Dear North Carolina,

I can not even express how grateful I am to you for implementing the new law that makes all restauants (& bars) in NC smoke free! I am so glad that as of January 2, 2010, I won’t have to worry about which restaurants I take my girls to. They will all be safe!

Moving to NC from CA, a state that has had that law since I was a kid, has been an amazing experience so far. I have to admit that I was a little shocked the first time we went out to eat in NC. I did a double take when we were asked “Smoking or Non-Smoking?” Of course the smell that hit my nose when we walked in should’ve been a dead giveaway as to what we were just asked. My husband and I asked the girls if we could try a different restaurant, but they wanted to stay put. It was one of their favorite places to eat back home, so it was hard to pry them away.

We remember the commercials back home from when we were growing up, saying that smoke doesn’t know how to stay in the smoking section and we were a little uneasy the whole time we were in there, wondering if we did the right thing eating in.

Over the next few months, we made it a point to eat at places that didn’t have smoking sections, or just pick up dinner and eat at home. Kinda took some of the fun out of going out to eat, but I’d rather have my lungs and healthy children than enjoy a meal that could harm us. Trust me… it was worth the extra effort.

We know that second hand smoke contains at least 250 chemicals known to be toxic, including more than 50 that can cause cancer. We also know that secondhand smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults, and asthma and other respiratory illnesses in children. We also know that according to the California EPA, secondhand smoke is estimated to have caused approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths annually among nonsmokers in the US. *

So many scary facts that have made it a huge deal for us to protect our girls from exposure to secondhand smoke, this new law is going to make things just a little bit easier. Now, starting with the new year, we won’t have to be as selective of where we go out to eat, and I’m sure my girls are going to have more fun choosing where we go! I’m pretty sure that there are more folks that feel just as excited as we do!! So thank you!! We thank you, and our lungs thank you!

Sincerely,

The Mommy Brain Family

* Facts from the CDC.gov

More info: SmokeFreeNC.gov

THE UPDATED POST CAN BE FOUND HERE: Mommy Brain Reports

Of course, being a Mommy of twins, I LOVE when I can get some good deals on taking them out to eat! I saw Save with Dave the other day, and Dave gave us 3 places for our list… I thought that was awesome, and decided to do a little more research and expand the list!

Here’s a list of places in the Sacramento and Surrounding areas that offer free meals for kids!!! Researching this made me super hungry.. I think I may try talking Daddy into a few trips out to restaurants in the next few weeks.. After all, I do have to try these places… Right?!?!

I did call around and verify these deals, but, as always, I recommend calling them before you go, just in case…

At Chick-fil-a, Thursday is free kid’s dinner night from 5pm to 9pm. The kids also get free Arts & Crafts to keep them busy and a free Ice Cream!!! Who doesn’t like a free Ice Cream!?!?! You must purchase an Adult Combo in order to receive this deal!  On Fridays, however, they offer any kid’s menu breakfast free, with NO additional purchase necessary!

At Denny’s locations kids age 10 and under eat free every Tuesday night, and in some locations, they eat free on Saturday nights too! From 4pm to 10pm! You can get up to two kid’s entrees from the kid’s menu free per every one regularly priced adult entree purchase. 

At El Torito Mexican Restaurant in Sacramento  kids eat free on their Birthday! To join their Birthday Club, you can fill out a form on the kid’s menu on any of your visits, and you will receive a certificate, and Birthday Club pack in the mail you can bring with you on your birthday to get your free meal!

At all Fresh Choice locations, kids age 2 & under eat free with the purchase of any adult meal. They also have a great discount rate for children ages 3-5… $1.99 with the purchase of an adult meal.  Can’t beat that! Fresh, healthy, and affordable!

Goodfella’s Express Italian located in the awesome city of Folsom, Ca has a great program as well! Kids Eat Free on Tuesdays  from 5-8pm. Anything off the kid’s meal (regularly $2.99) is free… Although it is not required, they do encourage the purchase of an Adult Meal… Hey.. the whole family can enjoy some great food. With a menu like theirs, who wouldn’t want to try it out!?! I think I see another day trip to the outlets and dinner coming on!

