Happy Valentine's Day!

Keith & I learned several years ago to never go out on actual Valentine's Day, so we usually go out on the 13th or 15th, once the crowds die down.  This year, I think we'll be celebrating some time in March, there's no way we're blowing our entire Restaurant budget on one meal unless we're really sure that I'll be able to enjoy it.

But, Keith's been such a trooper lately, doing all his work, along with mine, I thought it would be nice to try to make a special meal for the two of us.  I found a pot roast recipe I thought he'd like, so today seemed like as good a day as any to try it out.  Of course, if I REALLY loved Keith, I would have made pork chops, but everyone has their limits.  (I did manage to remember the crock-pot liner, so he doesn't have to spend the entire evening scrubbing pots)

And, I made Kahlua chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate butter cream frosting.

I pulled out all the stops, I'm wearing red, I have a fancy do-dad in my hair, and I'm wearing makeup (for probably the first time in weeks).

I even set the table with real china & everything.

The goal is to put Parker down for an early bed-time and have dinner just the two of us, we'll see how that goes.  We'd like to make this a bi-weekly date-night (if we can't do it now, there's no way we'll be able to do it with two kiddos), but that plan has been on-hold until we reached the 2nd trimester honeymoon period.  This will be a good dry-run to see how it goes in the future.

Parker's been pretty cranky and sleepy this week, so he actually went along with the early-dinner and early-bedtime idea.

Especially when he realized that he got his own cupcake (minus the Kahlua and frosting, of course).

So we just needed to pour the wine and enjoy!  Red for Keith, White (Grape Peach juice) for me.

Just don't look too closely at the cupcakes, they're not my proudest accomplishment.  I realized far too late that we only had a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar in the house (that's enough for about 4 cupcakes).  Then I added too much milk, and there wasn't anything I could do, since the powdered sugar was gone.  So, they were a little mushy.

Mushy frosting aside, we had a great evening hanging out like grownups.  We even stayed at the dinner table talking until 10:15.  Okay, that's not soo late, but for this pregnant Mama, that's WAY past my bedtime.

Happy Valentine's Day!