Weekend Fun Recap: August 22–24

Book Club

My book club gathered on Friday night to discuss The Rosie Project. You can read my thoughts on it here, and the rest of the group enjoyed it as well. (Though one character was universally hated.)

During our last meeting, our host really upped the game with themed snacks and activities. This really was fun, so since one key scene in the book involves our protagonists making cocktails, I picked up a pack of Mingle mocktails to try. (I don’t have the bartending skills to make actual cocktails.) We really enjoyed getting to sample a variety of flavors—Cranberry Cosmo and Key Lime Margarita were the crowd favorites. (I was also quite pleased with the rose napkins I snagged in the checkout aisle at TJ Maxx.)

Room Refresh

Speaking of TJ Maxx, the girls and I stopped by after school on Friday in search of a few items to update their shared room. We found exactly what I was hoping for! (Of course, since I told them we “probably aren’t going to buy anything,” we left with two carts full!) Saturday morning was spent pushing furniture around—stay tuned for the big reveal! The process wasn’t the most fun, but we were all happy with the result!

Milkshakes

I needed a “carrot” to keep the girls motivated with the room project. That carrot came in the form of milkshakes! We planned to meet up with my older daughter’s bestie and her mom for the grand opening of a new milkshake spot near us if everyone could work hard and be kind. I definitely saw a big improvement in willingness to sort baskets of American Girl paraphernalia once I announced this reward!

We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes for our shakes, but we enjoyed the time together. I was proud of how well the girls did—all that practice at Disney is paying off! And the milkshakes were delicious.

Family Game Night

After afternoon milkshakes, I wasn’t hungry, but I powered through making our standard pizza for family game night. It was my husband’s week to pick, and he went with Pandemic. This is a cooperative-style game that we’ve played with our girls before. This time, one kid wasn’t very happy about having her turn monopolized by other players wanting to take advantage of her character’s special skills. My husband and I are both competitive, and she might have had more fun if we’d done a better job explaining how she was contributing to the end goal. But don’t worry, we did eventually cure the diseases and save the world.

Chili’s

Our friends we got milkshakes with mentioned that they had gone to Chili’s for lunch. Back in our before-children days, Chili’s was in the date night rotation. In fact, I remember at least once going to Chili’s and seeing a movie for date night. This was, of course, both before we had to be back before the babysitter turned into a pumpkin and before you could get the equivalent of Chili’s food at the theater itself. But we hadn’t been to a Chili’s in years—until our July Disney trip.

Because we stay overnight at the halfway point on our drive down to Disney, we always need to grab some dinner. On our 2024 trip, we went to Outback, and it was, frankly, terrible. So this year, I suggested we find a Chili’s. And it was delicious. I used to be a big fan of their molten lava cake. But let me tell you about their new peanut butter pie. It was the best thing I ate that entire Disney trip.

So of course, when our friends mentioned Chili’s, the girls and I couldn’t stop thinking about how much we enjoyed out last visit. So we used our best powers of persuasion to convince Dad we needed a family dinner at Chili’s. It was another easy way to bring the fun of vacation home. The toddler climbed all over me the whole time, and the girls both had stomachaches by the end. But the peanut butter pie was worth it.  

Reading Recap

The library made me do it. The Brothers Hawthorne, the fourth installment in The Inheritance Games drama, seems poorly named given the focus is almost exclusively on Jameson and Grayson. (The people (me) want more Xander, but I guess he’s too happy to be interesting.) Just when you think the family tree couldn’t get any more complicated, guess what? It does. This one was just as fun and ridiculous as the others.

Little Golden Book

In honor of all the American Girl doll organization we did and the toddler’s first full week of school, I’ve picked American Girl Time for School as this week’s Little Golden Book. Everyone had fun at school this week, and I had fun getting some alone time! Also, both the author and the illustrator share my name, so I’m definitely calling it a match for this week!

How was your weekend? What’s your favorite chain restaurant? Have you tried the peanut butter pie at Chili’s? Let me know in the comments—I love hearing from you!

*This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links, I receive a small commission, which I greatly appreciate!