Emily "let's do stuff" M.'s Profile

I am looking forward to becoming a more frequent customer and "member" of Isis.  They offer a ton of classes that are very pricy, so I won't be taking them, regardless of how great they look.  I just can't afford $200-300 for an 11 week class.
What I am excited about is they offer a membership for $75 a year.  That gets you into all their drop-in playgroup classes for free (typically $8/class).  They offer classes 2x a week for your mobile child and 2x a week for your non-mobile child.  Additionally, you get 10% off your purchase, excluding strollers and car seats.  That's definitely awesome!  Finally, your membership dues go to moms who are in need of funding to take classes.  Do I qualify?!

The store is just beautiful and so immaculate.  I loved looking around at all their various baby/toddler items.  This is definitely a high-end store, but there are gems in there that are definitely worth spending your money on like nursing bras, medela pump products, cloth diapering supplies, and baby wearing slings, wraps, and carriers.  They have a lot of fun (and educational!) toys and books too.

The clothes are mostly Zutano brand and the shoes are Pediped.  Both are expensive, but if you can get them on sale it might be worth it!

4 stars because one of the employees occasionally emails me alerting me to great deals at this location.
Staff is always friendly, selection is eh, but they are always willing to call/email to find items at another location or online.

We really enjoy going for the open gym.  As a member of a South Shore moms' group we get to visit Gymboree once a month.  The desk staff is very friendly, and the facility is always well maintained.  
I am thankful my son has this physical outlet at a reasonable price.  The location is also great, right next to a grocery store, easy parking, too.

Walked right in and set to work to make 3 gifts for family and a friend.
The employees and owner were undeterred by my overactive toddler and my lack of painting skills.
We had so much fun making plates for the grandparents with my son's foot on them, and they had simple decorating pointers that made it special and easy for me.
I made a few mistakes and they happily fixed them.
We were there for over an hour and they never even showed an ounce of irritation at my son (20 months old), who thought shoes in the store were optional and broke out into dance around other customers.

I HIGHLY recommend Expressions.  Local business, excellent customer service, and lots of options for creating unique pieces for gifts or yourself.

This USED book store is a non-profit organization run by Road to Responsibility whose mission statement says they believe "individuals with developmental, emotional and behavioral challenges deserve to have full, rich and rewarding lives in the community."
I've never heard of RtR before, or this book store, but thank goodness I did.  This school year I have many very low readers in my classroom.  Most of what I had in my class library was too challenging for my students.  
Armed with the extremely generous tax deductible $250 that the IRS gives educators yearly (oh wait---I had spent that much on my classroom by February of this year...) I went in to Ocean Village Book Store.
HUGE selection of children's and young adult fiction books, along with a great selection of adult books.  Because I'm a teacher, the lovely ladies were very kind and I walked out with 3 armloads of books for under $20!    

I encourage every Yelper to go in and support this bookstore, either by buying some books or donating!

I've been:
-pumpkin picking
-strawberry picking
-blueberry picking

Pumpkin picking is an event: hay ride out to the patch...pick your pumpkin...hay ride back.  Fun!  Just be prepared to wait in line to go on the hay ride, but when I went there was plenty to do while you wait.  Pose for pictures with cut-out cartoonish pumpkins, get a book signed by the author, visit the farm animals.
Strawberry picking was AWESOME.  We went toward the end of June.  Perfect timing, strawberries were enormous, and there was an overwhelming amount.
Blueberry picking was...eh.  Blueberries are my all time favorite food ever!  We went at the end of July, and there were lots of blue blueberries, but there were more green blueberries.  Not CN Smith Farm's fault.  But they were never quite as good as the strawberries.  Major bummer.

Place is way kid-friendly, but be prepared to shell out a buck...not cheap!

3 stars.  Friendly service, typical ice cream stand offerings, but nothing spectacular.

Gets an extra star for taking on the Corporate Ice Cream Machine.

Also has an ok mini golf course with a really weird bright blue waterfall...it's like kool-aid blue.

First time repair, and while I'm pleased I think it's best to give 5 star reviews to places I've had an excellent experience with multiple times.

So, my review:

Washing machine stopped working Saturday morning.  We have a 1 year old and desperately needed to wash our cloth diapers.  Darn.  Called next door neighbor:
Me: "Hey!  Do you have any suggestions on appliance repair people?  Our washer just died."
Neighbor: "Heh.  So did ours.  Apollo is coming out Monday morning to fix ours.  Call them and see if they will visit your place after ours."
Me: "Awesome!"
I call Apollo and get an answering machine saying they are only open Mon-Fri 9-5 (or something like that).  This is my only gripe.  An appliance repair place not open Saturday?  C'mon!

I leave a message explaining our washing machine's problem and my convo with our neighbor.  I leave our number.

Monday morning Apollo repairman calls our house, is there by 9am, and with an $80 service call fee fixes the washing machine in 20 minutes for a total of $135.

Clean baby clothes, clean diapers, happy parents.

We've dined-in and gotten take out.

I've had the same thing twice, which isn't normally my style, but there's no website, and I didn't have a take out menu so I went with my "regular."  A very peppery veggie quesadilla.
Complimentary chips and salsa with table service and they kept refilling the excellent salsa.
The guacamole was excellent, but small servings.  Don't skimp on the guac!  You're a Mexican restaurant!  
Husband's meal was "nothing special" though I thought the verde sauce was delicious.

As Jason T. said, I will def be back, but simply due to convenience.

Btw, they didn't have their liquor license yet when I was there last, but you can BYOB.

At this Apple store's Genius Bar I've had 2 of my top 5 best ever customer service experiences.
Friendly, thorough, comprehensive, non-condescending, and genuine.
Best of all, "my" Genius (as I like to think we're so tight I can think of him as my personal concierge in the Apple world), helps me save money and increase the longevity of my Mac laptop and peripherals.

Def make an appt online, place is packed 24/7.