Team Zanger: With God, All Things are Possible: May 2013

For Emma's 2nd Birthday party we decided to have a combined party with Isaac, her best friend, since they were born just 2 weeks apart. Isaac's Mommy, Gail, was the one who came up with the Carnival theme and actually did most of the creative work in putting it together. We had carnival games & carnival food & carnival decorations for all of the little (& big) people who came. Emma loved it, although was a little overwhelmed with all the people who came. She definitely got that it was her party, though, when she got to sit down amongst a huge pile of gifts at the end and tear into them all. This was right around the time where she was just figuring out what birthday parties were and LOVED singing "Ha-Butay You You!" to anyone and everyone. Here are some photos from the event.

Excited and on the way to the party.

Got my birthday cupcake and gonna eat it any way I like!

Many of the guests who came.

Will eyeing Emma's cupcake.

Opening presents.

My big 2 year old!

This was the best we could do at getting them to sit down and take a picture together.

Gail made a picture wall of the two of them growing up together.

Daddy and Emma at the Plinko board.

Goldfish Toss (not real fish)

Dad worked the "Wheel of Fortune" game.

The food and gift table.

The cupcakes. (My contribution.) :)

Wide view of the room.

Lucky Ducky game.

Singing Happy Birthday to Emma.

Eating cupcakes together.

What Will did during the party... eat paper!

Ok, I know it has been 2 months since my last post and I am really sorry. I knew that I got WAY behind and had so many good things to post about but it just got too much so I kind of started "blogging" on facebook instead of here. Sorry! This post was the one that in my mind was the biggest since we had SO many pictures of when my dad was here. BUT... I'm finally getting it done!

Dad visited us back in March for 2 weeks and we had a blast with him. He happened to be here right at the time Emma turned 2 years old and Will turned 6 months. So, he got to be a part of birthday parties, photo shoots, Easter, daily life, and special tourism outings. I think he thoroughly enjoyed his time here. Below are 34 out of probably 1,000 pictures he (and us) took during that time. They loaded in a really random order and it is too hard to try to fix it. Sorry! I'll try to put a caption with most of them to tell you what was happening. LOVED having family visit! When we move to Omaha we would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have any and all family and friends come stay with us. :) There's your open invitation. Please, use it!

Dinner at the Zanger home.

Granddad with our two cuties. About to head to our family photo session.

Just hangin' with the grandkids, throwing rocks into a pond.

Do we look like family?

Will and Granddad singing in church.

Visiting the outdoor market.

If you saw the video on facebook, Emma's wish for her birthday was to go to HomePlus (her favorite place to shop... think Wal-Mart slightly glorified), with Granddad, on a bus, and to get an orange balloon.

Well, we don't take the bus much anymore but she had remembered doing that from the last time my parents were here so...

We obliged. :)

Granddad tasting kimchi for the 1st time at the HomePlus foodcourt.

And there's the orange balloon!

Oh yeah! And shortly after Dad arrived, Eric had to have a minor hernia repair surgery. That was(n't) fun. But, thankfully Dad was here to help pick up the slack with kids (and taking the trash out!) :)

Dad and I were able to take a great tour to the DMZ before he left. It was one of his lifetime dreams come true. This was us down at the bottom of one of the former infiltration tunnels on the tour.

Dad standing in front of a sign that says, "to Pyeongyang." That's N. Korea. We were at the last subway/train stop of the S. Korean line before you get to N. Korea. Obviously you can't actually take the subway to N. Korea. But maybe one day...

Dorasan Station is the name of the train stop.

Dad and I with the "blue buildings" in the background where they have the N & S Peace Talks. Also, the big building behind us is in N. Korea.

We stepped over the 1/2 way line in the blue building and were standing IN N. Korea!

Laurie in the S. Dad in the N.

Dad with N. Korea behind him.

Me with the N. behind me. That flag is in the North's "Propaganda City" and that flag and flagpole are one of the biggest in the world. The flag has a dry weight of 600 pounds. Obviously they wanted us to see it!

Dad got to experience some great Korean food. Not that it was his favorite... but at least he got to experience it!

Me and my babies! (I love being their favorite person!)

Backing up... Dad's first full day was spent at Emma's birthday party. We shared it with her best friend, Isaac. We had a carnival theme and had lots of fun. I'll do another, separate, post about the party later.