What a fun Easter weekend! Started off on Friday with a party at daycare, where the kids dyed eggs, decorated baskets, and participated in an egg hunt.

That evening, we had some friends over for dinner and Settlers. Peter brought an awesome egg cake from Ettores (the bakery that did my wedding cake) and a bunny cookie for Zachary. Zachary loved it – laughed as he was eating the bunny.

On Saturday, we went to an Easter carnival and egg hunt sponsored by the city. Zach had lots of fun – and scored a lot of advertisements/coupons from local vendors in plastic eggs.

Right after the lunch, we drove to the Bay Area. My sister Alice held another egg hunt. The “adults” had to find eggs with their legs tied together, similar to a 3-legged race. All 77 eggs were found. Then we decorated eggs. Around evening time, we headed over to Sophie’s apartment, She prepared mu-shu pork and roasted duck for us (okay, the duck was store bought, but she did heat it up.) Yummy! After Zach went to sleep, we played Puerto Rico. I won by dominating a cheap product (corn) – it was a weird strategy I had no idea would actually pan out.

Sunday, we spent the day at James’ grandmother’s house in San Jose. She is not doing well (cancer), but surrounded by loved ones. James’ mom prepared a nice hearty lunch/dinner of ham, rolls, scalloped potatoes, and asparagus. We drove back home before Zachary’s bedtime.

Here is a continuation of Zachary’s birthday celebration, including pictures of him with his Aunties from his birthday party. We decided to let Zachary open gifts throughout the week, rather than all on his birthday.

Note to parents: Leappad can be very frustrating when it does not do exactly what the child intends. For example, if the B makes a “cuh!” (C) sound, tears will start flowing!

The weekend after his birthday party was actually closer to his actual birthday. We celebrated by going to Mikunis, where Zachary feasted on only white rice. That would explain why, at his 2-year-old doctor’s appointment, he measured  at 32.5 inches (10%) and 25 lbs (15%). And that 25 lbs was fully clothed with a loaded diaper. On a more positive note, even though he doesn’t talk much, his word count (~140) is still in the normal range. The doctor wasn’t concerned since Zachary could string together 2 words. I guess if Zachary’s normal, the kids in his daycare singing songs must be super verbal! He whined through his two shots, but didn’t shed any tears. Apparently, Leappad makes him angrier than a Hepatitis A shot.

Here are some pictures of him at the park – the weather right now is excellent. In a few weeks, I bet it’ll start getting too hot!

This time 2 years ago, I was playing Settlers and making very poor trades because I was playing through contractions…(Eh, who am I kidding? I still make bad trades!)

April 2004

April 2005                                                              April 2006

  HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY ZACHARY!

This past weekend, we celebrated Zachary’s 2nd birthday (his actual birthday is April 6th) with 57 people at our house! Yeah! We kept it very simple with appetizers, take-n-bake pizza, and sandwich rolls from Costco. For favors, we handed out train engineer hats and a wooden whistle, wrapped in a bandana. And despite very clear instructions not to buy gifts, some of our guests just could not help themselves; Zachary still ended up with loot. Thanks to everyone who helped share this special day with us!

Of course, it would not be a party without items left at our house. So … anyone missing a camera or 2 dinosaur books, please let me know. You will need to provide the brand of camera plus a description of at least one picture to claim the camera. For the books, you must summarize the 2 stories.

<pics of Zach wih Aunties later>