Rural Mama's Sandbox: Family Favorite

Showing posts with label Family Favorite. Show all posts

A couple months ago I did a review of a new restaurant in Indianapolis called First Watch. The food was very good and we had a great time. You can read my review HERE. Well, GREAT news for all you First Watch fans, they opened a SECOND First Watch Restaurant in Indianapolis! I have to admit that I am a bit jealous, I wish they would open one down here in Southern Indiana as well, maybe in the Evansville area, hint hint!

Check out the Press Release for the new restaurant:

FIRST WATCH OPENS SECOND RESTAURANT IN INDIANAPOLIS

“Daytime Café” continues expansion in Indiana

Indianapolis – Award-winning Breakfast, Brunch and Lunch restaurant First Watch expanded its presence in Indianapolis this week with the opening of a new restaurant downtown by the Market Tower building. The 4,000 sq. ft. restaurant, located at 143 N. Illinois St. between Ohio and Market streets, is now the second First Watch in the Indianapolis market.

First Watch debuted in Indianapolis earlier this year with the opening of its first restaurant across from the Fashion Mall at the Keystone Crossing Shoppes. The company expects to open a total of five to six restaurants in the market over the next two to four years. Each restaurant employs about 25 local employees.

“Downtown Indianapolis is a vibrant, thriving area, and we believe our new restaurant at Market Tower will provide a fresh, new option for early morning power breakfasts, midday lunches and weekend occasions,” says Chris Tomasso, chief marketing officer for First Watch. “Our restaurant at Keystone has been so well received in such a short amount of time, and we expect an even greater response to our unique Breakfast, Brunch and Lunch creations Downtown.”

The restaurant features a new interior design concept called “Urban.” Highlighting stained concrete floors throughout, with deep, rich colors and a layout that maximizes natural light provided during the restaurant’s daytime hours, Urban is meant to convey the welcoming personality of the First Watch brand. The design also accentuates the restaurant’s open-kitchen, which reinforces First Watch’s honest approach to fresh food preparation.

First Watch is known for delivering an excellent dining experience and fast, friendly service. A recipient of more than 200 “Best Of” accolades in markets across the country, the restaurant features traditional favorites including pancakes, omelets, salads and sandwiches, as well as signature specialties such as the Chickichanga®, Healthy Turkey Omelet™ and Fresh Fruit Crepes. All menu items are freshly prepared to order and the restaurant does not use deep fryers or heat lamps.

In addition to serving unique and fresh entrées, First Watch offers its exclusive

Sunrise Select® Premium Blend Coffee. The special blend is made from slow-roasted, hand-selected, high-grown Panamanian, Colombian and Mexican coffee beans.

First Watch serves its entire menu seven days a week from 7 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The restaurant also offers guests complimentary newspapers and free Wi-Fi Internet access.

About First Watch
First Watch has specialized in award-winning, made-to-order Breakfast, Brunch and Lunch for nearly 30 years. A recipient of more than 200 “Best Breakfast” and “Best Brunch” accolades, First Watch offers traditional favorites such as omelets, pancakes, sandwiches and salads, to unique specialty items like the fan-favorite Chickichanga® and Fresh Fruit Crepes. It is currently the largest and fastest-growing daytime-only restaurant concept in the U.S. with nearly 100 restaurants in 14 states and additional units under development as part of the Bradenton, Fla.-based company’s aggressive growth strategy. For more information, visit www.firstwatch.com.

So, to celebrate the NEW First Watch Restaurant I am giving away 4 First Watch Vouchers for FREE Kid's Meals. To enter to win, fill out the information instructed on the Rafflecopter Form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please note that the vouchers are can be used at ANY First Watch Location!

Have a blessed day!

My girls are attracted to animals like magnets! There is something about fur and feathers that sends their kiddie radar threw the roof. Little Sister always feels the need to try to chase my birds when she is out and Big Sister "needs" to grab a hold of and carry around any barn cat she can catch. Their father and I both have a love for animals as well and encourage their interested in them (minus the chasing).

