SUCH A LOVELY SPRING DAY

Such a fun and busy day, but still time for naps...

We linger a bit this morning over absolutely delicious coffee from Delice. JA is much better today, but LE ended the evening last night throwing up three times. They both slept all night until 6:45am. A good night.

We've decided to go to Village Pointe mall so that the little ones can run around a bit on this lovely Spring day. JL is interested in visiting the sale racks at Coldwater Creek--she's copycatting my latest purchase, a red tapestry jacket, because she loves red. I take JA to Scheels to see the Ferris Wheel and we buy some pink candy sticks for Lucy's Pinkalicious birthday party tomorrow.

JA's not feeling especially perky today--the after effects of yesterday's illness and a bit of his normal personality. He has good days and once in awhile he just has a day where he needs to whine a bit. We sometimes ask him if he got up on the wrong side of the closet today--a reference to the fact that at grandma and grandpa's house he usually bunks on a pallet in the walk-in closet of the front guest room.

Still a very sweet little guy and especially patient while he's with JL and I at Coldwater Creek. He plays guitar a bit and entertains the older gentleman waiting for his wife to make decisions.

We visit the Apple store to check out iPads for Marielle--the release of the new iPad 2 is scheduled for 5:00pm so we're in and out before the crowd. We're all hungry and walk over to Paradise Cafe. JE has the southwestern salad, I opt for the BBQ chicken chopped salad to share with JL, and she shares her roast turkey with cranberry sandwich on molasses bread. JA orders PB andJ and LE opts for grilled cheese. Both kids get a chocolate chip cookie and yogurt tube with their kiddie lunches. Did I say the cookies are divine here? There are bowls of cookie chunks to sample as we wait on-line. Such a temptation...



Everyone goes down for a nap by a bit after 1:00pm and we all sleep until almost 3:00pm--LE sleeps until almost 4:00pm while JE goes in to work a bit. Just as she gets up MA arrives home and LE attaches herself to her daddy.


We've been talking about going to Walmart for almost two days--both LE and JA have been promised we'd go. In the end LE gives up on the idea and soon so does JA., so JL and I head out with our to-do lists.


We wander Walmart freely like we've never been to the big city before. At check-out I call JE to see if she minds if we stop for dinner. She's content at home and MA has a meeting this evening. I decide we should have dinner in Dundee and begin asking the people around us in line for directions, and a very nice couple go out of their way to make sure we go in the right direction.

We decide on Dario's Brasserie for Belgian-French food. Such a lovely place with a tempting and delicious menu. We start our meal with Belgian pommes frites with two dipping sauces--ketchup and herb-mayo. JL orders the Croque Monsieur with a mixed green salad and I choose the Socca Caprese--a salad of tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil on a chickpea flour crepe. We ate soccas at the markets in Provence this winter and this is a bit of nostalgia. Delicious! Did I mention the lovely Chilean rosé--La Playa from the Colchagua Valley?

Tomorrow's the big #2 birthday party, and the children are nestled all snug in their beds so Marielle should soon head there, too.