Archive for the Category »Reviews «

Organ Stop Pizza

12 Jul 2010 by Kristen

We were invited to go out to Organ Stop Pizza to visit with Mike’s step sister who was visiting from out of state. Organ Stop is a great restaurant for the young and old. The organist plays music that is classic and modern throughout the night. His range goes from “Somewhere My Love” to “Star Wars” to “Alley Cat”.

We have been to Organ Stop several times and Caden loves to go. He dances and loves pizza! The music tends to be loud so anytime we bring a baby to Organ Stop, their reaction usually goes one of 2 ways: screaming or fascination. I was so happy that Connor was in the fascination category. He loved watching the lights and listening to the music.

The food is only mediocre. Don’t expect great pizza! Also, leave your credit card and debit card at home. They’re still old school…cash and check only! But, we still love to go….so if you’re planning a night out with the kids, this is a great spot.

Category: Family, Restaurants, Reviews  Comments

Date Night!

11 Jul 2010 by Kristen

Mike and I had our first date night in a really long time.  My mother-in-law took the kids overnight.  We decided that we would go see Grownups and go out to dinner.

The cast of Grownups was almost all former Saturday Night Live castmembers (Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider) from the years that I actually watched SNL and enjoyed it.   The story was about 5 friends who are reunited and spend 4th of July weekend together.  While there wasn’t a lot of “story”, it was filled with one-liners that were pretty funny.  Mike and I agreed that this was the first movie that  we’ve seen that was really no stress involved and was just fun.  We would definitely recommend this movie, especially for those that enjoyed the 90s SNL.

We then went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. We had the worst service ever. We spent over 1 1/2 hours there and only got dinner. No appetizer (we ordered one, but it never came and was never mentioned). No Dessert. My Chicken Marsala was really good. Mike’s Chicken Parmesan was just ok. Too bad the service was so bad. I would have liked to go back for that Chicken Marsala again.

Not sure when our next date night will be, but we sure appreciated a night out. And I appreciated the opportunity to sleep all night long (I still woke up at the times that Connor usually wakes up).

Category: Mike and Kristen, Movies, Reviews  Comments

Shrek The Final Chapter

05 Jul 2010 by Kristen

Warning: Minor Spoilers Ahead

My mom treated us to a day at the movies while Mike was at a Diamondbacks game. We decided on Shrek The Final Chapter, the 4th installment in the Shrek series.

Caden had not shown interest in seeing the first 3 Shrek movies so when I asked him if he knew who the Shrek character was, I was surprised that he actually knew. He also was pretty excited about seeing the movie. This would also be Connor’s 1st trip to the movie theater, but I’m not sure if this counts since he had no idea where he was. I was a little nervous about being “that person” who brings their infant to the movie theater and makes everyone else’s experience miserable. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Connor watched almost the whole movie and only started fussing when it was time for a new bottle (which I was prepared for!).

The story of this movie was pretty much just like “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Shrek is a husband and father of 3 and is frustrated with the current status of his life. He makes a deal with Rumpilstilskin to change his life back to when people feared ogres. Of course he realizes this is not what he really wanted deep down.

It was a lot darker than previous Shrek movies and at parts could be a little scary for little kids who are sensitive. It also didn’t have the comedy of the 1st movie, but did have a few chuckles. I was thrilled that all of the actors stayed with their characters so no one’s voice changed.

Overall, it kept my attention (and Connor’s) for the whole movie. Caden got a little antsy at the slower parts, but what 4 year old doesn’t?? I would definitely recommend seeing this movie with your family, especially if you have been following the series.

Category: General, Movies, Reviews  Comments

Trivial Pursuit: Bet You Know It

25 Jun 2010 by Mike

A couple of weekends ago we got together with some friends for game night. Kristen is part of a program that sends us free products to try out, one of them being Trivial Pursuit: Bet You Know It. Typically we play in groups for these types of games, but after reading the directions it was decided that it would probably be more fun to play as individuals.

The game rules are similar to regular Trivial Pursuit, however with some minor changes. Lets start off with the game board:

Game Board

The game board differs from the traditional game in that, there are no spokes or center hub, just a circle. Instead of starting at the center hub each player starts on the color of their pie. Every space is also a wedge space with the exception of some “Buy or Roll” spaces which will be explained later. There are also two sets of circles, each set of circles contains one circle for each color pie (or one for each player/team).

Questions

There are still six categories (geography, entertainment, history, science, literature, sports). The catch for this game is that each card also has kind of a topic or super category. For example the topic might be Star Wars in which the geography question might be “In what country did the filming of the planet Tatooine take place?” Answer:”Tunisa”. At any time 4 of these cards are in play. When it is your turn, you choose your card from the 4 in play and then you get the question from the category that is indicated by the space you are on.

Chips

Each player is given 15 chips at the beginning of the game. The chips look like poker chips. These chips can be used for a couple different things. First if you land on a buy or roll space, you can buy a wedge for 15 chips. This allows for an easier way to get that tough category out of the way. Chips can also be used to make the final question to win the game easier. It cost 15 to choose the category and 15 to choose the card it comes of off. Given that each card has a theme, this allows you to narrow your question considerably.

To earn chips you can choose to collect 5 chips from answering a question in lieu of a wedge. You may also earn chips by betting.

Betting

Each time a player is to answer a question, all of the other players must bet on whether the player will get the question right or wrong. You can bet from 1 to 10 chips. Once you have decided you place your chips on your color circle in the middle of the game board on either the wrong side or the right side. If the player answers the question right, all of those who bet that he or she would get it right receives their chips back plus an equal amount from the “bank”. The person who answered the question right gets the chips of all those who bet against him or her. If the player gets the question wrong, all chips that were bet on getting it right are forfeited to the bank and those who bet on the player getting the question wrong get double their chips back.

Strategy can come into play in the fact that you could throw a question in order to cause people to lose chips. This addition really adds a lot of fun to the game.

Winning the Game

Once you have all of your wedges, the other players decide which card and category for your final question. You may buy the right to choose either of these for 15 chips, or 30 to choose both. Once you answer the final question correctly, you win!

Thoughts

Overall I really enjoyed the game. Trivial Pursuit is a great game to play if you are super smart and playing with a lot of super smart people, otherwise the game can drag on as some of the questions are tough. With Bet You Know It, the betting allows all players to be a part of every turn and adds a new dimension to the game. The ability to choose the topic of your question and buy wedges helps to speed up the game and make it accessible to everyone. I would definitly recommed this for family game night if you have older children, or for a party with your adult friends.

Category: Reviews  Comments