I checked out Hacienda del Rio’s website and sure enough, right there at the top of their website they advertise that kids eat free every Tuesday Night from 4:30-8:30pm. They are also located in Folsom! Here is a link to their menu as well. 

At all IHOP locations in Sacramento, and surrounding, I’ve found that kids, 12 and under, eat free every Tuesday from 4pm to 2am! You can choose anything from their kid’s menu, and purchase of an adult entree is required!  

At Il Fornaio in down town Sacramento, if you take your kids in on a Sunday evening, you can exchange the kids’ doodling on the back of their menu for their famous Il Fornaio Cookies!!! Your aspiring artist will love the treat for their art work, and you’ll love that they’re keeping busy while you peruse their awesome menu!

At Strings Italian Cafe locations in the area, kids eat free on Sunday and Monday!  One kid per adult entree purchased, at anytime during their open hours! Daddy and I have been here several times, since we have one super close to our house. The food is always DEEE-LISH, and the service is always aw

At Texas West Bar-B-Que  on Mondays and Tuesdays kids eat free all day! For every adult entree purchased, you may choose one entree from the kid’s menu for your kid age 10 and under.

At  Riverside Clubhouse, on Mondays and Tuesdays kids eat free w/purchase of adult entree!

I hope you are able to find some great places to try out on this list! I’ve been to quite a few of them, and loved them! If you find any other locations in the Sacramento, and surrounding areas that need to be on this list, please tell me so that I may share the wisdom with others! After all, who wouldn’t like to save a little bit of change here and there! Bon Appetite!

I know I know.. Mother’s Day is tomorrow.. but, I voluntarily took today to be my Mother’s Day since we needed to split the day between MeeMaw, and Grandma T… 

The day started off normal enough. We all got up… the girls woke up first, then Daddy, then me. HEE HEE… Daddy got up and took care of the girls so I could get showered and ready to go out for the day. They were so funny. He walked in there, and I hear them (over the monitor) say, “Where’s Mommy? Is she still asleep? I wanna give her a kiss.” I just melted… I quickly jump back in bed and pretend I’m sleeping so they can “wake me up” with a kiss on the cheek… They think it’s so awesome when they wake me up… Daddy changes them, and lets them run into the room and jump up on the bed… Sure enough, Monkey See is right next to my face, leans down and kisses me on the cheek… I open my eyes, and they just let out this squeal of laughter. It was so cute! Daddy convinced them to go downstairs with him so I could get ready… I think there was mention of mixing pancakes, and bacon… It works every time. 

I got up, got ready to go, and came downstairs. They didn’t even notice me.. They were too busy whisking the pancake batter. Daddy made a big, yummy breakfast for all of us… and then we grabbed our things and headed out the door. I wanted to go back to a place called I Made It. It’s a super fun place in Elk Grove right off of Highway 99 where you can paint all kinds of ceramic crafts, or make mosaic things! They have all the supplies you need, you just show up and pay a nominal studio fee, and item prices. It’s totally cool.  I’ll share more about it later! Monkey See and Monkey Do each painted a mug and a little tag-a-long to put in the bottom of the mug. I made a really cool salad bowl, and a heart plate with the girls’ hand prints on it. Daddy made an awesome serving dish for his “Atomic Buffalo Terds”. I seriously can not wait to pick everything up in a week or so. 

After all of our fun, we had to eat! We stopped over at BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse. We’ve driven by the one by our house so many times, and just never stopped in. WOW! We were super impressed! The girls each got a cheese pizza kids meal, and Daddy and I got Pasta. His was the Chardonnay Shrimp Pasta, and mine was the  Grilled Chicken Pasta. The food was soooo good! Everyone ate and even had enough to bring home for dinner later! The service was pretty good, considering the place was quite busy. 

