March is here!  YAY!  Bring on the Spring!  My favorite season of the year!  But before I get too carried away thinking of all things Spring, I need to pause and look back at all the good things February gave to me…and there were quite a few!

FAVORITE #1

(Plants and Planting)

It was CRAZY!  On February 2nd, we had icicles hanging from the roof, and then 3 days later, it was a beautiful Spring-like day!  I took the opportunity to put in our onions we had received the previous week and also a couple of short rows of sugar snap peas.

It seemed to take longer than usual this year for the peas to sprout, but by the end of the month, they were up and looking good!

 

We were glad to see tomato plants at H-E-B on the last Sunday of the month, and quickly placed some nice-looking ones in our cart.  Two Celebrities and three Romas.  It won’t be time to plant them for at least a couple of weeks, but we’ll keep them in the garage in the meantime.

 

I was happy to see these Bloomaker tulips at Costco!  I had bought one quite a few years ago when Mom was still living to brighten her bedside.  This time, I bought six: three for me and three for Cara and the girls who we were expecting to visit soon.

When I bought them, some had buds showing and some didn’t, but in just a matter of days, they were bloomed out and gorgeous!  Their website gives instructions on how to preserve them for fall planting once they’ve finished, so I’m going to give that a go.  I think Cara and the girls are going to try with theirs, too.  Fun!

I think I post pictures of the daffodils every year, but I just can’t help myself!  They’re so cheerful at the end of winter.  We have super-pale yellow ones, and then we have some bright yellow ones.  I like the contrast!

 

Also, it looks like all of the ones I took to Cara in Louisiana last fall have come up!  She has 24 that have shot up, and a few have bloomed so far.  She, too, got the mix of colors.  I love that they were able to be shared with her successfully!

 

FAVORITE #2

My perfume that I’ve been using for well over a year now was getting low, so I decided it was time to shop for a new fragrance.  There have been a couple of times that I’ve gotten sampler sets from Sephora, and included in the set is a coupon for a full-size of whichever you choose as your favorite.  So I got this sampler set:

It was fun trying the different fragrances, and later in the month when the girls were here, I had fun sharing them with Helen.  She then had fun sharing them with her mom and Edie.  I ended up giving the samples to her.  I’ve decided to use my coupon to get either the Jo Malone fragrance or the Prada I think.

 

FAVORITE #3

On Valentine’s Day, I worked out at OTF.  I met someone I had seen there many times, but didn’t know.  Our shirts gave us the impetus to introduce ourselves to each other.  🤪  Pat had on a red shirt with a heart very similar to mine.

 

FAVORITE #4

(A Fun Sunday!)

The Bovets arrived in the late afternoon on Saturday the 18th!  The following day Cara, the girls, and I drove to Casa Manana in Ft. Worth to see the Charlotte’s Web play.

 

 

While we were at the play, the guys were back home.  Paul helped Big Eagle install a new microwave above our stovetop to replace the old one that was on the blink.  After the play, we met Paul and Big Eagle at REI, so Helen could be fitted for a serious hiking backpack.  She will be participating in a 2-week hiking camp in the Swiss Alps this summer, so preparations are underway!  It’s hard for me to fathom that she’s grown up enough to do a trip like that, but in fact, she is.  She’ll become a teenager in less than a month!

By the time we finished at REI, everyone was hungry, so we had dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in Ft. Worth: Campisi’s.

We made fast work of our appetizers and moved on to the salads.  Guess I should have done something with my settings…weird how the camera focused more on the guy behind Edie than the intended subjects of the photo. 🤔

 

FAVORITE #5

Be still my heart!  The next morning, Erin texted our family this sonogram photo of our first grandson!  So so precious!

Just look at that sweet face!  What technology can show us these days is just so wondrous to me!  Every time I look at this, I just itch to meet and hold this sweet baby boy.  Her due date is April 17th, so we have about a month and a half to go!

 

FAVORITE #6

Okay, so above I was talking about how grown-up Helen has become, but she still likes to play.  How do I know this, you say?  Uh…when I discovered no less than 27 selfies that she took with my phone in one sitting?  Yeah…she likes to play!

 

I discovered these quite a few days after they had left, so it made me laugh, and it made me happy.  I love this girl!

