be mine, valentine! but give me the stretchy pants because I'm going back for seconds.

valentine's weekend was absolutely fabulous this year. aside from the fact that the Browns were in town visiting and sleeping in our guest room, we had a great time feasting and playing with all sorts of friends. a common thread was my expanding waistline, and it had nothing to do with my growing little spaghetti squash (we're about 11 inches long at 22 weeks!). girls night started it off Friday with sushi - in preggo-speak, that was a seaweed salad and 2 orders of cucumber rolls - and dessert of chocolate fondue with goodies to be dipped and s'mores at Whit's. I lumbered home happy as a clam.

Saturday night we went to dinner at BT's house with some other friends and absolutely gorged ourselves on good food and great company. she'd prepared a sensational shrimp bisque to start, then we moved on to homemade crab cakes, then steamed mussels in a delicious broth with bread for dipping, then the main course of paella, scallop casserole, beet and citrus salad, and fruit. when I crawled into bed I could barely breathe.








we also came home with sweet valentine's cards and a gorgeous, longlonglong-stemmed rose courtesy of PRice, which made the ladies all feel so special. mine went into a gorgeous bunch of wildflowers given to us by the Browns. here's Bethy and I before church showing off our bumps and maternity wear (see, sister-in-law - your clothing is being used! and getting compliments, I might add!):



Sunday was officially V-day, so we took part in our annual Sweetheart Banquet at church, a celebration honoring our older members. it went off really well - the food all turned out great, and my little cupcakes ended up being gobbled up. they were supposed to be red velvet, but I didn't use quite enough red food coloring. oh well... they were really tasty, easy to make, and looked so pretty on the platter Aunt Paula gave me and YaYa's cake stand:




other snapshots taken:







I was trying to get clear photos of E & M playing, and finally gave up and embraced the energy and happiness of two little girls having a giggly blast:









as for Mr. Bell and I, we ended up going to the house to work for a bit, then going and price-shopping at the hardware store, then finally came home to share some sparkling water, pizza, and chocolate-pecan-covered granny smith apple whilst watching Castle and Mad Men. heady love-stuff, indeed.

s.w.a.k.

-m.y.