High Five for Friday (2.17.17)

1. On Friday evening we visited a new (to us) bar/restaurant in College Station called The Backyard. "We do sports, but we're not a sports bar. We do craft beers, but we're not a pub. We do tropical drinks, but we're not a beach bar." Sounds fun, right? We were pleasantly surprised to discover that The Backyard, not unlike an actual backyard, had lots of outdoor games - ping pong, washers, and beanbags - as well as plenty of places to sit back, relax, and either chat with friends or watch sporting events. The Backyard may not have earned a place on Spoons' "45 Places to Eat in College Station Before You Die" list (typical bar food), but we'll definitely return for a second round!

2. This weekend Will played his only in-town soccer games - part of a tournament hosted by his soccer club - of the year. We travel for all of his regular season games and for almost every tournament, so getting to watch him play without having to road trip on either end felt extraordinarily relaxing. The best part, however, was that our friends turned out in droves - four families, four moms, three dads, and eight kids - to cheer for Will. How incredibly lucky are we, to have such tremendous support from our friends?! (I wish I would have taken pictures of him with everyone who came, but at least I managed to take these two.)

I took A LOT of pictures of these three boys...this is the best one.

3. On Sunday I went to brunch to celebrate a good friend's birthday, and our morning out reminded me that 1) I have great friends, 2) I don't brunch often enough, and 3) brunching decreases my productivity for the remainder of the day.

4. I survived Valentine's Day! I wrapped up two weeks of construction paper heart "love notes" on the kids' doors, made heart-shaped Rice Krispie treats, and managed to pull together my annual treasure hunt for Tom and the kids to find their Valentine's Day presents. (This one came tremendously close to not happening at all, as no one could find the treasure hunt cards and I had to make all new ones after the kids went to bed on Monday night.) Whew!

Sweet friends at their school Valentine's Day party.

 It's tough to get good pictures of the treasure hunt since they hardly ever stop running...

The "finale" - Tom's photo album and the kids' treats.

5. And finally, this. A great read for Valentine's Day week.

Happy Friday, Chasing Roots!

Linking up with High Five for Friday here: