Happy Birthday, Bruce

Today is Bruce's birthday but I feel like we have been celebrating nonstop. Yesterday was the main celebration since everyone was off work for Labor Day so we went over to Nick & Sachiyo's house for a barbecue. I made Bruce's favorite carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, something he always looks forward to.

This year was extra special because we had the grandkids to help with the celebration which makes it all that much more exciting; like putting the candles on the cake

singing "Happy Birthday"

blowing out the candles

opening presents

serving up the cake and ice cream

and of course, eating the cake.

This was the highlight of his birthday, but it started much earlier when we all met for breakfast at a well-known spot in Gig Harbor called NetShed No.9 that serves wonderful breakfasts. We had to sit at separate tables because of covid precautions since there were seven of us. We're only allowed gatherings of five people or less in our state so restaurants have to strictly enforce this. You can see Nick, Sachiyo and Keaton sitting at the table behind us as all the tables were socially distanced apart by at least six feet.

Lauren, Bruce, Hana and I sat at the other table.

Bruce got his first birthday present here from the grandkids, a Mariner 101 book. It's everything a rookie fan would ever need to know about the Mariner.

We are looking forward to the day when we can take our grandkids to Mariner games and start educating them on our favorite pastime.

The food at NetShed No.9 did not disappoint and everyone loved their breakfasts

and we thanked Nick and Sachiyo for suggesting such an excellent place to start off our day celebrating Bruce's birthday.

After breakfast, Nick took Bruce golfing at McCormick Woods which is the golf community where Nick and Sachiyo live. This is always a favorite birthday present of Bruce's.

They returned hungry for hamburgers off the barbecue grill. The grandkids never hesitate to eat when American hamburgers are on the menu.

We also had a smaller celebration over the weekend when Bruce and I decided to go to Salty's for dinner so Bruce could get his complementary White Chocolate Mousse Cake with Raspberry Coulis.

This is one of our favorite places to go to dinner because all their food is so good. And you can't beat the view, the service...well, just everything. And it's only minutes from our house so how convenient is that?

Nick and Sachiyo also celebrated their ten year anniversary this past weekend so we got to babysit the grandkids which was another wonderful day. Since Nick and Sachiyo have moved back from Japan we've been enjoying every minute of being grandparents. I guess you could say we're making up for lost time.

I made lasagna for dinner that night which they love. Since they eat a traditional Japanese diet at home, I'm learning real fast what all their American favorites are. And they are both such good eaters, it's a joy to feed them.

After dinner, Bruce and I did our usual evening walk only with our little guests, we had to stop and look at EVERYTHING...like windmills and flags in a garden

fresh ripe plums ready to eat off our neighbor's tree

gigantic leaves that were half the size of our granddaughter

and plump, ripe grapes off another neighbor's grape vine.

After four years of living apart from our grandchildren, it is so fun to get re-acquainted with these two little people. It's amazing how easy it is to fall into the roles of grandma and grandpa. We knew we always were a grandma and grandpa but could only rarely experience it during our trips to Japan. Now, we can hardly believe how lucky we are to have them so close by and to be able see them so often. A birthday celebration can't get much better than this.

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of meatloaf . This must be meatloaf season. It was surprisingly similar to the Pioneer Woman's version who was also recently on. I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book, Food Matters . His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese! I must be doing something wrong. The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life. If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health. He tells his story in Food Matters and provides a plan for responsible eating that covers a no-nonsense rundown on

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friends lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, there was a big party g

Spinach Stuffed Cod

Last night, I was in the mood for a healthy dinner so decided to experiment with a recipe I found from a blog called Creative in My Kitchen . Lauren and Ari brought us French cookies back from their trip to Paris and I basically inhaled them. They were so good! We were cat-sitting their two cats while they were gone. They liked lounging in the strangest places... I found one of their toys while I was cleaning so Lauren stopped by last night to pick it up on her way home from work. I was experimenting with this recipe which originally called for chicken breast but I thought it sounded good to substitute fish instead since I'm always looking for good fish recipes. We all thought it was totally delicious. When I went to the grocery store, they had Icelandic cod on sale so I bought about 2 pounds of that. You could use any white fish for this recipe such as: true cod or other cod rockfish halibut had

Sylvia's Scenario

Search This Blog