Jacob turned 12 last December but just got his birthday dinner two weeks ago. He chose CiCi's Pizza Buffet. I was excited because we finally had coupons! Buy one adult buffet with a drink and get one free.
But then I read the fine print and it said "Carry Out Only." How do you carry out a buffet? The cashier cleared it up for me when I presented the coupons before we paid. "It's a misprint."
I had looked up their menu online and discovered that I could have 4 slices of Veggie Italiano for only 10 points(yes I'm doing Weight Watchers again.) It was delicious and satisfying. The kids enjoyed lots of helpings of the Macaroni and Cheese Pizza, always their favorite. And thanks to Kevin's pocketful of quarters, they also got to enjoy the game room.
The only thing missing was Emma. She had to miss once again because she was working.
Showing posts with label Birthday Dinner Tradition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birthday Dinner Tradition. Show all posts
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Friday, December 10, 2010
oh, december
This is the first year in a long time I did not venture out on Black Friday. I've done all my shopping so far online. I just don't have the energy to face the crowds and the traffic. This year has been one of such loss, combine that with the darkness that comes this time of year on the north coast and I'm not surprised at all at my lack of Christmas spirit.
I did manage to get the tree up and George and the daycare kids had fun decorating it. Most of the ornaments are in the middle half of the tree, out of reach of the daycare baby, but none higher than they(George and the daycare kids) can reach.
Our pastor is preaching a series on an Uncommon Christmas. That is so appropriate. This is a very Uncommon December for me so far.
December is a month of birthdays in our house. There's JESUS!! and then there's my dad, Kevin, Rachel, my mom, and Jacob. With Em hot on their tails Jan. 2.
I got together with my sister to send an Edible Arrangement to my mom and dad. Combo gift on the giving AND the receiving end. They are both on Weight Watchers so they loved it. It was just like the picture and so easy. The store is less than a mile from their house so we had them pick it up to give them an excuse to get out of their cozy Villages cluster home and get some fresh air.
Rachel got her birthday dinner at Cici's Pizza a little early due to most of us being together and daycare clients canceling. Em was the only one missing but she had been there a few days earlier on a date so she didn't miss too much.
Kevin had a nice steak dinner on his birthday. Followed by white cake with homemade chocolate icing. He was home late due to a community service project of Sherwin Williams. They sponsor the kids at Barbara Booker Elementary School in Cleveland for Christmas. Kevin helped deliver all the boxes of presents.
That's a lot of activity for December being only 10 days old. There's lots of other changes in the works I'll get into soon.
TTFN.
I did manage to get the tree up and George and the daycare kids had fun decorating it. Most of the ornaments are in the middle half of the tree, out of reach of the daycare baby, but none higher than they(George and the daycare kids) can reach.
Our pastor is preaching a series on an Uncommon Christmas. That is so appropriate. This is a very Uncommon December for me so far.
December is a month of birthdays in our house. There's JESUS!! and then there's my dad, Kevin, Rachel, my mom, and Jacob. With Em hot on their tails Jan. 2.
I got together with my sister to send an Edible Arrangement to my mom and dad. Combo gift on the giving AND the receiving end. They are both on Weight Watchers so they loved it. It was just like the picture and so easy. The store is less than a mile from their house so we had them pick it up to give them an excuse to get out of their cozy Villages cluster home and get some fresh air.
Rachel got her birthday dinner at Cici's Pizza a little early due to most of us being together and daycare clients canceling. Em was the only one missing but she had been there a few days earlier on a date so she didn't miss too much.
Kevin had a nice steak dinner on his birthday. Followed by white cake with homemade chocolate icing. He was home late due to a community service project of Sherwin Williams. They sponsor the kids at Barbara Booker Elementary School in Cleveland for Christmas. Kevin helped deliver all the boxes of presents.
That's a lot of activity for December being only 10 days old. There's lots of other changes in the works I'll get into soon.
TTFN.
Friday, October 15, 2010
melt: the event
Melt Bar & Grilled opened in Lakewood in 2006. We didn't get there until May of 2010.
It was a Saturday and we were celebrating Emma's 17th birthday dinner. We arrived around 3 in the afternoon for an early dinner. We didn't know much except that it was a place the specialized in grilled cheese.
We ended up waiting about 3 hours to be seated.
It was loud and dark and had a unisex bathroom. The food was yummy but not knock-your-socks-off spectacular.
