With a slower pace this morning, I took a few minutes to work on the layout I had begun on Saturday, and finally committed to the design and glued everything down. Even though I worked on it over 2 days, it actually came together pretty quickly using the coordinating stuff I bought for the occasion!
So, in keeping with the easy going pace of the morning, we decided to forego the Monmouth County Fair that we had thought about attending, and instead decided to go visit a bakery in Summit that I had bought a Groupon for...Brownie Points Bakery. Afterwards, we planned on visiting The Container Store in Paramus since it was en route (well, slightly farther, but still closer than if we'd left from home). So it's about noon, now, and we are all getting ready to leave. I and go to print the Groupon, and guess what...the bakery itself is closed, although the owners sell their goods at the Summit Farmer's Market. Of course, the Groupon isn't valid there! So, I decide we'll go to the Farmer's Market anyway and sample something...at least we'd take a ride and still get to go to the container store. Which then reminded me go to THAT website and check their hours. Well, as luck would have it, the Paramus store is ALSO CLOSED on Sundays! There went our plans...
The website for the farmer's market said the hours were 11am-4pm. Great...at least we'd have a couple of hours there to look around. We arrived in the area about 12:50pm. As we're walking in we notice a few of the vendors packing up. I wonder if they just sold all their goods and we continue in. Then we see several other vendors packing up. We spot the Brownie Points Bakery stand and rush over. They weren't quite packing up yet, but there wasn't really much left, either. We bought a whoopie pie and a red velvet cupcake and asked the guy at the stand at what time the market closed...and par for the course of this day, it closed at 1pm!! The website was wrong, and we got there just as they were closing.
Adam slept the entire time we were at the market, and since we left after a whopping 10 minutes, he continued to sleep in the van. We had passed Short Hills Mall on the way up, so we decided to go back and kill some time walking around in the cool AC. We made it to the mall with Adam still asleep, but by the time we got inside, he woke up. Short Hills Mall is the ritzy mall in North Jersey that we could only afford to window shop at :-) Luckily, the kids were entertained by all the sculptures, the cool elevator that went up and down on a piston and the fun "ball" fountain where they tried their luck at making a wish. Mohammed was entertained by the glitzy Bentley on display as we entered the mall!
Once we'd had enough of the mall, we headed back towards home, needing to stop at the grocery store for a few staples we'd need for Ramadan and our early morning breakfasts. I couldn't resist all the yummy berries on display, and Adam couldn't resist the toy train they had on a track above our heads!
We were home again by 7pm and we were all hungry. The idea of cooking was rather daunting at that point, but we were all too tired to go out to eat. With the 10 pound (!) Costco bag of chicken breasts defrosted in preparation for the cooking fest that lay ahead (during Ramadan), I decided I'd start off by making chicken tacos for all. Yasmeen volunteered to help and she cut all the chicken for me. The girls have taken an interest in cooking and have become quite the help lately. To go with the tacos, everyone chose their own sides. Mohammed ate leftover Fetah, Yasmeen and I made Caesar salads, Leena had the taco by itself and Adam merely ate the makings of the taco without the tortilla at all!
Afterwards, we ended our day with an after dinner trip to Baskin Robbins/Dunkin' Donuts for ice cream. Well, most of us anyway! Yasmeen and I shared a yummy brownie sundae, Mohammed had a chocolate cone, Adam had just the cone (which he much prefers to actual ice cream, although we always add a smidgen of of ours to his cone), and Leena, well...she decided not to have ice cream at all and opted instead for a frosted donut!
It turned out to be a full day afterall. And with that, our WEEK IN THE LIFE wraps up. Hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful and blessed Ramadan. Until next time,
Janet :-)
