would think. The private schools in the area are quite good but Jim and I would much prefer Mikaella and her future siblings to go to a strong public school. Our goal is to try and stay close to the ocean but in an area that has a strong school system but also isn't too far from Jims office. I can't believe how many factors have to be considered when deciding where you will raise a family but it's a decision that I take very seriously. I have visions of what I think would be great but then I get very sentimental about our current home. This is where we spent our time together as newlyweds; this is where we brought Mikaella home from the hospital and this will be where our daughters will spend their early days as sisters together. I love that we have had a myriad of visitors over the last 2 years that we have been here and I adore the memories that we have made with all of our friends and family. I think we are getting further in our decision making and will keep you posted on where we decide to move but in the meantime, we will continue enjoying every day that we have here on Galleon Street :)

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun...

Today Mikaella and I had a good ol' fashioned girls day of shopping. We needed to look for a snowsuit for our upcoming ski/snowboard trip to Mammoth and although we turned up empty handed as every store we went to was showcasing their summer collections we had a great day.

Here's how it all began...

Got to get our start at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf