Disclosure: Thank you to
for inviting me to view The Intern at
. Thank you FatCats for the movie and food. Thank you
for letting me borrow the Toyota Avalon Hybrid!
I don’t often get a night out. For a short time, I was managing a mommy night out with a fellow mommy and friend on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, but even that has not happened in quite a while so when Cathy from
asked me to join her at FatCats for a girls night out, I happily (and gratefully) accepted!
It had been awhile since I had “adult alone time” so I had to refresh my memory on how to have a great girls night out!
Dress the part.
Of course your dress is going to be different for different occasions. For the wine bar, I tend to dress more business/professional. If it’s a bar (usually a restaurant bar) I tend to go more business casual. I knew we were heading to FatCats and while I had looked them up online, I wasn’t sure what to expect so I went the business casual look. Nice black pants with a nice black top. Better to be safe than sorry!
Pimp the ride.
If you tend on having some adult beverages while out, be sure to plan your ride ahead of time with either a designated driver, a taxi, etc. I didn’t plan on consuming adult beverages and had the Toyota Avalon Hybrid to pick up Cathy. It was definitely a pimped out ride.
The Toyota Avalon Hybrid is the first hybrid car I had ever been in, never the less, the first hybrid car I had ever driven. It was amazing! There was no key to start it (apparently that is a thing now with new cars) and when it did start, it started electrically so you couldn’t even hear it!
Everything in the car was touch screen which was super neat to try. The radio buttons were touch screen. The navigation (on the same screen as the radio) was touch screen. The air conditioning was controllable for both sides of the car (meaning I could be at 70 while hubby tended to keep his side at 68 or lower!)
I didn’t get to spend a ton of time with the Avalon, but the two days I did, the backseat was quite generous so that all three kids plus car seats fit comfortably in the back. K is old enough (and big enough) to not need a car seat or booster, A is in the middle in toddler car seat, and B has a booster seat. In our Toyota Corolla, the kids tend to be slightly squished, but they had plenty of room in the Avalon.
Y’all! It even had a sun roof! I didn’t even know they made those any more and I promise you, I put that bad boy to use after girls night out on my drive home!
My personal favorite of my pimped out ride:
The blind spot indicators in the side mirrors. When a car was in my blind spot, there was a light on the side mirrors that would turn on to inform me they were there making me feel safer.
The buttons were on the steering wheel so I didn’t need to remove my hands from the wheel to change the station or volume. (It had the capability to sync up to my phone to make for hands free driving but I didn’t get that far.)
The seat moved forward into position when the car was turned on and moved back when turned off. There were even buttons on the door to set the seat position and save two of them. Meaning hubby could have his seat position saved and I could have mine saved; removing the annoying task of finding the perfect spot after he drives the car before me.
The spacious back seat was a win for me. Hubby loved the spacious passenger seat that allowed his six foot one self have enough leg room.
The gas mileage of 40 miles per gallon was beautiful as well! Unfortunately, two days into my journey with the Avalon, the windshield received a crack so I wasn’t able to experience all the fun, but the little bit I did – I would definitely consider it a perfect family car!
Location, location, location.
Cathy had been invited to an event at
so our location was already picked ahead of time, but when you are looking for a location; you want something that isn’t too loud, where you can chat, and usually where you can eat, snack and/or drink.
Our event at FatCats was perfect! We arrived a half an hour before our show time started so we were able to get our seats, place our food order, and go sit down and chat before the movie started.
FatCats movie theater has stadium seat with super comfortable reclining chairs. I will tell you, I have mommy hips, but these chairs didn’t even touch ’em! We were able to recline comfortably and our food was delivered to us! My only complaint was that there weren’t tables or something to set your food on so my pizza box had to sit on my lap, but I can say – the pizza (which is from
which is attached to FatCats) was delish! Amazing!
The aisles between the seats (you know when you are trying to get out to get a drink refill or use the restroom and you have to decide do you want your boobs in the face of the person in your row and your butt hitting the head of the row in front of you?); no need to worry at FatCats. There is plenty of space and even while reclined, there was still walking room.
As a complete side note, we watched The Intern with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. Fabulous movie that I highly recommend!
Who’s Paying?
For our girls night at FatCats, we had pre-determined that we would each pay our way. There are other nights that we have split the bill straight down the middle, regardless of who, what, where. It’s usually best to figure this out ahead of time or at least before orders are placed.
Relax and have fun.
Forget the kids. Forget work. Forget the significant other. Just relax and enjoy your time with friends! You deserve a few minutes to just enjoy yourself – the rest of it will still be there later!
Be sure to check out my
for pictures of the Toyota Avalon Hybrid and our girls night out at
!