February Fave Five #3

It's Friday and the last day of our winter break from school/work.  Well, we have this weekend but tomorrow a.m. my teenager has her 3 hour drivers ed. class/driving time and in the afternoon we need to do some shopping for raincoats for our trip to France.  Sunday brings church, a full cast rehearsal for the spring musical, and then just a short hour break and then my youngest has to be back for a dance rehearsal.  And then.....reality will hit and we'll have another Sunday nite off rushing around getting ready for the work week/back to school.  It has been a fairly good week all in all!  

Here are FIVE of my favorite things from the week that God has blessed me with......but...there are SIX pictures......ENJOY!!

This Valentine card from my husband, Dave.

All I can say is:  WOW.

He found the perfect card for us.

Note the Eiffel Tower in the background.

He plans on meeting me there for a kiss and a date.

It will be our first nite in Paris!

Just a few more weeks.......

This board game that my husband bought last week.  He had discovered this game while chaperoning a high school youth group convention last month.  He thought, since we like Risk (well, ok...HE likes Risk) and Monopoly, that we would enjoy this game.  He was correct!  My teenager tolerated it, my "tween" likes it and wants to try to beat Daddy and I LOVE it.  I am hooked!  It is so much better for me than Monopoly because it only takes about 1-2 hours to play rather than days....lol.....we enjoyed 3 family game nites thus far and Yes, I did win.  But just once.  We battle it out again tonite!!

 

A snowy backyard.

Yes, believe it or not, snow makes my fave five list this week.

But only because it is our first snowfall since Dec. 9th!!

Seriously, here in the Capital Region of NYS,

we have had a very mild winter.  

So....Tuesday, mid-morning, it began to snow 

and didn't stop until late afternoon.

I sure didn't mind as a friend from church picked up my youngest

to go play with her youngest.

They had fun sledding and playing American Girl Dolls.....

meanwhile I am sliding all over the roads

meeting my husband for a lunch date!

Once I was back home, my teen and I enjoyed a steaming mug

of French Vanilla coffee and our books

and just watched the snow fall.

It was pretty. 

And we are on Winter Break so was perfect timing.

It can go away now though :)

This tea!!

It was sent to me by E-mom from Chrysalis blog!!

I am more of a coffee drinker than a tea drinker as most of you know.  However, these flavors are unbelievable. I had no idea there were so many varieties of tea in the world.  My husband likes tea  so I am gonna share this with him during our evening times together.....the really neat thing is that she included the little book about tea.  All of this trivia about tea!  It is fascinating!  The 3 flavors I show in front of the book are what will  get me through the next few weeks until we leave for Paris....and Spring arrives!  Check out these flavors:  Citrus Bouquet, Spring Flowers, and Whispers of Summer. Tonite I plan on trying my first cup of tea from this gift.....it will warm my body and my soul as I sip and reflect on the blessings of God and the blessings of blogging buddies!

Being on Winter Break with:

My oldest daughter.  This is Courtney.  I love her so much and although the teenage years can be trying, she is just such a good kid that we really do have a good relationship.  I am featuring her and her little sister this week because some of my favorite moments have been with them this week.  We've played Settlers of Catan, slept in late, eaten chocolate chip pancakes (well, they did the eating, I did the cooking!),  visited with friends, sang Abba songs loudly in the car, fully cleaned our house and re-organized many areas in preparation for our Paris trip and just basically relaxed together.  Courtney and I even had a library date while Claire had a Sunday afternoon dance rehearsal.  It was so much fun browsing for  new books together and discovering that some of my fave authors are now Courtney's fave authors (we share a love for the Mitford series and for Maeve Binchy books!)  I love my 16 year old!!

And....my youngest, Claire.  She is a lively eleven year old and is so precious to me.  All week she has had fun with friends, her American Girl Doll, sledding in snow (finally!), reading next to me in bed, sleeping in, watching movies, and playing board games with us.  She is quite the strategist in Settlers of Catan!  She brings laughter to our house and is always making me smile.  I have loved being on Winter Break this week with my girls!!

Many thanks to my blogging buddy Susanne from Living to Tell the Story for hosting this fun meme each week.....blessings to you all as you begin your weekend!