Because, wine.

I'm not exactly sure what the theme was for Summer, 2012 but I have decided that 2013 is all about the vineyards.  Wine is gluten free.  Vineyards are beautiful.  Yes, I realize we live in Nebraska but I'll take what I can get.  And the place we visited on Friday evening was the bee's knees.  Glacial Till is near Bennett, Ne which is a decent drive from our house, but totally worth it.  The Chambourcin was red and dry and I had the whole bottle to myself.  The music was fun.  I danced with Willa.  They had a visiting brewery, which made the gentleman happy.  You know where to find me every other Friday night from now until the end of summer.

And...if you don't get the title of this post then you have not been following my directions all along.  Shame on you.

Berry Pickin' (#190)

Willa and I visited Martin's Apple Orchard this past week, to pick some strawberries!  We had gone in the fall for apples, and they were the best apples I had ever tasted, so I had high hopes for the berries.  We were not disappointed!  And, it was so much fun to look for them and pick them all by ourselves!  We filled one of those white buckets nearly full, for under $3.  Can't beat that.  That evening, we made strawberry shortcake for ourselves and for my mom.  Such a perfect summer food.

The holiday of L-O-V-E

I feel like we kind of made Valentine's Day a big deal this year.  I think it was because Willa got to celebrate at preschool and that got her kind of revved up for it.  Usually, aside from my love of the colors red and pink together, I'm not a huge fan.  (If any of you reading ever lived in Babcock Hall from the years 1998-2000, do you always on Valentine's Day picture those cut-outs in the bathroom that were from "the magazines"?  With the strategically positioned construction paper flaps?  I do.)  

Anyhooters...this year was fun!  On the Monday before Valentine's Day, we had a family date downtown.  First, we got coffee at Indigo Bridge, then we made stuff at Paint Yourself Silly, then we had ice cream at Ivanna Cone, and then we had dinner at Bison Witch's.  All fun stuff.  Lots of good food.  I swear Willie was having more fun than it looks like she was having.  She painted herself a little duck and also helped with Brad's pencil cup.  I think she has figured out how OCD I am about certain things, as she didn't even ask if she could help with my spoon rest.  She knows I would freak out if she painted out of my lines.  And today, she wouldn't let me play Monopoly with her, as she said I would make her play it "the right way."  Damn straight, child.  

Wednesday night, we made brownies.  And we ate a lot of frosting.

Thursday night, Brad brought home Noodles and had flowers and wine awaiting us:)  Note that he has learned that I do not think that roses are pretty flowers.  No picture, but I bought him some spicy garlic sauce from BW3s.  And some pink sea salt.  A tasty gift, but I did feel a little lame when another gift arrived for me the next day and it was this little guy that I have been wanting and wanting and he cost much more than wing sauce...

See?  Cute little guy.  Ready for a cute little plant, when I find the one that I am imagining.

All in all, it was a very nice holiday.  But Easter is my favorite and it is next.  And again, I have sworn off excess/refined sugar from Valentine's Day through Easter.  So Friday morning, I gave away the leftover brownies and have been saying no to all my favorite things ever since.  No, that was pretty dramatic but I did order black coffee at Scooters while Willa ate red velvet cupcake ice cream with M & M's on top the other day.  And today while we were snowed in all day, I may have mixed a lot of unsweetened cocoa powder with peanut butter, honey and banana and eaten it like yogurt.  I'm really blurring the lines of what is acceptable, natural sugar and what isn't.  Honey?  Really?!?  I was desperate.  Brad is giving up soda.  I am so proud of how well he is doing.  We stocked up on many flavors of green tea to get us through.  Tosha gave up meat again.  She is discovering the joys of Trader Joe's Meatless Meatballs.  We are all suffering together:)  Except Willa.  She is getting a really sick kind of pleasure out of my inability to eat candy.  She went so far as to rub my back with a little bag of Valentine M & M's the other day, singing to me about how they are made of sugar.  Mean, mean little creature.  Its fine.  I'll get her back on Easter Day.  The Easter bunny might bring her a basket with only candy wrappers.  Wrappers from reece's eggs, starburst jelly beans, and sweet tart bunnies and chicks.  I really like Easter.

Favorite places

One of my biggest weaknesses (and possibly one of the reasons we are not quite out of debt) is going out to eat.  Especially when the weather is beautiful and you can sit outside and have a good drink.  It doesn't have to be a whole meal, either.  I get unnaturally excited about iced coffee and/or scones, too.

