Mike and Caroline made sure to celebrate me on Mother’s Day, so I had to return the favor when Mike’s special day rolled around. Luckily I had a few tricks up my sleeve and the weather cooperated, which is always a win!

Friday afternoon kicked off the weekend with a “party” at Caroline’s daycare for the dads. Moms could come too, which was wonderful, because both Mike and I got to chat with the other parents as Caroline ate allllll of the fruit that the sweet teachers put out (for the dads, I might add). This child seriously loves fruit and cannot get enough!

Saturday, we spent the day playing at Meg and Greg’s pool and grilling out for dinner over there. On Sunday we took full advantage of our FONZ membership and spent a lovely morning at the National Zoo. In honor of his big day, I even loosened the reigns and let Mike pick out a present for Caroline at the gift shop–only after we placed every single animal with velco arms and legs around her neck, haha! (We are terrible parents but it was hilarious to watch her run around with a monkey on her back.) This is how Cornelius became part of our family:

We rode the carousel, saw the big pandas, laughed at the prairie dogs (her new favorite!) and squealed at the armadillos. (And yes, she is still wearing Cornelius here, while riding her armadillo carousel animal):

We then all came home and crashed. It is delightful using your toddler’s naptime as an excuse to nap yourself!

At 6 pm, our lovely babysitter came to watch Caroline because Mike and I were headed out on the town for his REAL Father’s Day gift–a lovely Southern dinner at Succotash and then to see U2 in concert at the Capital One arena!

Here’s where we started our night:

Succotash was southern in every sense of the word…delicious food, overly friendly staff, and the food came out of the kitchen s-l-o-w as molasses. Lordy. We got the ‘Southern Sampler’ and ended up having to bring the main course with us to the concert because we were not going to miss one second of Bono because of some pork ribs!

No worries–we got to the show in plenty of time!

We ended up donating the pork ribs to the security staff since they weren’t allowed in the arena. We then settled in to our seats and the anticipation was so thick! I mean, it was U2! This was definitely a Bucket List concert for both of us.

The show was incredible. They sang so many songs–among them my faves “Beautiful Day” and “Elevation” and two new ones I loved and hadn’t heard before: “Staring at the Sun” and “Women of he World.” Bono was funny, witty, and politically savvy and his speaking voice sounded nothing like his singing voice. He called on the USA to be better and the crowd roared in support. He also called attention to his One Campaign and lobbied for supporting women around the world. I loved every minute of it and left inspired.

At the very end of the show, when they played “One,” Bono asked for all the lights to go off and for people to shine their flashlights. The arena felt magical and it was a beautiful way to close.

Happy, happy Father’s Day to Mike–Sugar Bear has no idea how lucky she is to have you for her own!