Mother’s Day Celebrations

Last weekend was a weekend of some much-needed fun! When you have two small kids, going out sometimes feels like more trouble than it is worth. By the time I am done with washing and cleaning up the kids, packing the diaper bag, and generally the last-minute running around before we step out, I am so exhausted that I end up just longing to send them out with their dad and catch a much-needed nap on my lonesome.

However, this sunday was Mother’s Day and K insisted on us having a family lunch. The snubnose wanted to meet Chota Bheem her favorite cartoon character who was making an appearance at the Phoenix Marketcity mall. I knew I could not disappoint them and so forced myself to overcome my laziness and come out for some fun.

It also helped that I realized I was finally able to fit into my skinny jeans again (granted it’s my oldest and loosest pair), but still it was enough motivation to hit the mall 😀 .

We ended up having so much fun. We first parked ourselves at California Pizza Kitchen. The place was packed but the staff was awesome – absolutely no pressure to make us finish the food and vacate.

And the food, the food was downright delish.

We ordered the following:

• Fire roasted vegetable pizza (thin crust)
• Curly mac n cheese from the kids menu for the snubnose
• Sedona Tortilla soup
• Garlic Cheese Focaccia with Checca

We were warned that food serving time could take up to 30 mins. And so K decided to take the opportunity to take Snubnose to the Meet and Greet with Chota Bheem. The Chota (meaning “small” in Hindi) Bheem turned out to be pretty gigantic sending Snubnose into peels of giggles.

The food came earlier than expected and then we all started to dig in. I immediately realized we had over-ordered. The snubnose was able to finish her curly mac (it was lip-smacking delicious). But the combination of soup, focaccia, and pizza was just too much for me and K. Such a pity though because it was all very tasty.

If we had been a little more careful with our ordering, we could have aimed for dessert. I’ve heard good reviews of their tiramisu and since I am a tiramisu freak, I badly wanted to order it. But we were so full after the meal that we quietly decided to ditch the tiramisu for another day.

Our realization: If you plan to have an actual main course, stick to a soup/salad for a starter. The focaccia is a meal by itself, even if two people share it.

After lunch, we decided to walk it off by doing some window-shopping. Unfortunately, Snubnose spotted a play area and then a toy train, so all hopes of Zara and Mango were dashed.

Oh, well. I know that if I want to do some serious shopping (or even some casual window shopping), I need to go alone or with friends. It’s impossible to do anything serious with the frisky snubnose around.

And where was the piglet during this whole expedition? After his “lunch” of ragi cereal, which he ate at CPK, he kept peacefully drifting in and out of sleep in his car seat, which poor K carried everywhere we went. Hmm…maybe that’s why he was hurrying up me and the snubnose throughout the evening ;).