Monkey See kept saying she was sleepy, so we came home, and everyone (except Daddy) took a nap. Daddy volunteered to do some cleaning around the house, and prepare everything for movie night. Yes… The end to a perfect day… We ate our leftovers for dinner, and yum! Even reheated, everything was good. I took the girls upstairs for a quick bath, and got them changed into their Princess jammies. We all came back downstairs and set up the aero bed, popped some popcorn in our hot air popper, and got our pillows ready. We rented Alvin and the Chipmunks, and let me tell you.. It was such a cute movie! The girls LOVED it. They got up and danced to all of the music. I don’t know how they did it, but they stayed awake for the entire movie. I guess when it’s good, it’s good… LOL

They finally went to bed around 11pm… and we have to get up early to go to church tomorrow morning. That’s going to be interesting… We’re taking Meemaw and Peepaw out to breakfast tomorrow.. I know the girls are going to have fun, and probably forget all about being sleepy… 

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Moms out there… You are all very amazing and special. I hope you all have an absolutely wonderful Mother’s Day… although.. taking one day to celebrate something we do every day just doesn’t seem fair.. LOL.. Cheers! 

Poopie comes out.”

Yes.. My daughter said that.

Let’s go back to this morning. We were on our way to the gym, and Monkey See asks me if she can go to the potty at daycare. “Of course sweetie! You just need to let your teacher know that you have to go!”. “Oh, Okay Mommy. I can do that.” with a huge smile on her face. 

Since the whole potty training began, I have lost count of how many times the potty is flushed downstairs. Luckily, I’ve only had to do one load of laundry to wash the extra panties. They’ve only had one accident each per day still.  I’m seriously amazed! They’re doing really well with keeping up on the potty. 

Once we got home from the gym and Sam’s club, they went down for a nap. I was really hoping for a nice long nap like usual, but no. Monkey See woke up after about 30 minutes crying. I ran upstairs to check on her, and she said she had to go potty. Up she goes out of her bed, and running to the potty. Sure enough.. she had a lot to let out… We got her dressed back up and back in bed. She was asleep in a few minutes. Monkey Do woke up about 20 minutes later. She needed to go potty… Ok.. Potty… Let’s go.. She did a little. I tried to put her back in bed, but she fought me a little more. I finally talked her into trying to go back to sleep. It didn’t work. She was quiet for a little bit, but then out of nowhere I hear “TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR… ” I jumped up and ran upstairs… “Shh honey. Sister’s asleep! You should be sleeping too.” “No mommy, I’m all done.”  ”Ok, Ok, let’s go to mommy’s room and lay down. Maybe you can fall asleep in Mommy’s bed.” In my dreams… She got my iPhone and watched video after video. I now know the entire Dora’s Fairy Tale Adventure by heart. But, no more sleep. Monkey Do refused to sleep. The cutest thing though. While I lay down in bed next to her just relaxing, she held my hand while she watched her Wonder Pets and snuggled with her Pooh Bear… I don’t know why, but it was the sweetest thing. 

Daddy got home early and surprised us. Monkey Do was happy to see him. She cheerfully announced that she was laying in his spot.. Monkey See was still peacefully sleeping in her room. We all talked about going out to a couple of stores, and then going out for dinner. Once we figured everything out, we woke up Monkey See and she was so happy! She needed that sleep!

We were out and about tonight, returning some clothes that I bought on a whim… All of which were just too tight. I swear XL now isn’t what it used to be… UGH. I just don’t get it. Why must everything be so small now? Don’t the people who make clothing know that a woman who carried a baby or two isn’t made in the form of Barbie anymore? Especially since we don’t have the money for the supreme personal trainers of the stars… I can’t stand shopping for clothes anymore. Things that used to fit me don’t anymore. Ah.. but such is the life of a mommy… That extra belly skin just covered in those zebra stripes is my badge of honor… Just not planning on showing it off to anyone except my hubby.. and well.. even that’s hard to do anymore. 

