bonnie & jason

Amanda and Ashley’s first birthday party

We had a small party for the twins today at Yeah! restaurant in Redwood City. We were able to rent out nearly the entire restaurant and ended up packing it entirely with good friends and family. The food was pretty good I thought although they were late in serving and slow to replenish. But otherwise, I think everyone had a good time. Bonnie brought a bunch of crayons and coloring books for the smaller kids. And we hired a balloonist to make all sorts of fun things that both smaller and bigger kids seemed to enjoy. Also, I put together a video to play on the flat screen in the background. The first half is the same video I did covering their first few days and the second half is from the rest of the year.

2010 01 30 Ashley Amanda birthday video from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

And what is a birthday party without birthday cake?! We ordered this one from Anderson Bakery. (Bonnie made the lady bugs and bumblebees with fondant herself.) It was pretty tasty… white cake, strawberry cream frosting and raspberry filling. Just sweet enough and very tasty.

We had to wake Ashley up to cut the cake. Neither she nor Amanda was all that into it.

Look at that chubster! Jacqueline is pretty cheeky herself. (KIDDING Benita… jeesh.)

I thought this was a nice family pic of the Wee’s.

More pics here.

Can you find the baby?

Last night, Amanda and Ashley were playing in the play area and then Ashley decided to just take a nap amidst the toys. Can you find her?

Alissa finally tall enough for her tricycle

It was actually kinda nice late this morning so I took Alissa to the park with my mom. Alissa is finally tall enough to reach the pedals on her tricycle so we rode there. She still isn’t tall/strong enough to go up any sort of hill, but on the flats, she goes pretty good!

Ashley practically running!

Ok, she’s not running. But from the video, you can see she’s gone from taking a few tentative steps at a time to really getting a move on. They grow up so fast… *sniff*.

Amanda is ready to take her first steps, but she’s kinda chicken. Won’t be long though before they’re all doing laps around the house.

Ashley’s first real steps

Ashley has been taking single steps here and there for a couple weeks now. But today, she did eight steps in a row so I think I would call today the day she really started walking. Alissa was at this stage right at her first birthday so Ashley seems to be tracking right about the same as her birthday is only a couple weeks away. Amanda has started taking a step here and there as well so I’m sure she’ll be walking right around her birthday as well. Great… thankfully, we bought a gate to contain the madness!

Random pictures from the little camera

I did a purge of the pictures from our little camera and thought these were worth sharing.

Daddy pedicure.

Not bad form!

Chunky legs.

Chicken legs.

Daddy’s girl.

Mommy’s girl.

Amanda presiding over daddy’s gut.

Alissa’s POV.

How YOU doin?

How a three year old and almost one year old’s play.

Too cool for school.

Amanda and Alissa at my desk

This is just one of those random moments in my day. Thought I’d try a little black and white for a change. Also, to capture the documentary style of Alissa’s first “good” picture. (The one of my fat, wrinkly face… getting old!) I’m not sure she actually looks through the view finder… it seems like she squints the wrong eye. In which case, all the more impressive I guess. =)

Alissa’s first school picture

She’s sporting her fake smile and she’s too short to reach the floor. For some reason she looks kinda pudgy to me. And we thought it would be a 3/4 length picture so she’s still wearing her play shoes… oh well. But as far as school pictures go, not bad.

A few random Ashley pictures

Another Beta 22 done

This one is for head-fi forum member Xanthos. Here are the specs:

3-channel Beta 22 with a gain of 5
1 sigma 22 with 100VA toroid
Nichicon Muse KZ caps used throughout
Single RCA input
DACT stepped attenuator
Neutrik locking headphone jack
Bulgin power switch
Vampire wire used for input and outputs
Dual enclosures from par metal
Neutrik Speakon locking power cable

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. At this point, I’m getting more efficient at both the case work and the trouble shooting and have enough experience to just build these without putting too much energy into the detailed layout and planning. And of course, it sounds fantastic!