Just a quick post to let you know that I have a new blog address! Click on over to harperandwill.com to check it out! I also have a Bloglovin’ button on the new blog for you to easily follow me that way. I hope to get back into blogging after taking a little break while my blog was being redesigned:) Thanks!
{oh hey friday!}
Happy Friday! I’m linking up today with Amy and Karli for oh hey Friday!
{one} If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, stop what you’re doing and go buy this cashew butter! It is SO GOOD! The kids and I have been eating it on apples, but it’s delicious just by the spoonful. Yum!
{two} Now that I’m back to school, Will and Harper go to Nana’s each morning. Earlier in the week, Will was out helping Nana pick vegetables in her garden and brought home these goodies for mommy. How fun! I love that my kids are able to explore and play on a farm.
{three} Cousin fun! Last weekend when we went home to the state fair, we got to visit Will and Harper’s cousins. We played outside, took walks, and enjoyed a yummy dinner together. Although their cousins live in Kentucky, we have been able to visit them several times this summer at Mimi and Grandaddy’s house. 
{four} I usually always have pictures for each of my topics, but as I was uploading additional pictures for this post, I got a message saying that I had maxed out on my allotted space for wordpress. Uh oh. Fortunately, this summer my brother started helping me transition to a different site. Unfortunately, I have no clue what I’m doing, ha! Luckily, he does, but we’re having to communicate via texts since he’s in NC.
{five} So I’m on the hunt for the perfect blog template. I’ve been browsing Etsy but there are just so many to choose from…it’s hard to narrow them down. Eventually, my new site will be harperandwill.com but in the meantime, my blog might be pretty quiet as I try to transition to the new site. Again, any suggestions/feedback on this would be most helpful!
Have a great weekend:)
{fair fun! // it’s the little things}
Last week, we headed to our local county fair for a night of fun. Harper and Will received free gate passes from their summer reading program (sidenote: we got some nice prizes from our local libraries-free passes to a bounce house, free books, fair tickets, coupons for free fro yo, and Harper won one of the end of summer raffles, which was a $10 gift certificate to a local Mexican restaurant that we all love!). Anyway, this was our first time going to our county fair. I grew up going to the State Fair of West Virginia (in my hometown), so our county fair was quite small. However, we got to pet some animals, look at fun exhibits, and check out the fun rides (though we didn’t ride any).
Milking cows…you’d think that my kiddos would be tired of seeing cows since we live right beside a dairy farm, but no, they love cows!
Checking out the animals. Harper and Will got in the pen to pet the calves!
Smoky the Bear!
Checking out the tractors…
And of course Harper had to do the same thing!
Inspecting the fire trucks. 
Ready to roll!
This is a really neat sensory activity! A swimming pool full of corn with scoopers and toys. Harper and Will could have stayed there for hours playing in it!
Last weekend, we headed to the WV State Fair for one last hurrah before I had to go back to work.
Although it was very cloudy, it didn’t rain at all. It was actually nice weather-not too hot. 
Will LOVED the rides! We only bought a few tickets because they were pricy and we weren’t sure how much the kids would ride. Well, next year we will be buying the ride bracelets which lets the kiddos have unlimited access to the rides!
I rode the carousel with Will and Harper. 
Daddy and Harper on the Teacup ride!
Silly pic!
Eating some yummy Ben Ellen Donuts (a fair favorite-they taste like nutmeg!).
While watching Galaxy Girl spin around and climb the tower…yikes!
Checking out all the animals.
They even have a cow birthing center set up! Two calves were born that morning and there were about a dozen cows who were about to give birth! 
Petting the horses. Will and Harper absolutely love horses! They talk about visiting the horses in the horse barn at Nana’s all the time. 
Trying their hand at weaving. 
We also enjoyed some delicious German chocolate ice cream-yum! The kiddos had a blast and we can’t wait to go back next summer!
Linking up with Ashley and Jess for “It’s the Little Things.”
{yearly photo books}
Back in 2011, I came across this post by Katie Bower of Bower Power and loved the idea of a family yearbook. Kiddo yearbooks are the best way for me to organize and print zillions of pictures that I take of Harper and Will (I’m really, really bad about actually printing out pictures throughout the year, except for when we have professional pics taken….anyone else like that?!).
