Grandpa!

We had a visitor over Spring Break this year, my dad!  It all came together when he agreed to come to Chicago to cook a Chinese dinner as a fundraiser for Young Women at our church.  The timing worked out great because he was able to be here for the fundraiser which also coincided with our Spring Break and with Ashley's soccer season.

Of course, the first part of his visit we were pretty much consumed by shopping and preparing for the dinner.  It was a lot of work and I'll post about that separately.  

We shopped all over town looking for the best prices and the ingredients we needed.  We even went to Chinatown in Chicago.  We shopped a couple of Chinese groceries, bought a roasted duck, stocked up at a Chinese bakery and stopped for some dim sum for lunch.  Dim sum is my dad's favorite.  Dave and I like it too, but we both drew the line at the chicken feet.  We let dad have that one all to himself!

Chinese market

Roasted duck and BBQ pork - Chinese style, yum!!

No thanks to the chicken feet!

Dim Sum

As per usual when my dad visits, there is a lot of cooking and movie watching going on.  What a great house guest.  He also discovered the secret to getting Paige to eat chicken.  You have to filet chicken breasts in half and then pound them thin.  I think it helps her with texture and chewing.  Anyways, he did that for her and she ate it no problem.  Since he has left, I've done it a bunch of times and she keeps eating it.  The method is a bit time-consuming but the thinner cutlets cook up quicker so may it's all a wash when it comes to how long it takes.

Another great story is that while he was here, I volunteered to donate a fruit tray for a PTA lunch for the teachers at Paige's school.   When my dad heard that, he offered to cut up the fruit…THANK YOU.  I know the picture doesn't really do it justice, but let's just say two things about the fruit tray:

1)I got a message from the school that says, "Thank you for the most amazing fruit tray, we've ever seen." (I'm not exaggerating.)

2)the pineapple looks whole but it is actually sliced and can be taken apart to be eaten.  It's like a pineapple puzzle.  The top and outer rind comes off and chunks of pineapple are inside.  Crazy awesome.

While Grandpa was here we also got to see Ashley play two soccer games.  She hurt her ankle in the first game so thank goodness he was here to wrap her ankle.  He also taught me how to do it, so that I could take over after he went home.

After all the hard work he did while he was here, we took him for brunch to Shaw's Crab House.  It's a fancy all-you-can-eat seafood buffet.  It was good and we definitely got our money's worth eating lots of Alaskan King Crab.  I was too busy stuffing my face to take any pictures.

In total, he was here for one week, but it flew by.  It was so good to have him here and to have his help.  What a great dad!