Sunday, November 4, 2012

Weekend Roundup

We had a great weekend at my house. My parents & grandmother came up for a visit & stayed overnight on Saturday. My grandmother is getting too old to travel on her own, so it was great for her to be able to come up with my parents.

We kicked off Saturday by attending my younger son's soccer game. He had a great game, & my family loved watching the energy only 5 year olds can bring to the field. Minimal skill, lots of energy. :-) Here is N with his medal at the final game of the season. We even avoided getting rained on!


After soccer, my grandmother really wanted to have lunch at the restaurant in Nordstrom, so we headed to the mall. Little did we know that it was the Half Yearly Sale, so the mall (and Nordstrom) was packed. It was a 90 minute wait for a table, so we started looking for any other option. It was over an hour past N's lunch time, & my grandmother was getting *very* hungry. The only available restaurant without over an hour's wait was Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. For those of you who have never been there, it's . . . a very nice restaurant. We don't bring our kids to nice restaurants, ever. But, we were desperate. It was a bad sign when the kids menu consisted of: salmon, steak, or a grilled chicken breast. Nice restaurants tend to also be very . . .. slow, & this place lived up to that. However, N was amazing & lasted over 90 minutes at a "fancy" lunch, coloring pictures, & eating his grilled chicken, fries, & drinking chocolate milk. He was an angel. Yeah! S was at home with M, since he had a different soccer game schedule, & rumor has it they got a hot dog from Costco for lunch, which is much more our typical speed with the kids. :-)

I did spend more than expected on lunch, as I treated & had planned to use my Nordstrom notes to cover the cost of lunch. That obviously didn't work. My mom, however, paid for N's soccer trophy (I didn't have cash) & bought me a super cute top. Yeah for Moms. :-)

It was so much fun to have my parents in town, & see my dad teaching the boys how to throw a football (he was a coach for years). We also played Kinect Dance Central, & all of the family got in on the action. Even Grandma. It was hilarious to see all of the generations rocking out!

We had a mellow day today, with laundry & catching up. I washed all of the sheets, got in a great workout, cleaned some junk out of the freezer & pantries, & threw away (recycled, actually) a bunch of grad school materials I discovered in our spare room. Yeah for decluttering! I also made spaghetti tonight for dinner, & it turned out great. I used up a bunch of vegetables that were about to pass their prime - a red pepper, celery, onion, & carrots.

I'm still figuring out a menu for the week ahead, as we (again) have a crazy schedule. Here's what I'm thinking. And, after reviewing this, I swear that we normally don't eat this much pasta. We're trying to clean up the pantry & fridge before we head out on vacation.

  • Sunday - spaghetti bolognese with salad
  • Monday - chicken pesto pasta with pine nuts & parmesan (us + my best friend, who is staying with us) + goat cheese crostini & pomegranate martinis to start
  • Tuesday - Leftover Chicken Pastina (from our dinner on Saturday)
  • Wednesday - M's at a conference, so I'll have spaghetti & roasted butternut squash
  • Thursday -  M's at a conference, so I'm thinking I'll be having a chicken pesto panini with squash & salad
  • Friday - we're watching a friend's child, & M's going to be in Portland, so I'll be alone with the kids. I'm thinking spaghetti & meatballs.
  • Saturday - Chicken marsala casserole + greek salad
  • Sunday - Leftover marsala casserole
  • Monday - Eating any leftover, & freezing remaining food. If we have nothing left, I'll make a chicken caesar salad.
  • Tuesday-Monday - on vacation in Hawaii!!!!!!!!!

Phew! It was a fun but busy weekend. How about you? Did you have an enjoyable & productive weekend?

3 comments:

  1. Cute little boy. Squash pie is savory, not really sweet. A little more lumpy and grainy, but we like it. I love Nordstrom thank goodness there is not one within 100 miles or I would never get out of debt!

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  2. Adorable little one!
    And I'm glad that you got to spend time with your mother and grandmother!

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  3. Sounds like a good weekend. When I was in Seattle a few weeks ago I stayed at the Paramount right across from the Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I wanted to try and eat there but it didn't work out.
    Good job on the Menu Plan.

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