Catch up post

Well Dinners with Dad have continued, however my blogging has fallen off.  So, I am going to do some catch up all in one entry.

October with Brittany was the Olive Garden.  Fantastic food and we have continued our new trend of NOT being in a hurry which means we talked, talked and talked.  Love it.

 

 

October with Henry took another Henry-ized twist.  His idea this time was take out dinner at home followed by a movie.  His preferences were chicken and The Three Stooges movie.  Well I was able to deliver on both counts after a trip to KFC and Redbox.  We had some great original recipe with some sides of wedges and corn followed by the movie - which I must say was better than I thought it would be.  Great idea Henry.

 

 

 

November with Sara was another first.  We went to one of my favorites - Jose's Blue Sombrero.  Sara and I talked about a lot including the fact that she needs to move AGAIN.  It's her third move this year.  Lots going on in her life right now.

 

 

 November with Brittany was at Chick-fil-a.  Another novel idea that turned out great.  I have not been to a Chick-fil-a in years and it was quite good.  We hung together for quite some time, covered a lot of conversation, solved world problems and I forgot to take a picture - so I am pasting the Chick-fil-a logo here instead.

 

 

November with Henry was at Red Lobster.  Both Henry and Sara have tried to go to Red Lobster before but it was always too busy.  We finally got in this time with no lines and no waiting.  Henry said that he wanted to go there to try some new things.  He knew he liked crab legs and wanted to try other things like crab legs.  So I ordered the "Ultimate Feast" which included crab legs, lobster and two kids of shrimp and he ordered broiled fish.  We shared it all with each other and Henry found out that lobster was ok but not as good as crab legs and breaded shrimp was better than garlic shrimp.  Personally I liked it all a lot but I am partial to seafood and especially (as Lisa calls them) bottom feeders.  Conversation was fun and funny as usual making the evening fly by.

 

 

 

October and November with Joe have been delayed.  We have had trouble matching schedules with him working second shift and us busy on weekends but we have vowed to have dinner in December and do some make up dinners at some point.

 

Well all caught up for now.  More to come.  Oh ya.....Time with Sara, Brittany and Henry = PRICELESS!!!

 

August with Henry

Another dinner that happened a while ago and honestly the details are a bit scetchy - perhaps it was the martini's.

Henry and I had a very nice dinner at home.  Ribeye steaks were on sale so we had good ole steak on the grill night.  Of course we had to do it right add a nice salad with all the fixin's before dinner.

Granddaughter Rose happened to be over that night so I guess this is the first episode of Dinner with Grandpa - hmmm, this could be the start of something.

We all had a very nice night taking time to cook the dinner, fun conversation with dinner and then of course the most fun of all doing the dishes. 

We did follow it up with a heated game of Mario Cart on the Wii.  I honestly cannot remember who won - which may be a good thing.  Mario Cart and NASCAR are the only games that I can compete with Henry on - all the others are no contest - in his favor.

Time with Henry (and Rose) = Priceless

July with Henry

Henry put in yet another twist to Dinner with Dad.  When I asked him where we were going for his July Dinner with Dad, he said "I want to do something different and let you choose."  Well that caught my by surprise but I must say that I did not have a problem making a choice.

We went to the Charcoal Grill.  Henry surprised me and for the second time in a row, my dinner date chose a salad.  Henry chose the kids chicken salad.  I was in the mood for mexican food so I went with the "South of the Border" plate.  Henry ate most of his dinner and I ended taking home about half of my dinner.

Henry did some great art work (see picture below) as we waited for our order.  Our dinner actually went pretty fast.  We talked some about sports and summer but that was about it.  We were quickly on our way and then went home to cap it off with some Nascar Wii.  A good night for the boys.

June with Henry

Last Wednesday evening was Henry's turn for June.  Henry got back to his trend of earlier in the year.  Not just Dinner with Dad but Dinner and ......

The dinner part was actually pretty quick.  Henry wanted to get on to the next event so he decided a quick dinner would be good - but he did not want "fast food."  So I looked in my Entertainment Book, found a coupon for Subway, suggested that and off we went.  I had my favorite Spicy Italian sub and Henry went with salami and lettuce - keep it simple :). 

Then it was off to the next event - the driving range.  Henry has been golfing for a few years now, loves the game and is now getting more interested in practicing and working on his swing.  Plus I was glad to go because lately I think I have struggled a bit on the course.  We both got a large bucket of balls, punched them out onto the range - some far ones and some just beyond three club lengths :).

That finished the original plans for the night but then Henry asked if we could do a round of mini-golf.  I thought that was a great idea so off we went to the waterfalls, tunnels and ramps (no windmills or clown's mouth on this course).  We played match play and let's just leave it at it was very very close.

