Matt + America’s Birthday

We had a wonderful weekend of celebrations over here! Matt’s parents came down for the long weekend – we hadn’t seen them in 6 months!  Emerson was on cloud nine and played with them non-stop for 3 straight days.

Friday was Matt’s birthday, and I wanted to get away for a little date with him. He had the day off, so I surprised him with a picnic lunch in Freedom Park. Given that we’ve had two outings with out the kids since the pandemic started, it was bliss!

We picked up a cheese board from Mere’s, and enjoyed it along with chardonnay on a grassy hill.

I packed a salad for us too, but we polished off the cheese and didn’t touch it:)

Back at home, I assembled Matt’s cake.  He wanted an ice cream cake, but most of the places I called only offered ice cream ‘cakes’ with cookies as the filling.  And he wanted a layer of ice cream with a layer of cake!  I turned to Sunflower Baking Co. because I love their gluten free cakes and they are right around the corner from us. I used toffee caramel ice cream in a 6″ cake pan for the filling.

It turned out great!  Although I caught Matt adding more ice cream from the freezer on top, and was like seriously, I put the ice cream IN THE MIDDLE so you could add more on top? 🙂  We ordered enchiladas for dinner, opened a few gifts,  and ended the night with a movie.

On Saturday, our general plan was to get the pool out for Emerson and order bbq for dinner.  It sure is easy to make plans when you can’t go anywhere.

Emerson played for hours in the pool while some of us worked out and then all of us drank beers.  Avery napped and was hesitant to crawl in the grass.

We feasted on ribs, rotisserie chicken, tater tots, and pickles.  And Emerson did her very first sparkler (with our help).  It was a festive and fun day, although it did feel a little odd this year given what our country is going through.  Here’s hoping we can bring about some change soon!

Sunday was our last day with Matt’s parents and we took it easy. We went on a power walk while Emerson enjoyed the pool and soaked up her final day with Nonna. We had fun researching new communities along the coast and dreamed of them moving closer.  Matt’s mom made lasagna for dinner and we watched a very interesting and depressing movie called The Florida Project.

And now, here we are, in the middle of a new week.  I hope you guys were able to relax a bit last weekend!