The Weekend Cupid Came to Town

(For music to accompany your read, click play below)

One of the (only) fabulous things about being pregnant is the bursts of energy you get every couple of weeks. 

It's like a fairy godmother knocks on your door and offers you a shot of sunshine. Suddenly, you are transformed into supermom but, by midnight, the secret potion wears off and its back to being exhausted, cranky, tired and craving more brownies. 

Until then, let's focus on my burst of energy this past weekend. (I marvel at what I'm able to accomplish during these bursts. If only I could sell this kind of energy...)

The morning started out with a hot cup of Joe and a mission to make delicious pumpkin-and-sweet-potato laced waffles. 

(Emerson insisted on trying the batter so I let her thinking she'd hate it. 

She didn't.)

Topped with Cool Whip and pink sprinkles--mission delivered.

(My batter-faced babe.)

(Can you tell she likes the photo opps?)

One of my greatest desires over the past few years is to get my basement completely organized. Again. 

I say again because it gets organized and within a couple of months its back to looking like I let my three year old go to town in it. 

After Dave got home from his Saturday run I got started right away and organized three large bins of craft supplies.....which got my creative juices flowing and led me to do the only thing I could do. CRAFT. And craft I did for the next few hours. (Along with a multiple loads of laundry, ordering groceries online, crock pot cooking and some cleaning along the way. I love this energy!)

Valentine hearts up. Check.

Valentine Sensory box. Check.

Of course I added some words to satisfy my son's love of all things letters (written in glitter glue of course).

By this time it was nap time which should provide the ultimate peace and quiet pocket of the day to utilize my new found energy; however, Sister prefers to call it "afternoon 20 minute quicky" so I often find myself with a very curious, clingy partner-in-crime.

Today's solution was a plastic bin from the basement filled with water, sudsy soap and measuring cups. 

Sister was happy. Mommy was happy.

On a quest to create a beautiful strand of lights themed for my UTMOST favorite holiday, I gathered a strand of white Christmas lights and all of the leftover pink and red ribbon I could find from the basement. 

I cut the ribbon into small strips and began tying the pieces all along the strand of lights.

I threw together a display for our mantle, hung my new ribbon lights and stood back and smiled. It's no Martha but it definitely makes me feel the love.

I then whipped up some yummy, fluffy pink snow made from a mixture of glue, shaving cream and pink paint for our after-nap activity.

(The fake snow was inspired from this awesome blog and 

I decided to add some color to it.)

The kids both loved working with the creamy texture.

And Hunter loved telling us about his masterpiece once it was complete.

We decided it would be a good idea to add some glitter. (OK, I admit. I'm addicted to the sparkle and always suggest adding glitter.)

The art was the perfect addition to our mantle decor. 

Early to bed, (very) early to rise and I was at it again with the beginnings of new crafts and colored pancakes. 

(This is a project I've been eyeing for years. When I saw

it pop up on Pinterest, I had to do it and it's my favorite project to date.)

After breakfast, we were off to our friend Carly's 3rd birthday party at the Zoo. 

It was tons of fun with unlimited carousel rides, live animals, pizza and cake. 

Happy birthday girl!

Hunter had a bit of an issue when everyone started singing to Carly since he still feels it's his birthday and didn't understand why he didn't have candles on his cake. 


When we got home, Dave fixed PB&J's and we overheard Hunter rummaging around in the pantry. He came out with a handful of toothpicks and proceeded to put them all on the top of his sandwich. He pointed to them and said, "Look! Candles!" and began singing Happy Birthday. We all chimed in and clapped at the end which made my boy all smiles and giggles. 

Toddler bellies full we then ventured out to our favorite Chinese restaurant. (Yes, we feed our kids before we go so we can have at least ten minutes of cooperation which we find is directly correlated to well-fed-rested babes.)

After dinner we came home, read books and enjoyed our newly decorated mantle and wall which makes us feel surrounded by the family and friends that are far in miles but close in heart.

The future truly is whatever you make of it and, although my magic potion is about to wear off, I still intend to make it a really good one!