TGIF!!

WOW! I had a fun time last night!! It was almost as much fun as planning it. I've had a bunch of people ask what we did, so I thought I'd blog about it sooner rather than later.

I asked a lot of people for advice on what to do for my birthday date and got a lot of great ideas. My SIL's suggestion was to do something that we've always wanted to do in AZ before we move away. We had scavenger hunt suggestions, restaurant progressive dinner suggestions, birthday club suggestions...

So we combined a little here and a little there. We weren't able to do everything I had planned, but here's what we DID do:

First of all, my cousin and her family offered to have all three girls stay at their home OVERNIGHT! I still can't believe I let my 6 month old sleep somewhere else overnight, but I'm SO glad we didn't have to take her with us. It was wonderful to be fully child free. But get this. My cousin has 6 kids. She invited over 2 other nieces to spend the evening and help take care of the girls. So 8 kids. Plus my 3...so 11. PLUS, she had another niece that she's been taking care of for most of the week...another infant. So she had 2 infants, 1 two-year-old, 2 three-year-olds, and then seven other kids between the ages of 5 and basically 13. CRAZY. And she did it with grace and a smile.

That's why we gave them this as a thank you (for three years of watching our girls and being SO gracious):

My friend's husband is a professional photographer (his site here) and took this GORGEOUS picture of the Mesa Temple. I love it. Then, I bought the materials and my uncle (this same cousin's dad) and I built the frame. Really, he built it and I told him what I wanted. It turned out beautifully. We're making 3 more next week because Braden really wants one too. We're trying to get one of the Mt Timp temple where we were married, but we'll have to see if we can get one we love.

Anyway, so we left our kids there and went with my BFF Jill and husband John on our double date. I am going to dedicate an entire post to Jill and John because I adore them so much, but suffice it to say there is no one else I could have gone on this adventure with. You guys rock!

I had spent a few days signing up for every birthday club imagineable (hence the strange emails some of you got from me...sorry! A hacker got into my account...probably from one of those birthday club sign-ups!).

So first, we went to TGI Fridays for a free appetizer. We got it to go and put our names in for a table at Red Robin, then went to the truck and sat in the back and ate our appetizer while we waited for our table to be ready. Then we got a free burger at RR and John and Jill got $3 off their meal. I love RR's freckled lemonade, so I had about 5 of those. After that, we went to Baskin Robbin's for a free ice cream cone. I got Daquiri Ice (thankfully dairy free) which has been my favorite ice cream since I was little. I still love it! I hadn't had it in YEARS. Then we went to Dairy Queen for a buy one, get one free Blizzard (for John and Jill). Then we went to Cold Stone for a free like-it creation for Braden. And finally, we went to the drive-in movie and saw "When in Rome."

That was my favorite part. We put a blowup mattress in the back of John's truck...which doesn't have a big back. So here we are, four adults crammed on an air mattress that is CRAMMED into the back of this truck. As Jill said, we were all spooning with each other. Thankfully, we put me and Jill in the middle so it wasn't awkward. Like I said, there isn't another person I could have done that with! The movie was cute and it was great to go to the drive-in. We had wanted to go for the last 3 1/2 years but always thought it was further than it really is. I couldn't believe that it was just over Tempe Lake!

The movie got out at 11:30 or so and we had a sleepy drive home. We hit the sack and Braden still got up at 6 to play ball. I got to sleep in a little longer before we went to pick up our kids. They had a great time, though VERY little sleep. So we had a monster of a day with these two (mainly one) excessively grumpy kids. But they are all asleep now, so life is good.

Now for the rest of the list. If you are having a birthday come up or are looking for something to do for FREE, here's some places to check out:

Baskin Robbin's-birthday club for free scoop of ice cream (cup or cone), no purchase necessary

Cold Stone-birthday club for free like-it creation, no purchase necessary

Dairy Queen, birthday club for BOGO Blizzard, no purchase necessary, and eClub for BOGO Blizzard, no purchase necessary

TGI Fridays-Give Me More Stripes for Line Jump Pass and Free Appetizer or Dessert, no purchase necessary

Red Robin-birthday club for free burger, no purchase necessary, and eClub for $3 off purchase

Fuddruckers-birthday club for free burger, no purchase necesasry, and eClub for burger, fries, and drink for $7 flat

Black Angus-birthday club for free steak dinner with purchase of entree, on actual birthday with ID

Krispy Kreme-go in ON BIRTHDAY for free dozen glazed donuts, with ID (call your store to make sure they do this...Superstition Springs DOES)

Stratum Laser Tag-eClub for free game (probably 15 minutes)

Dave & Busters-eClub for $10 free game play

Scottsdale 6 Drive-in-eClub for $1 nachos with admission purchase

Joe's Farm Grill-$10 toward purchase ON BIRTHDAY with ID

Joe's Real BBQ-$10 toward purchase ON BIRTHDAY with ID

I really wanted to do laser tag and Dave & Buster's but we ran out of time. In the end, we had a great time anyway. On Monday (my real birthday) we're going to Joe's Farm Grill and Real BBQ for a free dinner...and then we'll get some Krispy Kremes on the way home. Yeah, they have HFCS in them, but no HYDROG! So we're going!! I do love Krispy Kremes...

So there you have it, a whole list of free things to do. I wanted to show how much money we saved, but since we didn't go as many places as I planned and since we didn't only get the free stuff, it wouldn't be that impressive. But it was still so fun and I am so grateful for J&J, especially for their friendship. What will we do without you!?!?!

Thanks for everyone's ideas! I'll post a couple pics soon...(hey Jill, could you email me those pics...?)