Return of the Adventures!

We return!

Here's what we did while we were away:


Nate learned to fingerpaint:


With quiche.

We went to a birthday party for cousin Josh.


And we gave him a rib eye steak.


In our defense, that's what his mom said he wanted. He also asked for a jar of maraschino cherries, so Mommy got him those too, AND a whoopee cushion. Talk about an awesome birthday!

Nathan got a blow pop at that birthday party.


Mommy shall post more later but hey, a mini-update is a good start, right folks?

Apologies, apologies, dear readers!

I know that you all MUST be weeping and suffering withdrawals from our Adventurous family, so I feel compelled to tell you what we have *accomplished!* in our week of absence.

Um......

Well, Mommy thought about the taxes a couple of times. She sent invoicing for March. Um....Dadden did a couple moves and cleaned the backyard.

We have had a very busy week, but promise that true, tangible adventures will return soon! Seriously, do you really want to hear about it if the awesomest thing we do in a day is go to the mail box? Yeah, I didn't think so.

6. Chores around the House

Here is an interesting concept for an Adventure: this weekend, we practically MADE money on our adventure! By my calculations, the yardwork we did and the laundry we did SAVED us money, which is practically positive cash flow!

Our backyard was a disaster. I would show you all the "before" picture, but the camera refused to take it, and Adventure Dad threatened to throw me in the pool if I showed you all just how rotten our yard looked yesterday morning.

Here we are, halfway through the process of yard reclaimation.

Yes, I know the lighting is terrible. I am not a professional photographer, so you will have to suffer with my horrible composition.

Here is my daffodil bed, just beginning for the season. It will be truly glorious just in time for us to go to Hawaii.

Introducing Adventure Dog!


Playing with Adventure Dog is just too much fun. Here is Kidlet 2 posing with Adventure Dog.


Taking a break to work on the trike: Kidlet 2 will learn how to use the pedals eventually, but it's just not in the cards for now.


Kidlet 3 didn't take breaks. He folded some laundry.


And Beef Burgandy for dinner! Yes, I know I should write that out in French. I don't feel like getting up to check my cookbook to see how to spell it in French. Auntie Jenny can correct me in the comments. Thanks, yo.



Okay, now just promise me that none of you will tell the kidlets that we didn't have a real Adventure this weekend. They're pretty sure that playing outside all day for two whole days in a row, AND playing golf on the green, AND playing on their new playground equipment, AND playing with their doggy, was an Adventure. So please, don't tell them that their parents did all that yardwork and flower planting just to save $125/month on a gardner and $3/lb on wash and fold laundry! (Not that we would do that anyway, duh). The kiddos are pretty sure that our weekend was AWESOME.

Cost: FREE! Find a relative who needs their backyard cleaned and you could get PAID for this adventure!
Location: Anywhere!
Utils of Happiness: We'll skip this for today, haha.

Night Night, Gma!

Thursday, March 5th....FAIL

My dear readers, I am so sorry to inform you that our Great Adventure for Thursday the 5th was a giant FAIL.

Daddy went here:


And Mommy went here:


Poor babies did no Adventuring.

We will not let them down today!

The Trefethen Sails Again!

5. Roseville Galleria

The Great Adventure for Wednesday the 4th was an evening trip to the Roseville Galleria to ride in a racecar stroller, look at the lights, and play in the playground.

We set off with Great Expectations for this Great Adventure.


Walking around the new, improved Roseville Galleria is pretty cool. The mall is large enough to get a good workout, but at times seems too large. It is hard to remember everywhere you've been, and hard to cover everything without doubling back a few times. The new wing is very elegant, but has stores that I question in Roseville (do we REALLY need an LV, AND a Burberry, AND a Juicy Couture, AND a Tiffany's?) I am inclined to think this expansion was planned long before they knew what would happen to the Roseville housing market.

But I digress. The new architecture is very grand.

The new play area is expansive, and it is actually in ADDITION to the existing play area, so now there are two play areas: one in front of Sears and one in the center of the new wing.


We ate some Baked Ziti in the new improved food court and while Mommy shopped for many clothes, she bought zero clothes. Clothes buying is proving to be too stressful for Mommy. She needs some help from Auntie Jen.

Downsides to the new improved Galleria: now you rent the strollers for $5 and get 50 cents back when you return them (boooo!). You used to be able to rent a stroller for free at Guest Services but have done away with that little perk. This is actually a great disappointment, because they used to have double strollers and now only have singles (that, and now it costs $$). Other disappointments: they didn't put in enough bathrooms. If you are in the center of the mall, it's still a very long hike to find a potty, which earns a serious thumbs-down from us. You'd think they could have added enough potties...maybe in Phase 2, which should open later this year.

