In The Mind of A Thirtysomething Mom

Merry Christmas

I know I've slacked lately; please forgive me.

I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

From our family to yours:

and the shot that shows the tadpoles keeping it real:

Y'all have a blessed one!

It's K's Turn

Since Hurricane Irene messed up the school schedule by a couple of days, K's first day of school was today instead of Monday.

She was so excited about it, last night she planned her wardrobe for the first FIVE days of school.  All her clothes are layed out in her room waiting to be worn.  Nope, the OCD tendencies haven't abated yet.

This is the only year that both K and M will be in the same school.  I just had to get a picture of the two of them together this morning.

Aren't they just the cutest?  :)

First Day of School

First day of 5th and 10th, respectively.

M was so excited about going to real school after spending the last 4 years being homeschooled.  She had a great day.  When she got home, she flew through her homework.  "It was so easy", she said.  It must have been that great teacher she had for 1st through 4th grades.

B had a good day too.  He's finally not the lowly Frosh of the school.  Poor thing, he had to start his day with Statistics.  Tomorrow his first class is Chemistry.  ACK!  He tried out for the school baseball team last year and the soccer team this year, and didn't make either.  Maybe he'll make the baseball team this spring.

Notice that K is missing from the picture.  In our county, the Kindergarteners have a staggered entrance.  Her first day will be Monday.  She'll be off from school on Tuesday, but return on Wednesday and continue for the rest of the week.  Gotta love odd county regs.

VBS Date Night Day 1

This week, the girls are in VBS at our church.  Mr. Frog and I have a tradition where while the girls are in VBS, the boys are at home and we go on a date.  We look forward to this every year as it's the only time we get to spend time as a couple working on our relationship and enjoy dinner together sans children.

One of the things we insist on doing each year is to try a new restaurant in the local area.  We do our best to hit places we've never eaten at before, either on date nights or as a family.  This affords us the opportunity to try new places without worrying about whether or the tadpoles will enjoy it or not.  If the restaurants are found to be family and budget friendly, we will return at a later date with the whole Frog crew.  (There is one exception to this "rule" and that's our special Wednesday night dinner restaurant.  I'll cover that in more detail then.)

On Monday, we drove around a bit after dropping the girls off and decided to eat at the Greenhouse Grill on Route 2 in Glen Burnie.

Okay, I decided and Mr. Frog went along for the ride.

As you can see in the picture, the Greenhouse Grill is labeled as a casual family dining restaurant.  I thought it would be a good place to possibly return to at a later date with the tadpoles.  Meh, not so much.

Evidentally, on Monday's if you don't have a coupon to use, you get to spin the wheel located by the hostess stand and win a prize.  We were treated to a free gelati dessert.  Spinning the wheel was about the best part of the experience.

Upon being seated, we quickly received our drinks.  We noticed another table of diners that had a HUGE plate of Spaghetti and Meatballs.  Seeing as this was our first time eating there, we politely asked our waitress if that meal size was indicitive of the portions served.  She confirmed it was.  No really, this plate was HUGE. 

Our waitress seemed almost bothered by the fact that we had a few questions before we placed our orders.  We didn't ask anything difficult but simple ones such as the one about serving sizes and what the soup of the day was (Chicken Dumpling - keep that in mind as it comes back later in this story).  After thinking about it for a few, we placed our orders; an appetizer sampler (with wings, nachos, and bacon cheese fries) to share, a Greek sandwich for Mr. Frog, and a soup and salad combo for myself (with the aforementioned soup of the day). 

When the appetizer plate arrived, it looked pretty good.  I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't so you'll have to pretend.  The nachos were delish!  The wings were really good too.  The fries weren't much to write home about, though.  About 10 minutes later, our food arrived...sort of.  See, Mr. Frog's food arrived as he ordered.  I got a plate of lettuce with one cucumber, 3 croutons, 2 tomato slices, and a wad of onions.   I also got Tomato Basil Soup.

Wait, what?

Yes, Tomato Basil Soup.

As she's putting the bowl of soup in front of me, our waitress says that they're out of Chicken Dumpling soup, and she just decided to bring me the Tomato Basil Soup.  (Just for the record, I HATE tomatoes.)  I ask what other soups there are, just in case I'd like something different (notice here, I asked - she didn't volunteer the information).  The only other kinds of soup were Crab and French Onion.  (Again for the record, I HATE seafood and onions!)  She begins insisting that the soup is really good and that I'll like it, she swears.  Uh huh, right.  I ate the salad, after I picked the onions and tomatoes off of it, and barely ate half the soup.  It wasn't that it was that bad, but when you've got you're heart set on Chicken Dumpling, Tomato Basil just doesn't cut it.  (Not to mention that it had big tomato chunks in it.  It wasn't even pureed smoothly.  Blech!)

As we're finishing our food, our waitress brings out dessert.  Yes, she just brings it out.  We asked her what it was.  She brought us Cheesecake gelati  (I HATE cheesecake!).  This chick was seriously batting 1000.  We ask what other flavors they have, you know, in case we'd like something else.  We decided on the Melon flavor, as the only other one they had was Strawberry which yes, you guessed it, I don't like strawberries either.  Once we got something we actually wanted, we did enjoy it.

Aside from the nincompoop waitress, the Greenhouse Grill isn't a place I'd willingly take the tadpoles to for dinner.  The food was extremely overpriced for what I'd consider a family restaurant.  Burgers were priced between $7-$10.  The least expensive meal was about $12.99 and if you wanted steak or seafood you were looking at over $20 a plate.

The atmosphere wasn't much better.  It was good for a couple dinner date, but I don't think children would enjoy it much.  Of course I'm failing to mention the Keno and Lotto games playing on the TV while we were eating or the Lotto machine by the front entrance.  Family friendly?  I don't think so.

If you're looking for a great family restaurant, the Greenhouse Grill on Route 2 in Glen Burnie is not the place you want to go.  Try Applebee's or Chili's, or better yet, come back tomorrow to read about the AWESOME place we ate at on Tuesday!  Now that is a place worth talking about!

Photo Contest Voting Open

Voting is now open for the June Picture Perfect contest.  Above is the picture I entered.  Please click here to vote for my picture.  You have to scroll down to see the entries.

Thanks so much!