Fun in the City

The kids and I checked out the big city Barnes & Noble yesterday.  Brishen got together a list of books he wants to read.  Birthday month will be here before too long, so I'm trying to get some gift ideas together.   I had fun looking through the book, "Awkward Family Photos" which also happens to be a blog that is fun to look through if you have time to waste laughing at other people's ugly pictures and remembering that your own mother has many of you that are definitely awkward enough to make it on that blog. 

We wanted to do a big more shopping, but my tummy was rumbling.  We were heading home for dinner when we drove by a Mexican candy store.  We thought we should see if we could find a little treat for after supper.  Since we were already stopped, we ("we" would be the kids and I since Jon was not yet done with his 12-hour day) decided to grab supper at a "fast food" Japanese place in the same plaza.  They had a couple dishes with tofu instead of meat, so we ordered them both and shared the feast.  It's pretty cool to have a couple kids who will gladly dig into a plate full of veggies and tofu, spearing the carrots, cabbage, and onions without much gusto.  They also enjoyed the udon noodle soup, but I had to try a little too hard to think of the noodles as anything but giant worms.  I guess I'm not as cultured as my kids.  Brishen almost died from trying the spicy pepper condiment that I warned him against trying, but Basia and I enjoyed his red, watery eyes, dripping nose, and bright red lips for the rest of the meal.

We then went to the Mexican candy store where everything is very authentic Mexican.  We had no idea what anything was, and I had to do my best with some high school Spanish translation skills.  We each chose something small that looked good and then something small that looked confusing or weird.  The six items only cost us a couple dollars, and we had lots of fun trying each item and figuring out what it was.  We actually enjoyed all of them. 

We had some new experiences because we were willing to pull over the car when we saw something that looked new and different.  We really had a nice time.  I'm going to put some extra money in the budget in the months ahead so we can keep trying out various international restaurants and different treat shops.  This big city living has some fun advantages!