So I didn't jump for joy when my girlfriends suggested it for our pre-Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure meal. I mentioned we should be prepared for a very extensive wait. They were incredulous. They thought I was lying. Why would anyone wait that long to eat grilled cheese?
We had Indians tickets for the night but I wisely passed them on to some family friends. We were meeting at 5 so I knew we would never be out in time for the game.
The wait and the service both seemed a lot shorter this time around but it could've been the Las Vegas Lavender Mojito and the Raspberry UFO Patricia and I tried from the bar. Then it dawned on me...after sitting around for hours drinking an adult beverage or two, anything would taste fabulous. Even more fabulous is getting to spend time catching up with friends. This may have a lot to do with Melt's reputation.
While it's not really a place I'd recommend taking hungry children to, it's definitely an "event" you should experience.
It was a Saturday and we were celebrating Emma's 17th birthday dinner. We arrived around 3 in the afternoon for an early dinner. We didn't know much except that it was a place the specialized in grilled cheese.
We ended up waiting about 3 hours to be seated.
It was loud and dark and had a unisex bathroom. The food was yummy but not knock-your-socks-off spectacular.
So I didn't jump for joy when my girlfriends suggested it for our pre-Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure meal. I mentioned we should be prepared for a very extensive wait. They were incredulous. They thought I was lying. Why would anyone wait that long to eat grilled cheese?
We had Indians tickets for the night but I wisely passed them on to some family friends. We were meeting at 5 so I knew we would never be out in time for the game.
The wait and the service both seemed a lot shorter this time around but it could've been the Las Vegas Lavender Mojito and the Raspberry UFO Patricia and I tried from the bar. Then it dawned on me...after sitting around for hours drinking an adult beverage or two, anything would taste fabulous. Even more fabulous is getting to spend time catching up with friends. This may have a lot to do with Melt's reputation.
While it's not really a place I'd recommend taking hungry children to, it's definitely an "event" you should experience.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
stepfamily traditions
A common recommendation found in step family books is to create and plan your own step family traditions. We come together with two sets of separate traditions. While we can include the new family members in our established traditions, it never feels like it's "ours". Even worse, sometimes the timing of these traditions conflict and difficult choices have to be made.
Like our first fourth of July celebration.
Kevin always watched the Elyria fireworks with his kids, took them to the parade in Rochester, and then to a picnic on his family farm. I always got together with my college friends with children in tow on Catawba Island. Due to how many of us traveled from out of town, having an additional day off work helped make this happen. Through negotiation and communication, we have usually been able to work everything out but I do remember a wee bit of conflict that first year.
For many years our family had little time and even less money to plan any sort of elaborate tradition, so I started thinking smaller. We seemed to settle on birthday dinners. Not thrilling, especially when you have to wait 3 hours to eat grilled cheese(can't believe I didn't blog about it) but at least we had something.
Until...
After a long awaited for trip to Kalahari Resort last fall that coincided with the soccer convention and the discounted room prices it brought with it, I mentioned how nice it would be if something like that could be our annual step family tradition. Kevin had some sort of non-committal response. So I wasn't counting on it.
But...
This summer one of the prizes in the adult summer reading game was an overnight trip for 6 to the same resort! So as they say, I put all my eggs(coupons for the drawing) in one basket(overstuffed box) and this time it worked out! We are having and second annual autumn resort trip courtesy in part(2/3) to the Friends of the North Ridgeville Library. Maybe this can be our annual step family tradition after all. (fingers crossed)
Like our first fourth of July celebration.
Kevin always watched the Elyria fireworks with his kids, took them to the parade in Rochester, and then to a picnic on his family farm. I always got together with my college friends with children in tow on Catawba Island. Due to how many of us traveled from out of town, having an additional day off work helped make this happen. Through negotiation and communication, we have usually been able to work everything out but I do remember a wee bit of conflict that first year.
For many years our family had little time and even less money to plan any sort of elaborate tradition, so I started thinking smaller. We seemed to settle on birthday dinners. Not thrilling, especially when you have to wait 3 hours to eat grilled cheese(can't believe I didn't blog about it) but at least we had something.
Until...
After a long awaited for trip to Kalahari Resort last fall that coincided with the soccer convention and the discounted room prices it brought with it, I mentioned how nice it would be if something like that could be our annual step family tradition. Kevin had some sort of non-committal response. So I wasn't counting on it.
But...