Last weekend Goodies in Princeton, Indiana, a small town near by, invited a Traveling Petting Zoo to visit the public. We were able to stop by both Saturday night and Sunday after church to visit with the animals. The first animal we saw when we walked up as a beautiful Camel named Adar. He was a gentle giant. Big Sister and I were able to take a ride on the poky old guy Sunday! Saturday the first thing we did was get our pictures taken with a Lion Cub! I could not believe now much Little Sister's face lit up when the worker brought the cub over to sit in Big Sister's lap! They were both VERY excited! We continued on after our picture was taken with the cub, we looked at the White Tiger, Black Leopard, Ponies & Mule, Monkeys, Lemurs, Kangaroo, Siberian Tiger, Llamas, Miniature Cow, and Goats. Oh the GOATS! They had several pigmy goats that my girls just adored. They had grain available to feed the goats, so of course we HAD to feed to goats. The girls were just mesmerized by the little goats, I would almost bet that we spent 85% of our visit in front of those goats! I guess this means that we will be looking for pet pigmy goats in the near future, hehe.

We all had a great time and it was a fun little family outing. In the back of my mind I was using this as a "test run' to see if the girls were ready to go to the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville. From our experience last weekend, I would say that they are definitely ready and I can't wait to take them!

Here are a couple scrapbook page that I put together of our visit to the Traveling Petting Zoo using My Memories Suite v3, enjoy!

Have a wonderful weekend dear followers!

All of my birds are fully feathered now, and I decided I would highlight one every once and a while to teach my readers a little bit about the birds that I own and my experience with raising them.

The Embden Geese are by far my favorite bird that we bought this year, so I chose to highlight them first! I had gotten a new camera for Mother's Day, so I was able to document their growth pretty regularly with photos. In order to keep this post from getting too long, I've selected just a few for your viewing pleasure!


5/1 - Embden Goslings the day we brought them home!


5/2 - I had them outside in a pen enjoying the grass and nice weather.

5/3 - Into the water they go!

5/18 - Growing like a weed.

5/22 - Geese are natural grazers and boy do mine LOVE their grass!

6/5 - Feathers covering about 50% of their body


7/12 - Fully feathered!

Since the day we brought them home, I have been feeding all of my waterfowl Purina Flock Raiser. The geese and ducks also have access to pasture grass. Here and there I try feeding different veggies, they all seemed to enjoy head lettuce that I let them sample from the garden. On days where they aren't allowed to graze on grass, they require more grain, but when I let them out to graze they eat considerable less grain at night. When the geese were small I would keep grain in front of them 24/7, however, as they got larger I changed to twice a day, and now their main diet is pasture with grain only at night. The main reason why I chose to feed grain at night, was to entice them to stay close to home and go back into their pen at night. This method worked really well and at times they are waiting at the pen before I even get out to feed!

I personally LOVE the sound of all my birds, but I thoroughly enjoy my honking geese! When young, the geese made a cheeping noise, but now they are full on honkers. They are very smart and know me by sight as well as by my voice. I think they even know what I sound like when I come out of the house because they will start honking even before I open the porch door. For the most part they are only vocal when they see me with food, someone approaches them, or a car pulls in the drive, otherwise they are quiet around the farm.

Most people think geese are mean tempered birds that will hiss and chase people. My Embden geese are complete opposite, unless you are a cat, they don't seem to like the barn cats too much. They are very curious and friendly birds, mine will nibble on my clothing while I fill their water buckets and I can stroke their necks and backs while they drink. They will also follow me around if I call and scatter back down to the barn if I scold them. I would have to say that the Embden geese by far have the most personality of the flock.

These geese love to jump in the water for a swim. I keep several containers of water around so that they have access to swimming water. They don't seem to want to stay in all day, they just like to jump in for a quick cool down and then back to grazing they go. They are also much less messy with their water than the ducks.