 Mom, Willa and I like to frequent Bread and Cup after the Downtown Farmers Market on Saturday afternoons.  Oooh.  Or the Green Gateau.

A favorite with Brad?  Yia Yia's.  The vegan pizza with capers is delish.  Not everyone can get their vegan "cheese" so melty and cheese-like.  Another plus is the fact that I don't think I've ever had the same beer twice there.  Extensive beer menu.  If we are downtown and aren't at Yia Yia's, the second best bet is probably Bison Witch's.  We even rode our bikes there one night!

Willa had a doctor's appointment one day, not too far back.  Nothing big, not even any shots or anything.  But I *might* have told her if she was a big girl during the appointment that we could go somewhere for ice cream or a cupcake.  Does anyone else do this with their kids?  Reward them with things that they themselves want??  We couldn't make up our minds which sounded better so we went to Toast, where they have both!  We didn't actually order both, but I did let Willa decide which she wanted and she went with ice cream.  She said chocolate, I ordered cappuccino behind her back.  She didn't know the difference:)  If you've never been to Toast, it is fantastic.  It just happens to be the closest place to our house to eat and we are darn lucky.  They have great sandwiches, soup, and a homemade veggie burger that is very impressive.  And their coconut iced coffee is my favorite treat after I go for a long run out in Fallbrooke.  It is very hilly there, so I always earn my treat.

So, there ya have it!  Our favorite places to eat this summer!  In addition to all the sushi places, but I feel like we have covered our family's love of sushi.  Brad and I have a little "date night" in the next few days.  We have been making a date night out of shopping for Willa's birthday and Christmas presents for the last 3 years...so that makes about 2 dates per year that we go on.  I think I have him talked into trying something new (to him.)  We'll see how that turns out (he's kind of the pickiest eater on planet earth.)  Not to spoil the surprise about where we go...but if you had to pick between Thai and Indian, which would you pick?!?

A day with the girls

On Saturday, Mom, Willa and I spent the better part of the day in Omaha.  Mom and I had talked about a day of antique store shopping for quite some time and we finally got around to doing it!  We checked out some really fun stores in and around the Old Market area.  Then, we made a stop for lunch at Roja.  It seems that when the 3 of us are out and about together, we always end up at a place with a very Spanish sounding name.  And margaritas.  

And yes, this is a picture of my lunch.  Veggie tacos.  They were so good that I was hoping if I took a picture of them I could recreate them at home.  Except for the whole homemade tortilla thing, which is sad because that is the best part.

My favorite picture from the day:)

I love the progression of these pictures of Willa.  This was at the end of the day, after we had been in probably 10 different stores.  She was pooped!  We're talkin' nearly asleep on the table.  But as soon as the waiter brought us our "snack" (of a giant piece of chocolate cake:) she perked right up!  And ate nearly all of the frosting.  And the cherry.

I wish I would have taken a few more pictures of some of the fun things we found but I guess I was too distracted by the other fun things we were finding.  I really liked the shape of this chair.  And even his orange color, even though my first inclination with older chairs is to recover the fabric.

Willa found a drum set that was just her size.  And don't we all want our kids to have their own drum sets?  They produce such a soothing sound.

This is the only guy I brought home with me.  He may not be much to look at right now, but he is oh so comfortable, and in my head he looks fabulous in a new outfit.  I found him in a really fun store called 

Back in the Day for dirt cheap.  Like, under $20 cheap.  

Upon returning to Lincoln, we joined a fun group of folks for a game of pitch, some wine and appetizers, and great conversation.  Many thanks to the Christensen sisters for their hospitality!  If you are curious where Brad was all day, I will just say that he attended a bachelor party.  And resurfaced at 5:30am.  That is all:)

Recommended Shopping

Don't these puppies look good with a few of my other Christmas decorations??

I was finally able to shop a bit with my mom a few days back and we went to a store that she has been telling me about for a few weeks.  Its called Cool and Collected and it is located near 13th and Hwy 2.  If you have any interest in anything vintage, antique, retro, used, just plain awesome...you should really check it out.  I only took pictures of a few of the things that I loved.  I took the ornaments home with me, as well as the letter V.  Its not very often that a lady can find a bright yellow letter V!  I was really thinking that the yellow dresser would look absolutely perfect in a nursery, maybe painted a different color, its kind of a rough shade of yellow for such a big piece of furniture.  Painting/refinishing furniture makes me nervous as heck but its something I'd like to master someday.  And those chairs???  Recovered?  Ugh.  I think the owner of this store is gonna have to get used to my face.  Poor guy.