Mardi Gras Dinner Party

I love social get togethers, especially themed dinner parties. Alan's not the biggest fan of social events, but is humoring me by letting me host a monthly dinner party group (although he keeps trying to get me to make it every 6 to 8 weeks rather than once a month....lol, I tell him he will survive being social once a month). We have to keep it small though, and only have a few people. I wanted to make sure I picked people that I really don't get to see very often, that way I could be sure to see them at least once a month. So we got it down to a few people to be involved, and it will pretty much stay the same for each month. So in January we had a wine & cheese & chocolate night, and this month we had a Mardi Gras dinner party. It's a potluck dinner party, and everyone brings something. We had so much yummy New Orleans & Cajun inspired food and drinks; red beans & rice, chicken & sausage gumbo, citrus marinated shrimp, seafood jumbalaya, crab cakes, corn & boudin salad, a king cake, blueberry passionfruit margaritas, banana passionfruit margaritas, hurricanes and wine. We wore masks and had a great time! Next month is a Irish themed meal! :)

Our Little Valentines Day

It's been our tradition the last few years to have a valentines scavenger hunt first thing in the morning. It starts at their valentines mailbox, where they get thier first clue. They each had 6 clues which led them to small treats and toys as they solved the clues and ran all around the house. Alan wrote the clues for the boys this year, they had a lot of fun.








































































After all that fun it was time for a special breakfast; purple heart shaped pancakes, sausages, fruit and chocolate fondue, and strawberry milk in a chocolate a sprinkle rimmed plastic goblet. :)

































we made some homemade valentines and decorated valentines cookies to deliver to our friend Lori and our babysitter Nicole.












































Starla was super excited about her Valentine's Party at school!







































After Starla got out of the school for the day, we met our sweet friend Lori at Pops and she treated us to lunch.







































after pops we went down the road a bit and went to the Round Barn, the historical Route 66 site.






































Much to my surprise the mailman delivered a big box to the house. When I opened it, there were 2 boxes of chocolate covered strawberries and a cheesecake trio from Shari's Barries, and a card that said "To my "berrie" sweet wife" Ahhhhhhh.....







































Before heading out for our date I helped the kids make heart shaped pizzas for them for dinner.
































































We got the sitter to come over at 4:30, so we could get out early and try to find somewhere to eat that wasn't too crowded, or crazy. We didn't have reservations of course, so we ended up eating at the bar of our 2nd choice (the first place we stopped at all but laughed at us when we said we didn't have a reservation, before turning us away, lol. We went to the Paseo Grill, and our dinner was fantastic. Plus they gave us a complimentary rose and chocolate covered strawberries for the holiday. :)

our Valentine's Tea Party

Saturday we hosted a Valentine's Tea party with a few friends. The kids made special valentines bags, exchanged valentines, drank tea and ate sandwiches and other fun food. They had a ton of fun playing and hanging out. I love tea parties! One of Starla's friends from school came, and her mom Sarah brought special Strawberry Vanilla Rose tea, and Rose tea that her mom had gotten from a recent trip to Paris! Super fancy, and really yummy. My friend Quin had also given me a jar of rose petal tea to have for the party, a great addition to a fun tea party. :)