Valentine's Weekend

We had a lovely weekend celebrating Valentine's Day. John and I had a wonderful evening out & enjoyed the freedom of only entertaining ourselves and having adult conversation.

We shared this creme' brulee cheesecake which I'm still dreaming about. We'll have to return just for dessert at some point. I should mention that our weekend started out with a beautiful white snowfall on Friday night. Around 5pm large flakes started falling as we were picking up our pizza and the movie, Amelia. My parents and brother, Curt came over to join us, and when the movie was finished - we had nearly 3 inches of beautiful, white snow on the ground. Saturday morning we got outside right away and did some sledding, snow angels and built "frosty" in the front yard. By 4pm Saturday, it was nearly all melted after a sunny, 49 degree day.
Here's our little Valentine! She was so excited to wear her "Valentine's dress."
On a whim this past week, I pulled out this pink corduroy fabric I had picked up nearly 2 years ago, and put together this jumper for Elise. Amazingly, I also had the blue flowers and matching ribbon. My only expense was the zipper....so fun! The second amazing thing, was that Elise loved to wear it. At 2, it seems she is very opinionated about her outfits. She also insisted on wearing the pink bow...even though it had gotten crushed in a drawer...oh, well.




We hope you enjoyed your weekend, too. Today is the start of another week, and my washer/dryer are working at full capacity. Happy Monday!

Playing...

Well, we got to see the sunshine today, even though it still feels like a cold winter outside. I feel like it's been one of the coldest winters I can remember since moving to Charlotte. I know, I know...many of you readers have been enduring a much worse winter, but I would guess you are ready to welcome spring as well. I picked up a pretty cotton summer dress this week for Elise...and she begged me to wear it. I told her it wasn't summer yet, but I conceded that will a long shirt & tights underneath...we could manage it today. She was just cute..I grabbed my camera. We're all ready for warmer weather and ready to be outside again.

We are getting ready to celebrate Valentines this weekend. John and I have plans to go out to dinner on Saturday night & I've been baking in my kitchen...partly to keep it warmer and also to get into the season of Love. We made chocolate heart-shaped mini cakes & Elise helped with the sprinkles. She just might turn out to be a decorator extraordinaire...she's very meticulous & neat. (Hmm, where did that come from?) For lunch, our PB&J's have also been heart-shaped. What would we do without cookie cutters?
Thanks, T&B for sending the fun valentine's socks...Elise promptly put them on and has been wearing them all day. Make sure you celebrate the ones you love this weekend!

All things beautiful & sparkly

This is the name of the game (or phase) that Elise is in right now. She loves to dress up as a princess and received many fun dress-up options for Christmas. This past week, her latest addition to her dress-up wardrobe is 4 pairs of heeled princess shoes, and each day she asks for me to help her with her necklaces, and we can't forget the sparkly earrings. (They're sticker earrings).

I just love having conversations with her...and we're full swing into the questions, "But why mommy?" I'm quickly learning that I don't have to answer all the why questions throughout the day...or I'd get nothing done. Gone are the days when we could have a conversation around Elise and she would be in complete oblivion...she picks up on everything! She's also expanding her vocab to explain herself, and this week she was meticulously trying to lace a shoestring when she said, "I'm upset, Mommy! I'm frustrating" Oh, her little world continues to expand and she's learning so much.
Grandma June came over to check in and Elise brought her a pair of tights that had snagged and had a hole in the toe. Elise had tried to remedy the problem by sticking tape on the tights & was showing my mom. Well, just like grandma's do - she helped her fix her pink tights & darned the hole closed..thanks, Grandma!