A Weekend Long Valentine Celebration

We decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a little early this year and make it a weekend long celebration.  This pretty much just means that Jason wanted to eat good meals all weekend long and I was happy to oblige!  We had been wanting to try some French recipes, so that became our unofficial theme for the weekend.

Sadly, the boys came down with colds.  Croupy coughs, sore throats, and fevers kept them quiet and still on the couch.  Juice with crazy straws, cozy blankets, and movies helped them feel a little better.  I missed my happy, energetic little boys!

On Saturday, I made Coq au Vin for the first time and will definitely make it again.  Anything cooked in almost a bottle of wine is amazing!

For dessert, we had Ina's white chocolate sauce with frozen berries.

We kept the boys home from church on Sunday morning and were planning on recreating our anniversary meal we had two summers ago for dinner.  The boys were running fevers and were pretty sad the entire day.  We decided to make them their own dinner and cook our dinner later in case they were cranky, as sick little boys deserve to be.  They loved pretending to eat at a restaurant and having mom and dad wait on them.

They were ready for bed by seven and we set to work making supper.  I love having Jason in the kitchen with me.

Yes, we had mashed potatoes two days in a row.  Don't worry about it.

For dessert we had a chocolate buttermilk cake with a vanilla custard filling and chocolate buttercream frosting.

We had a wonderful "Valentine's Day" and hope you do too!  Also, I don't think I'll eat for the rest of the week.

A Perfectly Imperfect Love Letter Valentine Wreath

Seeing as how Valentine's day is only four short days away, I thought I should make some kind of decoration to celebrate.  I had been seeing those cute little stitched felt hearts everywhere and was inspired.  However, I did not have any colors of felt appropriate for Valentine's day (rats) and was forced to use some paper instead.  I printed off a love letter I found on Google images written by Robert Browning to Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  Using the love letter, I cut out some hearts, stuffed them, and sewed them up.  I suppose you could use your own love letter for this, but I didn't have the heart to cut mine up!  Plus, that Mr. Browning has some pretty fancy handwriting, doesn't he?

After I had made eight or so hearts, I pinned them to my wreath form, which I also used for my fall yarn wreath.  I hung it up on my chalkboard using bakers twine.

It isn't perfect but it was easy and romantic!  Ooh la la!

I'm linking up to:

Tatertots and Jello

A Day at the Zoo

This will be a quick post today as there is much to do around my home today!

We visited the zoo in our city last week.  The weather was nice enough to spend a couple of hours there and we had the place to ourselves.  The boys are at an age where it is really fun and the questions they ask are really fun to answer!

And now, to the pictures.

 

A picnic in January?  Why not?  43 degrees isn't that cold!

Brothers.

Henry and Ollie thought this guy was talking on his cell phone.

This guy was writing on the floor with a rock.  You know, typical primate stuff.  We watched him for a long time.  He would put the rock in his mouth and chew it for awhile.  Then he would take it out and continue to draw on the ground.  So strange.

That's all but I'll leave you with this thought.  When I see all of the creatures that God created, I am in awe of His power.  His creation is good!

I'm off to bake, do some grocery shopping, and gather what is needed for a Christmas in February celebration this weekend.  I can't wait to meet my new nephew Jonas and see my entire family.  I'm not exactly sure when I'll write next.  Until then, have a happy day and an even better weekend!