Happy Easter!

We had a nice Easter Sunday. A couple of weeks ago I took Sakura to have some pictures taken in her Easter outfit and also took along my camera to take some pics myself. These first few pictures I took of Sakura at the Gateway Park which is right beside the Colorado River. The park is really pretty - nice and green. Sakura enjoyed being out in the nice warm weather. Today for Easter we were in Phoenix with my Mom and Stepdad. Sakura got up and discovered that the Easter bunny had found her at Grandma and Papa's house and dug right in to her basket. She got a couple of Tea Collection outfits, a chocolate duck, some books, some eggs that Grandma filled with goldfish and Puffs, a stuffed sheep, a Hello Kitty disguised as the Easter Bunny, and a Build-A-Bear bunny named Blossom. Funny Sakura went right straight for the chocolate duck - she didn't get to eat any, but she enjoyed looking at it :) She also really liked the filled eggs and the grass - LOL!

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Peek-A-Boo

Sakura Easter 2010

Sakura enjoying her Easter dinner - ham, brocolli, cheesy potatoes and then she really enjoyed her strawberry angel food cake for dessert. Sakura LOVES strawberries!

Even Wrigley was pooped!

The Easter Bunny came!

Sakura checking out the eggs

Hmmm, what else is in here?

Back to the eggs after getting dressed

She kept taking the eggs out of the bowl and putting them in her basket

Awwww, Sakura loves Blossom

And the eggs - again! At this point she didn't even know they were filled with yummy things!

Playing with her wind-up butterfly

Breakfast at Mimis - Sakura figured those eggs out and Grandma became her very best friend!

What's up with her tongue these days? She sticks it out ALL the time - like a lizard.

Butterfly

Sitting amongst the flowers

One TIRED baby

HAPPY 2nd Easter Sakura chan, the Lord has Risen and Blessed us beyond measure!!!

Catching with pics

Seems like it's been a busy couple of weeks. I got sick, the Sakura started to get it, but fought it off and now I wonder if it wasn't just teething. Sakura has sprouted two more top teeth, and it looks like there are two more on the way (on the bottom) - but at the rate Sakura gets teeth it could be another month before we see any white pop through :) She seems to get her teeth two at a time, poor baby. The camera is never far away, and even though I may not be posting, I'm still taking lots of pictures. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Sakura ready to go to the mall to look for some slacks for Daddy to match his suit jacket, unfortunately we've had some very sad news this last week - our beloved Uncle Fred lost his fight with cancer, we will head to California next week for services. We will miss Uncle Fred terribly, he was a wonderful man, who always went out of his way to help others. He helped my Mother inlaw and her sisters translate all of the paperwork we got from Japan back when we were just finding out about Mamas and Papas (ATWA in the partner here in the USA) that led us to our baby girl. When we returned home with Sakura, Uncle Fred couldn't wait to meet her - on subsequent visits to California, Uncle Fred was battling cancer and remained dedicated to Sakura and wanted us to visit with her so he could see her.

Where's Papa? Outside.....Sakura says Papa very clear, she loves her Papa soooo much!

Playing Peek-A-Boo with Mommy on the couch

Watching Inai Inai Baa - her Japanese baby show.

Cuddling her Easter frog from Katie (my good friend and Sakura's babysitter)

My what good ears you have Easter frog

Watching out the window waiting for Daddy to come home - she tells Yancha "Git"

Enjoying some Cheerios

More Cheerios - Sakura loves to have things in small bowls/plates, today she wanted to dump them out and then put them back in the bowl....Silly Girl!

Wearing a pretty dress that Auntie Misty sent her a while ago, it finally fits, and is SO cute on Sakura! Thanks Auntie Misty!

Gotcha Day part two

Today we celebrated by taking the day off work and spending the day together reminiscing about our time in Roppongi Hills just one short year ago. It's hard to imagine that one little person could change our lives so much - and for the better I might add. Sakura has blessed both of us beyond measure - we love her more than life itself.

Sakura started her day with a great nap in the morning and then we headed to Sakura's favorite spot....The Creative Playground, Sakura LOVES the park, especially the swings.

Mommy and Sakura at the park entrance

Me and my favorite girl!

First we went down the slide...Sakura was unsure at first

But by the time we reached the bottom, she loved it - this is a FAST slide!

The smaller slide for Sakura with a little help from Mommy - Sakura didn't like this one!

Sakura the bunny - not too fond of being a bunny

Can you tell we have an acrobat baby?

"You get me down from this rock"!

Daddy and his girl

Mommy and Sakura

Our family

Then we enjoyed dinner out at a Chinese restaurant since last year on this day we enjoyed our first meal as a family, at a Chinese restaurant in Roppongi Hills, accompanied by Okada San, Manami, Taz, Kazuya, Cheryl and Dave, we hope that the Watanabe family of 4 is having a great day too!

Looks like Sakura is telling me something here - hopefully it has something to do with the fun she had at the park and how much she enjoyed spending our special day all together.

Yummy Palagor Inn -

Our favorite Chinese here - today we got the "A Team" as Daddy called it,

the owner was cooking and he is by far the BEST!

Sakura opened her first Tiffany box, for her Gotcha Day gift -
which contained a child's place setting of a yellow duck plate and cup

(do you sense a theme here yet? Like I said in the Part 1 post, one of our favorite photos of Sakura was taken for her passport - symbolizing her coming home, so I wanted to do something special for her 1st Gotcha Day anniversary and get her something that she'd keep forever. )

Playing with her box - she wasn't real cooperative with photos tonight -

sigh I guess she's getting to that age :(

Sakura enjoyed the wrapping and the box - along with clanking the cup on the plate,

it was soon removed before it got broken!

Ironically the bottom says "Made in Japan" - just like Sakura!

I had a cake made for our special day with small yellow ducks on it, the cake doesn't look anything like I envisioned, but what do you do when you're there to pick it up and it isn't what you wanted? It still had ducks and it was really good - Strawberry (Sakura's favorite fruit!).

I ♥ ice cream!

Goes straight for it!

Messy face and almost gone!

Sakura ended the day in her ducky jammies - she also received a special present in the mail today and Sakura LOVES these shoes!

Mooshu Trainers, shoes that squeak....here she is trying to put them back on her feet after we'd walked in them and taken them off. I removed the adorable clippies so they didn't get lost. Normally Sakura squawks at putting shoes on, as she knows that means we are going somewhere and she will be enjoying (or NOT) a ride in the car!

We had a fantastic day together today as you can see.