(photo courtesy of Atlanta Food Walks)

For Christmas, my mom was given a really fun, thoughtful gift from our family friend –  tickets to Atlanta Food Walks, a walking food tour through downtown Atlanta. Our friend asked if I could join mom for the outing, so I happily obliged. 🙂

We met at Paschal’s and our lovely tour guide, Ashley, started off with some history about Atlanta and the Civil Rights Movement. Did you know that Paschal’s is the unofficial headquarters of the CRM? She and our guide-in-training shared so many interesting stories about the city’s history, much of which tied in with food and the restaurants we would be visiting. i won’t spoil any more tidbits for anyone who might want to take this tour, but I will share more photos, because of course I took some at almost every stop.

(photo by our tour guide, Ashley)

We had the most delicious, moist and crispy fried chicken at Paschal’s (which was Dr. Martin Luther King’s favorite, and I can see why), yams, chicken gravy, and dressing. Even after going to seven restaurants/food stands, the chicken was definitely one of the most popular items among our tour group.

Smoke Ring, which we’d actually been to once a few years ago, served up a large plate of BBQ samples and a strawberry lemonade moonshine cocktail. Mom tried pork belly for the first time, and I think everyone cleaned their plates at this stop.

(photo by our tour guide, Ashley)

We walked a couple miles to Arden’s Garden and tasted a couple juices as well as “cheesy” kale chips. I also bought some Fuzzy Kisses… any guesses as to what those are?

Sweet Auburn Curb Market was our last stop, which included 4 food stand “tastes” — Grindhouse Killer Burgers, Just Add Honey (a boutique Southern tea shop), Metro Deli (soul food, including a really tasty hoecake), and Miss D’s Pralines (so many amazing sweets).

My mom and I loved our afternoon spent together being touristy, learning some really neat things about the city’s history, and eating our way through Downtown. The tour guides were wonderful and so knowledgeable, and everything we tasted was fantastic. I highly recommend this for both visitors and locals. We can always stand to learn more about our great city, right?

(photo by our tour guide, Ashley)

Last weekend, I co-hosted a baby shower for my brother and my sister-in-law, who are expecting their first baby in April. It’s hard to believe that we’re that far along in our lives that my little brother is about to become a dad (!!), but I was honored and so excited to be a part of throwing this shower for them. I joined forces with her two childhood best friends, who are some of the sweetest, most fun and creative ladies I know.

The chosen theme was woodland chic, and we hosted at my brother’s in-laws’ beautiful home, which looks like an art gallery (her dad is a very talented, self-taught artist). We had so much fun running with this theme, and I think it turned out beautifully. We incorporated a trail mix bar for guests to make party favors, and we used the cutest little teepee to hold gifts, and it’ll later be added to baby boy’s nursery.

I photographed the shower, and I couldn’t resist sharing some shots with y’all. The little woodsy details sprinkled throughout were some of my favorite parts, but the absolute best part was being surrounded by about 45 of their closest friends and both of our families to celebrate them and their little one on the way. He is already so loved, and I just can’t wait to become an aunt soon!!

I’ve had so much fun planning little things for this Valentine’s Day, because let’s face it, holidays are just a lot more exciting when you have a little one to celebrate with. I may have gone slightly overboard picking out some goodies for her, but it’s just so much fun shopping for her, and Target just has a way of suckering me into buying something cute every time I enter its doors. She is obsessed with her little toaster oven for her kitchen because the toast flies out and onto the floor when the timer goes off. I particularly love her ladybug raincoat (Cat & Jack does it again!), and the flamingo hooded bath towel. And I thought those felt flowers were so cute to give her for Valentine’s because they’re indestructible, and now they’re adding some color and sweetness to her kitchen. She got some more thoughtful goodies from several family members… she’s one loved little lady!

I had big plans of making all the heart-shaped things on Tuesday, starting with pink pancakes for breakfast. They tasted delicious and were definitely pink, but next time, I need to invest in a heart-shaped pancake mold or just use a squirt bottle filled with batter to draw hearts on the pan. Leighton didn’t seem to mind, though, so I’ll call it a win.

After hearing about a cute little French flower stand that would be set up at the Westside Provisions District, L and I took a little field trip to pick out some fresh blooms for my mom, who is also known as one of L’s bffs and her favorite babysitter. She’s so gracious with giving so much of her time to help us with watching Leighton so we can work and also have a little fun… so some surprise flowers seemed appropriate on the day of love.

Craig and I decided a couple years ago to stop doing a nice dinner out on VDay… after all, who really likes paying too much money for a pre fixe menu and having to sit at tiny two-top tables that are so close to the next table that you may as well be sitting with those strangers?? 🙂 We’ll usually do our dinner out prior or just afterward, because we always love an excuse for a date night. I was unfortunately down for the count with a fever on our scheduled date night, so that’ll have to happen later…  but I did get some pretty flowers a little early to brighten my day. 🙂

Instead of going out, we invited my mom over (dad’s out of town for work) and had a little family dinner date. We made heart-shaped chicken parm with pasta and finished up with skillet s’mores. Y’all. They’re they easiest, most bang for your buck dessert ever! I could practically bathe in that chocolatey, marshmallowey goodness. Hope you all had a lovely day, whether it was spent celebrating with a loved one, your galentines, or just hanging on the couch with a pint of ice cream!

[when asked “Where’s Coco?”]

[pink on pink on pink]

[black bean facial]

[and a perfect yogurt mustache]

[my new assistant chef]

[happy 31st to the best little bro!]

[Stella & Dot look of the week:: Amala Pendant Necklace // Old Navy sweater]

[Feb ’15 – eating paper towels // Feb ’16 – identifying animals in books]

[Greek lunch date with my favorite bride-to-be]

[zoo in January? yes, please!]

[finding giraffes in books and in real life]

[turtle!]

[testing out Hello Fresh – get $40 off your first delivery!]

We are testing out the Hello Fresh meal service this week, and so far, we’ve been pleasantly surprised. We picked out 3 meals from the weekly offering (they change every week), and although the box barely arrived later in the evening than we’d have preferred, we were able to make the first one last night when we got it. It took a little longer to cook than we expected, but that’s probably just because we didn’t have it in time to prep anything in advance (like cutting the veggies). Dinner was delish, and even Leighton hopped up in our laps to steal several bites. This is in no way sponsored, but they offer a really great referral discount for new users. Use this link to get a whopping $40 off your first delivery! Considering it’s about $60 for 3 different 2-person dinners, that’s a really fabulous discount to try out the service.

In other news, it’s been a fun and busy couple weeks around here. We celebrated my little brother’s birthday with dinner at Miller Union and some drinks at Cooks & Soldiers (mental note to go back for dinner sometime), and I had a weekend full of photo sessions. The weather has been beautiful this week, which called for an impromptu trip to the zoo with Grandma. She brought a lift-the-flap Zoo book she has for L, and we had fun looking for the different animals from the book to see if there were at the zoo. Leighton just learned how to make an elephant sound and she throws her arm up in the air like its trunk — it’s really adorable, and it was neat to get to show her a real live elephant at the zoo!

Hope y’all have a lovely weekend! And although I’m not really a pro football fan, I feel like I need to say it — RISE UP! Here’s hoping that the Falcons can pull out a win in the Super Bowl on Sunday!