A Taste of Greece

On Saturday we went to the Greek Festival sponsored by Saint Paul's Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine. Parking was easy because they had a free shuttle running from Woodbridge Community Center.

Admission for adults was $3 and kids were free. There was some music, along with some members of the audience doing a group dance. However, our main reason for attending was the food, of course. Our family shared a gyro ($7), 1 spanakopita ($3) and "Greek-style" fish & chips ($6). The gyro was good, "better than Daphne's" according to D. The spanakopita was OK, kind of pricey for one piece, I thought. But the fish & chips was what won k over to Greek food. She's still talking about the "Greek fish" two days later. She said I should make it at home. n liked it too, surprisingly enough. We were able to find a table with shade since we arrived early.


Not sure what is "Greek-style" about these fish & chips, but they were yum.


We were still a little hungry, but none of the desserts appealed to us, especially since everything seemed to have nuts. (The kids are allergic). We even asked the ladies inside the room with all of the desserts/pastries if there was anything without nuts, and they could only come up with the chocolate chip cookies and a shortbread dipped in chocolate. So, we passed. (They had the Greek doughnuts, which we had at the International Fair in Orange, but that didn't seem too appealing after we already had our fish & chips).


They were giving tours of the church during the festival. I might have done that if the kids were a little older. There was this mosaic of St. Paul on the outside of the church that was pretty impressive.


There was a handful of vendors and a few carnival rides, but not much else. We probably won't go again for a while, but it was a nice family outing. I'm looking forward to many more this summer!

Father's Day 2010

Finishing up D's parents' trip last week...on Sunday we went to church. There was a Father's Day breakfast featuring Loco Moco. We heard a message on the importance of fathers "fearing God". D's dad wanted to go back to Capital Seafood for dim sum, so we did, and there was over an hour wait! I guess a lot of other people had the same idea. While we were waiting we saw two families that we know, including one of D's old college friends. She has a son whose name is n's middle name, and is only two weeks older! She had made reservations two weeks beforehand...will do that next time.

D's mom said we better plan for dinner, so she walked over to Tokyo Lobby and made reservations. Yes, we went to Diamond Jamboree three times in three days!

We had been wanting to try Tokyo Lobby for a while. It's mostly traditional, but there are some dishes with a twist.


Sushi Pizza


D's sushi combo

I thought k's kid's meal was a good deal. $4.99 for chicken karage, yaki soba, french fries (ha!), orange juice, a toy, and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Note the tissue box on the table. k had a runny nose all weekend and kept asking for tissues, so we brought a whole box for convenience's sake.

k had a good time with her grandparents. She doesn't get to see them too often, but when she does, she really enjoys all of the attention.

Sight-Seeing Saturday

In the morning, it was little overcast (June gloom). We took the Balboa Island Ferry (as pedestrians). It was before 9 a.m., so finding parking by the ferry was not a problem.

We walked to the pier and found this playground.


D had fun too:


There weren't many food options that were open, but D wanted a snack. We ended up with churros, shaved ice, a pretzel and lemonade, oh my!


Afterward we strolled through Roger's Gardens--so much beauty! Loved looking at all the different types of roses and laughing at some of the names.




We ate lunch at Opah, but I wasn't able to eat very much because n was acting up. Nice restaurant, though. D liked his lamb chop salad special for $10.

In the afternoon I had reservations for us to go to a cooking demo at Native Foods at the District.

They passed out samples of chai tea, watermelon agua fresca, tofu, rice salad and a veggie tostada. Pretty good for being vegetarian :)


n liked the tofu.

D's dad even won a Summer Wellington! There were pieces of paper taped underneath a few of the seats. He and k went up to the stage to accept the prize. Turned out he had the same birthday as the chef! (She was all into astrology so she asked everyone their sign). Anyway, the Wellington is currently in our freezer, waiting for our next family party. (D's parents weren't too into trying the vegan dish).

We brought home take out from our favorite Hawaiian place around here, Aloha Hawaiian BBQ in the District. Kind of funny that we had a meat fest after watching the vegan cooking demo.

Weekend With Grandpa & Grandma

Last Thursday, D's parents came to visit us. It was their first time visiting Orange County since we moved to our new house. They stayed at a hotel by South Coast Plaza, so D went out to dinner with them at Claim Jumper. On Friday, D took the day off and picked them up at their hotel. Then I had to take n for his 15 month check-up. Next I dropped off n with Grandpa and Grandma at home, and D and I took k to look at our second choice pre-school. After the tour, D took k home, and I went to a meeting. I left the meeting a little early and met everyone at my parents' house for lunch. n & k stayed at my parents' house for their nap, and d and I went with his parents to look at model homes in Woodbury (just for fun). I picked up the kids, and then we all went to Capital Seafood at Diamond Jamboree. We had the Peking duck special (M-F, after 5 p.m.), beef chow fun (for k), Chinese greens, and tilapia. Afterward we went next door to 85 degrees. D and I tried the sea salt coffee, which was iced. I guess the salt was in the foam. It was fine in the beginning, but at the end the foam was left and it was way too salty. What a tiring day!

3 1/2 Birthday

Today, the first day of summer, marks k's 3.5 birthday. I didn't have time to bake a cake, so I bought this "half" cake. I always thought it was funny that Ralph's sells these cakes, but it seemed appropriate for today. We sang "Happy half-birthday" to her. I asked k if she felt like she was three and a half, and she said that no, she feels like she is two and a half. She always wants to do everything herself, (changing clothes, etc.), but then she also constantly declares that she is "still a little girl".

