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Flix Brewhouse for Kids

Monte just turned 3 years old and still had not been to a movie, in a movie theater! My dad and I took him to his first movie, Ice Age 2, last Saturday at Flix Brewhouse. We all had an awesome time!

I know what you are thinking … “taking a child to a brewhouse?” Yes! Once a month Flix Brewhouse offers a special children’s movie, Saturday morning, where the kids can wear their pajamas and enjoy the theater experience. I had been wanting to check out Flix Brewhouse since they opened at Merle Hay Mall and this was the perfect opportunity.

It was amazing to see how much Merle Hay Mall has changed since the remodeling and addition of the brewhouse! The entrance/dining area was very nice and the staff were super nice and helpful also!

The awesome thing about Flix Brewhouse is not only the fact they brew beer and you can drink it DURING the movie, but they offer awesome food that you can eat DURING the movie! You have a server through out the whole movie! They offered a special brunch menu that included a breakfast burrito, pancakes (children portions), warm croissants, egg omlettes, and more!

They also offer coffee and mimosas 🙂 And of course their specialty brews. My dad and I tried the Luna Rosa Wit which is similar to a Blue Moon. Very good!

Tickets for the special monthly, children’s movie is $5 per ticket plus whatever food and drink you purchase. The food and drink is reasonably priced for a theater. When you purchase tickets online it is recommended to come 25-30 minutes before the movie start time. I would highly recommend doing this! One, they will not let you into the theater once the movie has begun. Two, it’s easier to order all your food and drinks before the movie begins, because it takes some time to get it and the lights are on. You can continue to order through out the movie also.

If you have a little one who has not been to a movie at a movie theater, I highly recommend crossing this item off your list at the Flix Brewhouse. We had so much fun!

 

Birthday Festivities

Friday was my 26th birthday! Of course, it was not just a day celebration … it lasted all weekend long! Here are some photos highlighting my birthday festivities! Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate!

When I got to work, the clinic was all decorated with a “Happy Birthday” banner and confetti everywhere. All my co-workers signed this colorful poster for me!

They got Scratch cupcakes for me! Have you every hear of Scratch Cupcakes?! They have awesome, unique cupcakes. You HAVE to try them sometime! They are to die for!!

I had a Harvest cupcake. It was very fallish!

Saturday morning I went over to my dad’s house to watch the Nebraska game! I enjoyed some yummy bloody mary’s and a great win by the Huskers! Go Big Red!!

Elvis’s birthday was Sunday, so we celebrated his birthday also! He enjoyed watching the Nebraska game also, all dressed up in his jersey.

Afterwards, friends and family came over for a cook out and fire pit. It ended up being an okay day after all the storms we had, but it was a bit chilly.

Monte also enjoyed all the festivities! Elvis and all the guests kept him busy!

Elvis and I BOTH had a cake! His was specially ordered and made just for dogs. Travis surprised me by making my cake. It was a pumpkin cake with homemade chocolate and candy corn on top. It was delish.

Of course, there were lots of drinks! Including HOT apple cider with chopped apples from Wills Family Orchard and assorted pumpkin beers and ciders.

Last, but not definitely NOT least, we opened presents! My gift from Elvis was wrapped in paper with pictures of him all over it! I was surprised when it was handed to me. My dad did an awesome job thinking of that idea!

Underneath that cute wrapping paper was a Hurom Juicer! I am so excited to start using this!! Everyone keep their eyes open for some yummy juicing concoctions!

It was a great birthday weekend and I enjoyed every minute of it 🙂

Question of the day!

What is your favorite things to juice together?

DSM Activities & Events 10/3 – 10/9

 

Don’t forget to check out the events calendar on the right hand side of my page! Lots of fun things going on in the Des Moines area!

1. Mixology Night 

When: Friday 5:30 – 9 pm

Where and What: Perfect date night activity! Located at the Science Center of Iowa. Come for drinks, live entertainment (The Parlours), and adult-themed presentations. Admission is $5 and FREE to Science Center members.

2. Slaughter House

When: Friday and Saturday

Where and What: This haunted house is located in Pleasant Hill. Definitely not recommended for the kiddos, but if you are a fan of terrors and haunted house, this is a definite must this Halloween season! Check out their website for times and also a $2 off coupon.

3. Soap Box Derby Association Haunted House

When: Friday and Saturday 7 – 10 pm

Where and What: This is the 29th year for the spooky haunted house! Located at Linn’s Supermarket, the tour takes approximately 20-25 minutes. The admission is $12 which also includes a free line of bowling at Plaza Lanes AND a coupon for Trophy’s. There are $4 off coupons available at Plaza Lanes and other Halloween shops around the metro area.