But we still had fun! Kidlet 3 LOVES riding in a racecar stroller.


And here is the first picture of Mommy!


Sadly, we were planning on playing in the play area after the Baked Ziti, but we had a double diaper soak through, so it was necessary to go on home.

This adventure was pretty cheap ($6 for the Baked Ziti and a juice to share). We consider cheap trips to the mall to be successful (haha!). This adventure is not going to get a very high rating though, simply because the double diaper soak through eliminated playground time. This Adventure was rated a 6.5/10, but I feel it had the potential to be an 8/10 had we gotten to play in the playground.

4. The Trefethen: Making a Cork Boat

Today we did an Adventure that anyone can accomplish around the house in just a few short minutes: we made a cork boat and sailed it down the gutter.

To start, you need the cork out of a bottle of wine. I couldn't find one in any of the kitchen drawers, so I had to open a bottle of wine. I chose a nice Trefethen Dry Riesling, which will be nice in a few hours. Note what time I opened the bottle: 9:54 am. That's how we roll in this house. (Just kidding, Gram!)







So anyway, now that I've stolen the cork out of this bottle of wine, I had two options: drink it or find a makeshift cork. I decided to seal the bottle G-ma style.

Isn't that classy?





Here's Kidlet 2 helping me break into the bottle of wine. Little man knows which tools are important in this house.


And because I know some of you will wonder where Kidlet 3 was during all of this, he was fast asleep.



So now that you have a cork, you also need a penny, a knife to cut a slit in the cork, a toothpick for the mast, a scrap of paper for the sail, and a piece of tape.



Step One: Cut a slit in the cork about 2/3 of the way back, deep enough for half of a penny to fit into the slot.


Step Two: Insert the penny. Make sure it is straight or otherwise your ship will capsize. I have named our ship the Trefethen.



Step Three: Insert a toothpick for the mast.



Step Four: Tape a scrap of paper cut into a sail shape to the toothpick. The sail is solely decorative. I used a scrap from an Office Depot circular envelope because it was pretty.

So there is your finished boat. Now it's time to go sailing!


Because it was raining and hailing and pretty darn cold out there, we dressed up good and warm and we sealed our camera into a Ziplock bag to keep it from getting wet. Please excuse any blurry pictures. Ziplocks keep the camera dry but aren't exactly conducive to really great photojournalism.


Here's my little Adventurer, wearing his big sister's Hannah Montana boots. Shhh, don't tell. He thinks they're pretty.

See how crazy wet it was out there today? We're lucky we didn't melt!

Now, with a little fanfare, chuck your ship into the gutter to see how she floats.


Oops.

Too bad for the Trefethen. It looks like either her rudder wasn't installed straight enough, causing her to list and capsize, or the water in the gutter wasn't deep enough, causing the rudder to scrap along the pavement and the ship to run aground. Whatever it was, our ship mostly just tipped over, the sail got really, really, wet, and it floated away down the street.

So we brought the Trefethen inside, filled a Tupperware with water, took the camera out of the Ziplock, and played on the kitchen floor.





Obviously, we still had lots of fun. After a few minutes, the paper sail melted, and the tape fell off, but Kidlet 2 didn't seem to mind having a sail-less ship.

Time to clean up!



What's for lunch, Mom?

This was a great adventure. We had everything we needed around the house. It only took about 5 minutes to make our boat, and Kidlet 2 was so excited with the construction process. He really loved throwing the ship into the water. Older kids would have tons of fun making their own ships and having races. I am looking forward to putting the Trefethen into the bath!

Utils of Happiness: 8/10 (would be 10/10 with a drainage ditch and a sunny day)
Cost: Free!

3. Roseville Community Library on Woodcreek Oaks Blvd

There is a shiny new Roseville Public Library at the intersection of Woodcreek Oaks and Pleasant Grove. It was pouring rain yesterday and Adventure Dad was in Modesto, so our Adventure was somewhat short and sweet and came to a rapid end when it became clear that the Kidlets needed naps.

So this new library has some really cool details. There is a beautiful fountain out in the front foyer. Last summer Kidlet 2 touched the fountain and splashed a little bit. Yesterday there was a sign that said "DO NOT PLAY IN FOUNTAIN." Well, pooey on them.














