Is there a better way to celebrate turning 4 than to spend the weekend in Toronto with your cousin, who is turning 4 the very same day? Given the delight on Reid’s face as soon as she learned of our plans, Reid couldn’t think of anything better.
Aunt Karin and Dylan called us just as we were pulling into our parking place at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, home to Canada’s only Rainforest Cafe. It was 5:46 and our reservation was for 6:00. Who could have asked for better? Well, maybe Aunt Karin and Dylan could have – they spent more than an hour covering 10 kilometres near Cambridge – but we were all glad to meet up and get to supper. The “safari guide” who showed us to our table took us to the far back corner of the restaurant to find us a table close to a bunch of life-size animatronic gorillas who call out, beat their chests, shake trees and that sort of thing every 10 minutes. The kids were leery of the gorillas when we sat down but still a bit impressed. Impressed, that is, until the gorillas first began their performance. At the first bellow (do gorillas bellow?), Dylan and Reid each dove at the closest adult. After the commotion died down, Aunt Karin went outside and Dylan and Reid both sat on my lap. Our waitress noticed and offered to move us away from the gorillas. Dylan would have preferred the next restaurant over but we settled for across the room. The kids ordered mini hot dogs (3 on each plate) and fries. The gorillas did their thing a couple times, making it difficult to concentrate on eating. I ordered a volcano brownie dessert as the birthday cake. Dylan was willing to forgo a cake in order to leave sooner and Reid wanted to do what Dylan wanted but that didn’t come to light until after the dessert was ordered. After an interminable wait – there were many birthdays being celebrated – our volcano cake arrived, the staff sang and the sparkler burned itself out. Aunt Karin and I enjoyed the brownies, ice cream and fudge topping and Dylan ate a bit of the ice cream. Reid wasn’t interested in even the ice cream. There was still another adult-sized piece of brownie plus ice cream. The menu promised that the volcano was big enough for 2 – or more – and they were right. We got our $14.95 (or whatever) out of it. The kids food was what you would expect but $7.95 seems kind of expensive. Aunt Karin and I split an appetizer with shrimp, fajitas, cheese and spinach dip and calamari rings (which I’d thought were onion rings and neither of us ate) and a combo platter with ribs, chicken and veggies. Both dishes were okay but nothing special and both nearly $20 each. Another time, it might be better to go in for dessert only. The environment is very festive and fun – if you aren’t frightened by it – but the cuisine was a bit lacking.
Reid reassured Dylan that we wouldn’t go to anymore scary restaurants this weekend. She was quite concerned by his stress, even though he was less worried as the night went on and the gorilla’s noises and antics became more familiar. It was good that she cared but the poor man was getting “mothered” by two concerned aunties and adding a girl cousin might have put him over the top. But it didn’t.
For the record, neither of these two wonderful kids got a birthday message from me. I blame the loss of my Blackberry (newly returned – hooray!) and the craziness that was this week. But they will. Eventually.
– with the “hopping, hopping, never stopping” song (
by Jennifer Davis which tells the story of a pregnancy in the form: “Before you were born and with # months to go …” Reid is particularly interested in the page that talk about the baby having a tail. She wants to know why but I’ve distracted her with a parallel to the tadpoles that they had at daycare that turned into frogs. It’s good enough, for now at least. She also likes how babies become active at bedtime. Ken mentioned the book at supper last night because it doesn’t describe my labour or Ken’s reaction to getting me to the hospital since my water had broke and we went to the hospital in a more leisurely fashion.