Tired of McDonald's and more Ute gymnastics

The kids have been going crazy ever since they learned McDonald's would be getting Star Wars and Build-a-Bear toys.  And one day we passed by the McDonald's on Highland Drive just South of Fort Union and somehow their McDonald's radar eyes caught from the car window a small glimpse of the music playland and really wanted to go.  They have this same play feature at the McDonald's by the District (although the District one has a bunch of other fun stuff and the Cottonwood Heights one only has the music toys).  After Spencer's school I drove straight to the McDonald's.  Spencer's friend was with us but his mom recently brought Spencer to Farr's for ice cream so I didn't think she'd mind if I brought Eric to McDonald's with us.  Plus Tessa, Clara, and I hadn't even eaten lunch yet.  Of course buying 4 Happy Meals and my own food was pretty expensive.  But the boys got some Star Wars spinner toy and the girls got some little Build-A-Bear toys.  I was pretty disappointed with the toys this time.  And the kids weren't happy with their selection either.  While I typically tell the kids they get what they get the restaurant was pretty empty and I hoped a different toy might be cooler so I took the kids to the counter to ask if we could trade.  The staff was very unfriendly and uncooperative about the idea so the boys kept what they had and only Tessa traded so she didn't have the same toy as Clara.

The kids had a blast sliding down the piano slide and playing on the guitar and xylophone.  They also had fun playing the little touch screen computer games.  Here are some pictures of this McDonald's play area:

I've never particularly cared for McDonald's food and I think I've exceeded my tolerance threshhold.  I didn't even finish my food because it was so bad.  There was hardly any meat--it was mainly fluffy nothing bread.  And when I took a little bite of the thin patty of meat by itself I noticed it didn't taste a thing like beef.  Then I tried one of the kids' chicken nuggets and was really disgusted.  It was mushy and didn't taste anything like chicken.  So I've decided at least for a while I'll just buy the toy separately on occasion and then take the kids to Chik-Fil-A instead.  Really.  The customer service is great.  The staff is always happy, smiling, and friendly.  And they even tell me to go ahead and sit down and they'll bring my tray out when it's ready.  The restaurants are always clean when I go.  They even have the plastic placemats that stick onto the table for little ones.  And if  I forget to get one the person bringing around mints brings me one without me even asking.  They also have little plastic containers of Cheerios to keep the baby happy until her food comes, although someone is usually bringing out our food just as I am opening the container.  And they have coloring pages and crayons.  The one by South Towne has a fun treehouse that is perfect for little babies who can't climb, and even the older kids like it.  I don't remember if the other Chik-Fil-As I've been to have this same set up or not.  And the most recent time I visited I noticed they now have grilled chicken nuggets and squeezable applesauce for the kids meals if you'd like.  And they use real chicken.  Real chicken that tastes real good.  And the most recent time I went I noticed they dropped their prices.  I think the 4-piece nugget kids meal was only $3.49 or something really close to that.  And they didn't even charge an upgrade to a cup of fresh fruit or the applesauce.  And their toys are educational.  The last time I went they had books.  Tessa got one on Helen Keller and Clara got a little board book.  Over the summer they brought Chik-Fil-A sandwiches to the skate park on family skate nights and they were also passing around coupons so we ended up with quite a few buy fries and a drink get a free chicken sandwich coupons.  Plus Wednesday night you can get a free kids' meal with each adult meal you purchase.  I really regretted my trip to McDonald's.  The kids didn't even play with their toys after this day.  But Spencer's really begging to go back on the next toy rotation when they will have the Green Lantern Animated Series.

On the radio we heard an advertisement for the Utes gym meet against Stanford.  We had a free family pass (in the upper seats) from Tessa's gymnastic class so we decided to go.  It was a lot of fun and the U barely squeezed past Stanford for the win.  This time Tessa really enjoyed watching the older girls.  After the meet she said she was going to learn how to walk on the balance beam on her hands so she could win when she was bigger.  I told that to her gymnastics coach the following week.  Spencer also seemed to enjoy watching the cool tricks, but I think his favorite was riding on Trax.  Clara's attention didn't hold so I pulled up some Elmo videos on my new Smartphone for her.  But then all the kids wanted me to get them videos to watch.

