3 posts tagged “zoo”
Well, it's only taken me a week and a half, but I've finally got all the thank yous in the mail and am finally posting about the cool party we had last Saturday. As you may have guessed, it was a zoo train theme (I added the zoo part in when it became clear that it would be impossible to find all the choo-choo themed partyware that I'd need and not go with Thomas the Tank). Since Jake loves animals and choo-choos, we did the zoo train thing. We had all his choo-choo toys out, including a small Thomas the Tank track set up on the coffee table for the kids to play with.
Lots of Jake's friends came -- mostly girls -- if only Jake realized how lucky he was! The lovely Anya and her mom and dad came, and we're pretty sure Jake has a little crush on her because he frequently says "Aya" for no apparent reason at all, but he clearly means Anya. The kids had lots of fun playing on the yard toy that Jake got from his grandma and grandpa the night before. Jake also got lots of train-themed presents (as well as other presents, all of which he loved). It was a lot of work, especially the cake, but I think it was worth it as all the kids seemed to have a really good time playing together.
Yes, I went a little overboard on the cake, and I definitely paid for it (well, and the party prep, in general) for the rest of the weekend and then some -- I was absolutely exhausted. But I'm happy with the way it turned out in the end. It definitely wasn't a professional result by any means, but it was cute and fun. I used 2 packages of cake mix (I'm crazy, but I'm not insane enough to make the cake from scratch) and baked it up in 8 mini-loaf pans. I then cut the engine to create the "cab" and cut the bottom off the 8th loaf to create the top of the caboose. I used all different types of candy to decorate the cars (we now have more left over candy in the house than I know what to do with -- luckily hubby likes the real sugary crap -- and I didn't even know that Twizzlers came in different flavors and colors!). The engine wheels are Oreos with m&ms in the middle, and the "smoke stack" is a marshmallow coated in candy beads. The "coal" is crushed Oreos, and I got the baby animals from Michael's. The inspiration from this cake came from this website.
Last weekend, Jake and his parents met Anya (along with Anya's Mom and dad) at the Oakland Zoo! The kids got to see all sorts of cool animals like elephants, monkey, and even some tigers, and the parents got to talk and get to know each other. The highlight for the kids seemed to be petting the goats (though Anya was a bit more interested than Jake) and having lunch and playing in the grass. Jake doesn't really have grass to play on at home since our yard is a mess, so it was nice to be able to see the kids exploring a little bit, even if they didn't really interact with each other (as kids that age tend not to do!).
On the way home from the zoo, we stopped at Val's which is one of our favorite places from my days living in Hayward. OK, it's safe to say that this is just about the only restaurant that I actually like and would return to in Hayward -- they have the best burgers. I've been craving one of their burgers for quite some time now, but we're rarely anywhere near Val's, and the last time we were over there and had the opportunity to stop in (summer 2005!), it was a Sunday, and Val's is closed on Sundays. So we were quite excited to find ourselves in need of a meal on our way home from Oakland last Saturday! It was every bit as good as I remembered, and even more filling! Their burgers come in 3 sizes: Baby (1/4 lb), Mama (1/2 lb) and Papa (1 lb). I actually considered getting the Papa for a moment, forgetting how big these things really are, but opted for the Baby and a chocolate shake. Soooo good. I love my In-N-Out burgers, but nothing beats Val's.
Despite our multitude of sicknesses and the difficulty in storing up enough "Jacob Juice" for while we were gone, our first "vacation" without the baby went fine, and we even managed to have some fun. It didn't start out very auspiciously given that, although I started back on dicloxacillin on Tuesday evening, by Wednesday, the day before we were to leave, my breast infection was pretty full blown. I stayed home from work that day and pretty much slept all day. By Thursday morning I was well enough to drag myself onto the plane, which we nearly didn't make it in time for thanks to our cab not bothering to show up -- thank god we live so close to the airport!
