Adventures in Dining

We love our screened in back porch so much.  We eat out there a lot.  Tommy always wants to eat out there even when the weather is bad. 

Charlotte is a big fan too!

They both also love eating outside where ever else we can.  For example... Culvers!

Culvers is right by Target and we always end up there.  It's also Tommy's absolutely fave go-to place.  He is always asking for Culvers.  Yum chicken fingers! They are wayyyy better than Chickfila. 

Hey Char Char, you have a little something on your nose.  ;)

 Don't worry though.  We still go to Chickfila too.  I mean, come on.  They have a play place. You can't beat that!

Going Out to Eat is Getting Harder: Olive Garden Edition

We thought it was a good idea to take the kids to Olive Garden one night because we didn't feel like cooking.  What we didn't realize is that the kids were not able to handle being in public on that very night.  

The first problem was getting Charlotte into her high chair.  She SCREAMED bloody murder in this quiet little area of the restaurant. I finally got her to sit down and strapped her in with the entire room watching in anticipation of whether we were going to ruin their night.  I was only sweating a little. Then Tommy started throwing a fit about who knows what.  It was looking to be an awful night.

 Everything was much better once the food came.  Spaghetti city!! What a mess!

But what's more fun than noodles and red sauce?? 

What's exciting is that Tommy can even have the breadsticks.  He was a little suspicious at first but then he scarfed it down. 

You can see in that picture that Tommy had his Captain America shield sitting on the table.  As we were leaving, a young waiter came running out after us yelling, "HEY! HEY! You forgot your shield!"  He was in a total panic.  It was kind of awesome.  Tommy left his shield on the table.  I totally missed it when I was doing my last minute sweep to see if we forgot anything. Ugh.  That would have been disastrous as Tommy sleeps with that shield in his bed! So the waiter that came running after us finally caught up to us to give us the shield.  He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That would have been bad!!" I think he is also a Captain America fan.  Love it. 

Phew.  That turned out to be a much better night than it originally started out.  

A Friday Night at Steak 'n Shake

You ready to hear about one of the most exciting Friday nights EVER?? Well then you should probably go read someone else's blog because it really wasn't THAT exciting.  But it was fun. The T-burgs went to the grocery and then stopped at Steak n Shake for dinner. Why was this exciting? Because Steak n Shake has an allergy menu!! Whee! 

 They also have cool kids stuff.  They set down this little cardboard car, a Steak n Shake hat, a kid's menu and crayons.  Nice work, Steak n Shake!

Tommy Hawk was not a big fan of the hat.  As soon as I put it on, he would rip it off.  

 This was actually the best picture I got of him with that dang hat on.  Hilarious.

We made the mistake of choosing the booster seat over the high chair.  Bad move, dudes.  Once you have the freedom and movement of the booster seat, you never go back. We tried to put him in a high chair later and he screamed like we were trying to stuff him in a cat carrier.  Everyone in the restaurant was looking so we conceded and put him back in that terrible wobbly booster seat (after he got some QT with dada).

 Tommy is actually yelling "WINNING" Charlie Sheen style here.  :-) He is a boy that knows how to get what he wants!

 So what do we order for the boy with the food allergies? Steakburger Minis and Fries! (No cheese of course)  With lots o' ketchup!! (Isn't that the coolest little cardboard car?)

 He liked it.  He's not used to fast food so he didn't eat much of it.  (I'm surprised he didn't ask for broccoli and prunes.)

 Annddd that's what his plate looked like when we left.  Darn.  It's still cool to be able to take him out to eat and not have to bring his food.  But I checked Steak n Shake's website today (to link the allergy menu) and guess who eats free on Saturdays and Sundays?? Crap! One day too early.  Oh well.  Now we know. Better go back today. HA!

Say "Without CHEESE!"  Get it?  Instead of Say 'Cheese'? What?  No?  Ok whatever, I tried.  Shut it. :)

Lazy Sunday: Let's Go to the Mall

 Hmmm, what to do at the mall? How about we ride the tiny Merry Go Round? At first we had a little trouble making sure that he stayed in the car.  But he got the hang of it quickly.

