bars and more bars

Some dear friends from Virginia (the Pinkneys) were in town a few weeks ago and we were so excited to have them over for dinner (along with a few families in our ward that they knew from years back...small world). It was a good excuse to try some new recipes, and my old favorite lemon bar recipe.

 Samoa cookie bars. Recipe found HERE. So good. I especially loved the shortbread crust on these.

Chocolate peanut butter cup brownie bars. Recipe found HERE. Intense chocolatey goodness.

saturday with elsa

Elsa and I spent a few hours together one Saturday helping out a local ministry in downtown Raleigh. We helped organize clothing donations for the homeless people living downtown. Ben had helped out earlier in the morning building shelves. I loved getting to spend some time with just Elsa. We went out to lunch at Tasty 8 afterward and then stopped at Lucette Grace, a fun bakery downtown. We picked up a few pastries to take home and also stopped by Boulted Bread to pick up a chocolate croissant (Elsa always thinks of Amelia when she's not there and knew that chocolate croissants were her favorite and wanted to bring one back for her). We also got a chocolate chess pie at Boulted which was delicious.

Simon was eager to try some pastries.

Charlotte: Freedom Park

We stopped at Freedom Park in Charlotte for a dinner picnic and some play time. They had a fun obstacle course that everyone loved. We made a quick stop at Ikea before heading back home.

Charlotte: Botanical Garden

On one of the two days the girls actually had for spring break, we took a little day trip to Charlotte. We crossed over the border into South Carolina to have lunch at Culver's and get our fix of fried cheese curds and frozen custard. Then we headed to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. The kids loved running around here and especially loved playing in the fountain and the children's garden.

Soaking wet.

Of course Simon fell in the muddy pond.