Breakfast With the Beasts

Santa Ana Zoo has a program for children on Saturday mornings where they feed you breakfast (pastries, fruit, cereal, coffee, juice, & chocolate milk (to D’s delight)) and then you feed the farm animals before the zoo opens to the public. We went with another family and then met up with my sister and brother-in-law once the zoo opened.

As soon as the kids finished eating, one of the zookeepers brought out a frog and a rooster. The frog was supposed to demonstrate how he eats worms, but he seemed sleepy. Then, the kids were told to hide live worms in corn meal so the rooster could look for them and eat them. Ew. k wisely refused to do this. I don’t blame her.
rooster

Then we fed some ducks some lettuce. Apparently it is better for them than bread.
ducks

k had the most fun feeding the goats.
goat

The zookeeper who led the program was the same one we saw at the Wayzgoose festival. I think D has a better memory for faces because he instantly recognized her. This actually happens quite often.
parrot

sazoo

D just realized that he likes jacaranda trees.
sazoo farm

For the most part, k seemed a little scared of the animals, although she did pet a pig. We weren’t too impressed with the range of animals, aside from the monkeys. However, I do think it was interesting for k to see live examples of all the animals that she has heretofore only seen in picture books. We’ll have to go to LA and SD zoos so she can see the bigger animals, like lions, tigers and bears! 🙂

Afterward we went to Jerry’s Woodfired Dogs. We each got a dog and split two sides among the four of us.
jerry's woodfired dogs
You can have as many toppings on as you want put on, so D and I went all out, as can be seen. I guess the picture makes it look like we had a salad instead of hot dogs. They were quite good, and we all enjoyed the potato chips, which actually tasted kind of like fries, right out of the fryer. Yum.

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Mother’s Day (Late)

Almost forgot to blog about our Mother’s Day. We went to my sister and brother-in-law’s house after church for lunch. It was supposed to be a combined celebration with my Dad’s birthday (which is tomorrow). k’s gift to me was taking an hour and a half nap when we got home so that I could nap too! I also bought a little gift for myself…The Creative Family, as seen in my “Currently Reading” sidebar.

Mother's Day

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Another Weekend

On Saturday we went to Bella Terra, mainly to go to the big REI sale. We ended up making a major purchase: a Base Camp 4 REI tent! D and I are very excited about it. We have decided to make camping one of our regular family activities. I’m hoping that we can get good use out of the tent, since it was pretty expensive. (We did get a 20% discount during the sale, however). Our first trip will be in July. We tried to set it up in our living room, but the tent was too big (or our living room is too small!) We’ll have to try again in my parents’ backyard before our trip.

Afterward we went across the street to eat at Sakura Saku. D, k and I shared a CA roll, chicken karaage and oyako donburi (D’s favorite). The food was good, but it didn’t quite fill us up. Also, no one else came in the restaurant the whole time we were there.

Then we headed back to Bella Terra and heard the first part of a concert by the Rockit Scientists. They’re a classic rock cover band, and k really enjoyed herself. She was clapping her hands and dancing even though the music was quite loud. I’m looking forward to going to more free outdoor concerts this summer.
The Rocket Scientists
IMG_1420

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All-You-Can-Eat Strawberries

Today k and I went with our moms’ group to Tanaka Farms. It’s hard to believe that when we went last year, k couldn’t even eat strawberries. Well, k was able to enjoy herself a lot more this time around!

The tour takes place in a tractor-pulled wagon. They give you lots of produce to sample, so I was smart enough to bring plastic bags this time for the leftovers. Another mom came even more prepared, with a container of ranch dressing! (Good for dipping the carrots, lettuce, etc.)

tractor

banana tree
Our Tourguide

onion
Trying an onion

scarecrow
Hey, it’s a scarecrow

carrots
Have you ever seen carrots like this?

Then, the best part. They let you off the tractor and give you fifteen minutes to pick and eat all of the strawberries you want. (No saving any for later).
strawberries

eating strawberry

strawberry
k certainly ate her money’s worth. She must have had at least 15!

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Sunday with the Parents

On Sunday we went to church and it was nice to have my parents with us. Afterwards we went to The Clubhouse at South Coast Plaza. My co-worker said the Kobe burger was the best hamburger he had ever had. So I ordered it.