There are also lots of pretty color changed LED lights embedded in the floor. Anyone that knows Kidlet 2 knows how he felt about those "hights". Here he is posing with one. Even Kidlet 3 was pretty intrigued by these.

So next we went into the main library. Upstairs there is a very large teen area with multiple game systems, like a Wii and a Playstation, and XBoxes. I don't know much about those so I can't tell you with any real authority exactly what they have, and to be honest, we didn't even go upstairs yesterday because my Kidlets were happy with the children's area downstairs. But this library would definately appeal to teens, so it makes a great Adventure for the whole family.

Here's a picture of the children's area. Right in the center of the library is this huge oak tree which looks very realistic. Both Kidlets were fascinated with this. Kidlet 2 even stood underneath it and kept saying, "oooooh, wow!" It does make the children's area pretty cool.


There are of course, lots of books arranged in an appealing way, and a few activity tables for toddlers, and tons of toddler-size seating. There is also a felt board with dozens of cutout felt pieces that the Kidlets use to tell a story. There was a wonderful sweet librarian there who made a story with Kidlet 2. He and she picked out felt shapes and as they stuck them to the board, they made up a story to match their picture. Kidlet 2 thought that was just wonderful. Here he is with his picture.



Kidlet 3 of course felt that he needed to get in on this awesome story telling action, so he pulled up on the table and yelled at the librarian to get her attention.

Luckily for him, he's pretty cute.














After we'd gotten out some energy playing at the library, it was time to hit the road. So we packed up the little guy and the big guy and off we went.



I think the library was a great way to spend the morning. It was free, it was exciting, and there were other kids to talk to. There were new toys to play with, new stuff to look at, and new books to read.

I rate this adventure a 7/10. It does get a little difficult to wrangle a toddler and a baby and prevent the destruction of many library books. We need to find out when story time is and go to that.

You can experience this Adventure at the intersection of Woodcreek Oaks and Pleasant Grove in Roseville, M-Th 10-7 and F-Sat 10-5.

2. Happy Garden and SF Supermarket

Our next Great Adventure involved a trip down to South Sacramento on the 99 to the Fruitridge exit to partake in the tastiness that is dim sum.

South Sacramento has a large number of Asian groceries, restaurants, and other assorted retailers. I discovered the awesomeness that is South Sac in May of 2007, and I've been hooked ever since.

My favorite thing to do is DIM SUM. This is probably the most wonderful way to eat Chinese food. Dim sum as defined by Wikipedia:

"Dim sum (literally meaning "touch the heart") is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea. It is usually served in the mornings until noon time at Chinese restaurants and at specialty dim sum eateries where typical dishes are available throughout the day. Dishes come in small portions and may include meat, seafood, and vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate."

That innocuous little description in no way belies the delight that will await you when you reach Happy Garden.

Happy Garden is the restaurant I've gone to the most for Dim Sum in the Sacramento Area. I hear that New Canton on Broadway has a FABULOUS weekend Dim sum service (rumored to be 60+ dishes!), but I also hear that they have a very long wait, which is not in the cards with Kidlets 1, 2, & 3. So we go to Happy Garden, which is just south of Fruitridge on Stockton Blvd. Take the 99 south of Sac and take the Fruitridge exit.

Here is a picture of the front of Happy Garden:


So now let's get down to the good part. Dim sum comes around in little carts. It's all either deepfried and served on little plates, or steamed and served in little baskets. You get a little card at your table, and whenever you pick a dish from the carts, the server punches a spot on your card for either small, medium, or large. You pay by the plate, usually between $2-5 per plate, depending on the item.

Our standbys include shrimp noodles (large rice flour noodles filled with shrimp and served in a salty-sweet sauce), pork shu mai (pork dumplings), char sui bao, either steamed or baked (bbq pork filled buns, either steamed or baked), shrimp dumpings, egg tarts (a dessert item), shrimp balls (shrimp paste wrapped in wonton wrappers and deep fried, served with sweet and sour sauce), green onion dumpings (green onion and shrimp wrapped in rice paper and steamed and pan-fried, dip in soy sauce). There may be more that I am forgetting. To date, I have not tried chicken feet. Some day.

So here is Adventure Dad and Kidlets 1, 2, and 3. They have just been seated and they grabbed the first plate of shrimp noodles they saw. You can see the pink card on the table...that is our bill. By the time we are done, it will be covered in little stamps to indicate how many dishes we picked out and how much moola we owe.

Okay, you caught me. The kidlets are wearing the same outfits they wore to the farmer's market. We did indeed do TWO adventures in one day. So sue me. All moms know that if you can actually get three kids and two adults out of bed, showered, dressed, and packed in the car by 9:30 you're going to cram as much into that day as possible.