Anyway.. back to the original topic… So we were out on the town, and we decided to stop at our favorite local Teriyaki restaurant, Teriyaki Time. Of course, the second we get in the door, Monkey See starts off with “Mommy! I need to go potty!”… I take her to the potty, and sure enough, Monkey Do follows. Right now I should be really excited that they’re telling me they need to potty… No, I’m tired, exhausted, and really just annoyed at all the Mommy, I need to go potty’s that end up with nothing. I hurry them up and get them to try to potty, wash hands, and then meet daddy out at a table. Luckily he knew exactly what I wanted to eat, so everything was ordered and cooking when we got out. No sooner had the food been served than the girls decided again that they had to potty yet again. This time, they did. Thank goodness… Finally we could all sit down to eat… for about 5 minutes. Monkey See thought she’d have to go again. Monkey Do jumped up to follow. This happened a couple of times through dinner, turning a 20-30 minute dinner into nearly an hour. Daddy and I took turns taking the girls to the potty throughout dinner… 

One of the last times they had to go, Daddy comes out of the restroom just laughing… He tells me that Monkey See told him our phrase of the day… I just had to laugh. People in the restaurant just looked at me laughing my tail off… They wouldn’t understand. Well, maybe they would… Ahhh.. the joys of being a parent.. No, Really… I get the best laughs when I’m with my girls… Who wouldn’t!?!?!

So tonight we were out for dinner at Strings Italian Cafe after a night of super shopping at Kohl’s.. Well, for Daddy anyway… and the girls were doing a great job of behaving themselves… They seriously were acting like little angels for a change!We had just ordered our meals, and the girls were coloring away on their little placemats. Daddy was trying to send a friend directions to our house, and he realized that he couldn’t send a link from the Google Maps on his iPhone. He told me that he thought it was ridiculous that he couldn’t do that, and then we hear Monkey Do say.. “I’ve got my OWN Google Maps!” We had been just eating our dinner, and Monkey Do looked up from her food and saw a commercial on the TV in the dining room. Next thing I know she yells out “iPhone Mommy! It’s like YOUR iPhone!!!” I just laughed.. “Yes dear, it’s like my iPhone.”

What 2 year old yells out “iPhone!!!” in the middle of a restaurant… well, mine apparently… I didn’t know whether to be embarrassed at her yelling out, or gloat because my 2year olds know what an iPhone is, and how to work the darn thing. Monkey See then followed suit and decided dinner was over, and she wanted to play with Daddy’s iPhone. We eventually got them back on track for dinner, and they ate their dinner perfectly.

Before leaving the restaurant we received a couple of compliments from random strangers, telling us how well behaved the girls are. I was so happy to hear this. Usually they’re rambunctious as heck, and refuse to eat. As we walked out to the car, a couple came up to us and asked how old the girls were. We told them proudly, that they are 2.5 years old. They were surprised that a 2 year old knew what an iPhone was. I just turned and said “Yeah.. and they know how to use it too. ” LOL..

What?!?!?! It’s not my fault my girls are mini geniuses!

On Saturday, 6 October, we just didn’t feel like cooking. We knew there was a new Panda Express just down the road on Del Paso Rd. and we were feeling like Chinese Food, so why not! We had to check it out.

We got there, and the parking spots were so small! I have a Honda Odyssey, so it’s not that large of a car to park. We were squished. I am actually saddened by the lack of space in this area. Things have just grown so much there isn’t much room for anything anymore.

Once we finally squeezed into a parking space, we walked over to the restaurant. We got in line, and thought about what we wanted. The selection was great. There was a lot to choose from.. even for the kids. They piled the food on our plates, and we moved on in the line to pay for everything. One of the entrées I ordered wasn’t ready yet, so they set aside a plate for me. They promised it’d be ready in about 9 minutes or so.

Once we paid for everything, we found a table that would comfortably seat the 4 of us. We had to pick a certain table or else the late afternoon sun would be right in our eyes. They didn’t have any window shades up to cut the light. We started eating and everything was ok until we started in on the Broccoli Beef. It was still COLD! I was so disappointed. That’s one of my favorite parts of Chinese food! I thought about taking it back up, but the line was so long, and they already had a couple of people waiting at the register for food that wasn’t done yet. I figured by the time, I got that resolved, the rest of my food would be cold.. so i set it aside. They did come out with my “missing” entrée (Sweet & Sour Pork) in about 10 minutes, and that was piping hot. The girls barely touched their chicken, or chow mein, which is VERY odd for them. They ended up asking for different food when we got home.

