Legends of the Hidden Temple Themed Birthday at District 57

What a blur of a weekend but what a FUN one!

Legends of the Hidden Temple Themed Birthday at District 57

It feels like I was just sitting down to type up a blog post on Friday morning and then BAM it’s Monday and I’m back here chatting with all of you again. I hope your weekend was a good one and a solid mix of relaxing and fun.

Friday over here kicked off with gardening!

Rhett doesn’t have school on Fridays, so we took some time at a local gardening shop to pick out seeds and then planted our spring/summer garden together.

We have two garden boxes and are learning a lot as we go, as this is our third planting season. We had good luck with zucchini, cucumber, watermelon and basil last summer while the deer annihilated our spinach and tomatoes. Our shishito peppers did okay and our bell pepper plants produced only a single pepper. While the watermelon was fun it took a lonnng time to ripen and took over so much of one of our boxes so we scrapped that one this year.

(Throwback to our 2023 garden.)

This year we planted zucchini, cucumber, bell pepper (we started with a small plant rather than seeds this time hoping for better luck), cilantro, parsley and basil. We may also plant mint and tomatoes in pots closer to our house and planted a few berry bushes along one side of our house. We are crossing our fingers for some yummy produce and herbs in a month or two!

Oh and we also went back to planting the wildflowers we loved so much during our first gardening season because they brought us so much joy and we missed them last year.

Other than gardening fun, we ran all over the place on Friday afternoon.

Jumpsuit: Amazon / Sandals: Target / Bag: Clare V with this strap + this strap

Our afternoon circuit included a play date, karate pick-up, a birthday party for Ryder and a soccer game for Chase. We try hard not to run our kids ragged and are very intentional to building in home time and not overbooking activities but Friday was a wild one!

(Who knew saving random trinkets from school prize bins and goodie bags would provide so much entertainment at soccer games?)

Chase’s soccer season (and Ryan’s role as his soccer coach) wrapped up on Friday night and while they didn’t win their last game, we went out for ice cream as a family after the game which helped end the season on a high note.

Saturday

Saturday we were all up early to cheer for Chase and Ryan in a local 5K!

Chase found one of my old running watches in a drawer the day before the race (a TomTom that still worked!) and was waaay too excited to use it during his run.

He loved looking at his steps throughout the day and oh my gosh he’s one active kid! By the end of the day he still had energy and was at 22,000+ steps without batting an eye. Oh youth.

After the 5K, we strolled through a nearby farmer’s market, picking up a very random assortment of goodies: Vanilla bean honey, frozen softshell crabs (they’re SO hard to find and I LOVE them so much) and donuts. Yum!

Once we made it back to our house, Ryan and I showered and got dressed in our matching Green Monkeys tees before saying goodbye to the boys and their babysitter.

Please tell me those of you who grew up in the ’90s remember Legends of the Hidden Temple!? It was a hit game show on Nickelodeon in the mid-90s and served as the perfect throwback theme for a nostalgic birthday celebration Ryan and a couple of my girlfriends planned for my 40th.

The initial plan was to compete in a series of games and challenges at the local Whitewater Center which would’ve been amazing (they have ropes courses, zip lining, rock climbing and more) but the weather had other plans for our fun. The good news? Plan B ended up being the BEST TIME!!!!

District 57

At the last minute, Ryan discovered District 57, a place I can only describe as part entertainment complex, part laser tag, part very unique mental/physical challenge facility.

I’ve never seen anything like District 57, as it’s not an arcade and not an escape room but rather a large facility that includes 30 challenges behind wristband-activated doors.

(This photo is the lobby area where you can hang out and order food and drinks, while the main fun occurs behind doors you enter once you’re ready to begin.) 

The Grid

Once you check in, you enter “The Grid” and work together as a team to try to complete various mental and physical challenges in a very, very limited amount of time. In short, it was a BLAST. Our time in The Grid flew by and when I tell you our group came out absolutely raving about the experience, I mean it. We all had the best time and laughed so hard as we tried to figure out the challenges and worked together to complete as many as possible. I’m already dying to go back!!!

If you’re local to the Charlotte area and love interactive games, you have to visit this place that has somehow slipped under the radar in our area. I also think it would be a really fun date night if you’re a couple who enjoys more experience-based dates versus just your average dinner out.

Laser Tag

The Grid was only part of the fun at District 57 as we also divided up into teams for laser tag. But this laser tag is not the typical laser tag you may have played at a local arcade or bowling alley. It’s basically laser tag on steroids and include one hour of five different laser tag missions that all had different objectives. In short, it was fast-paced, intense and really freaking fun! We were all sweaty messes at the end and said it was the coolest laser tag experience we’ve ever done by a mile. 10/10!

We ended up at District 57 for 5 hours but also spent the time we were not in The Grid or participating in laser tag hanging out together, eating birthday cake and laughing a lot about our experiences. It was such a fun day and we left on such a high from a Saturday well spent.

Sunday

Sunday was intentionally a lot more low key. We eased into the day with einkorn flour pancakes for breakfast and then made our way to church for the morning service.

Jeans: Frame / Denim Jacket: Anthropologie / Bag: Amazon / Jelly Shoes: Free People 

Sunday Workout

After church, I did a little meal prep and made a big shepherd’s pie to have for dinner last night and tonight (and a lunch or two, too!) and the boys played outside until lunchtime. Ryan ended up taking the boys fishing after lunch and I made my way to the gym for a lower body workout. The week ahead looks a little crazy so I figured I’d sneak in a Sunday workout — a rarity for me!

(Leggings: Vuori / Sneakers: Reebok / Tank: Amazon / Sports Bra: Amazon)

I also wanted to test out a new strap I bought to make it a little easier to set up heavy dumbbells for hip thrusters. Spoiler alert: It worked so well and my glutes were on fire.

Once we all reconvened at home, we wanted to spend as much of the rest of the day outside because it was a gorgeous 73-degree afternoon. We took a family bike ride to a local shop for some macarons and then eventually made our way home for showers, jammies and movie night.

We have a tradition where the birthday person in our house gets to choose our family movie for movie night but since we were out of town over my real birthday I got to cash in on my birthday choice and opted for The Lion King. A classic that still holds up and had the boys giggling a lot, too!

And now it’s time for me to sign off and get this Monday started. I hope you all have a wonderful week!