Holiday Weekend Recap

This long weekend was bliss and felt even more like a vacation as opposed to just the weekend with the addition of Mandy visiting and Dan's birthday.

On Friday, Mandy met me back at the apartment after I got off work and we gathered all the things to make Dan some special birthday treats.

She whipped together a white cake with homemade white buttercream topped with strawberries for him and we sang him happy birthday while he blew out the one cake candle we had on hand leftover from the last couple of years.

Then we rented Sing on Amazon for that evening's entertainment

On Saturday morning, Mandy and I got up before Dan to prep for his actual birthday. I finished baking pull-apart rolls that Terri mom usually makes for Dan whenever we go back to Kansas. These rolls are his FAVORITE and I've never been able to make them for him since they don't sell the Rhodes dinner rolls at any of our local grocery stores. BUT!!! Mandy found them in New Jersey and brought them over on Friday night so I could make my first attempt at them. I'll share the recipe next week. We also did a bit of decorating and got all his presents and cards together.

Dan was thrilled with the rolls and he enjoyed his birthday breakfast and opening presents.

Later that afternoon we all headed into the city to go bowling as Mandy's birthday present to Dan. I think this might be his birthday tradition now since we went last year as well. Dan creamed us, big time but we all had fun. And I think I did pretty good job bowling while also carrying a bowling ball in my belly.

Dan scored a combined 200, I got a combined 99, and Mandy got a combined 97.

That night we ordered Indian food and taught Mandy how to play Settlers of Catan.

And then I made Dan pose with our inflatable birthday crown, because tradition.

On Sunday we took the ferry to church which we all loved.

The heat was pretty oppressive this weekend and we just decided to chill inside Sunday afternoon and watched TV and took optional naps. We cooked dinner together Sunday night, went out for ice cream, and played more Settlers afterwards.

On Monday we all slept-in (Dan and I relish every opportunity we have knowing the days are numbered) and then Mandy and I got pedicures while Dan played one of his new video games that he got for his birthday.

Later that afternoon we made a spontaneous trip to IKEA which was lickety-quick thanks to Mandy's car.

We changed and then went into the city for dinner and a show!! Dan and I got tickets for us to see Anastaisa as a special thank you for Mandy uprooting her entire life to move out to the East Coast and help us out when the baby arrives.

We all loved it!! It was similar to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in that there were a few familiar songs (like "Once Upon a December" and "Journey to the Past") but otherwise it was all new music and the plot was different than the movie. Mandy and I both put it in our top three favorite shows and I'd gladly see it many more times.

For the Fourth of July we slept-in again and then headed to the park to catch some sunnies and play Monopoly Deal, which, evidently, Mandy was not a fan of.

^^ Mandy cheesing it up with the baby bump ^^

We got soaked in sweat walking home and just chilled inside until Mandy headed back to NJ mid-afternoon (to avoid holiday traffic).

We had a great weekend mixed with lots of relaxing downtime, fun excursions, sun, summer, holiday spirit, and lots of laughs. None of us saw any fireworks but we'll remedy that this coming weekend.