4. New Moms Event by Des Moines Moms Blog

When: Saturday 10 – 12 pm

Where and What: Located at the Valley Community Center in West Des Moines. There will be food, drinks, giveaways and a great chance to meet other new moms. There will also be swag bags valued at over $300! Oh yeah, and FREE massages! Do NOT miss this! $15 and reservations are required. Click here to purchase tickets. Also, check out the Des Moines Moms Blog. It is a great blog to follow!

5. DSM Sushi Roll

When: Saturday at 11:45 am

Where and What: Do you LOVE sushi? This is the perfect event for you! Make it into a date activity also. A party bus will pick you up at Appare Steakhouse and drop you off at about 4 pm at Appare Steakhouse. You will travel around the Des Moines area, traveling to different sushi restaurants including: Sakura Sushi, Wasabi Tao, Wasabi Chi, and Waterfront. $45.00 per ticket and reservations are required. Check out here for reservation information and schedule.

6. Corn Harvest: Living History Farms

When: Saturday 10 am – 3 pm

Where and What: Discover how hard it is to harvest 80 bushels of corn a day! There will be horse drawn wagon rides and demonstrations on how corn is harvest! You can also see what tools are used in person. Check out here for more information!

7. DSM Zombie Walk 

When: Saturday at 1 pm

Where and What: Event will start at 1 pm downtown in the East Village at Zombie Burger! This is something you will NOT want to miss. Starting 1 pm go get your make up done, check out the vendors, and eat some crazy burgers and drinks. There will also be a costume contest beginning at 3 pm with CASH prizes. At 4:30 pm the Zombie Walk will begin through downtown Des Moines ending at Zombie Burger. For adults, enjoy the Zombie Pub Crawl which starts at 6:00 pm. Bars that will be included are El Bait Shop and High Life Lounge. This is truly an event for the whole family! For more information check out their website.

8. Cat-N-Around Cat Club 

When: Saturday and Sunday 9 am – 4pm

Where and What: This event is for all you cat lovers! It will be held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. There will be over 200 cats and 30 different breeds being judged. There will also be lots of different vendors for food, treats, beds, toys, and other fun cat products. Admission is $10 for a family, Adulst $5, and Children $4. Children 4 and under are FREE!

9. Apple Pumpkin Fest

When: Saturday 9 am – 6 pm & Sunday 1 pm – 6 pm

Where and What: Come out to Wills Family Orchard! Lots of events, activities, and entertainment! Pick pumpkins, pick apples, go on a hay rack ride, meet some farm animals, paint gourds, and much, much more! Check out our visit from last weekend, we had so much fun!

Check out their website here for more information!

10. Star Wars Reads Day

When: Saturday at 1 – 3 pm

Where and What: For ages 3 – 1o come to the Franklin Library to celebrate Star Wars Reads Day. Dress like your favorite character, participate in games and trivia. There will also be special appearances from the galaxy far, far away! All of this is FREE! You do NOT want to miss it!

11. Oktoberfest

When: Saturday 2 – 6 pm

Where and What: Located in Windsor Heights at Colby Park. Lots of fun things to do including: inflatables, live music from a Polka band, costume contest, pumpkin carving contest, balloon animals, food & drinks, and more! Check out here for time of certain events and contests.

12. Craftoberfest 

When: Saturday 6 pm – 12 am

Where and What: Located at Keg Stand this is the first year of Craftoberfest! There will be 20 seasonal beers available with live entertainment. Advance tickets are $6 and include a commemorative mug and first beer of choice. You can also purchase tickets at the door for $10. Check out here to purchase tickets before!

13. Pumpkin Train 

When: October 5 & 12 at 10 am and October 8 & 9 at 6 pm

Where and What: Located at the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad and Museum in Boone. Seating is limited so make sure to make your reservations ASAP! Ride the train, across the Bass Point Creek High Bridge, to the pumpkin patch and have your kiddos pick out their own pumpkin for FREE. $15 for all ages 2 and up. Check out their website for reservations.

14. Nature Friends: Bats

When: Monday 6:30 – 7:30 pm

Where and What: Located at Quail Cove Park in West Des Moines, all preschoolers with an adult are welcome! Guided exploration, art activities, and snack provided. Reservations are required at it is $7 per child with adult. Check out here for reservation information.

World Beer Tour

Wednesday the new Mini Beer Tour started at Old Chicago! My Dad, Travis and I have made it kind of a tradition to do all the Mini Beer Tours. We have consistently gone for every tour, for a few years now. My goal is to just get the t-shirt. I WILL admit, I don’t always drink all the beers on the tour, because some of them are just plain nasty!

