Date Night Out with Friends

Sunday night Tim and I got a baby sitter and went out on a late Valentine's date with our dear friends Tim and Katie. We had decided we wanted to try some place in Chicago, so I had been doing some research on recommended restaurants when I found out that the day we were planning on going out was the beginning of "Restaurant Week" in chicago. This is where a 160 restaurants in Chicago agree to put out a prix fixe lunch and dinner menu including three courses (appetizer, entree, and dessert). After much research and conversation between Katie and I, Barker ultimately looked at the menu and picked Fornetto Mei. It turned out to be a pretty good deal since just our entree normally would be the same price as our entire three courses ended up being.

It was a nice little romantic place. The food was very tasty, but the portions were small. I think Katie and I were comfortably full, but the boys said they could have eaten some wings afterwards -haha :)

My first course- crab cakes. They were delicious and the sauce had a little kick to it that was amazing!

Tim got the Beef Carpaccio for his first course. It was very interesting as the beef is raw under a bed of arugula, parmesan, and capers.

I got the Lobster and Crab ravioli. It was splendid!

Tim got the pan roasted, dry-aged 8 ounce steer tenderloin. He seemed to really enjoy it.

I got the tiramisu for dessert and Tim got the molten chocolate cake. We were so excited to try them, that I forgot to get pictures ;) But they were divine!

Afterwards, we walked down a few blocks in the snow to grab some coffee at Starbucks. We all just enjoyed catching up on life and discussing vigorously whatever topics came up. It's not often you come across a couple that you mesh with so well. We are so thankful for our dear friends and the past 10 years we have gotten to know them. We value these times as we know soon the Barkers will be going to Boston to help our friend's Dawn and Nate church plant there.

I am pretty sure I am thinking, "What do I do with myself without a 14 month old climbing up onto my lap right now?" Haha - It was so nice to get out just with other adults!

It was definitely a night to remember.

Fun at Woodfield Mall

This past week, Katie Barker and I went out to the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg to do a little Christmas shopping and just enjoy the holiday decorations and atmosphere. We had such a fun time.

Here are some of the beautiful decorations. The mall is just so huge and the central area is just gorgeous!
This area is like a little North Pole Wonderland... so cute.

So we went into the MASSIVE Bath and Body Works store. Seriously, it had like 3 separate wings to it. We were in there forever... but we didn't even realize it. They had this deal going on that you could by 7 of the large lotions, sprays or body washes for $35 and then you would get the 8th one free. So we each picked out 4 that we liked... and then Katie had 4 coupons ($10 off if you spent $30, home fragrance free with purchase and so on) so basically we got $125 worth of merchandise for $27 ! We each only paid like $13.50! What a deal!!!

After that we stopped by an A&W to get a root beer float. And by that point it was like 8:30pm and we were exhausted! So we were a little zany to say the least:)

This one of the two of us was taken by a "bus boy" at the restaurant. He did not speak English and we were using my camera phone because we had both forgotten our cameras... so anyways, it quite the funny experience.

All in all we had a great time. It was a good way to kick of the holiday season and to spend some time with a good friend :)