San Antonio Trip--Part 1

Last Tuesday morning, we told the kids they would get to open one Christmas present early. Really early, since we were still more than a month before Christmas!

Inside the box, inside an envelope, was this collage I made for them (free, with a coupon code from Walgreens) that told them we are going to SeaWorld!

They were excited, but a bit confused. They had never heard of SeaWorld.  "Is that part of Disney World?"  They got a little more excited when we told them to get dressed because we were leaving NOW!!!

Earlier we had told them we were leaving to go to family's house on Thursday.  Which was true.  They just didn't know about this small detour we were making to San Antonio before we met up with family on Thursday.

We got on the road around 9:15 in the morning.  Before we left, we packed a lunch in a cooler and researched highway rest stops along our route.  We stopped at this rest stop just outside of Salado, Texas.

It had nice picnic areas and a playground for the kids to run off steam.

There was even a "Motorist Workout" section for exercise.

We spent about 45 minutes at this rest stop eating lunch and playing on the playground.

A few miles south of this rest stop, we got on the new "super-highway" between Georgetown and San Antonio. This new tollway, also known as the Pickle Highway or State Highway 130, just had the last stretch completed on October 24th of this year.  It has the highest posted speed limit of any highway in the U.S. at 85 m.p.h.  It cost us $6.17 in tolls, but skipping the Austin traffic on I-35 and having the faster speed limit was totally worth it!

We made it to our hotel about 3 p.m.  Since the hotel was so close to SeaWorld, the lobby and elevators had SeaWorld advertisements.

We stayed at a Springhill Suites using Brian's Marriott Rewards points.  We picked this hotel because:

*  It is just a few miles from SeaWorld
*  It has a free breakfast
*  It has an indoor pool
*  It has rooms that sleep up to 6 people

The lobby/breakfast area:

Our room.  It had 2 queen beds and a sofa bed.

The desk area/sofa bed area.

We got settled in our room and watched TV for a bit and then we headed down to the River Walk.  It was about a 20 minute drive from our hotel. 

We parked at the River Center mall and decided to take a river boat cruise.  The first thing I noticed was how empty the entire River Walk was!  I had been there twice before, both times during the summer, and it was just packed.  And hot.  But on this Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, there were no crowds and the weather was cool.

The cruise lasted about 40 minutes and our guide described the history of the River Walk and pointed out some interesting things on buildings as we passed by.  All 3 of my kids were way more interested in this than I thought they would be.  At the end, my 8-year-old said, "That was fun!  Let's go on that again!"

After the cruise, we decided to splurge and eat dinner on the River Walk.  We had researched restaurants online earlier and read good reviews about a new Mexican restaurant near the River Center mall called Maria Mia.  We had the entire patio to ourselves and a great view of the river.

Dinner was good.  The restaurant made its own tortillas, which to my husband is the sign of a good Mexican restaurant.

Before we left the restaurant, we had our picture taken inside by the Christmas tree:

And on our way back to our car, we stopped to take some pictures in front of the official River Walk Christmas tree:

Up next:  San Antonio Trip Part 2, Hotel Pool and SeaWorld

CPK Birthday Party

Last week we had my younger son's 5th birthday party at California Pizza Kitchen.  I didn't even know that CPK hosted birthday parties until I read this blog.


The party started at 10 a.m. when the restaurant was closed to the public.  When we arrived, the birthday boy got his very own CPK chef's jacket.

As the other kids arrived, we gave them each a paper chef hat to decorate with stickers and markers. 

At 10:15, the kids were taken on a tour of the kitchen facilities.

They saw the bread slicer, the dish washer, the pantry, and they got to go into the walk-in refrigerator.  They even got to see some large flames in the kitchen!

Towards the end of the tour, the manager gave them a lesson on how to throw a pizza crust.

Then they each got to make their own pizza with whatever toppings they wanted.

While their pizzas cooked, the kids decorated aprons and pizza boxes.

In no time, their pizzas were ready.

