Lovely

This weekend has shaped up to be rather lovely so far. Friday was a beautiful day, so when I got home from work, Tony, Ari and I spent a little time enjoying the great outdoors.

My little monkey loves the monkey bars.



She also takes her climbing quite seriously.



I forget how, but we somehow bribed her into taking a couple pictures with each of us.





I like this shot--I think it's cute the way she has her leg propped up like that.



I didn't know Tony was taking this picture, so I don't know why I'm all frowny. More than likely, Ari was rambling on about something and I was going, "Huh?"



Today, I got to sleep in, and then got to be lazy for the most of the morning. Truthfully, I wasn't feeling all that well, so that was part of the reason for my slothfulness. In the afternoon, we all headed to The Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch. We got a gift card from my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas, so we figured it was about time we went there, and Mother's Day was as good an excuse as any. Neither of us had ever been before, and we were both more than impressed with the place. For one, it was gorgeous. And the menu was massive--way too many choices. And then the food... the serving sizes were huge. I ate half my meal and took the other half home--and I could easily make 2 lunches out of that. I purposely didn't force myself to finish because I had to save room for dessert. I mean, you can't go to The Cheesecake Factory and not eat cheesecake, right? To be honest, I'm not a big fan of cheesecake, but I figured if I got something that was heavy on the chocolate, I would like it. So the Godiva Double Chocolate Cheesecake it was. And... wow. Prepare to drool...



Let me assure you that it was every bit as good as it looked. The waitress stopped by when I was about halfway done with it and offered me a box for it, and I turned her down. There was no way I wasn't going to finish it. I don't even want to think about how many calories that sucker contained.

When we were done, we spent some time walking around. The Cheesecake Factory is in the midst of a nice little shopping area, so we strolled around and just enjoyed another beautiful day. It was mostly overcast, but warm (if not a bit muggy) with a nice cool breeze. Ari enjoyed wandering all over the place, making it her personal mission to find benches, and walking on the little curbs and stones that held in the mulch around the various little trees.

After that, we headed to the mall. My grandmother gave Ari some money, and we decided to do a little shopping for her. She's pretty much outgrown all her 24m/2T stuff, and the hand-me-downs we've been getting from friends are tapering off, so she was in dire need of some new clothes. We made out pretty well, I think--we managed to get her 2 bathing suits, a cover-up, a couple pairs of jeans, and several pairs of shorts and T-shirts. Plus, the cashier was nice enough to ring in a 15% off coupon for us.

By the time we were done with that, it was time to let Ari ride the carousel (yes, there's one inside the mall) and then time to head home and get her ready for bed. I enjoyed a short walk outside while Tony took care of getting Ari a snack and starting the bedtime routine. I got back just in time to sing her a song and tuck her in.

I'm off now to relax with a book for the rest of the night. Tomorrow is Sunday, which is always a crazy day anyway, with church and all. We're going to my parents' in the afternoon, so maybe I'll end up with more pictures to share by the end of the day.

And before I go... Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends out there!