Was it a full moon this weekend? Holy smokes! Friday started out wonderfully, and we enjoyed our pay day by going out to dinner. We’ve been cutting back on our dining out at the Eastowner house, and most nights it’s no biggie….other nights it’s painful not to be tempted to just go out and eat somewhere. The habit of dining out began when I was pregnant with Clare, and cooking and smelling most anything made me extremely ill. I didn’t have Morning sickness with her, I had 8 month sickness…I kid you not! Because it was the 2 of us it was super convient most nights, and when we added Clare, it was just toting the baby carrier around. Over the years we’ve slowly began cutting back on our eating out habits; sometimes we ebb and flow with it, buy now it’s becoming a matter of conserving money with the decrease in Brad’s raises and the higher cost of living.
Anyway, after I picked Clare up from school we came home to spruce up a bit, and then after Brad came home we headed to Graydon’s Crossing Derby Station. Brad wants to write up a proper review, so I will leave that to him. I’ll talk about all the fun stuff though! It’s in East Grand Rapids, wich is right up the street from us, and if we were rambunctious and not having martini’s we could have rode our bikes there. They have a great patio section for warmer weather, and inside is set up in an English pub style with hints of Indian infulences. The bar is well stocked, as it comes with a binder full of alcoholic goodies ranging from wine to beer to top shelf liquors. Their menu is divine, and it was hard to choose just 1 thing to eat! There are even games sitting on the book shelf in the middle of the dining room, so if you plan on hanging out for a bit head over and pick up a deck of Uno cards, or the Cribbage game.
The children’s menu is great, and the kids have about 10 items to choose from ranging in items like the usual Mac & Cheese fare to Grilled Steak. They also get to choose their own side along with their meal, ranging in the healthy fruit cup to onion rings. The only thing missing was chocolate milk, but lemonade was a nice substitute. The Cosmopolitan’s are wonderful, and poured in the correct and tasty way. Brad had the beer, he’ll have to tell you about that. We started off with an appetizer off of their seasonal menu called Hairy Eyeball Cheese Dip. The dip was wonderful, and I wish they had added some baby carrots to the plate that had deep fried green beans and 2 different style chips to dip in it. Clare even liked it! For dinner Clare had the grilled cheese & fruit cup; it wasn’t anything too spectacular other than the bread was not soggy white bread like you get a some places. I had their Harvest Risotto, and it was absolutely wonderful. Brad had the South Indian Shrimp Taco’s, and from the bite I had it was yummy! The food is a cross between English pub food and Indian-style food. Dessert was not in the cards for Brad & I, but because Clare had finished all her meal and had been extremely good we let her have a dish of vanilla ice cream.
Afterwards we came home, shipped Clare off to bed, and had a nice, quiet, adult evening with martini’s and a movie. Saturday was a different story though, we awoke to a pretty good start to the day. We all got dressed, and went to Panera for some breakfast sandwiches and then did some errand running. While driving around we noticed a small car show in front of Toys R Us on 28th street, so we stopped and looked around. Clare enjoyed it, and then it was downhill from there - whis is the terribly wrong part. We had asked Clare to be quiet in the car because Brad & I were talking and she needed to wait her turn. She couldn’t seem to hold it in as she got louder and louder, next step was to have her sent to her room when we got home and not to come out until told. Melt down continues deeper and deeper into her little 6 year old spiral, until I tell her if she comes out of her room she can’t attend a friend’s birthday party that was to happen later that afternoon. We come home, she goes to her room, I work on things and am about to head up to talk to her when suddenly she appears on the steps. “What are you doing I ask?”, “Coming to talk to dad.” Nobody had called her, so I had to follow through on the sucky punishment I had put forth already. She was distraught and beside herself, causing a bigger meltdown. I offer her lunch thinking she might be hungry, so I made her mac & cheese telling her that if she finished her lunch she could have an apple…but the m & c had to be all gone. I head upstairs for 2.5 seconds to grab something and she’s now asking Brad for the apple, he asks if her mac & cheese is gone, she says yes and proceeds back to the kitchen to empty her bowl to show dad an empty bowl. Now we have to have a lieing discussion! So, Saturday sucked, and we ended up punishing ourselves in the end by not attending Eastown’s yearly Street Festival because Clare was not behaving well.
Sunday was slightly better, and because Clare had good behavior all day we ended our weekend with a trip to the bowling alley. Despite my argument with the a$$ hat that told me I was a coupon abuser at the alley, we had a good time and it was a good way to end our weekend.
Happy
Red Face
Surprised