Today was also a big day because we found out that she was accepted into our number one choice for preschool. For the last couple of months, we were waiting to hear back from this preschool, taking turns calling the director, but we could never get an idea of where we were on the wait list so it was very frustrating. We began considering our other options, including home-schooling and another pre-school. Well, the other pre-school gave us a deadline of tomorrow. I called the #1 pre-school to tell them that we had to make a decision by tomorrow, and that seemed to push us through. Who knew that pre-school admissions were such a process? Actually, I had heard about moms putting babies in utero on wait lists, etc., but didn't think it was really true. I'm just glad that we won't have to go through this again (hopefully) with n, since they give priority to siblings. We also found out that to reserve her space, k will have to start by the beginning of August. I was counting on September, so now it feels like summer is going to be really short. I feel like we're about to enter a whole new phase of parenting.

15 Months

D's parents were in town this past weekend so there has been a whirlwind of activity around here. However, before I go into details, I would like to pause to recognize n's 15 month birthday, which occurred last Wednesday. It is fascinating to observe the gender differences. He is definitely more into building with blocks and Legos and likes his toy cars. We suspect that he is allergic to green peas, and not wheat. He has a sweet tooth and mealtimes can be a struggle. He usually sleeps through the night, at least until 4:30 a.m. (which is actually the worst, since our alarm is set to go off at 5:10).

Another development is that k has taken to sleeping on the floor in n's room, "to keep him company". It all started when she saw a couple of ants crawling on the wall near her bed one night. She became hysterical, and my quick fix was to ask if she wanted to sleep in n's room. She did, and hasn't slept in her bed since. I thought the novelty would wear off, but I think she does actually like being near him, which I find sweet. We'll see how long this phase lasts.

Japanese Heritage Bridal Shower

On Saturday my mom and I went to a bridal shower for my second cousin at the Japanese Garden at Cal State Long Beach.


The setting was so serene.

Her bridesmaids did a lovely job with all of the details.

We were sitting at a table with various relatives, (including people from my church!)but I had a hard time keeping track of how everyone was related. I need to do a family tree.


My second cousin giving some words of thanks. She is usually the party planner, so I'm sure it was nice for other people to do the planning. We are very excited to go to her wedding in July!

Kogi Date Night

I'm not sure of this, but I think our last date night was in March. That's pretty sad. I've been wanting to try the Kogi truck for a long time, but it was never at a time/place that was convenient. However, Friday night it was in Irvine, so we dropped the kids off at the grandparents' house and checked it out. It was supposed to arrive at 6:30 and we were there before 6. Since we didn't see anyone in a line, we went into the K-1 indoor race track and looked around. Then we went back to our car to wait, but D soon noticed that there was a small group of people waiting in a corner of the parking lot. We got in line (we were instantly recognizable as noobies because we accidentally went to the front of the line, instead of the back). Soon there was a long line behind us as more people showed up. The truck came on time, but when it arrived, it parked pretty far away from the line! Everyone was kind of looking at each other, and I told D to get prepared to run, under my breath. But, some people behind us told the people in the front of the line that we should all just move together, and we all civilly moved closer to the truck. I had read in other places there is just a mad dash, but this is Orange County, I guess.


Anyway, D left the ordering up to me since I had done my research. We ordered 1 short rib taco, 1 spicy pork taco, 1 order of Kogi sliders (short rib meat, 2 per order) and 1 spicy pork burrito. Oh, and a piece of tres leches cake for dessert.

Once the truck set up, we got our food pretty quickly since we were only about 5 people back from the front of the line.

We ate in our car, which was kind of messy, but fun. The tacos definitely have more flavor, but the burrito is what will fill you up. My favorite was the sliders. Actually, that and the tres leches:

Definitely not your traditional tres leches, it had chocolate cake, with a crunch peanut brittle top, condensed milk on the bottom and tapioca in the middle! There was also a hint of cinnamon in there too. Very interesting. Our dinner came out to just under $20 (we brought sodas/drinks from home :)). I like this food truck craze.

Happy Campers

For Memorial Day Weekend, we made last minute reservations to go camping at O'Neill Regional Park from Sunday to Monday. We invited our friends to join us this time. They have two kids, too, so there was a 1 year old, 2 year old, 3 year old, and 4 year old! The mom/daughter just hung out with us during the day and came back the next day. Maybe next time they can all sleep over. :)


We kept it simple: hot dogs for dinner, s'mores for dessert, scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns for breakfast.


Snacking on apples.


We have found that bringing chairs is pretty essential for camping. The other family had a cool double chair that was like a loveseat.

The campsite was nice because each site had its own water faucet. Too bad it was so close to a noisy road, though. Also, shouldn't there be a rule that RVs cannot run their generators past 9 p.m.? Those things are LOUD! We were also close to the RV dumping station, but it was not as bad as I thought it would be.


This guy kept on waking up at night and had a hard time falling back to sleep :(


But, he had a nice nap the next morning!


The moms took the kids to the playground in the morning while the dads cleaned up camp and packed. The playground was pretty nice...zipline, sundial, wobbly bridge/balance beam, etc. I thought it was funny when a boy who was older than k went down the slide head first, and she said, "Be careful, little boy!" Someone didn't want to walk back.

It was nice camping with another family. Plus, they brought fun stuff like a notebook for k to color in and glow sticks for night. We're looking forward to our next camping trip in October. I think this will definitely be one of our family's traditions.