Happy Birthday, Bruce

We spent our Labor Day weekend celebrating Bruce's birthday. His actual birthday isn't until Wednesday but it was easier for everyone to get together this weekend. So, we picked Saturday to celebrate with dinner, cake and presents at Lauren's house. Since she lives so close to the zoo, we also decided to go to the zoo on Saturday. But the festivities started on Friday when we picked up the grandkids for another sleepover at our house. We all absolutely love sleepovers at our house. We get so much more time with them and there is no rushing to get them back to their house. We love it. We took them down to the beach at Alki and spent most the afternoon there.

They can play a very long time there. We are getting better and better at knowing what to bring as far as snacks, toys, and now we also have a beach umbrella to provide us with some shade.

We were there so long that we took them home and went straight into bath time. They put on their pajamas and were thrilled to eat dinner wearing their pajamas. We barbecued chicken which is one of their favorite dinners and then had hot chocolate by the fire after dinner.

The 3-year-old was so exhausted from a day at the beach and a tummy full of barbecued chicken that he could not stay awake but instead went out like a light. The next morning, we had Mickey Mouse pancakes using my sourdough pancake recipe that is another one of their favorites.

They were quite proud of their creations and they tasted pretty good, too.

But the best part of the day was going over to Aunt Lauren's house and then to the zoo to see their special Dinosaur Discovery exhibit since both grandkids love dinosaurs. Lauren lives just a few blocks from the zoo so we were eager to walk over and check it out.

The dinosaur exhibit had been there since May but it was ending this weekend so we really wanted to see it before it was over. Turned out, the grandkids were both quite frightened of most of them because they were life-sized and they moved! Jurassic Park, anyone?

They both had to be carried through the whole exhibit because they were so scared. Oh, well. We tried but I guess it was too realistic.

The thing they liked the most about the zoo was being pulled around in a wagon that you can rent for $11.00. And worth every penny...

Woodland Park Zoo has improved their animal enclosures to make it more realistic and more like their natural environment so that means you often can't see the animals if they are in the bushes or sleeping. Most of the animals were out-of-sight or far away just standing around not moving. It was quite boring for a 3- and 5-year-old except they loved being pulled in the wagon. And they also LOVED the carousel.

My favorite animal was the jaguar who was pacing around but again, it scared the grandkids because it was so close to the glass viewing window.

The grizzly bear was far away sleeping, the gorillas were sleeping, the rhinos were far away just standing, the animals on the safari were cool and are the first thing you see when you walk in so things started out very exciting.

Also, the penguins were great because some were swimming and you could look through a window to view them underwater.

I see why people go to the zoo often because it would take multiple trips to see animals being active since most the time they are just sleeping or just stand there or not visible at all. When we got back to Lauren's, we all played Dinosaur Bingo that I got for them in preparation to seeing the Dinosaur Discovery at the zoo. We played it multiple times the day before, too, and they love all the different dinosaurs and pictures. I think they like playing the game much better than actually seeing the dinosaurs, though.

We played Dinosaur Bingo while my Zucchini Lasagna baked for dinner. This time I made half of it with regular lasagna noodles since the grandkids love pasta. And I also made Bruce's favorite carrot cake for his birthday.

He got lots of help blowing out the candles and opening presents, of course.

It's never a dull moment with the grandkids around and they are the best birthday present Bruce could ask for.

Happy Birthday, Bruce!

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 ...

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 friend 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, t...

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas. Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play". That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play. Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is. And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas". Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br...

Sylvia's Scenario

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