We brought our own cake in.

For party favors, the kids kept their hats and aprons (ordered from Amazon.com), and we handed out these chocolate bars. 

CPK also gave the kids a coupon for a free kid's meal during their next visit.

The party lasted about an hour and 15 minutes.  For most of the party, the restaurant was closed to the public, so it was nice having the place to ourselves. 

The price was right ($10/kid) and we liked having the party outside of our home.  Sure makes for easy clean-up! 

A surprise detour on the way to Thanksgiving!

Our kids think we are leaving to drive to extended family's house on Thursday for Thanksgiving.  Which they are very excited about.

What they don't know is that tomorrow morning, they will get to open up an early Christmas present from their grandparents--tickets to Seaworld's Christmas Celebration!

Brian and I have been to San Antonio as a couple a few times, but before we had kids.  We've been to San Diego and Orlando as a family but have skipped Seaworld in those locations because we kept saying that we could go to the Seaworld in Texas anytime.  Now is that time! We will just take a slight detour on the way to Thanksgiving.

I can't wait to see our kid's reactions!

Have you been to Seaworld's Christmas Celebration?  

Dining at The Red Room

Last week my husband Brian and I hired a babysitter for the kids and had a dinner date at The Red Room on the Preston Ridge campus of Collin College. A friend had told me about The Red Room earlier this year and I thought it sounded neat. The Red Room is a restaurant run by the culinary arts students at the college, and it gives the students experience as chefs in the kitchen and as servers in the restaurant. 

We specifically reserved a spot for this night because the cuisine was going to be Russian!  Our boys are from Russia and there are not too many restaurants around here where we can eat Russian cuisine, so we were excited.

The restaurant is located in the Alumni Hall.  There is a separate entrance for the Culinary Arts Institute.

Once inside, we found a few signs that led us to The Red Room.

When we got there, they asked for our name since we made a reservation.  However, they didn't have our names written down.  It was ok, they said there was still room for us.

We brought cash with us--good thing because they only take cash and checks.

The inside of the room had red walls on both ends and you could also see into the kitchen.  There was instrumental music playing on the speakers.

We sat down and our server gave us menus.  After a few seconds I looked at my husband, puzzled, and he had the same look.  I said, "Does your menu have Russian food on it?"  And he said no.  Our menu was labeled "American" style service with an "International Sampling".  We were expecting a fixed menu of Russian food for $20, like the website said.  We asked our server about it, and he said the Russian food was canceled.  They had changed it on the website about a week prior. 

We looked at our menus for a few more minutes and had to get over our disappointment of the food switch. 

Here is the menu:

There were two choices of appetizers, one choice of salad, and two choices of entrees.

We both ordered the Beef Carpaccio for an appetizer.  We had never had this and we weren't sure what to expect.  It was thin slices of beef topped with cheese, greens, and oil.  It was so good!  Definitely the best thing we ate that night.  It was flavored really nicely.  I can't even describe it.

We decided to skip the salad course since our appetizer sorta had a salad on top of it.  Brian ordered the Korean BBQ Beef with Rice:

He said it was good, but a little small.

I had the Roasted Eggplant and Chickpeas on Penne Pasta:

It was good.

We decided to order dessert.  Our server told us about 4 dessert options.  All of them had really long descriptions and we couldn't picture what any of them looked like.  So we both decided to order the first option, which was described to us as a sort of ice cream/custard cake.  This is what arrived:

It was a very interesting blend of coffee flavor, cinnamon and apricot.  It's probably not something I would crave but it was interesting.

We talked to the dining room manager for a while and he explained the culinary arts program at the college and the program's recent accreditation.  He also told us that one of the main goals of The Red Room is to teach the students about the communication process between the servers and the chefs.

We asked if children were allowed, and the answer is yes.  Except they do not have any high chairs or booster seats, so you would need to bring your own.

Our bill with tip came to $50.  We did enjoy the food and we tried some new things.  I don't think we'd go back for an American food night again.  The menu was a little too limited for our liking and the items were not as unique as we anticipated (except for the dessert). 