 Once it started going around, he was mesmerized.

 What fun! He loved it!

 His smile says it all.


Watch him go!

 Then it stopped.  What an experience!

 We tried out the horse too.  That was a little more dangerous.  We preferred the safety of the car. 

 We spent some time on the bench. (Check out the little guy's new shoes!)

 We also spent some time on the floor in front of Macy's. 

 We went to dinner at Chili's.  Tommy had several proclamations. 

I think he was talking about the sizzling fajitas.  Not sure. 

 After dinner, it was time to wash the car.  The service guy drew a smiley face on the window for Thomasaurus. 

 The car wash has lots of little characters to see as you drive through.  There's lovable furry ol' Grover!

 Tommy didn't quite know what to think of the car wash. 

 It was a little scary.

But the ending was saved with another character.  We're not so sure who that was.  It might have been an M&M with a mask? A little creepy.  

What a super fun day for Tommy T!

Tommy's Second Christmas

 Tommy put the 'new' in newborn for Christmas last year so this year was a little bit more exciting.  We gave him his present on Christmas Eve.  We had wrapped it but we decided to go ahead, open it up and put it together while he was napping. 

 He came down from his nap to find his awesome new basketball hoop!

 Tommy's favorite word is BALL so he was pretty excited.  I'm not sure if this is a jump shot or a squat poop. 

 He loved his new gift.  He shot it from all angles! He used every ball he had too which is seriously like 30 different balls (only a slight Morganism).

 Dunk it!!

 Don't eat the ball!

 Then Tommy opened his other presents.  He was pretty excited.  After opening gift after gift after gift in the month of December, he certainly was getting the hang of it. 

 After we opened gifts, we went to Outback for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  Tommy is giving a noisy little boy behind him the stink eye.  :-)

But then Tommy became the noisy little boy since dinner took longer than he liked so Andrew walked him around the restaurant.  If you look close, you can see Tommy reaching for the TV.  

 When we came back, Tommy ate Christmas sugar cookies.  Special Christmas sugar cookies with no milk or eggs! Or as I like to call them, Gross Cookies.  :-)  No eggs, fake milk and soy butter makes for rock hard ucky cookies. 

 This picture of my half eaten (yes I ate quite a few of them) rock hard cookies makes me think of those Pinterest Fail pictures I've seen.  Nailed it! Here's another favorite. 

I wish I would have taken a picture of my cookies as I had them originally displayed.  I had a candy cane (which Tommy is looking at in disgust in the first picture), a snowman and a few stars.  They looked nice.  They tasted like corkboard.

 The next day we went to Christmas at my parents house. Tommy's favorite chair!  A lot has changed in 7 months huh? 

He mostly grew a bunch of hair!!

We had LOTS of fun.  We sang karaoke! My favorite song to sing was Friday by Rebecca Black. 

I didn't take many pictures on Christmas day because my mom was taking pictures.  So I may borrow some from her and post more. 

Until then, Tommy's second Christmas was a great success.  Merry Christmas, Tommy!

Dining out with G-ma & G-pa

Last week, we went out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa at the Sportsman in Monticello.

 Tommy was getting super excited to eat on Lake Freeman! Love that face.

Smiley boy! He definitely enjoyed his ride over to the restaurant.

He loves menus no matter where we go.  I think he's ready to order. :)

"I believe I'll have the parmesan encrusted haddock filet with your seasoned vegetables, please. And can I get a nice pinot grigio to compliment my entree? Quickly please. Harumph."

Tommy got a little bored at dinner so Grandma took him out on the deck to look at the water.  

 Then Grandpa took a turn and they went out on the patio to listen to the Tone Bones (another band my parents follow).

It was a little loud so we decided to take the boy home but Tommy had a nice little evening with music and really good food.