big weekend

We started our weekend with a birthday celebration for Michael! Reese was so excited to help me make a birthday cake for him. All week long we talked about what kind of cake Daddy should have--Reese thought it should be pink, naturally. Luckily, Michael requested a strawberry cake, so pink it was!

Recently, Reese has found a new interest in helping me bake. She loves to pull a chair over and stand with me by the KitchenAid and pour in one ingredient after another. And, of course, her favorite part is tasting!

Reese helped me make the cake before her nap and the frosting after. She insisted that she sleep in her apron that afternoon. The cake was delicious and I have never been prouder of little Reese!

The next day, we headed to Atlanta to see what we could see. Ever since I read this post on Bakerella's website, I could not wait to plan a trip to Atlanta to go to Sublime and try these fabulous-looking doughnuts! You know how I feel about cupcakes...but to try doughnuts in cupcake-like flavors?! So exciting! We called some friends in Atlanta to meet us to sample as many of these delicious doughnuts as we could handle. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures, but the doughnuts were fabulous!!! We tried Fresh Strawberries n' Creme, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Orange Dream Star (Reese picked this one and still talks about the star doughnuts!), Frosted Croissant, S'mores, and Cookies n' Cream (Oreo). My favorite was the Oreo doughnut, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for anything with Oreos! There were a couple that I didn't get to try this time around and my mouth waters when I think about going back!

After doughnuts, we went to the Centennial Olympic Park. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It had been in the 90s for a few days before, but on Saturday it was just sunny with a cool breeze. The perfect spring day! We brought a suit for Reese and let her run around and play in the sprayground. She still isn't quite down with actually running into the fountains, but she does love to stand on the sideline and watch everyone else getting wet.

And she just loves the new bathing suit she picked out with the Monkey girl!

We rounded out the day with a trip to Flip Burger, another restaurant on my radar of places to try. The chef and creative director is Richard Blais, a former contestant of Top Chef: Chicago. I'm pretty sure he was the first runner up of that season and was really fun to watch--he always made amazing looking and sounding dishes. So, naturally, I was really excited to eat at one of his restaurants. And it was fabulous!!! If a traditional burger is what you want, then you can certainly find it there. But the menu also offers such creations as an ossobuco burger, a shrimp burger, a chorizo burger, and a po boyger. And they have liquid nitrogen milkshakes! The four of us each got a different burger and the three that I tasted were excellent! I found out that there is also a Flip Burger in Birmingham (about an hour closer to us) and I cannot wait to go back!

We made it home from Atlanta just in time to finish our talks for church the next day...in the Spanish Sacrament meeting. Not my first choice of things to do on Mother's Day, especially since I don't speak Spanish, but that is another story for another post. In the words of Michael, "It went better than I thought it would." Thanks. But I did come home from church that day with two roses, two chocolate covered strawberries and a half dozen chocolate dipped sugar cookies left over from Primary. Not a bad way to round of the weekend!