Kid-Sitting Around the World

It was a crazy week of traveling around the world, but all I had to do was head to my brother's house with my mom to kid-sit my two nephews and niece in Redwood City. After I finished up with Good Day Sacramento, my mom and I headed to the Livermore Premium Outlets (shopping and quick break so I could work) and then kept going to Redwood City. My brother and his wife left for a quick trip to Europe Friday morning, and my mom, dad and I took care of the kids, while also giving them a taste of other parts of the world.

Before I get to the tour around the world, I also must say we did lots of other fun things. There were swim lessons, taking kids to school (and picking them up), Opening Day Ceremonies for Little League, complete with mascots from the San Francisco Giants, the San Jose Giants, San Francisco 49ers, and the Oakland A's, fireworks, and a whole lot of kids with their parents. My dad and I also took the nephews to see The Lego Movie, my mom and I went to martial arts class, and there were a few trips to Target, Costco and Safeway (for essentials ... like Boston Cream Pie, Häagen-Dazs gelato and Redbox movies).

As for our "travels" ... we went to Italy a few times with pizza and pasta (complete with kid-made meatballs); France with French Toast and dessert crêpes; tacos from Mexico; Teriyaki chicken from Hawaii; stir-fry from Japan; waffles from Belgium; and, of course, hot dogs with macaroni and cheese from the U.S. With each meal my mom showed everyone where the country was on the map, we made flags and then sampled the cuisine. It was a fun way to get the kids to try new foods, while also making them feel special while their parents were half-way around the world on their own adventure.

Once I was back home, I kept up with the worldwide travels, after a dentist appointment. I had found a dentist in Rocklin that was good, but then was able to get in touch with my life-long dental hygienist (she's been the only dental hygienist I have had since I started going to the dentist) and decided it was best to stick with someone I knew and trusted. Since I didn't have any food at home, and I did have coupons for Chinese food, I stopped by CJF for honey walnut shrimp and sweet and sour pork for dinner (and lots of leftovers). Then on Friday went with a friend to Sam's Club where we decided it was time for Mexican. We bought the ingredients for enchiladas and then prepared them once we got back to my house. Over the course of the weekend I also found out that the new Ben & Jerry's "Core" ice cream flavors were on sale at Raley's ... needless to say, I bought (and shared) five of the flavors, all were amazing. My favorites included ones with chocolate, peanut butter and caramel. Finally there was a trip to Chili's (more Mexican, I had a quesidilla), church at Bayside and Rolling Hills, lunch at La Fiesta Taqueria, and I finished with sushi from Mikuni Kaizen at The Fountains.
For those with iPads see pictures here.