Aug. 6, 2008 - Happy Birthday to Me!
When I was 16, I thought 26 was "old". Now it seems like nothing. But my kids think I'm ancient.
Happily though, my birthday was the occasion for all of us to eat out, which is a once or twice yearly happening for us (unless we're invited out by someone else). At first we thought we might try the Brazilian restaurant in town, but something about the place made us decide to check the menu first. Good thing we did. The set menu price was $34/meal and salads and sides were no less than $8 on top of that! We jumped in the car and hustled away!
We settled instead on a large Chinese buffet that we had passed many times but never tried. I'm so glad we did. We ended up paying $30 for the five of us, and it was remarkably good food.
The setup was like your usual buffet restaurant, but there were seven (SEVEN!) buffet tables, and a huge variety of food from all over Asia, as well as a sushi bar and an ice-cream freezer. Naturally, we had to walk right past the ice cream to get to our table, and even though he was too short to see what was inside, Gebre with his lightning-quick brain, deduced immediately that there was ice-cream in there and he wanted it, bad. We were able to stall him with a plate full of chicken. After tasting the "chicken on a stick", he spent the rest of his meal putting his unskewered pieces of chicken onto the stick, and eating them that way. He said they tasted better on the stick. Josiah is the adventurous eater in our family, and came back to the table with his plate loaded with things like seaweed, whole shrimp, baby clams, and teeny, tiny octopi (yes, really!). The latter caused unending and vociferous commentary from Asrat. He leaned over the table and stared, bug-eyed, every time Josiah lifted a little octopus to his mouth.
We finally gave in to Gebre's persistent requests for ice-cream. Asrat picked cherry ("Because fruit is healthy and I want to be a healthy boy!") and Gebre picked mint chocolate chip ("Because it's GREEN!!!") I went for the yummy, yummy melons they had at the fruit table. Biruk was with me and when he saw the green jello squares he sucked in his breath awe and then almost jumped out of my arms in his attempt to grab some. We went back to the table with our melons and jello, and Biruk spent the next 20 minutes spearing them off my plate with Gebre's left-over chicken-stick, happy as a pig in a mud puddle, and just as messy.
I couldn't have asked for a better evening or a nicer birthday present!
Comments
Aug. 6, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
Oh! Happy Birthday my friend! What a wonderful evening out. Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuu!!
Sandy
Aug. 6, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Katie in Ohio
please tell me you took TONS of pictures of this evening. I want to go next time. Your family sounds like so much fun (the boys' logic matches my boys'!)
I'm glad you had a good birthday :-)
Aug. 6, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by mickey
happy biiiiirthday dear maggie!!! sorry I didn't call, I was in illinois yesterday still.... but all the same, much love to you and all the best for this next year! I love you!
Aug. 6, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
Happy happy birthday!
~Wendy
Aug. 7, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
Happy Birthday! Sounds like your boys (all 4 of them) enjoyed your birthday dinner as much as you did. LOL
Thursday's Child
Aug. 7, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Lilyofthevalley4
Happy birthday!!
That restaurant sounds just like one we have here. We go once in awhile, but we skip the food your dh took. LOL :)
Sounds like you had a lovely day!
Aug. 7, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Lizzie
aww sounds like a blast! I'm glad you had fun! :)
