Vivian at Tuesday night basketball practice,
and Elena, being Elena.
He asked me to come and join him for at least one of the evening outings, and so I picked the one that included some of my favorite things, Centara, Red Sky, and Din Tai Fung. The plan was to take people for drinks at Red Sky bar first, and then have dinner at Din Tai Fung. I figured if that's where everyone was hanging out, we should stay at the Centara Grand at Central World.
I drove down with a friend, and when I went to check in, they told me that they were going to upgrade us to a suite, sweet! It was huge. There was a big living area, complete with table and chairs.
The bedroom was also big, with lots of windows.
Even the tub in the bathroom was next to floor to ceiling windows, but I couldn't get a picture of that because there was too much glare. The room was on the 43rd floor, and the view was great, but it was even better on the 55th floor where we met everyone for drinks at Red Sky.
We had fun chatting with everyone, but we were really bummed to discover that Red Sky isn't doing a buy one get one free happy hour anymore. Luckily, when I checked into the hotel, I got vouchers for free tapas and sangria at Centara's new restaurant Uno Mas, which is on the 54th floor. Jeff and I told the group we would meet them for dinner and went down to check it out.
The decor had a really nice blue theme. The main dining room was open air though, and the fans weren't on because they were doing a photo shoot.
We decided that al fresco dining might work for December, but since it's May, we stuck to the air conditioned bar area.
The sangria was the same as the one at Red Sky, which is fine, since I like that one. The tapas turned out to be yummy too, although very small. They came around with a happy hour tray of free tapas to try. We figured that the hotel must be pushing happy hour at Uno Mas now instead of Red Sky. The view wasn't as good, but it was definitely nice.
We ended up being glad that the tapas were small, because there were lots of yummy dumplings at Din Tai Fung. After dinner we invited some of our friends to come check out our cool suite. We also know where the wine store is in Central (7th floor, past the movie theater), so we were able to stock up and host our friends properly. It was a really fun evening downtown. Of course, Jeff had to get up for work the next morning, and I had to get up with him and then drive back home. That part wasn't as much fun, so I've made a mental note that weeknights downtown are not the best plan.
To keep the crazy going, we had everyone come out to Nichada that next evening and hosted a pizza pool party. The kids thought it was great, and everyone had fun, but it was quite a fast paced week, so by the time we got to the weekend, we were all ready for some quiet family time.
This Saturday was Vivian's basketball final tournament. It didn't start until noon though, so she came with me and Elena to music class. I think Vivian enjoys music class as much as Elena does, so it's nice that it's on Saturdays now, and she can come sometimes.
The basketball tournament went from 12-1:45, and it involved all the teams taking turns playing each other. It was a fun idea, but I knew Elena wouldn't be able to last through the whole thing, so Jeff took Vivian at 12, and then he came back and got me and Elena over there around 1:00. The Thai Craft Fair was also going on at the school, so there was lots to do, and all the food vendors were there, including Shoshanna's which has Vivian's favorite banana waffles. I ordered one for her to have after the game, but then I saw Elena was eyeing it, so I ordered a second one. Elena, Jeff, and I ended up sharing the first waffle while watching Vivian play. It was a lot of fun. At the end, she got a team photo, a medal, and a basketball. She was very pleased.
The ball is a kids ball, so it's slightly smaller than a regulation size basketball. We've already gotten Vivian a regular basketball, so she has generously decided that this smaller one will be for Elena. Elena was very happy when the official games were done, and we let her run around the court bouncing and chasing the loose balls that were left out. Vivian is paving the way for her little sister to be quite an athlete.
Today is a lazy Sunday. Jeff and Elena are getting some Sparkle magazine reading time in.
I'm sure he'll eventually teach her all the superhero names, just like he taught Vivian, but for now, he's letting her make the reading decisions, and he knows all the My Little Ponies' names. He's such a good dad. His job keeps him busy, but he makes sure that his time at home counts.
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