 

FAVORITE #7

You may remember that my siblings, as part of a 50th wedding anniversary gift, gave Big Eagle and I a gift card to go toward a cooking class at Sur la Table.  On President’s Day, we attended the class titled “A Classic French Meal”.

The protein was Steak Au Poivre with Flamed Brandy and Mustard Sauce.  Look at these cuts of New York strip!

This was our second time to take a cooking class at Sur la Table, and the set up was pretty much the same as the first time.  They pair you up with the couple next to you to work as a team.  The ingredients you need for each element of the meal are arranged on trays underneath your cooking station.  This was the tray we would use to make the Flamed Brandy and Mustard Sauce that would accompany our steaks.

In the center of the three men cooking is Big Eagle working on our steaks.  It was a little cramped with all those guys cooking at the one stove top at the same time, but it all worked out.  They seared the steaks on the stove, then the pans were transferred to the oven to finish the cook.  Isn’t it funny that none of the women cooked the steaks?

Dessert was prepared while the steaks were in the oven.  Chocolate Grand Marnier Souffle…and it was SO good!

The last thing that was cooked was the sauce for the steak.

And here is the finished plate: the steak with sauce, perfectly roasted potatoes with herbs, and salad verte with french vinaigrette.  Let me tell you, the potatoes were some of the best I’ve ever had, and the steak was perfect!  I would say the salad was the least impressive, but even it was still good.

Got a pic of our team before we dug into our food!

And another pic with Chef Michael in the center.  Do our bellies look bigger?  Because at this point, we had cleaned our plates and scarfed down our dessert, too!  Such a fun and delicious night!

 

FAVORITE #8

On Tuesday the 21st, Cara, the girls, and I went to the Parks Mall in Arlington to have an escape room experience!  I had never participated in one of these before, so it was a first for me!

I think it was around 1 in the afternoon when we got to the mall, and at the escape room place, the first experience we could book didn’t start until 2:45.  So we booked it and then went around to see what else we could see in the mall until it was time to come back.

We ended up at the skating rink, and the girls went ice skating for a while.

 

After that, we got some teas and walked around a little more, and by then it was time to head back to the escape room.  It was an interesting experience.  They have several differently themed rooms, and the one we did was called Mystery Mansion.  And while the game master had told us it wasn’t scary at all, Edie did find it scary, so she wasn’t very “into” it.  I thought Helen and Cara were quite good at finding clues, while I only contributed a tiny bit.  In the end, we came close to solving the mystery, but we were unable to solve it in the time allotted.  They won’t let you take pictures inside the room, but afterward they took our picture, and since we weren’t successful, we did our best impersonations of sad expressions.

 

The funny thing was that it inspired Edie to come home and create her own escape room in the addition for us to solve.  I was VERY impressed at her creation, too, and we had fun solving it!  Love that girl!

 

FAVORITE #9

The next day was Wednesday…the last day before the Bovets left.  Helen had been wanting to experiment with having some makeup fun.  She wanted to do half of my face with a natural makeup look and the other half with what she called a “diva” look.  I indulged her, but I was surprised when she started by drawing a black line down the center of my face!  Yikes!  It was fun, though, and Edie helped her.  When they were done with me, Edie and I decided to give Helen the same treatment.  And when we were done with Helen, she and I worked on Edie.  It was just a hilarious time, and here are the results!

 

FAVORITE #10

When we had gone to HEB the day before to pick up some groceries, Cara bought one of these sushi candy kit for the girls to have fun with.

 

So while Cara, Big Eagle, and I were playing Rummikub that afternoon, the girls got busy making their sushi candy.  As they made it, they brought us little tastes of it, and it was actually pretty good!  I wish I had taken a picture of their other creations, but I didn’t think to do it until the last plate they brought to show us:

It even had candy-flavored soy sauce in it to make.  So cute!  If you have kids or grandkids that might have fun with something like this, I would definitely recommend it!  I saw that it is also sold on Amazon.

It was a fun February, and as you can see, whenever my family visits it makes everything extra fun!  And now we March on to spring!  Yay!  I would love to read about YOUR February favorites or anything else you want to share!  Please feel free to comment below!