Birthday Recap

My birthday wasn't until after Labor Day, but the celebrations started that day.  I went out to Aodake with my parents & my brother & of course my kids, who are glued to me on my days off.  This is Ryu's favorite place to eat!  Kira was scared of the guy cooking, so my mom had to put her hand over her face, just so she could sit & eat her food :).  We love this place & it was great to spend time with my family.  Birthdays still mean a lot to me & I'm glad that my family is all here to celebrate with me!

After lunch, we all went to my house so I can open up my present from my mom, a brand new high tech sewing machine!!! It's the coolest thing ever, all these buttons to help make sewing so much easier.  I was able to make a duvet for Kira's bed & have loads more of other projects to tackle.  Weekends are going to be my craft days & boy do I have plenty to do!!!

Don, the kids & I were planning to get the most out of our season passes to Great America, & we were going to call the kids out of school to have a last family fun day.  After I had everything packed & ready to go, I was ready to go to bed & enjoy my YA book, when I just had this feeling to check the website to see what the hours where.  Thanks goodness I did bc the park was f*ing closed!!! Argh!  I was so excited to go & now what do we do???

Well we....Don, suggested we go bike riding on a bike trail near our house.  We just got a bike trailer for the kids & he was excited to try it out.  So we did.   I had fun surprisingly, I enjoyed watching my babies enjoy themselves.  Then we hit up, Steak & Shake, for happy hour, (1/2 priced milkshakes....YUM!!!).

Then, Don bought my birthday gift....YAY!!!

We went home for a bit to freshen up before dinner.  Don suggested that we try this all you can eat sushi buffet.  I was a little skeptical, but when he looked up the menu online, I couldn't resist!  I thought the sushi was laying out there, but it is actually made to order & you must finish what you order or you get charged extra.

It was so yummy!!! Not worth the price of what we ate, ( I should have skipped all meals that day to get the full benefit), but it was so good.  If I had more time I would have had another plate of what you see above!!!  One thing you should know about me, I love DUMPLINGS!!! Korean, Chinese, or Japanese dumplings, I love them all & I could've had like 6 orders of the dumplings & that would have been worth every single penny.  At least the option was there to get more, but we were just way too full!!!

I had a great birthday & I still need to post some pics from out bike ride.  Thank you mom & dad for the awesome sewing machine & Tita Luz, my brother for my early gift (courtesy of  Nordstrom anniversary sale) these awesome Sorel boots, & my husband for my Pandora charm & photography class!  Also to all my well wishers on FB!  Thanks!

Weekend Recap

I have so much more to add to this but here is part of it for now!

My close friends dad had his surprise 59 1/2 birthday party on Saturday. (more pics to follow)  He was totally surprised!  1) it wasn't his actually birthday, 2) his out of town friends were here & he thought he was bringing them to a wedding!!!  The look on his face when everyone yelled out surprise was absolutely priceless!!!  He was pointing to his wife & saying "You did this?!?!  I was totally clueless!!!"  It was great!!!  I was glad to be there & hang out with my old partner in crime, M (we had some crazy clubbing days!! i.e. chugging down frozen mudslides in the middle of winter before we got our dance on!  Hey...we were college students & drinks were hella expensive in the city) , her big sis, N, who's preggo with #2 & her daughter, L, who I cant get enough of!!! I was alone for a change & glad I didn't have my babies to chase after.  I had so much fun hanging out with them & their hubbies!

Before all this fun started, my morning was busy taking Kira to her first dance class.  I was a little worried because I told her that we were going to ballet, she said "No, its too boring".  Apparently, everything is boring to her these days.  But then she saw her outfit & shoes....then she was ready to go!!! She did great & made some new friends, too.

 Today we went to T's Bday party.  The kids had a blast.  I'm glad they had some fun this weekend since I was out partying the night before.  But I did have to chase them around the park & prevent Kira from going home with anyone who had a dog.  I think at one point she even took over a little boys sand castle making & took his sand pail away.  Then a few minutes later Ryu comes & joins in on the other kids sand construction, kicking the other boy out of his inital project!!!  I was too embarrassed to claim my kids, but eventually the other boy went home & took his sand pail with!!!

I have done a lot this weekend that I haven't taken enough pics to show you.  I started back up with my scrap booking & working on my christamas decorations for the house.  (yes, christmas decorations.  It will probably take me awhile to finish, so I might as well start now!)

I will have more fun stuff to post later, after all it is my birthday weekend, & the celebrations start tomorrow!

Nine Lives of Chloe King-The Book

So, it tool me a lot longer than expected to read these 3 books but I finally did it.  That cliffhanger on the show really left me hanging so I just had to read the book.

It was wonderful!!!  I already think that the show is pretty great but the book was different enough that I love both versions.  I like how they only kept the similarities to the basics, like who she is & what not, but I love how they made Brian in the book.  So much more drama in the book!!!  So for all you Chloe King fans out there, pick up the book & give it a try.  Trust me it will satisfy that curiosity from that summer finale!