Here is the description…
Kobe Burger: 17
8oz. Kobe beef burger, Monterey Jack, watercress, tomato, caramelized onion, garlic aioli, brioche bun

It was expensive, but it was made of Kobe beef and my parents paid anyway. 😉 The items that stood out were the bun, the onions, and the beef. The beef was tender but also you could tell that it was not processed too much. It beat out Houston’s. L forgot her camera, so it will just live on in my memory.

For dinner we went to S Vietnamese restaurant. It was the fanciest Vietnamese restaurant that I had ever been to. We ordered Chilean Seabass, Orange Roughie, Shaken Beef and Duck. The first three were really good, however the duck wasn’t.

S Restaurant
k was doing squats before dinner.

S Fried Rice
k’s order of S Fried Rice. It was the first time we ordered off of the kid’s menu for her, since she couldn’t really eat our entrees. Plus, the entrees were on the small side, so it was good that she had her own.

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A Day in the LBC

Saturday morning we went with D’s parents to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Neither D nor I had ever been there. Fortunately, we were able to use our Entertainment Book coupon to receive 50% off admission. That alone more than paid for the book, which I bought for $15.

At first, k was tired and didn’t want to leave her stroller and blanket. Eventually, she became more interested. She seemed most impressed by the diving birds, seals, and the small colorful coral reef fish.

blue whale

colorful fish
So pretty!

Shark Lagoon
Shark Lagoon

stealth bomber
D said this shark reminded him of a Stealth Bomber

sting ray
Petting a stingray

lorakeet
Lorakeet

We had lunch at Parker’s Lighthouse in nearby Shoreline Village. It has a nice view of the harbor. Unfortunately, I took this picture with a view of the parking lot.
parker's lighthouse

On the way home we stopped by the Japanese Garden at CSULB. We couldn’t go in because there was a wedding going on. Too bad. D snuck this peek, though.
japanese garden

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Happy Cinco de Mayo

Tonight we had chicken taquitos with guacamole, chips, beans and vegetables. k ate a little bit of everything!

We are recovering from a busy weekend with D’s parents. They flew in on Thursday night and I dropped them off at the airport this morning. It was nice that they could see how much k has changed since Christmas.

D took Friday off and took them to Fashion Island. (I was at my moms’ group). They ate at Cafe R & D, which I hear was good. The restaurant gave k an apple sliced up like french fries. I would have liked to see that. D also took them to Pinkberry, to get the full Southern California experience, ha.

I met up with them Friday afternoon. We went to Huntington Beach for dinner at Duke’s, at the foot of the pier. The fish was excellent and the coconut shrimp was very tasty. We also relived our honeymoon experience by getting the hula pie. (We had gone to the Duke’s in Honolulu and the waiter gave us an embarrassingly huge piece. Strangers came up to us and made comments. Not cool.)
Duke's

Afterward we took a quick stroll down Main Street. I took a quick peek in the store my cousin works at to see if she was there. I didn’t see her, but D told me to go inside, so I asked one of the employees about her and she was in the back. I think she was pretty surprised to see us, including k, who was much smaller when we last saw her.
cousin Kelly
I bet no one would ever guess that we’re first cousins. 🙂

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1st Haircut

Looking at that last picture of “princess k”, I decided that k was in need of a haircut. I gave her bangs a trim, which she seemed to enjoy. Maybe because she can see now. Her hair was fine when pulled back with a barrette or band, but she usually took it out.
hair cut
A little short, but it’s cute on her, I think.

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Princess k

princess chair
k enjoys sitting on her throne at church.

mccormick
For dinner yesterday we went to McCormick & Schmick’s at the Garden Walk in Anaheim. (Yes, we had a gift certificate). So far, there are only restaurants open. Before dinner we checked out the Stadium lofts, just for fun. Should be interesting to see how that area continues to develop.

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Sat. Misc.

D and k are now regularly running together (k is in the jogging stroller) on Sat. mornings. It is nice because it gives them quality time together, while I have time to go to the gym, do errands, or clean. D just purchased a water bottle belt.
water bottles
Nice. I can’t say that running is one of the more attractive sports.

Afterward we had our first family small group meeting. It was fun and we’re looking forward to seeing how it develops.

It was hot out this weekend! D and k hung out on the balcony, which I tried to make more inviting now that it is warm out.
relaxin'

At night we went to my friend Lisa’s 30th birthday party. There were a lot of kids, hence the pinata. I think k enjoyed watching people swing at it.
pinata

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