A big, full-belly thank you to Mandarin Restaurant for sponsoring this post.
The season of swimming lessons is upon us. Man, do I ever hate swimming lessons. It’s essentially a solid hour of wrestling one kid and then another into and out of swim suits, combing out hair, drying bodies and picking up socks off wet change room floors while keeping tabs on a wriggly toddler at the same time. In the few minutes of downtime between their staggered class starts, I get to sweat my butt off in the five hundred degree pool room. This is the real reason for global warming, I tell you.
And yet I do it. Every spring and summer I enroll the kids in lessons hoping they will learn enough to keep from sinking like rocks in the event of some water emergency. Or I guess I hope they’ll learn to swim for exercise and fun and all that too. But we are not an aquatic people and they never do learn much at all and I am so exhausted by the effort that I take the winter off to recuperate.
So anyway, swimming happens on Friday evening between five and six and that means no time for cooking. (Stop it right there with your crock pot recipes! Can I not have an excuse for eating out?) When I found out my ad network was launching a blog campaign for Mandarin Restaurant, I immediately thought of how much Colum loves their all-you-can-eat buffet. Then I thought of three hungry and tired kids in a busy restaurant on a Friday night and just how many things could go wrong. Right.
But then! Then I found out you can do Mandarin take-out or delivery! Who knew?
We brought home more than we could eat for less money and when Mary started crying and trying to escape from her high chair five minutes into the meal, it wasn’t a big deal. And when Irene had to run to the bathroom, nobody had to go with her. And when Colum started falling out of his chair due to some seven-year-old boy-requisite mid-meal ninja moves, nobody glared at us from the next table. It was pretty fantastic.
Colum’s favourite dish was the Mandarin Combination fried rice and also the baby corns that came with the mixed vegetables. Irene ate only chicken and broccoli and Mary was a noodle gobbling monster. Ed was all about the lemon chicken and honey garlic spare ribs. That meant more pepper steak for me! There’s seriously, like, a hundred dishes to choose from and they’re all cooked fresh to order.
On the one hand, it’s too bad we are just outside their delivery zone. On the other, it’s 10% off pick-up orders over $20 when you pay with cash. So, you know, win-win.
And one day my kids will learn to swim, right? Then we’ll really go out celebrate.
This post is sponsored by Mandarin Restaurant. Opinions and words are still mine, of course.