That's not awful - it's a falafel

Last week we decided to head down into the city and spend the day there as a family.  So since getting there is always half the fun - we rode the tram downtown - which is something that never seems to loose its novelty for our kids












We hadn't decided exactly what to do (museum etc.) but we settled on eating lunch out somewhere.  Since we don't tend to eat out a whole lot - this is a bigger deal that one might imagine -and with 4 kids in tow - it seems like most things we do are now a bigger deal than one might imagine.

We settled on a Lebanese place on a quiet pedestrian street in centre-ville.

The owner  / chef came out and gave us royal treatment. He helped us choose what to eat -then started bringing out plate after plate of food.  Then some more plates of food.  Then some more.

He also insisted that the women (Susan and Matea) be fed their first bite from his hand.  I'm still not sure if that's some sort of tradition - or if the guy was just a bit of a creep - either way we write it of as a 'cultural experience.'

The kids loved it - and they were pretty excited (their first time eating most of the things that we had)

Including the grape-leaf wrapped somethings (below) and a whole bunch of other things.

We stopped in one of the big parks downtown to play for a bit- then headed home.

It was a fantastic day.  We were on our way home and were actually kind of shocked how much fun we can have with just the six of us (wow - I actually just said "just the 6 of us" - huh). We are blessed with fantastic kids. They are healthy and happy, and adventuresome and are really trying to take advantage of our time here.
Really couldn't ask for much more than that.