Five Loves on Friday

Happy first Friday of MARCH, friends! How exciting is that?!  Today's handful of highlights revolve around family fun & scrumptious eats, you know, the stuff all good weeks are made of!

One  //  Happy Big 6-0 to my Dad!

My girlies with my dad when we popped by to surprise him with a birthday song and hugs.  These three have so much of my heart! *Happy sigh*

Many of you may know, I am forever a Daddy's Girl!  Celebrating him is a joy and this week offered up a fantastic excuse to as he began a new decade of life!  

Two  //  Celebrate Good Times!  C'mon!

How cute is the pic of my girlies and my parents posing together in front of the birthday signs those sweeties made for their grandparents?  My mom has been a Beauty and the Beast fan since the 90s and my dad is restoring two vintage Chevy trucks right now, so these gifts had their names written all over them!  Sometimes giving gifts is even more fun than receiving them! :)

Both of my parents celebrate February birthdays, sandwiching Valentine's Day in the middle of the month.  This leads my holiday and birthday bash loving family to have a party each February in honor of these three lovely occasions.  My parents prepared a chili cheese dog bar with all the fixings.  We feasted, chatted, laughed, and enjoyed the opportunity to spoil them a bit with gifts.  We also received such thoughtful Valentine presents from them!  (I'd share a snapshot of those gifts, but my sister was unable to make it to the party and I don't want to share any spoilers for her should she read this. ;))   As always, it was a great night with my parents!

Three  //  This Week's Adventures in New Recipes

Remember my goal of trying at least one new recipe each week?  Here's a terrific trio of newbies from my kitchen in week...

Cream Cheese Bean Dip

I really enjoyed this dip and used it in a variety of ways throughout the week.  We had it with chips (of course), I wrapped it in a small soft shell tortilla for a snack, and when we had tacos I made my own Taco Bell-ish Double Decker Taco using the dip as the glue between a soft and hard shell taco.  I love finding different ways to make the most of leftovers!

Italian Slider Sandwiches

After last week's Easy French Dip Sliders I could hardly wait to try another tasty new-to-us slider recipe!  My oldest daughter is a huge fan of Italian sandwiches making this a natural next choice.  A bite or two into one of these scrumptious sliders and she said, "Mom, you have to make these ALL. THE. TIME!"  I'd be happy to!  YUM!

Pulled Pork Sliders with Garlic Aioli

This week I've been fighting a cold.  My tastebuds and sense of smell have been the biggest casualties!  While this cooked away in the crockpot, Jason walked through the kitchen declaring, "This place smells like a smokehouse!"  Sadly, I couldn't smell a thing!  All that to say, I couldn't taste this as well as I would've liked to, but it was a hit with the fam and from what I could tell it was a good pulled pork sandwich.  The aioli sauce was simple to whip up and a tasty topper too.  I anticipate making it not only for this recipe, but for other sandwiches and perhaps burgers in the future as well!

Four  //  Make Everyday an Adventure!

Gray Mainstays Bike Pillow // Walmart

When I spotted this and giddily gasped at Walmart earlier this week, Princess told me, "You need to buy that, Mom!"  She's my penny pincher so getting her approval and even encouragement to make a purchase makes me feel like it's basically my birthday!  Ha!  She was right though, this was a must-buy at just under $5!  As she pointed out, if I saw it elsewhere on clearance for even three times that price I'd think it was a deal.  It's super cute and involves some of my favorite things, so I scooped it right up!  It also had me instantly daydreaming of family bicycle rides and getting this beauty out...

...and that's just what I did!

Five  //  First Bicycle Ride of the Year!

As you may have seen in my Instagram stories we enjoyed our first bike ride of the year this week!  It may have been a quick one, but it felt so good to be out with the sun on my face and breeze in my hair.  I'm happy to be slowly moving out of winter lounge mode.  Spring's a coming!  I'm anticipating its arrival!  How about you?

Thanks for taking time out of your day to pop by and read this post!  Wishing you a beautiful first weekend of this fresh new month!

Earlier this week at Chatting Over Chocolate ...

Direct Link:  Trip Report Tuesday: California Day 5 Part 1 // San Francisco

&

Direct Link:  Throwback Thursday // Owning It! 20 {Possibly Unpopular} Truths

Join me in the adventures to come!

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