So here is a cart of dim sum being pushed around. This cart has from top to bottom, left to right: shrimp balls, sesame balls (filled with sweet red bean paste), green onion dumplings (the ones on the second level, far left), unidentified green dumplings which I have never tried, taro balls (taro wrapped in shredded wonton wrapper and fried), and egg custard bao. Tasty, tasty.

Down at the bottom you can see the takeout boxes. I highly recommend getting extra dim sum to take home. It makes a great pre-dinner snack.

Here is Kidlet 3 posing with my takeout box for later. In this box you can see egg custard tart, green onion dumpling, shrimp dumpling, pork shu mai, and baked and steamed char sui bao. At approximately 4:30 I warmed all this, made a pot of tea, and devoured it in about 4 minutes.

Mommy loves some dim sum.

You can experience the dim sum for yourself at Happy Garden on Stockton Blvd. We spent $39 for the five of us and leftovers for us as well as my grandparents. For quality Chinese food, that's pretty cheap.

So now that we are all stuffed full of dim sum and waddling, it's time for Great Adventure Part Deux. Time to hit up the SF Supermarket. SF Supermarket is at the intersection of 65th street and Stockton Blvd. It's just about 1.5 miles south of Happy Garden on Stockton Blvd. The shopping center has a couple of Pho restaurants (Vietnamese noodle soup...tasty stuff), some authentic Chinese herbal stores, a couple of little import stores specializing in trinkets, a jewelry store, two great florists that sell very healthy orchids for a great price, and the SF Supermarket.

Here's a tip: park behind the shopping center and walk through the breezeway. Parking here is usually a disaster, so save yourself the headache. Here's a picture of the back parking lot.

The breezeway is under the red arch in the center of the picture. It comes out right between the Pho restaurant and the florist.

Turn to your left to go down and few storefronts to the SF Supermarket.

Now, just a disclaimer: Asian supermarkets are very different from conventional supermarkets. This is a field trip for those of you that are new to the whole Asian supermarket experience. Don't freak out at the weird smells: the different spices and herbs and teas and produce and the smell of the meat counter all conglomerate to make a smell that is very unfamiliar to those of us that mostly frequent Bel Air or Whole Foods.

Here is the meat counter: approximately 150 feet of any cut of meat (ANY. REALLY.) you can imagine, as well as TONS of different varieties of fish and shellfish. I consider myself to be quite a foodie but I will always encounter stuff here that I have never seen before.


I just cannot capture the sheer scale of this counter in a picture.

Here is Kidlet 2 getting up close and personal with some assorted shellfish.


Here is a picture of the fish board: this is pretty cool. You pick out a swimming fish and select what you want done. They kill, clean, and (if desired) deep fry your fish. This is good stuff.


Our shopping list here is pretty basic: I pick up some coconut milk (69 cents a can), some Pocky cookies for the Kidlets, some fresh ginger, lemongrass, quail eggs, and canned coconut slices and Hawaiian bread. Remember, Asian cultures regularly eat a lot of things that we consider gourmet, so their stores turn over these items faster, meaning you will get fresher product for a better price. Hence the quail eggs ($1.29/doz versus $3.99 for the EXACT SAME container from the same producer at Nugget).

So anyway, that's why I love exploring different cultures and their grocery stores. The kidlets think it's a field trip. Here are the top five reasons my kids love the SF Supermarket:

1. There are live fish swimming around and live crabs and lobsters to check out.
2. There is a fish tank of live frogs (we pretend the frogs are for pets.)
3. I let them get cool cookies. Here's Kidlet 2 eating some sweet Pocky cookies dipped into chocolate sauce. Yes, it's a Hello Kitty container. He's two. He thinks it's pretty.
4. There is a LOT of activity going on to keep kidlets occupied.
5. There are tons of neat decorations hanging from the ceiling, and that provides Kidlet 3 with a lot of colorful stuff to look at.


I highly recommend going down to South Sac and checking out the Asian markets and the dim sum, whether you have kidlets of your own or not. It's a great cheap way to spend a day.

You can find the SF Supermarket at the intersection of Stockton Blvd and 65th St.

On Mr. Adventure's Utils of Happiness scale, this was a solid 10. Everyone loved dim sum. Everyone loves the SF Supermarket field trip. Everyone loves leftovers, and the 3 kidlets passed out and sawed some serious logs when we got home. And every mom knows that a good nap is the best indicator of a good day.