I started creating yearly photo books chronicling the year in photographs for Will after he turned one and did the same for Harper after her first birthday. I have worked on Harper’s second photo book this summer and finally finished it! I worked on it little bits at a time in the evenings and during naps but kicked it into high gear when My Publisher* came out with their best (for what I was purchasing) coupon code that had to be used by July 28 (*not sponsored by them at all; I just love their photo books!). I always max out at 100 pages, so the deal I was on the lookout for was free extra pages. The grand total before the coupon for three photo books (I always order one for both sets of grandparents) was $327.57! Yikes! With the coupon, my total came to $118.93. Shipping is pricy-$22.97, but the quality of the photo books is worth it. Including shipping and tax, each book cost $39.64. Not too bad, considering it comes with a lovely linen cover and Harper’s book this year had over 600 pictures in it!
Another favorite blog of mine, Young House Love, hopped on the My Publisher bandwagon after reading about Katie Bower’s photo books {how cool is it that they’re real life friends!}. Check out their fun post about how “photo albums are dead to us” here (complete sidenote: I really miss their posts on BabyCenter) and other photo album posts here, here, and here. Katie Bower also has several other good photo book posts.
Anyway, back to my photo books, ha! It comes packaged in a fun red box that says, “Ta da, I’m here…”
Every time I get a package from My Publisher, I can’t wait to open up the box and look at my latest photo book creation!
I love how thin the books are and the look of the linen covers. I’m soon going to run out of color choices for the books, ha! Below are Will’s three books (sage, navy, taupe) and Harper’s (grey, ivory). 
Here are the front covers of the books. My plan is to continue creating one book per kid for a while…we’re going to have a lot of books! Luckily, they are narrow and fit nicely on my bookshelf.
I organize the photos in chronological order from just after the birthday party through the kiddo’s next birthday party. For example, Harper’s second year photo book (below, that I just finished) was from March 2013 (right after she turned one) through March 2014. I ended with her 2nd birthday party.
Here’s just a glimpse at some of the pages and the different layouts. This page only has three pictures but most of the other pages have more than that (in order to fit in all the pictures I had selected…I still wasn’t able to use all the pictures I wanted due to the huge # of pics I took). 
Summertime fun with the cousins…
I include our professional photo sessions we do with a local photographer. Last year, we took pics in summer and fall. This year, we’re only going to take fall pics. 
More summertime fun. When creating the pages, you select the number of pics you want to include on the page and the program gives you several options for layouts. One thing I forgot to mention is that you download the free My Publisher software to your computer and create the book that way. Once the book is finished, you upload and purchase your masterpiece:)
I try to organize the pictures by event/trip, etc. For example, below is our yearly trip to the peach orchard. I included two pages from our peach picking trip. 
More fall scenes-the page on the left is our pumpkin patch trip and the right page is our apple orchard trip. 
Our professional fall photos…these covered several pages.
Scenes from Harper’s 2nd birthday party.
At the very end of the book, I include several pages of Instagram pics from the year. I selected a page of 12 square pictures to display these pics. It’s nice to end with a year recap from Instagram, plus, it helps if I have a few extra pages that I need to fill up (though that usually doesn’t happen!). 
I’m curious to see how others create photo books for their kiddos!
{oh hey Friday!}
Happy Friday! It’s my last Friday before school starts, boo:(
Anyway, I’m looking forward to a busy, fun weekend and I’m linking up with Karli and Amy for oh hey Friday!
{one} Last weekend, Mimi and Grandaddy came for a visit (my in-laws). We had a great time playing outside, reading books, and going out for dinner. My mom is here today to visit, so the kids and I are going to have a fun day with Grammy! Soaking up the last few days of summer. 
{two} We have a tiny garden with a few pepper and tomato plants, along with some zucchini and basil. I checked the garden recently and picked these yummy cherry tomatoes and a pepper. Fresh veggies=the best!
{three} Goldfish+kids=successful Target trip. Ha! This is the only way I can keep both kids contained in a cart at Target lately-our first stop is to the food section where each kiddo gets their own goldfish container. It keeps them occupied and me able to shop at Target for approximately 18.3 minutes! And as you can see from the picture below, there was still lots of arguing about the placement of their feet. 
{four} Do you cook with quinoa? I have cooked with it several times but want to incorporate it into our meals more. I recently made a quinoa and black bean casserole, which turned out great. Of course, as is always the case, only one kiddo liked it. It’s really hard to find a recipe that both kids like. I think Harper ate enough to make up for what Will didn’t eat though, ha!
{five} Look at these curls! Lately, Harper’s hair has become more curly. I love it! I wish it would stay this way! It’s getting so long, too. Love it! And the blond hair too, that can stay! I don’t want it to turn darker. Love my two blond-haired kiddos:)
I hope you have a great, relaxing weekend!
