Love.Laughter.Life.

Shawn and I had so much fun last weekend! It was a nice long weekend for us since we didn’t have work and school Friday or Monday because of the holidays. We decided to take advantage of the extra time together and plan some fun things!

On Friday night we went to P.F. Chang’s for dinner and it was amazing as usual! We always get their chicken lettuce wraps as an appetizer and I look forward to it every time. I’ve tried making them at home before and while they are good, nothing compares to the actual thing! Then we shared some Shrimp Fried Rice and Beef & Broccoli. YUM! And of course we had to walk around the huge mall afterwards to work off all that food. Shawn just loves shopping haha! After hitting a few stores and grabbing a piece of amazing Caramel Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, we headed up north to Revere to see “Ride Along 2”. The movie had been out for a month at that point, so I didn’t think it’d be a problem getting tickets. Well, we get there and when it comes time to pick our seats we can either sit across the theater from each other or one behind the other. Since the whole point was to spend time together we decided to not see it. Instead, we headed home and rented the new James Bond movie “Spectre” which was awesome!

So much for a mild winter in Boston this year! And early spring?! That groundhog didn’t know what’s what! The rest of the weekend was freezing…actually BELOW freezing by 60 degrees! That’s right, the “feels like” temperature here was -28. It makes me sad and cold just thinking about it! Unfortunately, Shawn had to go to the school for a bit Saturday morning and I needed a few things from the store, so we bundled up and ventured out into Antarctica. Knowing we’d be spending most of the weekend inside, we rented some movies and Call of Duty from Redbox. And since we both love popcorn, I had to make a popcorn Valentine’s Day treat. It was amazing! Here’s the recipe (http://www.twosisterscrafting.com/valentines-day-popcorn/).

Church was cancelled on Sunday due to the severe weather warning in place which of course meant….sleeping in! Something I rarely get to do. It was so great! I was up before Shawn and I had a Valentine’s Day surprise for him. We had agreed that this year gifts had to be simple, meaningful, and cheap haha. I came across this idea on Pinterest and loved it. I used hot pink sticky notes to write down tons of things/reasons why I love Shawn and placed them in the shape of a heart on our bathroom mirror. It followed all of our “rules” and he loved it! It was also a gift for me in a way. It helped me remember why I married him, what I love most about him, and how great of a man he is! I definitely recommend doing this for your man…and it doesn’t have to be just on Valentine’s Day. He’s so sweet and bought me beautiful flowers! He knows how much I love getting flowers :)

For our “Valentine’s Day” themed breakfast we made red crepes and topped them with pink cool whip and colorful berries. Crepes have always been a Sunday morning tradition in Shawn’s family and we’ve tried to carry it on in our home. So we “valentinezed” it up a bit!

Since it was still colder than all get out, we stayed inside all day and found ways to still make Valentine’s Day fun! I came across the idea of doing a “Chocolate Challenge” with your hubby and used bits and pieces of those ideas with my own. It required very little prep and was super fun! Here’s how it worked:

1. Buy nine different kinds of chocolate for your spouse while they do the same for you (don’t show each other!)

2. Make cards with grids on them for each of you to put the chocolates on

3. Create a scorecard if you want to keep score.

4. Cut out hearts from red cardstock to use as markers on the scorecard

5. Blindfold your spouse while you prepare their first round of chocolates. Place one piece of chocolate in each square and label it so you don’t forget which ones are which.

6. Put the first chocolate in your spouse’s mouth and have them guess what it was. We played where you get one guess, but you can set your own rule.

7. Keep track of how many they get correct out of three.

8. Then switch places and have your spouse prepare your first round of chocolates on the sheet with your name on it. Repeat steps 6 and 7.

9. At the end of the first round, place a red heart on the square of the person who got the most right out of three. If you tied, put a heart on both squares!

10. Play rounds two and three the same way until you’ve each guessed all nine chocolates you bought for each other.

11. The winner is the one who won 2/3 rounds!

12. Tips:

• Have your spouse plug their ears while you prepare their chocolate so they don’t know the candy based on how the wrapper sounds.
• Cut the chocolate bars into bite size pieces that can easily be chewed in one bite.
• Take a drink between each bite of chocolate to clean your mouth out.
• HAVE FUN! This can be a great game to play with your loved one! Just enjoy it :)

Growing up, my family had a tradition for Valentine’s Day dinner that I loved! I’m so glad Shawn was willing to continue it in our little family. Every year my mom would decorate our dining room table with chocolates, conversation hearts, cloth napkins, nice china, candles, etc. Then she’d prepare an amazing dinner and some Valentine’s Day dessert. I remember always being surprised at how beautiful it all looked. So on Sunday night Shawn I decorated our table and made a yummy steak dinner! I turned the mashed potatoes pink and made some heart shaped rolls to go along with the festive theme. It turned out to be an awesome night!

Monday was Presidents’ Day so no school or work! We slept in…again and it was so nice! We rode the T into downtown and did some shopping at an awesome store called Primark. It’s huge and they always have great deals. Then we headed down to the Wrentham Outlets and shopped some more. Shawn is such a trooper! We finished up at Patriot Place then went to try and see Ride Along 2…again. But the showing was in the old theater with crappy seats so we passed. Who knows, maybe we’ll see it one day haha. It was so nice to have an extra-long weekend and spend so much quality low-key time together! I sure do love my man and the simple pleasures in life!