Five on Friday

Yay, it's Friday!  To jump start the weekend I thought I'd link up with April for a Five on Friday post!

ONE:
We don't have too many plans this weekend, but our one big plan is to watch Rowen's first ever dance recital! We had rehearsal last night and it went well, but I am already stressed about it.  Rowen will dance twice; once for ballet and once for tap, but luckily there aren't any costume changes involved. Fingers crossed everything runs smoothly again tomorrow!

TWO:  
We recently had some landscaping done to the front of our house and I have been obsessing over plants on Pinterest ever sense!  I don't think we'll plant anything until Fall, but I am for sure getting my research done!  I am very pleased with the way the rock and edging turned out!

THREE:
Lately, meal planning in my house has been anything but.  One of my main reasons for getting back on the blog was to hold myself more accountable when it comes to meal prep!  I plan to begin sharing recipes again soon.  If anyone has anything good please send it my way!

FOUR:
I'm loving his beer lately.  Normally, I am not a big beer drinker, but I was introduced to this over the winter and I'm definitely a fan!  I plan to have one this weekend, for sure!

FIVE:  
Speaking of beverages.  I currently have a horrible obsession with Starbucks.  I literally buy a $4.40 skinny mocha everyday and I am trying desperately to ween myself.  My sister told me about this iced coffee, which I have been drinking the past few mornings.  So far this week I have been two days (out of five) Starbucks free, which is quite the accomplishment for me!  Just hoping I can keep it up!

Hope everyone has a great Father's Day weekend!

Summer 2017 Favorites

Our summer months this year look a bit different than in year's past.  Reason being, we decided to hire a nanny!  Normally, both kids spend their summers with their daycare providers.  However, to give Rowen a fun summer before kindergarten, and to lessen the burden of having two kids at two separate daycare facilities, it was the best choice! So far it’s gone very well, and the kids are having a blast!

When we were packing to move last summer I ended up donating a lot of toys we weren’t using.  Included in the donation box was a lot of their summer toys, pool noodles, water guns, etc.  By that point we’d had them for a number of years and they were starting to get gross so I just decided to do away with them to help lessen the load for the move.  Well, fast forward another summer and I realized I needed new stuff to keep the kids entertained!  So today I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite summer items (links for everything in descriptions below)...

1. Intex Wishing Well Pool -  I initially bought this pool because I liked the idea of having two pools in one.  I liked the fact that Wyatt could easily play in the middle portion and Rowen could swim in circles around the outer ring. So far both kids love the outer area the most!  Wyatt loves to put his cars and trucks in the pool and drive them along the edge!  It's the perfect pool for toddlers because they can easily step in and out without assistance.

2. Aruba Mesh Beach Tote Bag -  We use this as our pool toy bag.  It's a cooler/bag combo!  The top 3/4 features a mesh bag (perfect for wet toys) and the bottom 1/4 is an insulated cooler. Whenever the kids visit the pool or splash pad they want to take along toys and it's usually pushing lunch time or dinner time when we are there so this is the perfect solution!

3. WooHoo Toys Big Children Playhouse Pop-Up Play Tent -  My oldest loves to play pretend so I thought this would be fun. Some of the other fold-able tents I found weren't very big, but this one is huge - you can easily fit multiple kids inside!  Unlike other play tents, it doesn't require poles, it simply pops up and folds back down for easy storage.  Bonus is that it comes with stakes so that we can take it outside as well!

4. Splash Balls -  An obvious necessity when it comes to summertime and the occasional water fight with dad! :)

5. Sportspower My 1st Waterslide - We've only put this up a handful of times this summer, but it's a lot of fun, my neighbor kids love it, too!  Much like a bounce house it uses a blower and inflates within minutes.  So far the quality seems to be great!

6. Dew Drop Ocean Beads Ocean Animals Adventure Kit - These water beads are a total hit with my kids!  They're cheap and great for sensory play.  I keep them in a plastic tote out on our deck, under the umbrella and send the kids out to play daily.  This particular pack of beads comes with small ocean animals to play with.  I love to play with these too, there's something very relaxing about them! I bought these Squeezy Tweezers, which are great for little hands, too!

7. Wiggle Car by Lil' Rider - This is by far my daughter's favorite thing to play with outside when we are not in the pool.  The speed she has when she's on this thing is crazy - they are low to the ground, very easy to ride, and come in a bunch of different colors. I highly recommend it for younger kids!

Well, hello there, Stranger!

It's been awhile...a year and four months to be exact!  Reason for my blogging hiatus was simply the amount of effort (which was very little) I was willing to put in. For those of you that don't blog you may not understand, but blogging is a lot of work.  However,  I can't even tell you the number of times in the past year I've referred back to my blog to look at pictures, to recall the baby stages of both kids, or to find a recipe!  It's so nice to have things documented, which is my main reason for getting back at it.  I hope you'll continue to follow along!

Last I left you I had a three year old and a six month old and life was hard.  However, now that the kids are older life is a bit easier (sometimes) and I thought it would be beneficial to give a brief update.

The Kids:

Wyatt just turned two years old!  It's crazy to think the last time I blogged about him he was only six months old!  His favorite things in life are his lawn mower, his cars, and macaroni and cheese.  He challenges us on a daily basis, but he's an awesome little dude and we couldn't imagine life without him!

Rowen will be turning five (insert cry face here) at the end of July!  She recently finished her last year of preschool and is headed to kindergarten in the fall!  She is very excited to ride the bus and we are thrilled to have one less kid in daycare!   This past year we enrolled her in a dance class and she loves it.  I never pictured myself as a dance mom (more like a soccer mom), but i'm learning, and I'm happy she's found something she seems to love!

The House:  

Life is funny sometimes.  So funny that you decide, on a whim, to up and sell your house so that you can build another one right up the street.  Yes, it sounds crazy, but that's exactly what we did. We were faced with some decisions to make when it came to our previous house.  Decisions that meant either pouring a bunch of money into a basement so we had room to grow, or sell and find something we could call home for the next 20 years.  The market was good so we chose to sell and we couldn't be happier with where we are now!

Ryan and I:  

Not a ton has changed for us in the past year, I'm still working full time, so is Ryan.  Long story short, we are just trying to enjoy life as it comes.  I wont lie, it's challenging at times, but life would be boring if it wasn't, right?  Stay tuned...