Then since we already had some great fun on this beautiful somewhat warm summer evening I decided to surprise him with one more stop.  He actually guessed it on the way and I am guessing you can guess it too.  Nothing like having a nice big ice cream cone at the end of a great summer day and evening.  We headed off to Old Dutch Custard.  Henry went with the Creamy Vanilla and I tried something new - Cake Batter.  It was good, but not a flavor that will move into my top 5.

That wrapped up our night, home we went and pretty much straight to bed.  I know I slept well, I am guessing Henry did too.

Dinner, driving range, mini-golf and ice cream = $17.  Time with Henry = Priceless!

June with Joe (and others)

Well, it's been a while since the last dinner with Dad and there have been a couple of new twists.  Technically last Thursday was a 5th Thursday of the month and should have been a dinner with my lovely wife Lisa.  But instead we spent the night burying a Suburban.  Ours 2001 Suburban is still hanging in there, but a bit worn and a bit unsure for another season of camping so we upped the vintage to a 2007 Suburban and are good to go.  Quite a bit more expensive than a dinner date, but it needed to be done.

As far as the June dinner with Joe (he missed May but we could make it up some day), it actually ended up being dinner with Joe and Dad and friends.

Joe moved his date back to Sunday.  Well after church Lisa and I talked about pulling some weeds and dead plants out of our landscaping.  Next thing you know we had Sara, Casey, Sara's friend Heidi and her Horticulturalist hubby Alex and Joe all over here either helping or at least giving "advice" from the sidelines.

By the time we got done moving all the plants 1) I was exhausted and 2) Lisa had prepared a fine dinner of barbecued shreded chicken.  I asked Joe if he minded having the whole gang joine us for dinner and he graciously agreed.

Joe and I did not get much time to talk until afer everyone else had left, but on the other hand I think Joe got a taste (pun intended) on what life was like at our house and how much fun it can be to be around family and friends.  I hope he shows up for more of these days and judging by the fun he had and the comments he made, I think he will be back soon.

Special note - thank you so much Alex, Casey and Henry for all your help - could not have done it without you!

Dinner = ???  Time with Joe (and the gang) = PRICELESS!

In the picture (L to R) - Alex, Rose, Casey, Joe, Me, Henry, Lisa, Sara and Heidi.

May with Henry

It all started last Sunday when Henry had two of his friends over and they wanted Pizza Hut for dinner.  After finding out that they don't deliver, we opted for Infusino's pizza instead.  Well Henry has been craving Pizza Hut since then so off to the Hut we went tonight.

Henry wanted to the $10 Dinner Box so that's what we got.  Definitely way too much food for two so we had some good take home for Mom (or for us later).

Henry had a unique school day and he told me ALL about it.  They had a field trip to Discovery World including a 3 hour cruise on a tall ship, a 3 hour cruise.  They had the kids rotate between several stations where they learned interesting scientific facts about Lake Michigan, its water and its animal life.  He told me so many details, it obviously made a big impression on him.

Only rough part of the night was the acting up of Henry's sometimes touchy tummy.  He knew he was on the edge of losing it but was still ok.  He left out two belches which would make any sailor proud and was able to hold it together.  We got strange looks from the people at the tables near us but I knew it was what Henry needed to do to be ok so even though it may have appeared rude, I was just thankful that Henry was ok.  By the time we got home, Henry was ready for some of the leftovers we took home so all was ok.

Dinner = $24.47 (beverages and tip more than dinner lol)  Time with Henry = Priceless!

April with Henry

Due to another busy week including some business travel for me, Dinner with Dad once again got pushed off to Sunday.  Being the last week of the month, it was Henry's turn again.

Henry had been saying he wanted to go to Red Lobster but as we were driving there, he started to waver and was considering other possible options but he stuck with Red Lobster.  Well when we got there, we found out the wait was 45 minutes.  Well that was enough to push Henry to option #2 which was Denny's.

Off to Denny's we went.  Denny's is usually our favorite place for breakfast for dinner, however being that it was Sunday, we already had our big breakfast today which is our custom after Church.  So Henry and I discussed other menu options at Denny's outside of breakfast foods.

Well it ended up being a chicken night for both of us.  First we had onion ring appitizers and then it was Chicken Nuggets for Henry and the Hickory Grilled Chicken Sandwich for me.  We were both good with our menu choices and felt like it was just the right amount of food - usually when leaving Denny's we are over stuffed.

Conversation with Henry tonight focused on travel, then school and churh and then sports.  On the travel side, both Henry and I would like to go to Washington DC.  Neither of us have ever been there.  As far as school and church Henry shared with me his process for getting through different challanges as he grows up.  I can't quite repeat the whole process but basically he looks at each challenge as a step that he needs to climb and there are many parts of taking a step - picking up your foot, raising it, extending it out, etc.  I thought this was very profound for a 9 year-old.  Regarding sports, we went over the finer points of his basketball game. 

