Spending Time with Our Son - Learning to Do a Sudoku Game

The panda birthday cake Wendy made for her son.

 After we went to church in the morning, we picked up E. from home and went to Mason's birthday party at Rosie's house.

There were a lot of young parents there and Wendy made a beautiful Panda cake for the birthday boy's three year old birthday party.

Mason blowing out the candles on his birthday cake

Though we missed the blowing of candles and the cutting of the birthday cake, we were able to enjoy the later part of the party.
 

E. was home and spent time with his family

It was nice for E. to see some members of his extended family such as his grandma, aunts, his cousins, Wendy and Paul and caught up with them.








We were at the party for a couple of hours and we went for a coffee at the Victoria Park Starbuck after dropping my mom off at her place.  I thought we would just go in, grab a coffee and leave.  Instead of leaving right away, we lingered, enjoyed our coffee, and E. taught us what to do with a Sudoku game square.

Sometimes, we find it awkward talking to our grown sons. We need to be very careful not to pry into their privacy. As E. as lawyer, he can't really talk about his job too much due to client confidentiality reasons.  We need to be sensitive to avoid certain topics.


At Starbucks this afternoon,  we had an enjoyable time working together trying to fill out the Sudoku card found on the game page of the newspaper.

 It was fun, not competitive and nobody's feeling was hurt as we all worked together to solve the puzzle. It was a good family fun activity.



We went out for dinner in the evening as E. has sent his dad a restaurant gift card online. 

However, after we showed the waitress and the owner, the prepaid online gift card, they would not accept it. They informed us that they did not advertise with the online company at all. We felt cheated!

The restaurant did not accept the online gift card we got

We ate there anyway because we did not ant our evening to be spoiled. That was the reason I rarely order anything online as there are just too many scams like this one.

The Thai food was delicious!

The Thai food we ordered, especially the Pad Thai was very delicious!

The conversation was even better! E. was more relaxed and we talked about how he got his current position while so many other people could not find work.

He recalled the social networking sessions he attended and how he met his current CEO through informal social meetings etc. It was interesting how these days job seekers find their work through various unconventional ways. We were happy for him and very proud of his achievements!

A nice coffee and dessert place on Yonge & Eglinton Ave., Toronto

Finding a neat little  dessert place nearby,  we went in as we wanted to grab every opportunity to enjoy our son's presence.

We  carried on our conversation and 
 had desserts at Panini 2 Go, a tiny New York style cafe that serves specialty coffees, ice cream and pastries, located on Eglinton Ave and Yonge Street.

We had a really enjoyable time as we chatted and learned more about our son's life in the US.
Not able to see our sons too often , we treasure every moment together.

Thank God for this great weekend!

R.T.
Toronto, Ontario