Hello Monday- Celebrating three birthdays

Linking up with  Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

 We had a fun weekend celebrating three birthdays: two people's and a dog's.

Friday evening, it was just Donnie and I at home.  I was going to make homemade pizza. It is our Friday night stand by meal if we don't have plans or if Abby is not home with us (she doesn't care for it so I don't make it if she's with us). Since Abby was home for almost all of December and January, we hadn't had it in a long time. My pizza making skills must be rusty because the dough did not want to stretch over the baking pan. I decided to pivot and make calzones with the dough since it was being uncooperative vis a vis pizza. I had never made them before but the concept seemed pretty easy. I guessed on the time it would take them to bake in the oven and got lucky because it was the perfect amount of time. They turned out pretty good but Donnie and I agree that we both prefer pizza to calzones (at least between my homemade pizza and the calzones that I made on Friday).

I definitely didn't fold the dough up the correct calzone way but for winging it, I didn't think it looked too bad!

Saturday morning, I ran first thing. It was cold though the temperature was projected to rise a decent bit, thankfully.

I guess I'm tougher than the stick person runner on Weather Bug's app, lol.

I survived the "extreme" weather conditions to come home to decorate Alyssa's birthday cake. I had already decided that I was going for a Valentine's Day theme so I baked chocolate cakes in the shape of hearts (since the kids are too old for themed birthdays, mama gets to decide on them, lol) and decorated them.

I thought it turned out pretty cute: 

Normally, when I have cakes to layer, I frost the middle layer, the sides and the top. But I was OK with trying something new...

Here was my inspo:

There was no way I was cutting the cakes to get four layers; I got anxiety just thinking about the low probability that I would cut them evenly across. No way, Jose. So my Alyssa's cake just had the two layers. (Truly Alyssa cared not one bit what I did with a cake for her birthday. She doesn't like cake and only requested rice krispie treats. I made the cake to have a traditional birthday dessert.)

Here is the top layer decorated

And here is the bottom layer

After I finished with the cakes, Alyssa and I went to the mall. We had coupons to Bath & Body Works for free small items so we had to take advantage of those. Then Alyssa wanted to look for a Valentine's Day themed or at least pink or red shirt. We found a cute one and looked briefly at the prom dresses at Macy's. Alyssa didn't see any she liked; actual prom shopping will be its own endeavor. This was just a walk by to see if anything caught her fancy. 

For dinner, we met friends to celebrate our good friend Clint's birthday. We ate at Bravo's- it was good and we had many laughs and a good time. After dinner, we went to our friend's house where we had another birthday celebration for Clint and his wife Christine's dog Roxy. 

We all had a good time but suffice it to say that no one had a better time than Roxy who got to eat a Happy Meal. Her smile cracks me up:

14 looks good on you, Roxy!

We got home late but I got started on the balloon arch for Alyssa's birthday celebration the following day and Donnie and I watched an episode of Stranger Things (odd, odd, odd but it's entertaining). Poor Donnie awoke a few times in the night because several of the balloons popped. Inexplicably, I slept through it. 

Sunday morning was a run, finishing the balloon arch and then going to church. Church was good and then it was time to get home to get ready for Alyssa's birthday party. I had to make her rice krispie treats and run to the store to pick up a few items. 

Family came over Sunday evening to celebrate Alyssa's birthday. It was great to see everyone. We'd not seen family since Christmas.

Lyss-byss

Alyssa got everything on her birthday wish list (it wasn't that extensive!!)

After everyone left, I worked on this post and then Donnie and I watched Netflix for an hour before bed. And that was our birthday fun filled weekend...