This summer one of the prizes in the adult summer reading game was an overnight trip for 6 to the same resort! So as they say, I put all my eggs(coupons for the drawing) in one basket(overstuffed box) and this time it worked out! We are having and second annual autumn resort trip courtesy in part(2/3) to the Friends of the North Ridgeville Library. Maybe this can be our annual step family tradition after all. (fingers crossed)
Disappointing side note: After doing the math(6 free passes, 9 people), my 3 stepchildren were actually concerned they were being left out. That made me sad. :( It wouldn't be a step family tradition without all the members of the step family now, would it??
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Birthday Dinner and Christmas Activity
In our large family, we can't afford to eat out at restaurants very often. We've mentioned here before but we do let each child choose a restaurant for their birthday and we go have a special meal as a family.
In the past couple years we got months and months behind, we ended up starting over in January with Emma. Well Nathan's birthday is coming up Sunday so we went on Friday night to Red Robin.
It was a good night, everybody seemed to enjoy their food and the staff came over and sang a silly birthday song intended to embarass the birthday boy.
Then tonight I stopped in at Pizza Hut but they had more drivers than business so I was able to take the night off. Brooke was at a sleepover with a friend, and Nathan & Jacob were at their dad's, so Luke asked if I would take him to BW3.
Victoria had a great idea for Christmas to make coupons so that each kid got some special 1-on-1 time with their parent. Luke's activity was a night at BW3. We ate wings (blazing and teriyaki), played NTN Countdown trivia, NTN Poker, and then another music based trivia game called Payback.
It's a 6-round game and the 6th round you get to wager some % of your points (like Final Jeopardy. I wagered 30% of my 15k points and missed on the question, "What Eminem song samples a 197x Aerosmith song? I was very frustrated that I didn't remember that Sing For The Moment is built on the core of Dream Weaver.
In the past couple years we got months and months behind, we ended up starting over in January with Emma. Well Nathan's birthday is coming up Sunday so we went on Friday night to Red Robin.
It was a good night, everybody seemed to enjoy their food and the staff came over and sang a silly birthday song intended to embarass the birthday boy.
Then tonight I stopped in at Pizza Hut but they had more drivers than business so I was able to take the night off. Brooke was at a sleepover with a friend, and Nathan & Jacob were at their dad's, so Luke asked if I would take him to BW3.
Victoria had a great idea for Christmas to make coupons so that each kid got some special 1-on-1 time with their parent. Luke's activity was a night at BW3. We ate wings (blazing and teriyaki), played NTN Countdown trivia, NTN Poker, and then another music based trivia game called Payback.
It's a 6-round game and the 6th round you get to wager some % of your points (like Final Jeopardy. I wagered 30% of my 15k points and missed on the question, "What Eminem song samples a 197x Aerosmith song? I was very frustrated that I didn't remember that Sing For The Moment is built on the core of Dream Weaver.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Cheesecake Factory
We ate out at the Cheesecake Factory last Saturday for Emma's birthday. The kids each get a turn picking a restaurant for their birthdays. It's really the only time we all eat out together unless we are traveling. We knew this would be our most expensive outing (no kids menus even!!) to date so the kids were warned to drink water and have a dessert partner.
It was loud and crowded. They finally seated us in a nice secluded little alcove in the back after an hour wait. The kids liked the murals on the ceiling. Our waitress was a total doll who came from a family of 9 kids. She was excited to have us, or maybe she was only excited to have the guaranteed 18% gratuity the restaurant tacked on to our bill, who knows?
We gobbled down about 6 baskets of the bread while we were waiting for the food. I had totally forgotten about the bread. The kids could have all split meals too if I had remembered the bread.
Kevin, George, and Rachel shared 2 Old Fashioned Hamburgers with fries. Nathan got the gigantic Classic Burger. Rachel ate one bite of her burger and a handful of fries. Nathan ate about 1/2 of his burger and most of the fries. It was a bit pink in the middle which he was not used too.
Brooke had the Grilled Cheese served on egg bread with fries. The sandwich was about 8"x6". She ate one half and a handful of fries.
Jacob and Luke split the Pepperoni Pizza. Jacob did not care for it but Luke claimed it was "definitely worth waiting for!"
Emma and I both chose pasta dishes. Emma chose the Pasta Da Vinci without the Chicken(Mushrooms, Onions and Garlic in a Delicious Madeira Wine Sauce Tossed with Penne Pasta and Parmesan)
I got the Louisiana Chicken Pasta(Parmesan Crusted Chicken Cutlets Served Over Pasta Tossed with Mushrooms, Peppers and Onions in a Spicy New Orleans Style Sauce.) There went my purely vegetarian diet but it was out of this world. The portion was gigantic so the leftovers served as Sunday's lunch for me and Sunday's dinner for Emma.
