Mellow Mushroom

A few weeks ago we went to the Mellow Mushroom over at Pigeon Forge, one of the reasons being that it was literally right next to the Inn at Christmas Place, but the other reason being that it offered a gluten free pizza, and of course a bit of a different atmosphere.  Flash forward to today after church, and we were ready to try it again.

It was nice.  We had this one room to ourselves for a while, and each of us ordered a small pizza.  Mom got one with mushrooms as the theme, and I got the Hawaiian pizza, both of those gluten-free.  Maddie got a more traditional and really delicious pizza.  In the end, it was pricy, but we actually took home enough pizza to give ourselves another meal later on.  And it was actually really a nice time.

The last time I ate at this location, it was a fine dining experience, the kind of place everyone took their dates to before Prom.  I remember going to Rudolph's many times for a quiet and more pricy dinner.  When we heard they were converting it to a Mellow Mushroom, we thought it was almost sacrilegious!  Imagine painting mushrooms all over the walls of this classic old house.  And yet, it works, and the place is doing very well.  A lot of people were there - we were visiting after the lunch hour had passed, and there were quite a few folks there!

So this morning we had KidPak once more, and we were back in the Toy Box.  We were using our giant Etch-a-Sketch, or at least Nerdo was, to make a big message for Pastor Lance.  But the skit worked out well and got a lot of good laughs.  Our cast is amazing, nailing the parts and looking good as Toy Story characters.  All the kids are so much into this, and it is just wonderful to hear them cheer or celebrate or cry out the name of their favorite character later on when they pass by in the halls.

As always, Maddie was there to take pictures of the service, and she did a fantastic job.  These are just pictures of the stage performance, and only a few of them.  But she had pictures during worship, and pictures of the kids there in service, and Maddie is doing such a great job adding pictures to the church website each week.

The rest of the day was quiet.  We were playing LEGO Star Wars, and since we finished that Return of the Jedi short story book yesterday, we followed our tradition and watched "Return of the Jedi" tonight.  As noted, we've seen this so much over so many years.  But tonight I did finally pause the screen to catch the obscure bounty hunter Dengar in Jabba's Palace.  Don't judge me, but I've never noticed that before.  I heard he was in the palace, but wasn't looking in the right places.  

Anyway, there he is.  Too bad the ROTJ short stories didn't cover anything with him, or apparently Bossk, who is also somewhere in that first part of the movie.  We'll have to look for Bossk next time!  Yes, we'll see this movie again and again, because it's a classic.  It took years for any other movie to come close to matching the special effects and wonder of this series.  The original trilogy is the best.

This afternoon, we were resting, writing, and even on the treadmill for a little bit.  I'm still so full right now.  That was a lot of pizza!  But it was a good day, a solid morning, and a restful afternoon.

Maddie studied for her calculus class, and Mom got a nice nap in.  We're ready for story time, a new book tonight, and then prayers and some sleep!