Otters at the Aquarium

The Living Planet Aquarium recently added a River Otter exhibit.  For Friday fun day we went to see these little guys.  Boy am I glad they are building a new Aquarium!  The place was packed!  We waited and pushed our way up to the front of the otter exhibit and then continued waiting until they came out of their little hideout.  It was really cute and fun to watch the two swimming, splashing, and sliding.  Then after about a minute they went back to their little cave.  We waited for a turn to pop our heads up in the little bubble into their habitat.  I think they'll be even cuter in a few months when (or if) the excitement dies down and it's not so crowded.  We then went through the rest of the Aquarium.  I've posted a few times on here and nothing unusual happened on this trip other than the otters.  As I'm not really typing this immediately after our day at the Aquarium I don't remember any cute or fun stories about the kids to relay either.  But here is a picture I took of the kids by the penguins:

Oh, but the following night Brodie and I went to a SLOC (Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics) party at the Gateway.  Brodie visited with some people he had worked with while he was at the Olympics.  I ran into an old boyfriend.  Then Mitt Romney came out and spoke to all of us for a while.  I'm sure Brodie was glad we went but I was kind of bummed that I actually had a night out without kids (this only happens a few times a year) and spent it there.  But then Brodie took me to The Bohemian Brewery and Grill for dinner so that made it more worth it.  We had some pierogies for an appetizer (this wasn't on the menu as an appetizer but we asked for some and she said she could give us an order as an appetizer) that were pretty good then Brodie had the pork schnitzel which was actually quite good and I ordered the halibut fillet that said it was crusted with horseradish and parmesan.  It was alright but I didn't taste much horseradish and it was a bit over cooked.  Didn't come close to the halibut in a carrot butter reduction from the Tiburon.  In any case it was good food in a cozy atmosphere, but not worth the price.  And I think we were the only people at the Brewery not ordering any drinks.  Go figure.  The kids had a blast at my sister's.  How wonderful of her to watch my 3 kids while she has 3 of her own (the youngest is just a few months old) while her husband was working.

An unusually warm February day at Wheeler Farm

Spencer's friend was sick so we didn't have a planned playdate after school.  And the weather was so absolutely beautiful despite being the middle of February.  So we stopped at Wheeler Farm after school.  The kids had so much fun on the playground.  Even Clara kept climbing up and going down the slide.  I had to follow her up and around because there were too many places for her to fall off.  And she kept trying to go where the bigger kids went.  But she loved the slide.  The older kids also pointed out to her all the little carved animals that were hiding.  Clara loves animals.  She knows a lot of animal sounds and names of animals.  I think animals rank right up there with princesses, Elmo, and Minnie Mouse.  I loved chasing the kids around in the nice weather.

Then we walked around the farm.  Have I mentioned how much I love living in Sandy, Utah?  I do.  I know it's not Manhattan, but it does have more of a "city" feel than small towns like Tremonton (I know you won't argue this one Tiff).  Yet we still have a lot of outdoor things to do and even a free working farm to visit (I know Tiff has one just down the street from her...and up the street...and around the street...).  Once again Clara is mesmerized by animals so she loved this.  Last time we went (blog on here with pictures already so I didn't take any this time) she was still too little to walk around by herself so she loved it this time.  She ran right towards the ducks and geese and wanted to pet them.  Spencer kept yelling, "No, Clara!" because he thought they would bite her.  He's a very good, protective big brother.  The geese were even bigger than Clara but she wasn't the slightest bit nervous to get right up and try to pet them.  Tessa was sad I didn't think to bring bread.  At least today I didn't see anyone feeding the ducks and geese chicken nuggets and french fries like the last time we went. 

Cows and dogs are Clara's favorite animals.  And it just so happened there was a lady with a pet dog by the cows.  Clara got so excited and was "moo"-ing at the cows.  Of course all the kids had to pet the cows.  Then we went over to the horses, who the kids also got to pet.  From there we headed to the goats, pigs, sheep, turkeys, and chickens.  And then back to the playground again.

