Cafe Brazil - Holiday Menu

Yesterday, Miss A and I were invited by Hopsy to attend a lunch at Cafe Brazil to preview their holiday menu. I love all things pumpkin, so when I saw that the menu had pumpkin pancakes AND pumpkin cheesecake I could not wait to sample their new dishes.


We were all given sample size portions of their new holiday dishes - pumpkin pancakes, bananas foster french toast, creme brule french toast and s'mores latte or cocoa.


Miss A's favorite dish was the pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon butter.... and I have to say, I agree with her. They were delish.


Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Butter

Bananas Foster French Toast

S'mores Hot Cocoa

Pumpkin Cheesecake

So, if you are in the Dallas area and in the mood for some holiday type breakfast food, head on over to Cafe Brazil and try their new holiday menu!

Romper Runway

You all know I love a good deal, especially when it comes to baby clothes and baby gear. I have tried consignment sales in the past, but always get frustrated with the quality of the merchandise and end up leaving empty handed. But not this weekend. Romper Runway is having their fall sale and I can hardly wait. If you are in Dallas, you have to hit up this sale - it is wonderful.

Hands down, it is the best consignment sale I have ever been to. I always leave with a bag full of smocked outfits for practically nothing.

This year I plan on checking out the baby gear. It is crazy how much new stuff has hit the market since we were shopping for stuff for Miss A. I really want a Mama Roo, so cross your fingers that I get lucky.

If you want a sneak peak of some of the goods that will be available at the sale, like Romper Runway on Facebook. From what I could see, they had everything from Bugaboos to Crew Cuts. Not to mention the racks and racks of adorable smocked clothing. The prices on these things are insane - such crazy discounts you will want to buy everything.

Romper Runway's Fall/Winter sale - July 21, 22 and 23
3003 Carlisle
Dallas TX 75204

New Mom Pre-sale:
Thursday, 7 PM - 9PM

Public Sale:
Friday, 10 AM – 6 PM

Half-price Public Sale:
Saturday, 9 AM – 1 PM

New moms and grandmothers can shop early, plus bring a friend. I have done this before and it was awesome - you are able to get first dibs on all the stuff. Or, if you want to volunteer to work the sale you can also get early shopping privileges. Visit http://romperrunway.com/to sign up.

Also, from my own experience.... bring a tote bag or two. You will have so much stuff you will need somewhere to stash all of it while you are shopping.

Wild Weather

Mother Nature is on a roll. Last night we had some fierce weather and spent the lots of time in our closet under the stairs and trying to get weather updates TV.

Miss A thought we were having lots of fun playtime in the closet... she was a trooper throughout the entire evening.

Call me crazy, but if we are having to seek shelter from the weather, then I want the pets there with us. I was running around the house like a crazy lady searching for Steve, all the while the storm sirens are sounding. We finally found him (hiding under A's crib) and then we headed to the closet. He immediately darted to the back corner and was fine. Jake (the pup) was a nervous wreck. He did not want to come into the closet and he was not a fan of the confined quarters. So, here we all are. I was on the phone with my dad because the satellite had gone out and Mr. was trying to look up weather stuff on his phone.

At some point we were in the closet and heard the TV come back on. The satellite was working again, so we immediately tried to turn on our local ABC channel to see what the current conditions were like. Yet, we could not find out if we were about to be swept away because they were still airing Dancing With the Stars.

Yes, WFAA Ch 8, was running a season finale of a dancing competition show versus important weather information. Explain that one to me.

The chief meteorologist tweeted later on in the night, making it seem as if this was a higher up network decision.

Either way, it seems foolish and irresponsible.

Fried Fair Food

As we were walking into the fair today there were people handing out samples of shampoo and conditioner. Granted, I love me some hair products, but they should have been handing out samples of heart burn medication.

Especially when you eat an assortment of fried foods and Diet Coke for the entire afternoon.

Have not made it to the Texas State Fair this year? Or are you wondering what exactly you would eat at the fair?

Well......

Fried Frito Pie

Fried Texas Caviar

Funnel Cake

Fried Grilled Cheese

Fletcher's Corny Dog

Tornado Taters

Chicken Fried Bacon

Fried Chocolate

I think the Fried Frito Pie was my favorite. Followed closely by the Fletcher's Corny Dog. Can't go wrong with Fletcher's. The fried chocolate was basically a gooey brownie and the fried bacon did not live up to my expectations. I love bacon, but this had too much fried batter covering it.

And, let me just say.... I did not eat entire servings of all of this food. Most of these things I just had bites. Had I eaten all of this food, I would be one sick puppy.

Let's all go to the drive-in

We have some friends that own a school bus.

