Our Little Man Turns FOUR!

Today my little baby turned FOUR...Can you believe it? Well, I can't, but it happened today. We started our day with breakfast and he had Bailey open one of his gifts. Then we had to take Bailey to school. We stopped off at the doughnut shop to get two doughnut holes and the man gave Gregory an extra one (he always does and charges us only a quarter, his wife never does and charges us 45 cents) and we drove to the park where he met his buddy Nathan for a playdate. After his playdate we came home and Grandma and Grandpa came over to take the kids birthday present shopping and treat us to dinner at the Elephant Bar! We came home and had cake and now the day is over...Well, almost over. The kids are still having fun playing with all their new toys!

Birthday celebrations started yesterday with presents from Auntie Lynn, Uncle Rick, Ryan and Lauren

And Grandpa and Bachan

Can Bailey open my present PLEASE??

Oh Thank you, Bailey!

I love you! {Hugs}

Dinner at Gregory's favorite restaurant - Elephant Bar

Mostly because he loves the dessert

Bailey and Grandma enjoy this restaurant too!

You're singing too loud!

Look what Bailey picked for me!

and Mommy and Daddy...

Happy Birthday My Little Scooter!

The Kaiseki Dinner

Before I get to the dinner - The kids and Daddy went for a swim this afternoon. Probably the last swim of the season. The water was FREEZING and it was windy in Stockton today! They all had fun, but they didn't stay out very long.

Okay, to the dinner! Tonight I was invited to a Kaiseki Dinner. My uncle had bid on (and won) a dinner for six that was to be prepared by Mr Yoneda - he used to own a Japanese restaurant in Stockton. Well, he's retired now and the dinner was at his house. We had no idea what we were in for - just to experience a kaiseki dinner. Well, just take a look at what we ate!

When we arrived this was already set for us

He prepared sashimi for Mom and Uncle since they are the only ones who eat raw fish

This was under that paper - daikon with miso, scallop wrapped in bacon, smelt/shrimp, squid stuffed with carrot and gobo (and some other stuff), unagi jello, crab wrapped in egg and something crunchy and kabocha. This was the appetizer!

OH, and a plate of sushi - still appetizer

Next - crab butter omelette and fresh crab with a very delicious sauce

Chawanmushi filled with all sorts of goodies - shrimp, tempura, mushrooms, spinach, on and on...

Salmon and eggplant - okay, I'm doing okay up to here, but I'm getting STUFFED - this is a lot of food and we've got more to go!

Chicken teriyaki with a touch of miso? Mushrooms, peas and okra (i ate a piece of chicken and an okra before taking this picture)

Tonkatsu, satoimo, Chinese melon with ground chicken sauce

Takoan. There was also a ochazuke course after this, but I just couldn't do it. Ochazuke with homemade furikake, and pickle (different from these)

Manju

I'm really not an adventurous eater, but I had my sister next to me telling me to just choke it down so I tried everything (oh, except the shrimp with the stuff all on him yet) and I must say, dinner was DELICIOUS!

Gregory's First Day of School!

Summer vacation has officially ended at our house. Gregory started school today! It took a little coaxing because his two best buddies are going to a new school this year, but he looked happy when I left. :) (Can you hear the peace and quiet at our house??)

A Little Visitor

Today Clark was working in the front spreading bark chips around to make our garden beautiful and he came across this

teeny tiny snake. Isn't he cute?

Good thing Grandma was over to coax him out of the corner

And shoo him into someplace safer!

Day with Daddy

Clark has been doing a lot of work around the house this year - in fact, probably most weekends. Well, Bailey has been telling him all he does is work on the house these days so today while I had lunch with an old friend of mine from high school, Daddy took the kids to the zoo! I packed them a picnic lunch and they were off! Daddy said they spent a few hours there, but didn't really see many animals - had lunch, played in the children's zoo area, had a frozen treat, rode the merry go round and only saw a few animals. Oh! and they pressed a penny, too! Clark looked ragged when I got home, but it sounds like the kids had a great day!