We would like to go back for a Russian menu if they ever offer that again.  Or maybe the French menu (offered on December 12).  I recommend if you do go for a certain type of cuisine that you check the website or call before you go to make sure the menu hasn't changed.

The restaurant is open for dinners on select Wednesday nights this semester, and next semester the restaurant will be open for lunch instead.

Have you dined at The Red Room?  What did you think?

National Adoption Month: Making It Personal

November is National Adoption Month. But what does that mean to the average person? Unless you have a friend on Facebook who has been touched by adoption and is posting about it, you may not even be aware that November is National Adoption Month.

So I’m going to make it personal and share our adoption story. There are many ways that families are formed with adoption, and ours is just one example.

I met the love of my life a few weeks before my 29th birthday. We got married when I was 31 years old. I had traveled the world and was enjoying a great career, but I wanted to be a “young” mom, so we knew that we wanted kids within the next few years.

Before we got married, we talked about how many kids we wanted and our general philosophy on how we would raise them. We both wanted two kids, but I had it in my heart that we should adopt a child. When I was in college, I spent some time in Guatemala to improve my Spanish language skills, and while I was there I volunteered in an orphanage. That experience changed my whole outlook on kids. A seed was planted in my heart to adopt a child, and it stayed with me as I grew older. I shared this with my husband before we got married, and he was very open to the idea of adopting. We both agreed that we should have a biological baby first (while I was young) and then adopt.

A few years passed, and we were ready to start our family. As with most things, I was impatient. Six months of trying, and nothing. But I kept coming back to adoption. Was this a sign that we should adopt? Most couples probably would have tried longer or harder to have a biological baby, but we weren’t interested in going through any tests. We decided that we would adopt.

We spent months researching adoption. We researched domestic and international adoption. We looked into the foster care system. We talked to people who had adopted, called many adoption agencies and went to an adoption seminar. For each adoption method, we researched the cost, time involved, the number of kids waiting to be adopted, etc. It was not an easy or short process to research all of this. In the end, our hearts were led to adopt in Russia. It helped that we both had co-workers and our family doctor who had recently adopted from Russia.

Once we decided to pursue adopting from Russia, we spent more time researching adoption agencies that specialized in Russian adoptions. We poured through adoption agency pamphlets, websites, and spoke with several agencies over the phone.

After months of research and carefully made decisions, we started the adoption process in the Fall of 2006. With great joy and enthusiasm, we broke the news to our friends and family. We received mixed reactions. While many were supportive, we were also bombarded with questions, like “Why aren’t you adopting a black baby from the U.S.?” and “Did you try in-vitro?”

Thankfully, I found a few online adoption support groups that helped me keep my sanity throughout the adoption process. The adoption paperwork was long, intrusive and never-ending. We had numerous background checks, we had to be fingerprinted several times, we asked friends and family to fill out recommendations on our behalf, we opened up our family financial history and we were interviewed about our childhood extensively. We attended adoptive parenting seminars and went through agency training classes as part of the requirements for adopting.

On April 26, 2007, we got the call we had been waiting for. Our adoption agency called me at work, told me that the Russian Department of Education had matched us with a child, and we would be traveling to Vladivostok, Russia in less than 2 weeks. What followed was a whirlwind of activity to get Russian visas, flights and hotels on short notice.

When we met our future son in Russia, he was just 2 weeks shy of his 3rd birthday. He was severely malnourished and as a result was about the size of an 18-month-old. He was developmentally delayed physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively. The doctor at the orphanage told us he may never walk correctly, and he may never overcome all of his delays.

We took a huge leap of faith and adopted him. And our son, in turn, took a huge leap of faith in learning to trust us and love us as his parents.

His first six months home were much more difficult than we all imagined. We had a language barrier. We were first time parents and didn’t know how to parent a 3-year-old. Our son was adjusting to living in a family setting.

