2nd Annual Siblings Dinner

This year we were joined by our cousins Zaher and Sara visiting from Dubai. We went to Bleu restaurant located downtown in the Westin hotel.

We were all a bit disappointed in the menu, there was not much choice. There were several fish options, but only one chicken and a couple of steaks. The tuna wanton appetizer was great. 2 people order fillets one got a fillet and the other got a strip that they were trying to pass off as fillet. My pasta was wonderful. The Swordfish was great. The tea trout was really good. The Salmon was dry and the pri pri chicken was nothing to write home about :) for dessert we had the duet mousse and that was great. we also had the smores and they were ok as was the cookie. At the end of the day the question is would we return, and the answer is no, food was ok, ambiance was ok, service was good/friendly, but we just weren't excited about the place.

A follow up to my last post about the water bottle thing. Having used for a while now I am even more convinced that it is not worth it. At first I thought it would be cool to "pour" the items from the spout of the water bottle, but that is not the case. The bag I closed was a bag of mini chocolate chips and they were just too big to pour. so you had to remove the water bottle top, pour out the chips and then return the top. Also I found as I used it that it was best to trim the top, if there was too much excess "bag" it didn't close or fold over right.

Pinterest

Ok ... now that Pinterest http://pinterest.com/ has taken the world by storm I am determined to not only try some of the suggested crafts, projects, tip, recipes but to also write about them.

The first tip that I tried was this one ... http://i.imgur.com/GfHeq.jpg  so I was initially excited by a way to preserve food without using chip/bread clips, or twist ties, or transferring to a tupperware or other container.
Also, on the surface it seemed that I would be able to take the lid off, pour out the contents, quick, easy, and most importantly, CUTE!

So, the reality of the situation is very little of the above.

So step 1) obtaining an old water bottle with which to work - easy obtaining one and the precise moment that you want to do this project may require a little more effort, at the very least downing a bottle of water really quick so that you have something to cute.

Step 2) Cutting the bottle in the above pictured shape - requires minimal effort, but effort none the less. More effort at least that would is required to snap on a bread clip or to pour in a tupperware container

So that is it, 2 steps. not a huge deal, but I am left to wonder really what is the point. Why not just grab a twist tie or clip and be done with it.

Twin Tornadoes Turn 3

Ok "Babies" as we still so loving refer to you as - I wonder for how long we will keep that up. I do try to correct myself and say "the twins" instead, but "the babies" just sounds soo much cuter. I do realize, however, that it will only be cute for a little while longer and for sure by your 8th or 9th birthday you will demand for me to stop.

anyway, I wanted to be sure to record a few highlights in the event that you asked me later on in life, because I know, pretty much for sure, I will remember nothing.

So this year you guys and I have pretty much spend it together, at home. I can't even begin to describe all the cute and wonderful things that you have done. Haadi, "Yellow Submarine" by the Beetles is your favorite song. you love to sing it, you love to hear it on the radio, quite honestly my friend you are kinda obsessed. Oddly enough you seem to just like the Beetles in general. Haniyah, you kinda like the song, or really whatever song Haadi likes.

Haniyah, for the most part you are easy going and go along with the flow, at least I can say this now at age three, I don't know if I could have said the same 6 months ago. Everyone asks me which is the easier twin ... I have to honestly say that it changes every 4 to 6 months.

Track

Today was my first official track experience, and I have got to say it was not really a pleasant one. I mean it was OK, but really, who are these people ... Call time is 8:30am yes that is IN THE MORNING on a saturday, every saturday for like 8 weeks. ok, morning is not that bad, but its the fact that it lasts until about 2:30 PM so that is a full day of sitting at the track. Now if it was soccer or basketball or even baseball where your child is engaged most of the time I would say it is not that bad, but with track, depending on your event you are really just sitting there doing nothing, watching nothing for most of the day. But my question is who are these people who make it to the site by 8:30 with a cooler packed with ice and snacks and folding chairs and blankets and possibly even a little pitch up canopy. what time did these people have to get up.

Potty TIme

We are about one month into a diaper free world. The twins will be 3 in a little over 40 days and I have been lamenting over the grueling process of potty training the pair since the day they turned 2. "Girls are easy" everyone keeps telling me, "do the girl first". Ok, sure, lets buy some pretty panties and give this thing a whirl, epic fail! We did the princess pull ups and talked about how Cinderella does not like to be pee'ed upon, but clearly we were just not ready. Even Haadi tried to get in on the fun he had "car" themed pull ups but we were going through them at the same rate as the diapers and actually they were worse because they didnt seem to be as absorbent. We tried off and on I had a potty set up in their bathroom one was a toilet topper one was a little potty we talked about it they watched me and their brother. This went on, seemingly forever, until one day, we walked in to Costco (for some reason my kids LOVE to go to Costco). Anyway this time in the front door at Costco, where they place certain items to display they had Starwars/Lego undies and Dora panties.

Tea station

So, apparently our tea station was not getting messy enough so we have decided to use LOOSE tea with every cup of tea (that would be about 3 -4 a day)