Birthday week!
Mr. P had a MAJOR week with his birthday, Valentine’s Day, the 100th Day of school, his party, and visits with BOTH sets of grandparents! Lucky kid.
We went to my parents’ for a family celebration on Saturday.
Valley is OBSESSED with Brookie boo. She is 100% ready to be a mama (in her eyes)and talks about “when she’s an adult” and “when she’s a mama” 24/7.
I had chips for lunch. And some greens to pretend it was balanced. But really, it was about the chips.
And for dinner we had so much good stuff, including ribs, salmon, salad, and rice…followed by apple cobbler and vanilla ice cream.
The kids were too full for dessert, so we took their portion (and mine) home with us for the next day. It was a late night and a little brutal putting them down after our drive home in the POURING rain (I hate driving in the dark, but the torrential downpour made it so scary) especially considering V didn’t take a nap that day.
Still, it was nice to wake up in our own beds and get on with our Sunday routine the next day. Church, family time, etc.
Make wayyyyy, for all the greeeeeens. Did you sing that with the Aladdin song in mind? They are making it into a movie! Maybe I’ll see it…10 years from when it actually comes out…like every other contemporary thing that I miss out on. 😛
In order to make room for the new, I had to finish off the last of the previous week’s produce. That said, we were heading out to dinner that night so I didn’t have time to do much. Pressure cooker for the win! Set it and forget it (and leave the house)!
All I did was saute leeks, carrots, celery and garlic in olive oil, then add home-made chicken stock with rice, lentils, and beans. And at the last minute I threw in some arugula rabe or “raab” which is a small bouquet of arugula flowers that I got in my CSA box last week and wasn’t sure what to do with. The kids had it twice for lunch and Kyle had it once and they all gave it all their thumbs up.
You would have thought I planned this but our MOPS field trip to the fire station just happened to be on the Monday holiday so the big kids who are normally in school got to go. We have a matching photo from 4 (5?) years ago minus the little sibs. Some friends came over afterwards and P got to open a birthday present. As if climbing in the engine wasn’t already enough of a highlight!
The day just kept getting better and better though!
As for that dinner out…
Kyle’s parents took us to a teppanyaki place in Woodland called Sakura and it was SO FUN. The kids loved the entertainment of watching the chef and picking whatever meat they wanted (they chose salmon and steak). I have to pinch myself sometimes that we can eat at places like this now…where they use butter and sesame and wheat and whatever on a shared grill and it’s totally safe for P. OIT game changer. He even ate the cake and ice cream dessert!
The next day was his actual birthday, which was great since it happened to fall on the day that I volunteer in his class at school. I got to watch them since to him (and since they were doing a segment on the lunar new year, they sang to him in both Spanish and Chinese).
My kid is SIX!
How many six year olds request steak and a salad for their birthday dinner??
This kid cracks me up. He thought about it for a while before deciding on this meal, too.
I grilled a skirt steak inside on the Lodge and used CSA leaf lettuce for the salad with balsamic dressing, chevre, apples, roasted pecans, and dried cranberries.
Room for dessert!! Of course!
The kids had chocolate milk as a treat after dinner (to make his dairy dose “special”).
And that was just the START of the week!!!
More to come 🙂
Was you Flank Steak tender , when ever I buy Flank steak anymore it is tough 🙁
Happy birthday, P!! I can’t beliebe he’s 6! I remember you being pregnant with him with I first started following your blog. Now that I’m a parent myself, I see just how fast the time goes. Oy! It’s been so much fun watching him grow! He’s such a sweet and handsome boy! 🙂
Yes, it was tender.
Thank you Stacie!