But our son blossomed, and we found our groove as a family. Soon, we wanted to give him a sibling. And we knew without hesitation that we would return to Russia. After meeting the kids there, seeing their faces, we knew that’s where our other child was.

So we repeated the entire process. We had to re-do all of our documents and endured more social worker visits, more interviews, more fingerprints. We received “the call” right before Christmas, 2008. We traveled to meet our second son in January 2009 when he was 13 months old. We brought him home that April at 17 months old. I quit my full-time office job to stay at home with our two kids.

Two adoptions, 4 trips and 10 total weeks in Russia, a mountain of paperwork, and endless medical and therapy appointments in the U.S.….but we were finally a family of four.

Less than a year after bringing our second son home, I became pregnant. It was a bit of a shocker, since we hadn’t been “trying”. I gave birth to our daughter at the age of 37. We are now a family of five, created through adoption and biology, and I can’t imagine us any other way.

We don’t think about adoption every day. Adoption is a part of how our family was formed, but it does not define us. However, adoption will always be a part of our story. As our kids grow older, they will have more questions about their history, birth families and birth place.

Adopting a child might not be right for every family. But there are still ways you can support adoption during National Adoption Month and the rest of the year. Consider the following:

• Ask a family in process of adopting if there is any way you can help them (through prayers, fundraising, or meals after their child has arrived.)

• Encourage your employer to offer adoption benefits to its employees (i.e. paid parental leave)

• Contribute financially to an organization that supports adoption or orphan care. Here are a few:

 

• Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption—Finding forever families for kids in the U.S. Foster Care system

• Orphans at Play-- Dedicated to raising funds for basic needs, accommodating requests from orphanages, and providing support for the Grandma mentoring program in Vladivostok, Russia 

• Embrace Texas--Provides support to adoptive families including tutoring, respite nights, etc.

Windmill Playground

Last weekend we decided to take our kids to a new park. I had heard a few moms talk about a new, cool playground in Prosper (a small town north of Frisco) so we decided to go there and check it out.


Driving out to the park in Prosper felt like we were heading to the set of Friday Night Lights.  It seemed very rural and then boom, a huge high school and HUGE football stadium.  Just past the high school (well, past it a little ways on a country road) is Windmill Playground.   This playground is part of Frontier Park, located at 1551 W. Frontier Parkway in Prosper. 1551 W. Frontier Parkway

There were plenty of benches to sit on, and they were all painted with Texas-themed pictures.

Once we entered the playground, Tot Lot was immediately to the left (for ages 2-5).

This area had some play buildings and smaller equipment.

The larger playground area had some unique features.

Big tires to climb on.

A painted rock  climbing wall.

A xylophone.

Some rope courses.

A teeter-totter.  I haven't seen one of these at a park in ages!

One thing I liked about the park was that they had various monkey bars that were LOW to the ground.  That makes it so much easier on parents, because we don't have to lift the kids up or worry about them falling off.

Another set that's fairly low.

The boys liked this spinny thing.

A rope climber.

The park had several slides.

The tire swing was a huge hit with my boys.  They rode that tire for a long, long time.

One feature I thought was neat was this rope climb that went to a higher level...

On the top, it was surrounded by a step so that little kids don't fall down into it.  I've never seen that feature at another playground and I'm always worried about Alyssa falling down the open ladders that are in many playgrounds.

The playground also had a small splash park in front of it (turned off now for the season) and a few water features within the playground itself.


The kids had so much fun at this park and as we were leaving they were asking when we could go back.  The pictures don't do this park justice--it's actually quite large and has many different, unusual things to do.  Because of its distance and size, this probably isn't one I'd take the kids to by myself.  But with my husband along it was very manageable.

Outside of the playground was a large covered picnic area.  There were not any bathrooms in the immediate vicinity of the playground, but there are some near the sports fields (down further in the parking lot).

I am so thankful for the many fun parks in this area that provide free recreation for my kids!

Have you been to Windmill Playground yet?