Spring Fever and Valentine's celebrations

The weather here in the south is absolutely beautiful this week and it makes everyone in our House of Curls very cheerful! We have been spending every waking moment outside in the warm sun.

We had a fun trip to the zoo and have enjoyed several parks in our little community. We have eaten our lunches on the back deck, our snacks at the neighborhood park and one night we even had our dessert outside. My husband got a little fire pit for Christmas from his favorite nephew and we decided to finally put it to work.




We are excited to report that we will also be enjoying this spring time weather in our front yard because the crazy massive ramp is now gone! Wahoo! Doug is making such amazing progress that he no longer needs to be in a wheelchair and therefore doesn't need the ramp out front anymore. We are praising God for His healing and care!

We really enjoyed celebrating Valentine's Day this year with the curly girlies!

Oldest girlie and I hosted a little party on Sunday for our sweet friends and fun Mommies.

We decorated cookies that were made by one of our favorite "big" girls (check out her blog here).

We made all kinds of fun cards and valentines.

Several of our friends got really creative in the making of their valentines!

Stamping seemed to be a kid favorite.

There was some mother-daughter bonding while crafting the heart wreaths.

Our oldest friend gave some lessons on valentine origami. He made these great paper boxes.

Even our busy boy buddies got in on some crafting! They made heart lollipops and Cupid's arrows.

Best of all, the kids had a great time and we enjoyed precious time together with our friends!

On Monday, we had our very own valentine's day family date. I've been trying to use our fine china more often and this was a perfect excuse. We had a yummy meal consisting of chicken Parmesan, angel hair pasta, green beans, and garlic heart rolls. We all ate enough that we didn't even need dessert, which is good because I was too tired to make it!

This is a little twist on a very easy recipe for Chicken Parmesan:

4 pieces boneless thin-cutlet chicken breasts
8 oz bottle Italian dressing
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1/4 cup garlic salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded Romano and Parmesan cheese
1 jar of your fav spaghetti sauce
1 box pasta of choice

Place chicken breasts in a dish and cover with Italian dressing. Let chicken soak for 2-4 hours or if you have time, overnight.

Preheat oven to 400. Mix breadcrumbs, garlic salt and grated Parmesan cheese together. Dredge the dressing soaked chicken in the breadcrumb mix on both sides and place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and cooking spray. Cover the top side of the chicken with 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese.

Bake chicken for 20 minutes. Flip chicken over, top with the additional 1/2 cup shredded cheese, and bake for 10 more minutes.

Serve chicken with pasta and marinara sauce.

Curly girlies definitely loved the yummy meal and were quite ecstatic about all their valentines from their friends and family. I myself absolutely love my homemade cards from the girlies and their sweet Daddy. I am also quite fond of the little box of chocolates I got too!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines day and a fabulous sunny week!