When we got into NY on Thursday, we went out for dinner after resting for a few hours. We went to Chez Josephine; unfortunately, I still really wasn't feeling very well, so I wasn't really able to enjoy my food and ended up leaving most of my $30 entree untouched. Eric really enjoyed it, though, so I have to assume it was the fact that I still was pretty ill. By Friday, the day of my all-day meeting, I still wasn't feeling great, and my breast was not at all improved, so I called my OB. She decided to start me on clindamycin that day. It took a while to actually get it due to the fact that NYC pharmacies apparently don't check their voicemail (?!!?), but that stuff sure worked like a charm! By Friday after the meeting, I felt well enough to actually enjoy the 8pm performance of Spamalot that we'd booked tickets for before we left. And thank goodness, because it was fabulous! I'm a huge fan of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but even Eric, who seems not to be able to stand the movie and doesn't generally enjoy musicals, really enjoyed it. I just wish we'd gotten to see it while David Hyde Pierce was still starring in it. After the show we had dinner at Le Madeleine, a restaurant that Eric had found while on a business trip about a year ago. We shared the Seared Japanese-Style Tuna "Ultra Rare" starter which was a rare treat for me as I generally try to avoid tuna since I'm breastfeeding. But boy do I love it, especially raw or seared, and this did not disappoint. Eric had the Grilled Rib Eye which he really enjoyed, and I had the Spice Crusted Duck Breast. I almost always will order duck if it's on the menu as a) I don't cook it at home and always like to order things I couldn't/wouldn't make myself when dining out, and b) it is so yummy! I have to say that this is one of the best duck dishes I've ever had; the seasoning on the crisp skin was delicious, and the meat was done to a perfect medium rare. Even the accompanying sides were exceptionally good, though I must admit I was too full to finish the bread pudding. With our dinner, we were lucky enough to take our server's suggestion of a half bottle of Cahors (being on 2 antibiotics, I didn't want to overdo it on the wine!) which unfortunately does not appear to be on their website's winelist. Even more unfortunately, I can't remember the winery, though I do remember that it was imported through a company in Berkeley -- like that'll help me much! And our server was also kind enough to give us each a complimentary glass of champagne to end our delicious meal and our lovely evening.
Saturday was a gorgeous spring-like day, so we spent most of it walking around Central Park. We hit the zoo where we saw so many babies (all in MacLarens, it was like a mass brainwashing there were SOOO many of them!) which made us miss the boy quite a bit. But when we talked to Grandma and Grandpa that night, we found out that Jake had had his own day at the zoo -- in his Graco in SF :) After Central Park, we headed over to Madison Ave to check out what was supposed to be "NYC's best yarn store!" which I found rather disappointing to say the least. But I definitely didn't need to buy any yarn anyway, so I got over it pretty quickly. From there we walked back to our hotel via Madison Ave which was neat as I've never actually specifically walked down it. We stopped in at one children's clothing store where we were fooled by the $38 price tag on the first outfit we looked at...subsequent price-tag checks yielded prices that were more along the lines of we'd been expecting but were still shocking, none-the-less (who on earth would pay $500 for a 3-piece suit for an infant??? Who on earth would buy a 3-piece suit for an infant???!). After a pit stop at the hotel for a quick wardrobe change and pump session, we headed down to South Street Pier to see Bodies...The Exhibition. This was a wonderful exhibition, though in some ways it disappointed me (I guess from the more sciencey-perspective, but I'm sure there was plenty of science included for normal people). We had missed it while it was in SF, so I'm really glad we checked it out in NYC, though it was rather ridiculously expensive. After that we walked over to one of our favorite restaurants, Landmarc in Tribeca, via the WTC. We found this on one of our trips back in 2004 and I fell in love with it after having Petite Sale for the first time there. Eric's been back a few times since on some of his many business trips, but this was my first return trip. We shared the smoked mozzarella and ricotta fritters and the endive salad to start. The fritters were absolutely delicious as they were light and airy even though they were deep fried. Eric ordered the grilled pork chop, but as they did not have the petite sale on their menu this time, I was forced to try something new; I opted for the grilled quail which came with 2 birds partially deboned on a very hearty and incredibly flavorful sauce. We did order a good but forgettable bottle of French wine, but we were disappointed that their winelist didn't contain as good of values as we had recalled from our first visit. We splurged and ordered dessert -- the tiramisu for Eric, and the nutella eclair for me. They warned us that each of the desserts was only a couple of bites, and they were definitely right! That was the smallest serving of tiramisu I've ever seen! But both desserts were yummy.
Jake had fun staying with Grandma and Grandpa, and he survived 4 days without mommy just fine -- probably better than Mommy did without him! As noted before, Grandma and Grandpa took him to the SF zoo where Grandma reported that most of the animals were, unfortunately, just laying around and not doing anything too entertaining. From the pictures, it looks like Jake was more interested in Grandma and Grandpa than in the animals, anyway. Unfortunately, he didn't enjoy his second carousel ride as much as his first. And, of course, he came home from Grandma's with a few new outfits and new pair of pirate Robeez!