The Embden Geese seem to really hardy when it comes to hot weather as well. We have had temperatures 110*F+ and they seem to have no problems with it at all. They do pant and require more water, but are very good at finding shade and just lay around until temperature drop in the evenings. Since we just got them in May, I don't have any personal experience with them in cold conditions, but I imagine they will do just fine as well.

I hope you enjoyed my introduction to Embden Geese! These are great farm and family birds and I would encourage anyone interested in getting a goose, to choose an Embden!

Have a GREAT Day dear followers!

Last weekend we were in Indianapolis for a family member's wedding. My girls were the flower girls for the wedding. We arrived in town on Friday evening, in time for the rehearsal. I had reserved a hotel room with two beds, but somehow we ended up with a King Suite. Can't saw that I was too upset, the whirlpool tub was a big hit. We had to skip out on the rehearsal dinner, the girls were hot and agitated, so we went back to the hotel and the girls played in the tub!

The next morning we went to brunch at a new restaurant in town, called First Watch located off East 86th Street in Keystone. It was located in a cute little strip mall area. The parking lot was busy but I found it super cool that they had chargers for electric cars. I'm going to sound REAL country, but that was the FIRST time I had ever seen electric car charger "parking spots" in a parking lot!

First Impression: Very cute, modern, and busy. We arrived around 12:30 PM, our party included four adults, two toddlers, and an infant in a carrier. The entrance is a little small there were several parties trying to check out while we entered and waited to be seated and the entrance/exit was a little crowded.

Our Experience: The staff was very nice and they immediately worked to find a table that would accommodate our group. We were seated at an extra long and very roomy booth. On one side of the booth we were able to sit two adults and both of my toddlers, in booster seats.

French Toast

We were given menus as well as coloring pages/menu and crayons for the girls. There was SO much to decide from, I had a hard time choosing! All of the food sounded very healthy and super yummy! I finally decided to go with the Beefeater, which included Roast beef, tomato, Cheddar and Monterrey Jack on grilled Parmesan-crusted sourdough. I also ordered Grilled Cheese for Little Sister and French Toast for Big Sister. While we waited for our food, I decided to test out their WiFi with my phone, it was nice and fast. The wait was not very long at all considering how busy they were when we arrived. Our food was brought out and was very organized and appealing to the eye on the plates. Our Server was very courteous and paid close attention to our needs. My dish was really tasty and the portions for all of our dishes were more than enough. I probably should have only ordered one kids meal for the girls to share, instead of two. I will admit, I did sample both of the girls' dishes and the French Toast was amazing! I finished everything on my plate and Little Sister ate as much of her Grilled Cheese as she could fit in her little tummy.

Grilled Cheese

Overall Impression: First Watch in Indianapolis, provides customers with dishes that are delicious and generously proportioned. You can find a little something for everyone on their menu! The prices are very reasonable and not too expensive. Their location does not give much room for growth and their entrance way does create a traffic jam during busy hours. They are very family friendly and very accommodating. All things considered, I would definitely recommend this restaurant to my family and friends and I would definitely go back again. I'm not wishing there was a First Watch closer to me in Southwestern Indiana!

Appearance: B
Service: A+
Quality Products: A+
Cost: $$
My Overall Rating: A

Click here to see what My Rating means!

First Watch Website
Like First Watch on Facebook
Follow @first_watch on Twitter!

To find a location near you, got to the First Watch website and type in your city and state in the search bar at the top right hand side of the screen!

Now that I have your mouth watering for delicious dishes from First Watch, use the Rafflecopter form below to enter to WIN vouchers for FREE Kids Meals at First Watch!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have a wonderful day dear followers!

Disclosure: In order to provide this review, I was given a gift certificate to sample the food at First Watch. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions in this review are mine based on my experience with the First Watch Restaurant in Indianapolis. I, nor First Watch make any guarantees about their restaurant, services, or food items.

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Big Sister LOVES her photo on canvas!


Happy Birthday Big Sister!