All in all, it was a little disappointing. We have decided that from now on.. we’ll stick with our favorite: The Dragon Palace Restaurant in South Natomas…

We were out shopping yesterday and lunch time crept up on us. The girls had just had their first hair cuts, and we figured we’d celebrate.. so off to Strings Italian Cafe we went. We had heard some good things about it, so we figured we’d check it out. We went to the Strings at 4730 Natomas Blvd. It was a pretty good place!

It was very quiet for a lunch time. There were only a couple of other people there. Our server was friendly, and came back quickly with our drink order. Our food arrived soon after that, and it was delicious! I had the Chicken Fettuccine Milano with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, green onions, and sun dried tomatoes sauteed with garlic served in creamy Marsala wine sauce topped with gorgonzola cheese. It was deeee-lish! We got the girls spaghetti, which they devoured.

All in all, it was a pretty good place to take the girls to eat. They had a great meal, and a lot of fun. It’s definitely somewhere we’ll take the girls again next time we’re in the area!

We were out and about the other evening shopping for books, and just hanging out around the Natomas area. We figured it was getting to be dinner time, and rather than worry about cooking, we’d just go across the parking lot to the Mimi’s Cafe at 3511 North Freeway Blvd, in North Natomas.

We were seated right away, and the girls got to use booster seats again. Our server came right away and took our drink order. He came back within a couple of minutes with our drinks and took our meal order. It was very fast service that evening! We were eating our meals within 20 minutes or so. The food was awesome! I ordered a Pan Seared Chicken Fettuccine, and it was delicious. We ordered Macaroni & Cheese and a Grilled Cheese Sandwich for the girls to share. They actually did quite well! When we were told our server we needed boxes for our leftovers, he brought out little treats for the girls. They were little “dirt cups” as he called them… They were cups with chocolate pudding, crushed oreos, and 2 gummy worms. The girls were so excited… and devoured the pudding. They didn’t know what to make of the gummy worms, so Mommy got to enjoy those…

All in all.. It was a very pleasant experience. The atmosphere was very nice… You could go dressed casually, as we did, or you could dress up a bit. The staff was friendly, and took care of us. I’d definitely recommend it for anyone with families!

When Fine Dining includes milk filled sippy cups, spaghetti sauce stains, and a whole package of napkins.

We’ve started taking the girls out to eat a lot more now since they’re getting a little older, and need to learn how to handle different foods. I figured our experimentation with different restaurants in the Sacramento area could possibly help anyone else in the area who’s looking to take their family out on a fun filled “fine dining” experience.

The first of these Restaurants I’d like to review is Outback Steakhouse at 181 N. Sunrise Avenue in Roseville, CA. We took the girls there for dinner on a very busy Saturday evening. It just happened to be 6pm on the day before Mother’s Day, and we were in the Roseville area. We called to check on the wait, and were told it would be approximately 70 minutes, but that we could put in for call ahead seating. What a relief that was! I’ve noticed that a lot of restaurants here don’t take reservations anymore, nor do they do the call ahead seating. It makes it VERY difficult to visit those restaurants, especially when you’re waiting with two very hungry 2 year olds!

In any case, We got to Outback, expecting about an hour-45 minute wait. Daddy went inside and asked if there was anything he could buy to give to the girls while we waited. The gal gave him a bread setup (bread, butter, cutting board, etc) for free.. It worked out quite well. The girls snacked on the bread and danced around the front area for a while. We ended up waiting around 45-50 minutes before we were seated. Once seated, our server greeted us and the girls were given crayons and a kids menu to color on. She got our drink & appetizer order, which was brought to us very quickly considering how busy they were. Not too long after we made our meal orders, those arrived as well. We had ordered chicken strips and fries for the girls, which they absolutely loved. The adult dinners were awesome! The girls even had a few bites of baby back ribs.

All in all, this place is definitely recommended for families! The atmosphere is fun and friendly, and the food is DE-LISH! Check it out!