Tuesday, October 14 "Brian's Birthday"
We're mostly ready for the big day...the girls have chosen a gift at the grocery store, I know where to go for a cake, and Brian has left for school for the day. Let the preparations begin!
I went down the street to Seda Pasta & Bistro, a place Brian reported as being great for birthday cakes (in case I might need one) and which Mustafa pointed out as one of the best bakeries in Turkey. Sounds like a winner to me! (Though every time I see the sign all I can think of is Jack's Bistro on Three's Company...) It is very close to our apartment, but I didn't actually realize just how close until I walked there. Dangerously close it turns out. No English speakers were working, so I did some look-ups in my Turkish Dictionary and managed to request a "whole" birthday cake for "today" and ask the clerk to choose his "favorite". He pointed and tried to explain what was in it, and I finally just gave him my dictionary. "Pistachios." OK, sounds good.
I left my information with them, and agreed that I'd return at 2:00 to pick it up. Aeden was sleeping, and just as I was getting ready to wake him to go pick up the cake, our door bell rang and it was a delivery driver with the cake. I would've missed him if I had left on time! So the cake was here, so far, so good.
When the girls got home we made a banner for Brian, hung it in the doorway to the living room, wrapped his present, and Lacey concocted a surprise greeting plan for when Brian arrived. Again, having that entry buzzer and then an elevator ride warning is pretty handy!
We had our first big walk out of the neighborhood to go to McDonald's to celebrate, which includes a walk over a freeway overpass and crossing some busier roads. We had talked to the girls about it and they decided the wanted to try it (oh, the allure of McDonald's...), so off we went. Lacey got pretty scared on the overpass and Brian carried her part of the way, but we made it and it will be much easier next time now that we've done it.
So we celebrated with Ronald, Brian tried a McTurco sandwich, and the peach iced tea passed Maren's sweet tea test. Success!
We made the trek back home, it was so windy the trees were leaning sideways, and it started raining. But we had cake to get home to, so it was all worth it! Here's Brian with his "pasta" from Seda (a chocolate-but-not-too-chocolatey pistachio layered cake), and again with his present...a Heroes comic book in Turkish! Heroes "bolum 1" straight from our grocery store, wrapped in racing motorcycle bookcover paper. The girls were so excited to find it.
No comments:
Post a Comment