When we got home we were happy to see Brodie back from his trip to Florida!  The kids are used to him going on much longer trips overseas and returning with unique, cool items.  So Brodie made an effort to track down something fun for the kids.  He brought Spencer an alligator head and Tessa a wooden, carved dolphin figure.  Which she really loved since we watched Dolphin Tale and ate pizza one night while Brodie was gone.

What a perfect Friday fun day!

Princess ball and dinner and a movie

Tessa is my little princess.  She is beautiful, sweet, kind, caring, cheerful, helpful, fun, and all the other things a princess should be.  And she adores the Disney princesses, especially Rapunzel these days.  When she was 3 months old we visited Disney World but she was too little to get anything out of it.  So when I saw a deal for a Daddy Daughter Princess Ball come up I purchased it.  No, I didn't ask Brodie--I told him.  And a roll of his eyes was really the only protest I got so I told Tessa.  She was so excited!  For the weeks leading up to it she was counting down the days.  I got online and found out which princesses they were announcing would be there.  They also advertised that they would be able to ride in Cinderella's coach, which really excited Tessa.  The anticipation was sooooo fun to watch!  So of course when the day finally arrived Tessa was floating.  She wanted to wear her Rapunzel dress up from Christmas and asked me to do her hair like Rapunzel's.  I braided it slightly to the side and then filled it with a bunch of flower bows I had.

Then Brodie got all suited up and Tessa headed out with her handsome Prince to her ball.  "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes..."

When Tessa came home she was all aglow.  She literally had a ball.  She met all sorts of princesses:

 

And she got to have a ride in Cinderella's coach.







Brodie wasn't glowing as much as Tessa.  He said it was a good thing I only paid half the regular price because it wasn't even worth that much.  First of all, I had prepaid so they were supposed to get checked off the list.  He said a bunch of people were going in without checking in or paying at the door and he thinks they had a lot more people show up than they had planned on.  It was way too crowded.  They had also advertised having food.  Apparently there was a very long line for small plates where they each got a small sandwich, a cookie, and a couple pieces of fruit.  And he said the area to meet and have a picture taken with the princesses was very unorganized.  They spent so much time waiting in the lines that they didn't get a chance to dance (that was the only thing Tessa herself had seemed disappointed in).  And the line for the carriage ride was insane.  Brodie wanted to skip it, but this was what Tessa had been looking forward to most of all.  Just before they got up to the front of the line the people decided to just let the girls ride in the carriage and stop letting the dads ride with them to get the line moving quicker.  This didn't bother Brodie at all so Tessa rode with a bunch of other little girls.  I won't do it again, but I'm glad Tessa got to attend a ball while she's still at such a magical age.

Because Tessa was getting a special evening out with daddy, I asked my mom to watch Clara and I went out with Spencer.  I asked him what he wanted to do and we ended up deciding to eat dinner at Training Table (Spencer loves the concept of the phone although I've decided the food isn't as good as it is in my memory and I don't think we'll be going back any time soon).  Then we went to Jordan Commons to watch Big Miracle.  It was a pretty good show.  A good family movie.  Spencer kept asking me what parts were real.  And he didn't believe the baby really died.  My sweet, optimistic boy kept telling me, "I don't think the baby's really dead.  A little later he'll come back up."  Then during the credits they had footage with the real people the actors were portraying and I told such to Spencer but he didn't understand.  He thought Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski were the real people.  It took me a long time to explain the "actor" thing and I'm still not sure he really got it.  My Spencer is one of the most intelligent 1st graders around.  But he's never had a great grasp on reality.  I think I've been so hesitant to let go of the little boy that I've allowed him to live in the imaginary a little too long.  By the way--he's a real spy.  Don't tell him otherwise.  Also he still wishes on a star for Optimus Prime to show up in our backyard and be his friend.  I sure love that boy!  I had so much fun being one on one with him.  That happens so rarely but I really enjoyed talking and being just with him.  What a fun Valentine's date!