Movies

Madagascar 3 was Benjamin's first movie, and he LOVED it! He sat great and ate his snacks of popcorn, skittles, and juice box. In the last 5 minutes or so he sat in my lap but he was so sweet he wanted to hold my hold during most of the movie! He's my sweet boy! The kids sat on their little booster seats that had a cup holder and that made it so enjoyable and really easy for them to see. They also had $2 movies for kids on Tuesday mornings that we went to a couple of times and saw Kung Fu Panda (the kids didn't really enjoy that with all the fighting), and Puss in Boats (they did okay in that one). What excited me about those was the tickets were only $2 and then they had a special kids snack pack that was only $2.50 which included a small drink, a box of popcorn, and a foot long laffy taffy! We all three went to the movies and could stuff ourselves for $11! Not bad! We also went to see Brave, which was a big mistake! It was way to scary for our kids. Now that we are home, we are backing way off movie going and making it a special outing and making sure it would be more enjoyable.

Yummy Memphis food

We got to try a lot of new places to eat in Memphis. They have a lot of great BBQ and chicken tender places are popular but we never found one that came close to Bush's in Waco! My favorite places of course are either breakfast or cupcake eateries! The two best breakfast places in town were Brother Juniper's and Cafe Eclectic. Brother Juniper's is extremely well known from the show Rachel Ray. The San Diegan open faced omelette made her cook book and is probably the best seller and I know why! It's a three egg open omelette with A bed of Sour Cream & Home Fries Topped w/ Portobellos, Tomatoes, Bacon, Green Onions, Feta, & Cheddar Cheese! Wow, it's the best breakfast I think I've ever had. It comes with toast or a biscuit, I got their homemade biscuit and blackberry preserves which was the bomb!!! It usually comes with cheese grits, but I got a side of home fries instead which are also the bomb! :) Cafe Eclectic was good too, it doesn't get near the same amount of hype as Brother Jumiper's. There was no wait there, the food was good, but nothing different or crazy. I did have an amazing coffee drink The Creme Brulatte! Yum! Another fun place we went was Gigi's Cupcakes. Each day they have a completely different menu of cupcakes so I had to check to see what day to go on to get the ones we wanted! It worked out that the two we really wanted were on the same day! Bella got the Princess cupcake (I was completely shocked, lol!), I got the cinnamon roll and the lemon box, and Benjamin got some kind of chocolate one of course! We each just had half of one and brought the rest home to share with daddy and to snack on later. They were amazing! And the name of the store was super cute too.

Family Golfing

Yes, it can be done! A large pregnant lady along for the ride with a 2 year old and a 4 year old in the golf cart! I bet this isn't a sight usually seen on the golf course! The kids love riding on the cart, playing in the sand traps, eating snacks, getting drinks from the cooler, and putting with daddy! They know their golf etiquette too. They get quiet (most of the time) when someone is getting ready to hit, say nice shot, hold the flag, and Benjamin bends down to line up the ball! Too cute!

Swim Lessons

I found this pool school about 15 minutes from where we were staying in Memphis and signed Bella up for her first round of swimming lessons ever! She was so excited with her ballet tutu swimsuit, matching sandals, coverup, and pink goggles "gobbles" of course! She was in the level 1/2 class for two weeks Monday though Thursday for 30 minutes. She had three little boys in her group and Miss Reba was her teacher. Bella did great listening and trying everything her teacher had for her to learn. Near the end her teacher told me that if she signed up for the next session Bella would be ready for level 3/4. Well, not too much else going on, so we signed her up again! Wow, a month of swim lessons, and this girl loved it every time! Benjamin was a champ watching and cheering her on! The very first day of lessons he would not leave unless he got to wear his swim trunks too. I explained, "ok, you can wear them, but you won't be able to swim." Poor boy, just one year too young. After that he understood and it wasn't an issue. He was excited to pack his backpack full of snacks to eat while he watched!

Howard's Donuts

We frequented this place while in Memphis! We found all kinds of reasons to go and celebrate! Like oh, it's Friday, oh man the park isn't open yet, and celebrating Bella graduating from a month of swim lessons! Donuts are on the top of my food weakness list for sure! I would eat them every day if I still felt great and didn't gain weight afterwards! I think we went there 3 times and another donut place once only because it was 40 minutes out of the way that particular day. haha The kids take after me and my love for donuts as you can see! Benjamin loves the donut holes and calls them "baby donuts" Which is perfect for how messy he eats his donuts! Chocolate is no good for that kid if we plan on going anywhere afterwards! Bella takes her time a little more, and she likes trying new kinds.

Summer Story Time

We got a library card and signed up for the summer reading program at the local Memphis library. They had great story times on Thursday mornings. There would be 4-5 books read with songs and finger rhymes in between each. Then there would be a puppet show, a short film on the old reel, and a craft. The kids listened to many books each week and got little prizes like stickers, tattoos, pencils, and book marks. Then, after four weeks of participating they earned a free book which they got to pick out! Bella picked out a Clifford book,and Benjamin picked out a Goofy book! One week we got to take our friends Bryce and Brady, who were visiting for the week, with us! In the picture of the kids listening to the story you can see they are all sitting nicely except Benjamin, he was trying to get Brady to laugh! lol

Kids club at the mall

I found out about a kids club at the local mall that we could join. It was $5 per kid for a year, but I figured it paid for itself after going once. They each got a t-shirt, 2 free rides on the carousel, and a spin on the wheel to win a prize. Plus they had events each week we could go to. We went to the Thursday evening events. There was a bounce house, face painting, balloon artists, and several crafts. Plenty to keep us busy for a couple of hours inside! Benjamin loved his pirate sword balloon and face paint sooo much! He completely took on the full pirate character and got a little out of control a few times. It was pretty darn cute! The next time we went it was a space theme. They would only do alien balloons and alien face paint which was a huge disappointment to really both the kids. They're not into that at all and I think Benjamin was a little frightened when we looked at himself in the mirror. He took awhile to warm up after that. He sat in the stroller for several minutes not even wanting t jump in the bounce house. Which is completely not like him. He eventually warmed up and went crazy in the bounce and I washed the paint off as soon as we got home.