Summertime excitement has gotten the best of me, and we definitely have some catching up to do, don’t we?!
1. Jay and I decided to both take this week off from work, since both of us have barely used any of our time off for the year (besides our Wildwood trip) and we’ve been enjoying a nice little”staycation.” On Wednesday, we took a trip out to Adirondack Animal Land (about an hour away from us) to go visit the animals!
It was our first time visiting, so I don’t know what it’s typically like, but they now have the entire attraction as a drive-through. It was a long time to sit (for us, since we had the hour drive both ways, plus just under an hour there), but the kids loved seeing and feeding the animals and it was pretty cool to see these huge camels just staring us down.
Thankfully, no one got spit on!
2. On Monday, we brought the boys out for mini golf, lunch, school supply shopping, and ice cream.
3. And yesterday, Jay and I enjoyed a little lunch date while the boys were at daycare. Nothin’ like treating yourself to a little Thursday afternoon sangria!
We went to a new-to-us restaurant nearby called Eadilyn’s Table and everything was awesome. We didn’t eat until closer to 2pm, so there was only one other table of people when we arrived. But we grabbed a spot outside, ordered our drinks, and chatted for a bit before our food arrived.
I ordered their Grilled Chicken Strawberry Wrap, and wow. Just WOW. I can 100% say we will be back there, and this time, I want to go for brunch!
4. Oh, we officially have a SEVEN year old in the house!
We celebrated Lucas’s birthday last month, and between mini golf, and fun with family, neighbors, and a few close school friends, I think it’s safe to say he had a pretty great few days.
5. For the couple of little celebrations we had for him at the house, we rented a huge inflatable water slide, and I will tell you that that was probably the best money we spent all summer.
That thing was a BLAST. All of the kids AND adults spent some time on it, and I think it’s safe to say that we definitely got our money’s worth out of it.
6. And, of course, not only did we celebrate Lucas’s birthday, but Jay had a birthday, too!
To celebrate his birthday, we actually had a few of our close neighbor friends over and all sent the kids off for sleepovers with their grandparents. We had THE best time just hanging out for the day and playing some yard Olympics. Probably one of my favorite days from the summer!
7. We had been getting SO lazy when it comes to meal planning (a constant rotation of grilled chicken, chicken burgers, tacos, and pizza gets old real quick), so we started getting some HelloFresh deliveries about once a month. All of the meals have been SO good, and it’s always so refreshing to switch things up a bit and not have to worry about planning ahead. **FYI: If you haven’t tried HelloFresh yet but want to, you can use this link to get $40 OFF of your first order!** These tacos we had were so simple, but so full of flavor.
Served along with some fresh, sweet corn on the cob, which has been a big hit for everyone in our house lately.
8. Talking about big hits…THANK YOU to those of you who offered some different Pilates recommendations last week! I’ve tried out a couple of workouts from Sydney Cummings, and they have been incredible. Like, left me so sore in places I haven’t felt sore in in a long time. This 30 minute Full Body Power Pilates workout was awesome, FYI. And I just recently (aka, yesterday) decided to start doing her Summertime Fine 2.0 program. I was getting bored and had no direction on what I wanted to do on any give day, so I’m excited to try something new and not have to think about what comes next.
9. In case you guys are in need of some home workout ideas, you can always check out my Workouts Page (even though it hasn’t been updated in years, there are still plenty of great treadmill and circuit workouts on there!). I also have a few other posts with some of my favorite YouTube workouts HERE, and HERE, as well as my full review of Fitness Blender’s 4 Week FB Strong program. I still use and LOVE so many of the Fitness Blender workouts today!
10. I have been obsessed with allllll the fresh tomatoes lately. My dad has been giving us a bunch from his garden, and I love just slicing one up with a little sea salt to have has a snack or with breakfast.
Seriously, summer tomatoes are where it’s at.
11. So how are things looking for where you guys are in terms of the kiddos heading back to school? We just got some feedback on the reopening plans for our school district, and it looks like our kids will be going back to school 2 days a week, and doing remote or live/virtual instruction from home 3 days a week.
My mind is in total overdrive lately, with trying to figure out how things are going to look for us come September (Do I try to stay working from home and having him do school while I’m here? Can I do both simultaneously and still be able to devote the time and attention to my job? Do we look into additional child care? Does it even make sense, financially, to pay almost double in daycare?). I fully and completely understand that there are still just so many unknowns, and NO plan is ideal at this point. There’s just so much to consider and so many options to weigh at this point! So for any fellow mamas out there who are also struggling with any of this, I. Feel. You. <3
12. I had to share this fun little engagement basket that I created a couple of weeks ago for my brother and his fiance, Carissa. I feel like it’s been forever since I attempted to be crafty, in any capacity, but this was honestly so fun to put together for them!
I picked up a few of their favorite bottles, then hit up Michael’s for the basket, filler, ribbon, flowers, and glasses. I found the free printable for the bottle tags ONLINE HERE, and printed them in black and white. So fun!
Whew. Okay, I think we’re all caught up for now. I hope you’ve all been hanging in there and finding some fun this summer! I’ll try to check back in next week, but for now, go have yourselves a great weekend <3
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