Our first date night and our first snow - no, seriously

On Thursday this week, a triple cold front hit us! On the left is what the temp was for us! It is actually very unseasonal to get this kind of weather so early, but it is also a good wake up call for us, as its still going to get a lot colder! While at work on Thursday, I got a call from Liesel, saying that its snowing in Westlake! When I drove home I drove through a cloud that was spewing snow at me! It was quite exciting actually. Fortunately for us, the ground was too warm for any snow to accumulate, so as it hit the ground, it melted immediately. So there was no driving in snow or slipping on ice for me yet...... (yet being the operative word). The rest of the weekend remained cool with highs around 7C. Liesel and I are starting to change our perceptions because today was a lovely day for us - even though the temperature was 8C. In SA, we would consider 8C horribly cold and not venture outside, but in Cleveland if the sun is shining and the wind is not too bad, 8C is a cause to celebrate ;-)

On Saturday morning we went to IHOP (International house of Pancakes) for a mini-birthday celebration for Nathan. We also invite some friends from Church with their 2 daughters (3 & 5 years old) who Nathan just loves! We had some delicious pancakes for breakfast and Nathan behaved himself and had a really fun time with the two girls! In the afternoon, we went to these friends' house, as they had offered to look after Nathan for the evening for us, so Liesel and I could enjoy a date night - something we haven't done for over 8 months! We started by going to watch a movie (The Guardian with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher - Highly recommended!). At the theater, I ordered 1 medium popcorn and 1 medium Coke. When we got the food, the medium popcorn was about 2.5 times bigger than a South African LARGE popcorn! And the Coke, was easily 1.5 liters large. Luckily I didn't order a large combo ;-) After the movie, we walked over to a nearby restaurant. We were told that there was a 70 - 80 minute wait for that restaurant. We tried 3 other restaurants after that and they all had queues of people outside, so we eventually had to settle for a Panera Bread shop. This is similar to a Mugg & Bean and serve smaller, more "informal" foods, which turned out to be a good thing for us. Liesel and I were so full from the popcorn, that if we had gone to a proper restaurant, we know that we would not have been able to finish any thing and end up wasting money! So it all worked out perfectly. We returned to our friends' place to get Nathan, and he was still happily running around and playing with Faith and Sarah! It's good to know that we can leave him with our friends in future (even though Liesel sat with the cell phone on her lap the entire time.) But Liesel and I did cherish the time we had together and decided that we need to do this more often!