Weekend Things ~ Valentine's Days

We had a gloriously long weekend, with a holiday Monday and an extra day off yesterday, that I took since the boys are on school vacation. As with most weekends, I stayed far away from my computer the whole time, and am just now catching up. For Valentine's Day breakfast, I made French breakfast muffins and strawberry smoothies (I recently discovered that we have a freezer full of strawberries--the ideal antidote to the very cold month we've been having).

C made me a card out of birch bark, and my mom sent me a Strawberry Shortcake card--a leftover from Valentine's I handed out one year. I love it.

I gave C a heart-shaped bowl of candy (the bowl is really for me, but shh, don't tell him that), and this year's heart in nature addition, a sweet leaf I found on a hike last fall, and a knitted heart, because doesn't every man need one of those?

I had a puzzle made for the boys from a picture of them in front of a lighthouse, with lots of white sky in the background, to make it tricky.

All morning we had this cardinal hanging out around the feeder, a living Valentine in the trees.

In the afternoon, after some cleaning, E discovered these old diggers that he and Z got as a gift when they were almost too old for them, but he ended up putting in some serious digger time in the afternoon, which I loved. It's good to see them be little kids, you know?

In the evening, we left the boys with some boxed macaroni and cheese and a movie and C and I headed out on a real, genuine date, to our favorite restaurant, by way of a local book store where I got On Immunity and Nature Anatomy and a gift shop where C bought me a bracelet (not pictured).

Sunday we were supposed to get another blizzard, but instead we got this: blue sky.

We had planned a party, but cancelled it due to the dire forecast (24 inches!!).

So we spent the day relaxing instead of cooking.

We went on a stomp through the woods, where the porcupines and hares were busy.

And then followed our route down the river.

Although it wasn't snowing, we had blizzard-like winds,

and it felt almost as if we were in the desert, with white sand, not snow, whipping up in little dust-devils and stinging our cheeks.

Imagining I'm in the desert is a frequent pastime of mine, so it was easy to conjure sand dunes form snow drifts.

As we came home overland, I stopped and fell in love with this tree.

The outer two or three inches had been riddled with holes and reduced to a spongy texture, yet the tree itself felt solid and here to stay for a while.

Its perforated wood reminded me of saguaro cactus "wood," to continue with the desert theme.

We arrived home with the lowering sun,

just in time to cook up some nachos and mix a few practice Margaritas with a few hardy souls who made it to our house for a dry run of the postponed party.

Hope your weekend was lovely too!