Family Outing

With my sister-in-law from Hong Kong in town, we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and take the kids out of the house. I always get heart palpitations when going out to eat, but my SIL is a fellow mom and my nephew Jayden is similarly aged, so she knows just exactly how I feel.

Instead of heading to a sit down restaurant, my SIL suggested Minado's, a delicious yet slightly pricey Japanese buffet in Natick, across the street from the Natick Collection. What a great idea. And because the kids were at around 36 inches, they were free! Otherwise they would pay 25% of the adult lunch price, which is really only a few dollars. Regardless, we were ecstatic - Kasen and Jayden could eat whatever they want. With so much variety there was bound to be something that appealed to the both of them. While Jayden ate noodles and rice and cucumbers (he loves anything green!) Kasen noshed on noodles and anything crispy (his favorites were the crunchy panko encrusted pork katsu with katsu sauce on a stick and fried chicken karaage). He was rather picky about eating carbs so I had spoon feed him rice with small bits of pork and broccoli florets. What did he get excited about? The wiggly, jiggly jello in orange and red. I don't get it. And Jayden who wants to be like his cousin insisted on having jello even though he already rejected. So he put it in his mouth...only to spit it out again. HAHA!

Onward to the mall. We found a fire engine push cart within the mall and the kids loved riding in it. If only I could get Kasen to smile....we also made Vivian go shop on her own to take a break. She's a SAHM so we insisted on watching the kids while she had some peace and quiet. They had a blast in Natick's free playground area, right by the JCPenney wing. It's fun seeing the two of them play together, they're pretty inseparable. Or more like Jayden always tags along looking for his older cousin. When Jayden asked me where his mom was, I told him she was using the restroom and would be back shortly ;)

We ended our trip at Nordstrom. Nordstrom is one of my favorite stores - fantastic for kids, fashionable and stylish, and affordable (for the most part). They have a fish tank in the kid's section and they give out free balloons - when trying to appease some toddlers while keeping moms happy, Nordstrom's got it all as they know where it's at! Love you Nordstrom, please don't change. Jayden asked for a green balloon and Kasen and orange balloon - they had green, but no orange and only yellow, which I think is a pretty close second!