You know those weekends where you have nothing planned and you catch up on laundry, work, organize your closet maybe even paint your nails. Kind of boring, but productive. Then you have those weekends that are chock-full of fun. Mine was the latter:

Friday:

I had a girls night out to celebrate the wonderful Miss Mary Kay’s (also knows as Miss Mary Tay by her preschoolers) birthday – she is the cute blonde on the left. This photo is also courtesy of the lovely @LDeppert:

We had a great dinner at Lolita and I even convinced the girls to try my favorite appetizer, bone marrow.

After dinner, on cue Jenny brought up dessert and of course we were all down. So we decided to take the two block walk in the 8 degree, blizzard-like weather to get a scoop or two from Tremont Scoops. But as we neared the door we knew something was amiss. Little did we know that they close for the winter season. Jenny’s reaction summed it up for all 5 of us:

Even the ice cream statue was looking yummy at that point. We needed to find a back-up plan pronto.

So where do you go when you need ice cream on a snowy night in the middle of January at 10:00 in Cleveland? You drive to Mitchell’s Ice Cream, duh!

Happy Birthday, Mary Kay, thanks for letting us celebrate with you!

Saturday:

Audit season has begun so I lose my husband every weeknight, but worse every Saturday until about 2:00. So if anyone wants to entertain me for the next three months I will have plenty of hubby-free time.

After Jared was set-free from work we met two great friends from Youngstown (our hometown), Kory and Nancy for a little double date. Our first stop was Beachwood Place Mall where I pulled the trigger on my first Madewell purchase. I basically want one of everything in the store, but since I haven’t hit the lottery yet I have to settle for just drooling over everything. I almost bought this cute slouchy brown sweater with purple and blue hearts, but Kory told me I would look like a teddy bear. Needless to say I did not ask his opinion on anything else. Love you Coop!

Ultimately, the elbow patches are what sold me on this fuzzy, neon purple sweater.

After a little more shopping we headed over to The Cheesecake Factory for Nancy’s first CF experience.  We had a great time catching up and reading the official Cheesecake Factory Novel (their menu). Our next date will be at the Melting pot, who wants to join us?

Since I know you are all dying to know our cheesecake selections:
Me – Oreo Cheesecake (which I am eating the rest of while I type away)
Jared – Adam’s Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake
Nancy – Turtle Cheesecake
Kory – White Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake

What’s your favorite slice of cheesecake heaven?

The night did not end there for Jared and I, we had tickets to see the Alonzo King Lines Ballet at Playhouse Square’s Ohio Theater presented by Dance Cleveland. Apparently Alonzo is the real-deal in the ballet world: “Alonzo King is one of the few bona fide visionaries in the ballet world today.” – San Francisco Chronicle. It was our first ballet, and we must have picked the right piece to see as newbies. It was absolutely beautiful and striking in all the right ways. Any ballet connoisseurs out there? What piece should we see next, we are kind of hooked.

Sunday:

Sunday was a little more low key. I made my rounds to Pat Catan’s and Jo-Anne’s to pick up supplies for my latest craft project. I cannot tell you what it is just yet, but I will be posting soon, promise.

Overall it was a great weekend with great friends. Here’s to reveling at the little things.