OK Moms, let’s get real for a second. Obviously, we love our kiddos with every fiber of our being, and we’d do anything for them. But they certainly make life just a little crazy, and a whole heck of a lot more interesting! As much as I was a planner before having Kade (I still try to be), most of my schedule now is flying by the seat of my pants and trying to remember to build in an extra 30 minutes when leaving the house to be somewhere at a certain time! Maybe you can relate… I don’t want to speak for everyone, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t occasionally miss the spur of the moment happy hours or impromptu dinners out with the girls from the pre-kid era. You can relate, right? Maybe some of you have kids that are bit older and you’ve regained a few minutes of your own time here or there, but the first few years can all but completely delete your social life! So, I decided to do something about it. I missed my friends and wasn’t going to let kids be the excuse not to find the time to hang out. In fact, I was going to make them the reason TO hang out!
I have been wanting to get together with my Mom friends to catch up and to let our kiddos play, but the idea of hosting 10+ adults/kids in my home wasn’t really appealing. It’s hard enough to keep the house straight just for us, much less trying to have company over! So, what do you do if you want to hang out with your friends but you don’t want to host??? Well, I guess you could invite yourself over to their house, but most likely they’re in the same boat. So, a lot of times it ends up being a quick get together for a play date with just one or two Mom friends. Normal play dates seem to be at playgrounds, kid zone establishments or the kid-themed restaurants with sub-par food and enough bells and buzzers to drive anyone crazy. But, I had something else in mind.
Selfishly, I wanted our play date to be a little more geared towards us Mommas! And if you search you will be pleasantly surprised that there are actually amazing establishments that cater to hosting families, friends and all us Mommas! So I partnered with MidiCi of White Mash to host my very first Lunch with our Littles event! MidiCi is a Neapolitan Pizzeria whose entire premise is that “they bring friends and families together”. And they actively encourage Mom’s and their kiddos to come visit for lunch, dinner or even birthday parties!
MidiCi was phenomenal to work with and very receptive to how I wanted to set things up. We worked together to create an awesome experience for both my Mom friends and their kids! MidiCi and I thoughtfully worked together ahead of time to select a menu that was both Mom and Kid friendly. My goal was to make it easy for my friends to arrive and relax! We sampled so many of their most popular items and some new ones too! When my friends arrived, we started with meat and cheese boards, followed by their fresh house salads. We then tasted an array of their wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas, including Margherita, Chicken Pesto, Devil’s, Truffle and Margherita & Prosciutto . If you’ve never tried Neapolitan pizza, put it on your list. It is SO good! The dough is light and thin with a soft chewy texture. It’s different (and better, I think) than your typical delivery pizza so you should definitely stop in and try it! We also had some of the recent additions to their menu, the Chicken Pesto, Four Cheese, and Spicy Sausage calzones. We then sipped on mimosas and tried the Devil & Angel margaritas, of which I highly recommend both!
MidiCi is perfectly located in the heart of the White Marsh Avenue and has a beautiful patio area that overlooks the Avenue’s turf courtyard. The courtyard is full of bench swings and games like Jenga, foosball, and checkers as well as plenty of space for the kids to run around. While we were enjoying each other’s company, our kids were playing in the courtyard. We were able to sit on the patio together all while keeping an eye on our kids. After a while we finished our afternoon with Nutella Calzones, Cannolis and Tiramisu. I have to say, it was hilarious to see how fast our kids flocked to us once they realized the desserts were out! Kade was all about the Tiramisu and Nutella Calzone. I really can’t blame him. After all, you can only dive in and get away with having chocolate all over your face for so long, so I just let him get in there and enjoy it!
It ended up being a really special day. I finally got some time to catch up with my girls, and our kids got to enjoy the day outside playing in the sun! And we all filled our bellies with the delicious food and beverages from MidiCi!! Many, many thanks to April Davidson Bly Photography for joining us and documenting our afternoon. I wish it hadn’t taken so long to finally do something like this. But it certainly won’t be nearly as long before I put the next one together. We had so much fun that I’m already thinking about doing it again! So, I highly recommend you and your friends putting something like this together sooner than later. Round up your mom friends, find an awesome restaurant like MidiCI, and go do lunch! If you and your friends decide to check out MidiCi which you definitely should be sure to sign up for their MidiCi Rewards program because they give you a free Margherita Pizza! All you have to do is sign up at midicirewards.com
How do you balance time with friends and life with kids? I’d love to hear some suggestions on other activities that other moms use. Let me know in the comments!
Thank you MidiCi for sponsoring this post!
