Birthday Weekend!!

I had a fantastic weekend with my cousin, Kristin!!  Details below...

I knew Kristin had been planning something special for a belated birthday present, but it was full of awesome surprises!  When I saw the basket filled with gifts, it definitely took a minute to register that they were all for me - YAY!!

After a delicious late dinner at Andolini's, we came back to my house and I opened at least a dozen gift bags and boxes.... including a Scripture-covered journal, two baby books (my first baby-related gifts from anyone), Martha Stewart heart-shaped coasters, blank canvases for future paintings, fruity pink wine, a balloon puppy figurine, a pink cashmere scarf, Black Cherry Merlot soaps + candle + wallflower with a cute pink heart design, and a Pioneer Woman Sweet Rose planter!!

The amount of detail she put into everything -- from the glitter heart on the envelope to extra glitter and jewels on the wrapping paper and choosing tissue paper I love -- was very impressive and made me feel seen and loved and very grateful!  Of course, there were also bundtinis and she bought my brunch and dinner on Saturday! 

Our weekend included not one but two brunches at the Cheesecake Factory... she got the breakfast monte cristo and I got the giant Belgian waffle and then French toast... and we tried pineapple mimosas this morning... I gotta say, highly preferable to orange!

And after that, we took a road trip for a fun afternoon and evening in Pawhuska!!

We shopped around at the Mercantile... I skipped the shirt but got the cute "Wash away your worries" laundry basket!  I looked at her cookbooks hoping she had one themed with healthy-ish foods, but no such luck thus far. lol  

They gave us directions to the Lodge (about 25 minutes away) so we headed down the gravel road to see it!  This is where Ree Drummond (aka the Pioneer Woman) films her show, and it was really fun to tour it and take a few faux-cooking photos! =)  She even had the same little planter that Kristin had gotten me, so I had to snap a photo of that!

There are several bedrooms for people to stay there when they're filming - all open to the public when they're not.  They encouraged you to feel free to open any drawers and cabinets, etc., then they had fake snakes in a few of them, which made me laugh!  When I saw these Sweet Rose dishes on prominent display, I said, "Yay, she has my dishes!!  Or I guess technically, I have hers." lol  I like that it's also her favorite of all the patterns she's made.

Anyway, we had fun looking around... then we sat outside for a few minutes looking out over their 433,000 acres... right up until I saw a spider crawling on Kristin's leg.  And then we were done with the great outdoors. lol

We traveled back and stopped at the Mercantile Bakery to pick up a few treats, then put our name in for the waitlist at P. Town Pizza.  We perused several little boutique shops around that area, then eventually sat down for some tasty pizza!

That was followed by a bit of ice cream at Charlie's Sweet Shop - I'm so happy to finally see all these places in person - it's all so cute and fun!

We had lots of car time and meal time to get caught up on all of life, which was delightful!  On the road trip back, we had fun looking up different songs on Apple Music.  Then we had a PJ-clad movie night watching Jumanji (the first one with Kevin Hart and the Rock) and eating leftover pizza. =)

We slept in, had a lovely brunch, then looked through some old scrapbooks this morning.  Then Frankie and the boys came to pick her up, and they were very cute looking through my house and wondering why I no longer had a pool (thinking Mamaw's house was mine when they came to swim last summer). lol  

And that's my weekend recap - cheers!

Thanks so much, Kristin!!  This was incredibly generous and kind and well thought out, and it was all super fun! ❤