bonnie & jason

Kira’s birthday party

We took the kids to a gymnastic’s based birthday party last weekend. Amanda really loved it. She’s definitely the daredevil of the three.

Here she is enjoying some of the soft wedge shaped thingys:

Ashley was a bit more timid but seemed to have a good time as well:

And Alissa took a little while to warm up by finally took her turn on the trampoline and other apparatus. That being said, I think she liked the bubbles the most.

Here’s the birthday girl herself mid hop on the long trampoline:

After changing into her minnie mouse dress:

Getting ready for cake:

I think all the kids were really really ready for cake:

Blowing out the candles:

And finally, eating cake!

Is she a cutie or what? Of course, brother Reid got his fair share as well:

And you can’t finish off with cake… you must have more sugar. In this case, a dum dum lollipop:

Surprise birthday party for a 35 year old… at hop -n- play

We went to a surprise birthday party for Jeff today. At hop -n- play in Tanforan mall. Obviously, the party location was more for the kids than the birthday boy. One of the many sacrifices we parents make. Amanda slept through most of it, but here are a few pics:

Here’s a short non-descript video as well (it’s mostly just practicing how to shoot video with a DSLR.)

2010 05 09 Jeff’s birthday from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Nice day to test out the new backyard

Ken, Jen, Connor, and Lucas came over for lunch today and to help Alissa break in her new playhouse. (It’s almost done.) It was a great day weather wise and I think the kids had almost as much fun with the new mulch as they did with the sand box, playhouse, and sidewalk chalk.

It’s nice to have a backyard that is usable. Might need to get an umbrella next though. Or maybe one of those big propane heaters for the colder days. Or do they make a kid friendly fire pit?

Perfect size sandbox! (Extension cord is in the background… trying to put the finishing touches on the left side window.)

Alissa and Connor “tagging” the sidewalk:

And hanging out the window of the playhouse:

Even the babies can reach the window:

Anna and Andy’s wedding

Wedding = date night and yesterday, we went to Andy and Anna’s wedding at Viansa winery in Sonoma (just down the road from Sears Point, sorry, Infineon raceway). It was a beautiful day and a beautiful venue with lots of good food and drink that started with a unique poignant ceremony and ended with heartfelt and choked up speeches.

Here are some pictures:

Jackie’s Red Egg & Ginger party

Yes, I know, you’re tired of hearing about all these kid parties. Sorry, it’s just the stage of life we’re in at the moment. First it was pool parties and ski trips. Then it was bachelor parties and weddings. And now it’s baby parties. I think we’re beyond the peak of these things at this point, but still far from the end of them given baby showers and red egg & ginger parties turn into birthday parties, graduations, and so on.

Anyway, this past weekend we went to Jacqueline’s party. I hate to admit that I’m less diligent about taking pictures these days but it’s the truth. I did manage to snap a few though.
She totally looks like Kathy:

Ryan got his fill of junk food just like Alissa:

Whom he wasn’t interested in taking a picture with:

Even with the mom’s:

And now with Kathy, Aidan, and Jackie in the mix:

Aidan’s pizza party

Aidan had a Thomas the Train bday party today:

Jacqueline is cuter and cuter every time we see her:

The girls were pretty well behaved:

Even after we got home:

Bea’s first birthday Bea-B-Q

Our friends Ravi and Jen had a shin dig at their new place this weekend to celebrate Bea’s birthday. We could only make it to the last hour or so but were glad to make it out to see Bea (who is looking more like Ravi it seems) along with their sweet new backyard. Maybe someday we’ll be able to turn our jungle into something as nice as theirs. Anywho, as is typical with these kinds of parties, lots of cute babies were around so I took the liberty of taking some snaps. Here are some of my favorites:

Birthday girl:

Bea chowing down on a wooden star:

Bea giving me her, “This is MY house… don’t you tell me to smile… I’ll smile when I’m good and ready!” look.

One of mine:

Another one of mine with Erika:

“Yea, he’s my dad. I’m not exactly jumping up and down but he makes a decent BBQ pork.”

“Mom, on the other hand, is finger licking good.”

“Yes, I do have big eyes.”

“Whatchoo lookin’ at?”

From rags to riches

Rags… (shingled half of the shed Sunday… hopefully finish the whole thing this weekend.)

… to riches

We visited Jef, Xiao Yi, and Gavin this weekend at their beautiful new place in Burlingame. Xiao Yi made a fantastic dinner as always. Beef noodle soup and onion pancakes. Very Taiwanese. And very tasty. Afterwards, we went for a short walk.

Alissa is getting faster and faster.

And she likes to push rather than ride in her stroller.

(I had to make her walk in the grass because the road was too steep and she would certainly have face planted on the way down.)

Gavin is so much bigger than last time we saw him.

And finally, here’s a random pic of Amanda.

Welcome Jacqueline!

Congrats to Eric and Kathy on the birth of their daughter!

Trip back east

Our annual pilgrimage back east almost didn’t happen this year. First, we weren’t sure we wanted to schlep everyone cross country to begin with. Second, with Amanda being susceptible to viruses, and the whole swine flu thing, traveling seemed a bit risky. And finally, after we had made arrangements to go after all, Alissa ended up with a fever the night before we were scheduled to leave. In the end, we decided that the trip wasn’t going to get any easier, Amanda would be fine and they do have doctors in New Jersey anyway, and Alissa’s fever broke before we had to leave for the airport so off we went.

All in all, it was a great trip. For the first half of the trip, the plan was to stay with Vin, Denise, Henry, and Gunther. While we were there, Jenny visited with her daughter Maddie. Last time we were in town, Jenny was just a few days short of giving birth, Denise was pregnant with Henry, and we just had Alissa. So lunch was a pretty straight forward affair with all the adults and just one baby. How things have changed! Here’s a pic with the babies and most of the adults.

And here’s me with all the babies:

And Henry having his way with Ashley:

Good times.

Part two of the trip was to attend Mary’s wedding. We hadn’t seen Mary in a while and were excited to witness her happy day and to meet her now husband. This is the first trip where I didn’t bring my big camera gear but here are a few pics I took with our point and shoot:

From the wedding, we were supposed to go stay with my cousin Anna but Aidan was just getting over the flu and we didn’t want to risk the kids getting sick so we ended up staying with Geoff and Asha that night. They were very gracious hosts especially considering the last minute situation and the fact that it’s no small feat to accommodate all five of us. Kiran and Alissa got along fine even though he’s a little bit older.

The next day, we went to the Pepsi headquarter’s sculpture garden.

Then it was back to the Chao residence for the remainder of our stay (after a short visit with my cousin… poor Aidan was sequestered 100 feet away). Henry was happy to see us again. More specifically, he was happy to see Ashley and her feet.

That Henry is a character:

So all in all, even though it was a very demanding trip both physically and emotionally, it was well worth it to spend time with the friends and family we don’t get to see very often. Will we do it again next year. Hmm… we’ll see. I should have taken a picture of us trying to wrangle the two infant seats, two strollers, one car seat, three pieces of luggage, and of course, the three kids. Thankfully, we got help from random strangers on both the flight out and the flight back. On the flight out, the person sitting next to Bonnie was a mom to three kids, two of whom were twins. So she was both sympathetic and also took a stint holding Amanda for a while. On the way back, a nice man helped us with our luggage out to baggage claim. He was also a parent of twins. Anyway, like I said, we’ll see.