After dinner we stopped at Kohl's to pick up some new Sodastream bottles and then headed home.  For some reason we decided to speak like British people joking about Wisconsinisms as we drove home.  It was a strange conversation but sometimes it's fun to use your imagination and it had both of us laughing.  Then home for a bit of Wii and call it a night.

Dinner = $22.49.  Time with Henry = Priceless!

March with Henry

Already the fourth week of March and time for Dinner with Henry.  For the first time, we just had dinner - no bowling or video games this time.  Henry promised that the dinner plus activities will be back but this time just dinner was good.

Even though we did not have an activity, Henry kept true to his theme of fun and we had dinner at IHOP.  Henry went with the Silver Five off the kids menu and I went with the Bacon Temptation Omelette (which of course also includes pancakes).  We were both stuffed by the time we were done and I have to admit neither of us made the "clean plate club" - it was more like the "oh am I stuffed and glad someone else will be doing my dishes club." 

The theme of the conversation tonight revolved around sports.  Henry likes basketball, football, soccer and baseball and does pretty darn good at all of them for a 3rd grader.  He also has become more of a fan of watching some of these sports and learning more about teams, players and game strategy.  Side note - Lisa always says that when she was pregnant with Henry, she prayed for a "sport-o" because she knows how much I like sports.  Her prayers were answered without a doubt :).  Second side note - as of right now - Henry is winning our NCAA Pool.

Dinner went by really fast and at the end Henry even commented "this went really fast".  That's when he let me know that dinner plus activity will be back soon - just plain dinner is just plain too fast.  I thank the Lord that he (and the other 3 kids) have this attitude versus the opposite!

Dinner = $16.00  Time with Henry = Priceless!

February with Henry

Henry and I had our Dinner with Dad today - the first time Dinner with Dad has been moved to a Saturday and with good reason.

Henry had chosen Stone Fire Pizza as his February destination.  Since this is located about a half hour from home, plus the fact that dinner at Stone Fire Pizza is more than a meal, it's dinner and games, we needed more than a school night's available time.

We arrived a little after 1pm and went right to the buffet.  I had never been to Stone Fire Pizza before and was surprised with the variety of choices in the buffet line.  From fruits and salads to nachos to a build your own baked potato to kids fare (including tots!) and of course several pizzas.  Henry stuck mostly with the pizza, I sampled the salad, nachos and several of the pizza slices - all very good.

Then it was on to the games.  For those of you not familiar with the setup - it is very much like Chuck E. Cheese where you play games, get tickets and then trade in for trash oops I mean treasures. Henry and I each played games and accumulated 266 tickets.  We scored big on skee ball, Deal or No Deal, Trivia and Big Bass Fishing and pop-a-shot basketball.

Henry's treasure include a sword (not real), a tiny basketball ball and hoop (to go along with the two bigger ones in the house), vampire teeth (not real) and a 1:452 scale model of a jet (also not real).

We had a great time and it was a wonderful way to spend a winter Saturday afternoon.  We left at about 3:30 after two hours of food and fun!

Dinner and games = $32.76  Time with Henry = Priceless!

I forgot my phone so we had to take the picture after we got home.

January with Henry

Well Henry finally got his Dinner with Dad - the wait had been killing him.  For once we actually stuck with Thursday night.  Once again, I got home from work exhausted but as I drove in the driveway, Henry came running out the door to greet me and asked when we were heading out and I said NOW.  Exhaustion gone, adrenaline pumping!

Henry got very creative and put a new twist on Dinner with Dad.  He decided he wanted pizza .... seems ordinary right, but there is a twisst.......wait for it ...... pizza at the bowling alley inbetween bowling games.  Works for me, off to the alleys we went.

First stopped at Paradise Lanes for some open bowling as advertised on their website.  Plus I had a coupon from my Entertainment book.  Well lo' and behold they did not have any open bowling available as advertised, hmmpf.  So we headed to Castle Lanes to see if they wanted to be part of our special night.  Not so much and Henry noted - gee they were not real friendly about it.

Not to be deterred there was one more chance so off ot Elmwood Plaza Bowling Center.  YES, there was room on the lanes for two fine kegglers.  From my point of view, the best part of the night happened driving between bowling alleys.  I was trying to prep Henry for the possible dissapointment of not being able to find open bowling and asked him if just dinner would be ok.  He said "I don't care, the big thing is I am getting a night out and some time with my Dad!"  Got me all verklempt.

Unlike the other Dinners with Dad thus far, this one was not about conversation, it was about knockin' those pins down.  We played three games with bumpers - although they honestly were not used much.  Henry came through with games of 124, 87 and 109.  I had 170, 153 and 138.  So with agreed upon 50 pin handicap, Henry won 2 out of 3 games and he won the total score by 9 pins!  Well done young man.  And yes, we did enjoy a tasty cheese and sausage pizza too.

Pizza and bowling = $37.45.  Time with Henry = Priceless!