What? You mean you don't have friends that own a big, yellow, pimped out school bus? You are missing out.

Over the weekend we took the school bus down to a drive-in. It was only about 1 hour outside of Dallas and we saw Robin Hood. All of the movies at this particular theater are double features, but we bailed before the 2nd show.

Before the show started, there was a beautiful sunset that we were able to enjoy.

Everyone started watching the movie on top of the bus, but the sound was not too great up there so we ended up watching the movie down on the ground. Actually, I headed to a gazebo with some girlfriends and we totally missed the entire movie. Oh well.

I suggest you go make some friends that own a school bus. You won't regret it.

Arboretum with friends

This week I was able to meet up with one of my friends that was in town visiting her parents. Blue Eyed Bride and I took Hudson and Miss A on a fun picnic at the Dallas Arboretum. We picked up some sandwiches at Central Market, slathered the babies in SPF 50 and we were off.

We had such a great time! The weather was perfect - we had a blast spending time together, plus the kiddos were adorable together. On the way over, A and H were in the backseat in their car seats and Miss A kept talking to Hudson - she would look over at him and yell "hey!" At one point we were all taking some pictures together and she kept putting her hand on his shoulder.

I think we each took a zillion pictures of these 2 - trying to capture the 'just right shot' is pretty difficult when you have 2 moving targets.

I hate that she lives so far away. We always have such a fun time when we are together - we can talk about anything and everything from dealing with dogs & babies to Dancing with the Stars. At least they come to Dallas throughout the year!

**Want to see some pictures of the babies faces??? Head over to Baby M. ***

Dallas Blooms

Dallas Blooms is going on right now at the Dallas Arboretum.... I could spend all day just soaking in all of these beautiful flowers.

Unfortunately, I cannot take credit for all of these pictures. My dad took them!

***New pictures over at Baby M***

Shoes!

Why are Banana Republic mark downs not the same at every store or online? Sunday afternoon I was at one location and found a pair of shoes marked down from $130 to $27. They did not have my size (and would not call another store) so I stopped by store #2 on my way home. Success! But, this pair was only marked down $47. I told them that they were marked down even lower at a different location and asked if they could call to verify and give me the lower price. The manager told me that they generally do not do things like that, but would make an exception.

I ended up getting the shoes for around $20, since all women’s shoes were an additional 30% off. (mine are black)

Moral of story – cross your fingers that your local Banana is nice and does the good mark downs... And a Banana salesperson once told me that they get their leather from the same place Coach gets their leather. Interesting.

(For my Dallas people – West Village seems to generally have lower prices than any other location…North Park is where I ended up buying them)

The Paper Anniversary

We have the big 1 year coming up at the end of October and according to tradition, we should give each other the gift of paper. And in my opinion, paper concert tickets to MICHAEL BUBLE are just the thing. I have seen him in concert before and he is wonderful!

I am really looking forward to him singing Everything. We took dance lessons in prep for the wedding and that was our first dance song.

John Mayer concert

Seeing as it is about a million degrees here in Dallas, Mr. Mayer decided it would be best to perform wearing a minimal amount of clothing.

I think he made a wise decision.

The concert was great... he does a wonderful job live. Unfortunately, there was no Jen sighting.

Ladies that Lunch

Today, my mom and some of our best friends spent the afternoon at The Mansion on Turtle Creek. It was a late birthay lunch for me, and we all had the best time!

Best friends since birth.

My mom and me.

I LOVE the patio here.... the black rod iron and yellow is perfect!

The Many Faces of John Mayer

Does he really look like this in concert?

I will be able to report back with a complete report after the concert on Friday night.

Mambo Taxi

Too many of these things and you better be in the back of a taxi!

Tonight, we are going to Mi Cocina to celebrate my birthday! Technically it is not until Saturday, but I will take all of the birthday celebrations I can get.

Plus, Saturday we are going to be cruising to Cozumel and beyond! I could not think of a better way to spend my birthday. This will be my first cruise.... any advice or things I should know?

A Mambo Taxi: The restaurant's signature drink, Mambo Taxi, mixes frozen margarita with a sprightly dash of sangría. It's the best cool-down drink in town.

Mall + Food Court = Bad News

In my opinion, whenever a mall gets a food court bad things happen. The mall will eventually be overrun with coke heads, loitering thugs and people looking for trouble. Last year, my favorite, FAVORITE mall was expanded and they not only added a food court, but also a movie theatre. (double whammy)

And look what happened Friday night. Not good. If you can’t feel safe at J Crew, Banana or Lilly then where can you feel safe? They need to take out every restaurant and replace with quality establishments.