Cheesecake all around for dessert. Kevin and Rachel, Me and George, and Nathan and Brooke all split the Original cheesecake. Emma (who didn't share because we have an uneven number and it was her birthday) opted for the Chocolate Raspberry Truffle(Layers of Chocolate Cake, Chocolate-Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake, Chocolate Mousse and Chocolate Ganache.) Jacob and Luke split the Oreo cheesecake. Jacob was the only one with any complaints.
The bill came to about $150 once Kevin added on an additional tip. $150 but priceless memories.
It was loud and crowded. They finally seated us in a nice secluded little alcove in the back after an hour wait. The kids liked the murals on the ceiling. Our waitress was a total doll who came from a family of 9 kids. She was excited to have us, or maybe she was only excited to have the guaranteed 18% gratuity the restaurant tacked on to our bill, who knows?
We gobbled down about 6 baskets of the bread while we were waiting for the food. I had totally forgotten about the bread. The kids could have all split meals too if I had remembered the bread.
Kevin, George, and Rachel shared 2 Old Fashioned Hamburgers with fries. Nathan got the gigantic Classic Burger. Rachel ate one bite of her burger and a handful of fries. Nathan ate about 1/2 of his burger and most of the fries. It was a bit pink in the middle which he was not used too.
Brooke had the Grilled Cheese served on egg bread with fries. The sandwich was about 8"x6". She ate one half and a handful of fries.
Jacob and Luke split the Pepperoni Pizza. Jacob did not care for it but Luke claimed it was "definitely worth waiting for!"
Emma and I both chose pasta dishes. Emma chose the Pasta Da Vinci without the Chicken(Mushrooms, Onions and Garlic in a Delicious Madeira Wine Sauce Tossed with Penne Pasta and Parmesan)
I got the Louisiana Chicken Pasta(Parmesan Crusted Chicken Cutlets Served Over Pasta Tossed with Mushrooms, Peppers and Onions in a Spicy New Orleans Style Sauce.) There went my purely vegetarian diet but it was out of this world. The portion was gigantic so the leftovers served as Sunday's lunch for me and Sunday's dinner for Emma.
Cheesecake all around for dessert. Kevin and Rachel, Me and George, and Nathan and Brooke all split the Original cheesecake. Emma (who didn't share because we have an uneven number and it was her birthday) opted for the Chocolate Raspberry Truffle(Layers of Chocolate Cake, Chocolate-Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake, Chocolate Mousse and Chocolate Ganache.) Jacob and Luke split the Oreo cheesecake. Jacob was the only one with any complaints.
The bill came to about $150 once Kevin added on an additional tip. $150 but priceless memories.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Birthday Dinners
One of the traditions we have in our family is that around their birthday, each child gets to choose a restaurant and we go out to eat as a family.
Now, our birthdays are kind of clumped together. We have 3 December birthdays and one at the beginning of January, followed by 2 in March, 1 in April, and 2 in May. This (and our busy schedules) causes some of the dinners to be slightly delayed.
We are currently working on the final December birthday. Jacob wants to go to the Golden Corral. We are just getting around to this because between holiday schedules and holiday spending, we just haven't had time or money up until now.
We were considering going this weekend on Saturday, after basketball and before indoor soccer but then Emma was away at the junior high wrestling meet. We couldn't go on Sunday because Luke, Brooke, & Rachel had gone back to their mom's by that time.
Hopefully we can get this scheduled this weekend, we have to get one more winter birthday completed before the spring birthdays start in March.
Now, our birthdays are kind of clumped together. We have 3 December birthdays and one at the beginning of January, followed by 2 in March, 1 in April, and 2 in May. This (and our busy schedules) causes some of the dinners to be slightly delayed.
We are currently working on the final December birthday. Jacob wants to go to the Golden Corral. We are just getting around to this because between holiday schedules and holiday spending, we just haven't had time or money up until now.
We were considering going this weekend on Saturday, after basketball and before indoor soccer but then Emma was away at the junior high wrestling meet. We couldn't go on Sunday because Luke, Brooke, & Rachel had gone back to their mom's by that time.
Hopefully we can get this scheduled this weekend, we have to get one more winter birthday completed before the spring birthdays start in March.
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