Croatia Beats England at Thai Kitchen

It was sort of rainy.  Z wanted to ride her bike, but I argued the parking lot where she wanted to practice wouldn't be empty today and the wet pavement would be more slippery for her.  We're going to a surprise place - somewhere you've been and I want to see if you remember.  She wasn't impressed.  Put on your boots - it's wet out.  No.  Mom wanted her to put on socks.  No.  Grrrrrr.  Before I knew it both kids were in the car ready to go.  No boots, no socks, just rubber sandal like shoes.

I'm hungry.  I'm hungry too.

OK.  We're going someplace you've been before but you've never been there.  Can you guess where?  That's not possible.  Yes it is.  Tell me.

We pulled into the Thai Kitchen parking lot at just about 11am minutes before they opened.  She knew it was Thai Kitchen, where she'd been before, but they've moved several spaces down the
mall to a new location she hadn't been before.

The kids picked beef - broccoli from the buffet.  Croatia - England was on the big screen tv.  It was 1-0 England.  They ate lots of broccoli and lots of beef.  And rice too.  I needed to get more.  Finally they were done.  It was now 1-1.
We went next door to the Yogurt Works where they have lots of board games and we watched the game further.  And got yogurt with sprinkles.  They played Chutes and Ladders and CandyLand while I watched the game.  Z's brothers all play soccer, so she's been to lots of games and was sort of paying attention.

Croatia scored again and eventually the game was over 2-1 Croatia.

Now we were off to Campbell Airstrip where Z cross-country skied the first time when she was here in early April.  I wanted to see if she'd recognize it without snow.  No problem at all.  This is where we skied she said as we parked.

As we got out a man with five dogs, some on leashes, some loose, got on the trail too.  Z was not excited about a bunch of dogs sniffing, but after yesterday at the Learning Farm, she was much better about it.  And there was a big sign at the beginning of the trail.

We walked over the bridge and looked for salmon in the creek below, but there were no fish.  But there was another sign.








I thought, even with bear spray, I didn't want to meet a bear on the trail with two little kids.  Especially after I asked Little J what he should do if he saw a bear.
Run away.  Wrong answer.  And even after I explained that was a bad idea, I'm sure that's what he would have done if we saw a bear.

So we went back down the road to the botanical garden, where they rubbed every leaf in the herb garden and declared how good or bad they smelled.






More of the peonies were blooming.

And this spectacular huge red poppy.

They ate the fig newtons at the garden.  But they were asking for the apple slices before we got to the car.  We all had a great time,  and everyone at home was happy to get some peace and quiet for several hours.