Valentine's Weekend

We kicked off our weekend with a “Q and U Wedding” at Jacob’s school Friday.  Jacob was one of the ring bearers and it was just the sweetest thing.  At the “reception” after the wedding, Jacob said, “Mommy, would you like to dance with me?”  I just about melted in a puddle on the floor.  That little boy definitely has the key to my heart. 

Friday evening we kept it low key and had pizza at home.  I surprised Brian with a cookie cake for Valentine’s Day (even though I’m sure he saw it coming as these are our go-to for dessert), and he surprised me with some Wicked Good Cupcakes.  We had never had them before, but we saw them on Shark Tank, and he ordered some for us… they ship right to your house.  So far we’ve tried the Confetti Cake flavored one and it was really good! 

As I’ve mentioned on here before, we like to say really off the wall things on our cookie cakes, and I thought that this was perfect for Valentine’s Day.  I know all of my Friends lovers will appreciate it as much as I do.  :o)

After the kids went to bed, Brian and I watched the series finale of Parenthood and I pretty much cried my eyeballs out the whole way through.  What a phenomenal show!  It now ranks just barely below Friends on my list of the best shows of all time.  I’m already ready to start over with season one again, but Brian thinks I’m crazy.  I’m so serious, though.

Saturday morning we got up early to head to Atlanta for the day.  We had big plans to take the kids to Stone Mountain because they have an area of the mountain that has real snow (made by snow blowers) during the winter.  The kids have been begging for snow, so we thought that it would be fun to take them up there.  However, we didn’t realize that they would sell out days in advance, and we were told that they were sold out when I called on the way to Atlanta. 

I was super bummed about it at first, but fortunately we had come up with a couple of back-up ideas just in case, and we decided to take the kids to the zoo instead.  Well, it was freezing, and I was a bit worried at first that it was going to be a mistake, but we were already dressed for snow, so it ended up not being so bad.  The sun was shining really bright as well, so it didn’t feel near as cold as it actually was.

Because of the cold, some of the animals were not out which was a bit of a disappointment, but we did end up seeing flamingos, black bears, panda bears, elephants, lions, meerkats, zebras, kangaroos, tons of amphibians, several birds, and then we were able to pet some goats and sheep, which the kids enjoyed.  I really wanted to see the giraffes, monkeys, and gorillas, but they were all inside since it was so cold.  Note to self, don’t go to the zoo in the winter. 

The very best thing about the zoo?  Turtles eating salad.  I kid you not, that was one of the cutest things I've ever seen in my whole life.  It was so adorable that I videoed some of it.  I could have watched them all day!  You can see a picture of those cute little guys below.

Olivia passed out in the car on the way to lunch, which was a big oopsie… we had to wake her about fifteen minutes later when we arrived at Chick-Fil-A and then she never went back to sleep on the car ride home.  Instead, she entertained herself by shoving her feet and hands in her mouth for a good portion of the drive home.  Silly girl!  We tried and tried to get her to take a nap when we got home, and she finally passed out on the couch with Brian around 5 PM.  Yeesh.  We only let her sleep for about 30 minutes as to not ruin bedtime, but when she awoke she was craaaa-zaaaay!  She cried for the duration of the evening – all through play time and dinner time.

Dang car naps always ruin everything!  Haha.

Sunday morning the kiddos played with their new Valentine’s treats, and I attempted to make pink waffles… well, the waffle iron turned them brown as they cooked, but the insides and edges were pink, so we called it a win!  After breakfast we all snuggled on the couch and watched the Charlie Brown Valentine's Day special that we had recorded from Friday night.

We had lunch at Brian’s mom and step-dad’s house and spent the afternoon outside.  It was gorgeous this entire weekend!  A bit on the cool side, but the skies were so deep blue and the sun was so bright and warm that it was still beautiful.

Jacob and I baked a Valentine’s Day cake to take to my parents’ house and we dined on spaghetti, salad, fresh bread dipped in olive oil and herbs, and wine.  My mom set the table with the cutest little Valentine's place settings for everyone!  It was so festive!

The weekend didn’t turn out at all how I had originally envisioned, but it was certainly still a great one!  Happy Monday!

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending.