On September 14, 2011, my amazing niece, Francesca, turned 10. Yes, that’s right, double digits people. This was truly a momentous occasion, so I decided to take her out to celebrate the decent into the big 1-0 by taking her to one of my favorite dessert establishments here in Brooklyn, The Chocolate Room.

I was very fortunate that my fantastic friend Adriana offered to watch my kids so I could take Francesca out. Adriana, you rock! I’m with my kids 99 % of the time, so it was great to have an opportunity to take Francesca out just the two of us.

When we walked through the doors of The Chocolate Room, naturally, we gravitated toward the giant cases of individual chocolates. However, we were very surprised to find this:

We did not eat the Francesca chocolates, but rather, after inspecting the overwhelming menus,

we decided upon two brownie sundaes.
That’s a decaf coffee pictured above. I’m trying to lay low on the caffeine.
Anyway, the waiter even gave Francesca a candle in celebration of her first decade on earth.
After we ate the giant brownie sundaes, we were thoroughly hyped up on sugar and I could not stop laughing. I kept saying “Wait! This is really important! I have to tell you something!” And then I would forget what I was going to say, needless to say, the brownie clearly impacted my ability to think clearly and form coherent sentences. But I digress.
We left The Chocolate Room, and Francesca wanted to go to a bookstore. So we drove aimlessly looking for one. But first, I really had to pee. So we found a cafe in Cobble Hill that kindly let us use their facilities. It also had the smallest water glasses we’d ever seen.
And the entrance to the bathroom had soundproofing material and christmas lights!
We finally found a bookstore, and Francesca wanted to look in the Pets section for books on dogs. We were at the bookstore for about five minutes when all of sudden Adriana called me. They were back! We had to rush home to get the kids.
Samara went down for a nap, but Frankie, Ari and I went to Lulu’s, even though Ari was clearly very tired.
His level of exhaustion did not stop him from swinging on our front gate.
Francesca carried Ari to Lulus. Ari was excited because Wil gave him a few dollars to buy a toy with. Francesca got this cute little stamp!
After our all of our adventures, it was time to head home. Ari and I said goodbye to Frankie at her front door.
Well…it was mainly me saying goodbye. Ari was too busy chasing the balloon that he got at Lulu’s around.
Happy 10th Birthday Francesca! Love, Aunt Sarah!