Hi everyone, my name is Angelique and I’m a time optimist. It’s a horrible characteristic and I’m working on it … as soon as I get these two hundred and twenty-eight other things on today’s to do list accomplished. SIGH. Does this ring true for anybody else?
Last Thursday was the perfect example of a day in which my time optimism had me running in circles like a chicken with my head cut off.
Yep, this is definitely one of the negative side effects of being a time optimist. But, the kids had a blast (and I actually did too, which is somewhat unusual for such days). We’ll consider this day of hopping around the city as our Weekly Adventure.
The day started with me dropping the kids off at school, going to the gym, running home to shower, and then running to make an 11:30 haircut appointment. (I know, I know, rough life). School gets out at 1:30, but this past Thursday I picked the kids up at 12:40 to take them to Dinosaur George at the Lake Travis Community Library. Yay for free events! By the way, you can find a ton of local (and many free) events in the Four Points Mom Events Calendar. Have you checked that out yet?
I was surprised at how entertaining Dinosaur George was for me and for the kids.
Foster is obsessed with dinosaurs right now. Everywhere he goes he shares with me, friends, and strangers alike the ridiculous amount of dinosaur facts he knows. (Thanks Dino Dan and Dino Dana on Amazon Prime …). But, I was afraid he’d be a bit disappointed that there weren’t huge fossils or life-sized replicas of dinosaurs.
Nope. He loved the fossil from a stegosaurus back and the skull of a baby t-rex. And, Dinosaur George was GREAT with the kids of all ages. I highly recommend seeing his show around town.
After the show, Foster, Parker, and their friends, Davis and Marshall, walked around the children’s section of the library to find some books.
If you haven’t checked out this library I highly recommend it. It’s not very big but the children’s section is closed off so you don’t feel like you’re disturbing the serious adult library-goers.
Plus, for those of us in the back half of River Place, it’s the only library around that you can get a card at for no cost. It sounds odd, but it has something to do with living outside the “city” limits although we are in Austin … I don’t know, just trust me. You just need to show library personnel proof of residency in the Austin area.
Also, once you have a card, you can check out e-books and audiobooks online. It’s awesome! I rarely pay for books anymore because I just check them out (from the comfort of my home). Most of the time, there is a wait for more popular books. But, you can get on the hold list and they’ll notify you when it’s ready to download on the OverDrive app. I love to read (well, mostly listen to audiobooks while working out or driving around these days) and my wallet is appreciative of the huge online database of books.
After leaving the library (and paying a whopping 10 cents for my overdue book … whew, the creditors won’t be searching for me yet), I was starving. The kids had lunch at school, but in my crazy rush from my hair appointment to the school and then to the library, I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. No worries – Mangieri’s Pizza Café is a block from the library and it has a playground. #winning
Lakeway’s Mangieri’s Pizza Café is a wonderful spot for families. I know I mentioned this on Friday as part of my Friday Favorites, but it bears repeating. They have a lunch special that includes a small pizza, house salad, and drink for $9.99. The house salad was fresh and the thin-crusted pizza was really good.
(Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the pizza – I was hangry). I knew better than to expect the kids wouldn’t eat at least a third of the personal pizza and that left me with just enough for a nice sized-lunch. We sat out on the patio which has a great view of the playground.
The playground was decent and enclosed so that the kids couldn’t escape without running past me at the table. Why don’t other restaurants with playgrounds focus on such a parent-friendly design?
After lunch, we walked across the parking lot to FroCo for some frozen yogurt.
And at this point I am stretching way past naptime for Parker who has somehow managed to withhold any meltdown tendencies. The Yelp reviews weren’t great for FroCo, so I was pleasantly surprised. Between the three of us, we tasted five flavors and four of them (peach, raspberry acai, cake batter, and cotton candy) were good. I didn’t love the chocolate flavor but Foster ate it like it was the most delicious thing he’d had all week. There were super cute kid-sized tables and chairs and a white board for the kids to play on.
We then raced home for naptime and before I knew it I was heading out the door for a fun night celebrating my friend Kendra’s and my birthday at Culinary Dropout. How have I not been there before now?
The food was tasty, the drinks were great (hello blueberry dacquari), and the patio was a blast.
The company wasn’t that bad either. 😉 Thanks ladies for a fun night!
I highly recommend this spot for a girls night out or date night. I know I’ll be back soon!
Alright, there’s a Four Points Mom Weekly Adventure in the bag. I won’t tell you just how late I was to most of these scheduled events, but just know that I acknowledge my time optimism is annoying to all and I’ll start working on it as soon as I clear this lengthy to do list …
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