Blog Love, Movie Theaters, and a Family Date

I have a confession to make. I am slightly obsessed with blogs. They inspire me in so many ways. There are a few blogs that I follow and read regularly. I want to share one of these blogs with you.

If you haven't already, you need to check out Jordan Page's blog, Fun, Cheap or Free. She is also known as the Fun Cheap or Free Queen. You may have seen her on Studio 5 or other local channels. Plus, she will be on the new season of Extreme Cheapskates on TLC this November. Not only is she a frugality expert, she is also a wife and a mother of three. Through her blog, she shares ideas and tips on how to create a fun/cheap/free lifestyle. I recently watched one of her Live Q&A sessions on You Tube, and I fell in love with her! I admire her positive, spunky, and honest attitude. Not to mention, all of her great ideas to save money!

A couple of weeks ago, Jordan blogged about an awesome movie theater secret right here in Utah. You can see the full post here. I just had to share this secret with everyone! Holladay Center Cinema 6 Theaters or Westates Theaters have recently been purchased by Water Gardens Theaters. They just had their grand opening last weekend. This theater is awesome! Water Gardens Theaters focuses on purchasing theaters that have recently gone out of business. Their main goal is to help the economy. They are creating jobs and allowing their customers to enjoy the movie-going experience without breaking the bank. Their prices are unbelievable! The tickets are $3.50 each. All day long, for everyone. Unless you are 2 or younger. And then you are FREE! However, the movies they show are not the new releases. The movies that are shown at Water Gardens have left the mainstream theaters, but have not been released on DVD. I still like them because they have a lot of family-friendly movies for my kids to enjoy. They do not show any R-rated movies either and are closed on Sundays. Now on to the best part. The food. You will not believe me when I say this, but the most expensive item is $3.00!!! You can get a large drink and a large popcorn for $6.00! Most people, myself included, have wondered how this company is even making any money on their concessions. Well, Jordan took care of that too and spoke to an employee of Water Gardens. They did market research and found that 90% of people that use mainstream theaters do not purchase concessions, but sneak in their own or go without. With their prices being as low as they are, almost 100% of their customers buy at least one item, if not more. And it all adds up. I like to support businesses that are helping our economy and have the customer's interest at heart. It is a breath of fresh air that some businesses aren't operating just to make a buck. We should all support this awesome business!

I just had to try this theater out! Rich and I took the girls to a movie there last Saturday. This was a first for our family. We have never been to a movie as a family of four. It was awesome! The girls each got to pick out a treat from the treat tables. Emma picked Swedish Fish and Haylee picked Strawberry Sour Punch Straws. We also got 2 medium drinks and a medium popcorn. With our movies tickets and our food/treats we spent a total of $24.00!! I'd say that is a dang good deal for four people to see a movie and have some junk food to enjoy it with. Not only are the prices amazing, but so is the staff. All of the employees were extremely polite and friendly. After we got settled in our seats, we discovered one of our drinks did not taste very good. I took the drink back to the counter and they felt so bad! They changed out my drink and also gave me a small bag of popcorn for free because of my troubles. We saw Smurfs 2 and it had us all laughing. It was such a cute family movie. I was a little worried about Emma losing interest, but her eyes were glued to the screen the entire time. It was so special to look over and see both of my girls watching this movie with big eyes and smiles. It was the best family date and we will be going back for sure!

P.S. I really like this blogging thing. I think I am going to keep at it and do it more frequent. I have so many ideas for future blog posts so stay tuned!

Emma Turns 2 Under the Big Top

My little Emma turned 2 on October 5th! Whew! Time is flying! I really do not want to accept the fact that my youngest babe is growing up, so I decided to mask my pain with a party. Parties always make me feel better. Except, I always go overboard, and then I am just a stressed-out mess, but it is all good in the end. I was especially excited for this party. This would be the first party at our new home in Tooele. So this party was a win-win for all because we were able to celebrate Emma's birthday and also have a little house warming party all in one. Parking and space were always big issues for my guests at our previous house, so now that we have both of those issues resolved with the new house, it is safe to say I was thrilled! This is the start of many more parties at the Prescott household.

I had so much fun preparing for this party. I blame PINTEREST for my attention to detail and for going a little overboard. The party was a Carnival theme. The food, games, treats, and decor all had to do with the Carnival. We held the first half of the party at a park behind my house. The kids were able to run around and play on the playground while we got the food ready. We ate lunch and then played carnival games. The kids had so much fun playing the games and earning tickets.













"Catch a Duck". The kids fished for a duck with a number on the bottom. That number determined how many tickets they got. This game got a little out of control because a) my "pond" was not full enough, b) the ducks kept falling over exposing their number, and c) the kids did not play by the rules very well. Lets just say that a lot of tickets were earned playing this game. A LOT.



Ticket bum.



"Cup Crash" and "Ring Toss". In "Cup Crash", the kids were given three balls and three chances to knock down all of the cups. If all of the cups were down after three tries, they would get 5 tickets. The older the kid, the farther away they had to stand from the cups. In "Ring Toss", the kids would toss rings and try to get them around water bottles. This game failed. Miserably. No one was able to get a ring around a bottle. I don't know if it had to do with the rings we were using, but this game totally bombed. The kids also went bowling on the sidewalk. That worked out a lot better. However, my cute Dad was in charge of placing the pins in place after they would get knocked down. He did not stick to the rules of bowling either. He kept giving the kids more chances to knock down all of the pins. He must have forgotten that in the game of bowling you have two chances to knock down all of the pins. Not 3. Or 6. The kids had fun though and that is all that matters. It is safe to say that each kid won 10 tickets on this game.



Emma helping herself to tickets.



The prize table. The kids cashed in their tickets for prizes after they had played all of the games. I think there were too many tickets dispersed! The kids went home with a lot of sugar. Sorry parents!



Party bags. I had a marker handy to write each kid's name on the bag as they were picking out their treats. This worked out better than having the bags pre-labeled because there were a few kids that didn't come to the party and there were a couple of kids I had not planned on. Now I have a few un-marked bags left over that I can use next time!







After some cleanup at the park, we headed back to our house to open presents. Emma got spoiled rotten! She was a little overwhelmed, but loved each and everything she was given. Thank you to everyone!











Last, but certainly not least, we ate cake. And cupcakes. Strawberry cupcakes with homemade butter cream frosting to be exact.



Emma's cake.







Happy Birthday to my angel. You bring so much light and laughter to our lives. Your family loves you!

P.S. Thank you again to all who helped make this party a success. I couldn't have done it without you! Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us! We love you!