This tours t-shirt looks like this!

The mini tour going on now is Oktoberfest! Each location may have a different list of beers, but there is 8 beers for every location! The list of beers for the Merle Hay Old Chicago include:

  • Summit Oktoberfest
  • Ayinger Oktoberfest
  • Paulaner Salvator
  • Warsteiner Dunkel
  • Hofbrau Hefe-Weizen
  • Sam Adams Oktoberfest
  • Point Oktoberfest
  • Millstream Oktoberfest

 

Last night I ordered the sampler which included:

  • Warsteiner Premium Dunkel
  • Sam Adams Oktoberfest
  • Millstream Oktoberfest
  • Summit Oktoberfest

I liked them all and drank all of them! The sampler is an easy way to knock out 4 of the 8 beers on the tour. They give you the sample in a 4 oz glass, so it’s like you are only drinking 2 beers instead of 4 whole ones. The next time we go in though, we will HAVE to drink all 4 FULL beers to finish!

I ALSO completed my SECOND WORLD BEER TOUR! I didn’t take a picture of it, but I received a long sleeved Old Chicago t-shirt. Perfect for the cooler months around the corner.

Old Chicago is also a great place to try new and different beers. Travis ordered a new and definitely different beer, Ghost Face Killah.

Oh man was this HOT!! My mouth was on FIRE! I have had beers that were considered “hot” or had a pepper on the bottom, but this was intense. This beer is brewed in Boulder, Colorado. My dad (a fan of hot things) decided he was going to purchase more from Beer Crazy.

The Oktoberfest Mini Beer Tour is going on until September 29th. So, if you are looking for something to do this weekend to kick off fall, go to Old Chicago and enjoy some brews!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Unique Beer, Cooking & Baking

The Iowa State Fair has begun! If you don’t live in the area, you may not be familiar with the Iowa State Fair, but it is the Mother of all fairs. It’s almost like a holiday! We are going on Saturday with Monte and then going another day without Monte to enjoy adult activities. I will make sure to post ALL about it!

This week has been a pretty laid back week. Nothing too much going on and Travis was home basically every night (which is unusual). He usually works until about 9ish or later 3-4 times a week.

It’s been so nice out and in the evening has been getting to about mid 60’s. It makes me REALLY want fall here! If you do not know, I LOVE fall! I love everything about it, not just because my birthday happens to land in October BUT I love the smell, atmosphere, and college football (Nebraska, of course!). Anyways, I was craving a pumpkin beer. So I called two different local beer stores to ask if they had any type of pumpkin or fall seasonal beer available. Beer Crazy had a Pumpkin Ale! So, we took a family outing to get some beer 🙂

Beer Crazy is a pretty neat local store. They sell all sorts of beers by the bottle. They also sell supplies to brew your own beer at home, which my father and Travis have done a few times. If you live near by, you should check them out!

Not only did we pick up Rogue Pumpkin Ale but we also found a Rogue Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ale! Boy, was that different! I enjoyed the Pumpkin Ale, but the Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ale was a little dark for my tasting.

 

Wednesday afternoon was so nice, not extremely hot and I needed to get some exercise in (I have been slacking the past few weeks). I decided to take Monte with me and go rollerblading. We have a bike trailer that turns into a jogging stroller. I have taken Monte a few times and he really enjoys it. It’s great for me to get out and burn some calories and he gets some fresh air.

I ended up burning 294 calories in 32 minutes! Wow! I took a picture of it with my Polar watch (which I LOVE) but it came out blurry. If you do not have a Polar watch you NEED to get one!

Afterwards, I developed a bunch of energy that I needed to burn (because I didn’t burn enough energy rollerblading??), so I started cooking and baking!

I made two new recipes which turned out delish!!

The first was Sweet Potato Salad from Momables which you can find here.

It’s a “kid” recipe, but I made it for all of us. Monte is a huge fan of sweet potatoes and loved this! I paired it with black beans and we put it into tortillas and ate “Sweet Potato Burritos”. I also omitted the mayo because I did not have any and also to make it a bit healthier. If needed you can add some more Greek yogurt to make it more creamy.

I also made Vegan Chocolate Cranberry Zucchini Bread (wow! what a title!). The recipe can be found here.

It was sooo good and tasted just like chocolate cake. After I made it, I noticed you could sub applesauce instead of the oil which would make it even healthier! I always forget applesauce can be subbed for things!

Overall, it’s been a good week! Looking forward to the weekend and making an appearance at Iowa State Fair!

Are you going to the Iowa State Fair? What things do you look forward to doing while there?