Today is National Cheesecake Day, and The Cheesecake Factory was selling all of their cheesecakes for $1.50 per slice! (Dine in guests only.) So we headed out there for dinner today. When I pulled up to the restaurant, there were so many people waiting outside. I was worried we’d have to wait hours for dinner. We ended up waiting for about an hour, which wasn’t too bad. Natalie and I took a stroll through the mall while we were waiting, since Tyler was asleep in the car. Uncle Chubber and Willy and friends came and met us there, but we ended up sitting separately to shorten the wait time. We went to Nordstrom and I was trying on a jacket and Natalie said “This one looks fabulous.” Where does she get that?
The food we ordered was pretty good. I ordered the Seared Tuna Tataki Salad — this was very delicious! David ordered the Bistro Shrimp pasta, which was also good – but not as good as the salad. The kids shared the pasta too, though they didn’t seem to be in much of a mood to eat. We were too full to have dessert there, so we took our 2 cheesecakes ‘TO GO’. Our Cheesecake selections were Fresh Strawberry and Tiramisu.
After we were done with dinner, David took the kids outside to play while I wrapped things up and took care of the bill. Natalie picked some flowers while they were outside. As we walked to the car, she was telling me how David lifted her up so she could pick them from a tree. She said to me, “My dad is a very strong man.” On the way home, she asked if I could give her a tiny vase so she could put her flowers in them. “I will put them in the vase myself and then put it on my desk.”
The crowd of people waiting outside
Waiting and playing
Uncle Chubber and Willy
Tiramisu Cheesecake
Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake… Nat ate all the whipped cream and strawberries!
Bistro Shrimp Pasta
Seared Tuna Tataki Salad – so good!
Nat’s flower
Nat’s flower on her desk
On Sunday, we had brunch at Country Inn. Tried Swedish pancakes for the first time. They were yummy! Afterwards, we stopped by PW Market to pick up some fruit to bring over to Yee Po’s house. The kids enjoyed being pushed around in the car shopping cart. Yee Po had mah jong buddies come over, so we decided to head to the park — since it was such a nice day. Nat and Tyler love going to the park. Tyler cried when we took him to the car.
Had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory last night in downtown San Jose. David got home earlier than usual so it was a nice way to start the weekend. Figured the kids would enjoy it too. I ordered the Chicken Marsala ( it was just ok…) and David had the “Potpourri” 3-4 difference sauces over Spaghetti. The kids split the spaghetti with meatsauce kids meal. During the middle of dinner, Natalie had to go poop. So I took her to the restroom and when she was sitting on the toilet she said to me “Mom, my poop is getting ready” and a couple mins later (while grunting) “Mom (grunt), the poop (grunt) is coming out!” I was trying not to laugh, but it was so funny. There was another lady in the restroom too. I wonder what she was thinking.
Today was a beautiful day. Sunny and warm! We started the day at the dentist. I had a tightening (braces) to do and Natalie had her first dentist visit. It was short, but went well. She has no cavities! After the dentist we went to the mall to hang out and have some Jamba Juice and lunch. The kids enjoyed playing at Pottery Barn kids. I literally had to rip Tyler away and dragged him out of the store kicking and screaming. Oh well. After the kids took an afternoon nap, we went to the pool! When we got there, there was no one there so we had the pool all to ourselves for at least 10 mins before another group of kids showed up. It was alright though, the kids were having fun.
We went to Gilroy Gardens yesterday with Amee, Byron, and Aiden. Started out as a chilly/gloomy morning, but by afternoon it warmed up. This place is perfect for little kids. The rides are easy going and the park itself isn’t so big. We covered the entire park in 7.5 hrs. It’s a great summer time place because they have alot of water activities and interesting trees all around the park.
On Saturday, we went to Lemo’s Farm in Half Moon Bay to celebrate Camden’s and Christopher’s belated birthdays. It was chilly! The kids had a great time playing though. They rode the ponies, the train, jumped in a bouncy house, and went into the petting zoo.
Last Friday after school, I took Natalie to Valley Fair to return some stuff. We stopped at the Disney store to check out the clearance sale and she picked up these Little Mermaid sunglasses. She had to put them on immediately. She was so cute struttin’ around the mall with them on, her little butt moving from side to side. People kept pointing at her and saying “Look how cute!” All she needed was a little fury purse and she would’ve been a DIVA!
On Wednesday afterschool, I took Natalie to Target to exchange her birthday present from Malaya. It was a Hello Kitty waffler which we already had. Walking around the store, we passed the shoe section which had some shoes on sale. Nat picked out 2 pair that she liked, ballet flats and some slippers. We were torn between these white floral ballet flats and pink plaid ones, so she picked the while floral ones. As we checked out, I noticed the price on the ballet flats were much less than marked. (Came out to $3.24 and were marked $7 something.) So after we got home, I decided we could go back and get the other pair too since they were such a good deal and pick some up for cousins Grace & Meliya. So we go back to Target yesterday and ended up with 6 more pairs (just for Natalie!) and got a couple for Grace & Meliya and even something for Kaiya! There must’ve been another mark down over night, because many of the sandals were marked down to $2.98 – $3.24. I couldn’t resist the deal. Several of the shoes Nat got are for next year. So all in all, Nat ended up with 8 new pairs of shoes and she loves them all!
Uncle J got a new dog last weekend. He’s a Yorkshire Terrier and his name is “Pai Gow,” although Uncle Khang is calling him “Butters.” Natalie loves this little dog. We took him to the Obon festival last Sunday and she held him while she sat in Tyler’s stroller. That dog got so much attention! I see why Uncle J got the dog…
As with all major holidays, we celebrated 4th of July weekend in LA. Went over to Uncle Way’s for a BBQ. We had yummy hot dogs, carne asada, spam musubi, fried rice, chow mein and a bunch of other goodies. There was way too much food! It was very HOT over in Santa Clarita, over 100 degrees. Thank goodness for air conditioning. Since fireworks were illegal in that part of town, we decided to trek over to Alhambra to watch and play fireworks. Stopped at 7-11 for some sparklers and scored 2 for 1! whoo hoo!. Natalie and Tyler enjoyed watching the firework show, but when we started to light the sparklers, Natalie got scared and hid behind Uncle Can. Tyler was all over it though. He kept asking for more as each one ran out of “sparkle”.
