Happy Birthday, Hansel!

Yesterday was Veteran's Day and Hansel's birthday. His birthday is easy to remember because it's on Veteran's Day, and the date is easy to remember, too -- 11/11. I sometimes forget the year.

The kids had the day off, but Hansel did not. So the kids and I made Hansel a special dessert -- black-bottomed banana cream pie. Maile helped with the custard, they both enjoyed watching the blending, and both helped with layering the bananas. They even refrained from eating the bananas.

For dinner, we decided to "splurge," and went to PF Chang's. We ordered salt & pepper calamari as the appetizer, vegetable chow fun for the kids (and us), vegetarian ma po tofu, and honey crispy shrimp. Beck liked the calamari; Maile not so much. The chow fun didn't have much flavor. Again, Beck ate more of it than Maile. And the Ma Po tofu wasn't what you usually think of (the description itself was different), but it was still good. Ma Po tofu is usually soft tofu with ground pork swimming in a slightly spicy sauce. This was fried tofu coated in a sauce with broccoli. The honey crispy shrimp was good and actually ended up costing twice as much as the vegetarian dishes. We then realized that the vegetarian dishes were similar in price to a Chinese vegetarian restaurant that we often get take out from. So maybe we'll go to PF Chang's more although service is slower than at your typical Chinese restaurant.

For dessert, we went home and had some pie but only after singing Hansel "Happy Birthday." The way Beck sings it is "Happy to you." Here are the kids helping Hansel blow out the candles. I think this was the highlight of his day :)