{my year of weekly pinterest projects: a recap}
Whew, I have finished a year of weekly Pinterest projects! Yahoo! While it feels good to have finished this project without skipping a week, I’m ready for a break. Although I won’t be posting weekly projects, I will continue to create things I’ve pinned on Pinterest and blog about them. It just won’t be every week!
Here’s a look back at all 52 weeks!
week one: individual baked oatmeal and energy bites
week two: freezing zucchini
week three: slow cooker peach cobbler
week four: frito pie
week five: two ingredient chocolate croissants
week six: garlic bread
week seven: easy banana bread
week eight: fall rosette wreath
week nine: pumpkin spice chai latte
week ten: organizing the hall closet
week eleven: scarf organization
week twelve: Halloween treats
week thirteen: mint and navy outfit
week fourteen: crock pot lentil burrito bowls
week fifteen: Pinterest fail-crock pot lasagna
week sixteen: thankful turkeys
week seventeen: cake batter and snickers dip
week eighteen: 25 Christmas countdown activities
week nineteen: diy foaming baby shampoo/wash
week twenty: cinnamon applesauce ornaments
week twenty-one: an organized pantry
week twenty-two: toddler infinity scarf
week twenty-three: diy reed diffusers
week twenty-four: homemade vanilla coffee creamer
week twenty-five: owl valentines
week twenty-six: muffin tin lunch
week twenty-seven: Valentine’s Day trail mix
week twenty-eight: peanut butter energy bites
week twenty-nine: painter’s tape race track
week thirty: washi tape clothespins
week thirty-one: washi tape flag labels
week thirty-two: washi tape spoons
week thirty-three: green smoothies
week thirty-four: lego birthday party decorations
week thirty-five: homemade taco seasoning
week thirty-six: primary color banner
week thirty-seven: lego juice boxes
week thirty-eight: magnetic alphabet boards
week thirty-nine: homemade ranch seasoning mix/Greek yogurt ranch dip
week forty: tissue paper tassels
week forty-one: mother’s day notebook
week forty-two: peanut butter honey yogurt dip
week forty-three: creaseless hair ties
week forty-four: yogurt covered frozen berries
week forty-five: strawberry pie
week forty-six: magic shell
week forty-seven: homemade microwave mac and cheese and spaghetti ohs
week forty-eight: fruit infused water
week forty-nine: peach dump cake and homemade cake mix
week fifty: beach countdown chain
week fifty-one: Pioneer Woman coffee granita
week fifty-two: peanut butter sheet cake
The most used project in our household has been week 19. I switched over all of our hand soap to the homemade foaming soap and have saved lots of money in the process! It appears that while I tried to do a variety of projects, new recipes seemed to win (particularly desserts). A summer favorite of ours has been the homemade magic shell (week 46). Will frequently requests the muffin tin lunch (week 26), and it’s so easy to throw together, especially when your fridge and pantry is getting empty. I have made the energy bites (week 28) several times and they’re a great go-to snack/fast breakfast. I’m really looking forward to next year’s strawberry season so I can make another delicious strawberry pie (week 45)! Out of all 52 projects, only one of them was a complete fail (week 15: crock pot lasagna). Granted, not all of them were the best or as pretty as they look on Pinterest, but for the most part, the crafts/food/etc. turned out well!
Now it’s time for a break from Pinterest for a little while! Ha, that won’t happen! I continue to pin tons of recipes and crafts on a weekly {sometimes daily!} basis and love to try new things.
{take your kids to work day // it’s the little things}
Happy Wednesday! Yesterday, my husband’s company had a take your kids to work day. He’s an airplane mechanic for a local company. While Harper and Will were too young for the majority of the activities, I took them after work yesterday to look around the airport and see what daddy does at work. Once the kids are six, they are able to spend the entire day at work, which is so cool! The kids get to shadow their parents in the morning and in the afternoon there are specific activities for them.
Checking out all the airplanes..
Walking through the hanger…
Afterwards, the kids enjoyed cookies and lemonade outside.
It was a fun time, but I’m really looking forward to when they’re able to shadow at work and stay all day!
I’m linking up with Ashley and Jess for “It’s the Little Things.”
Weekly Pinterest Project: Week 52-Peanut Butter Sheet Cake
Today’s post marks the 52nd Pinterest project I’ve completed! Yahoo! I made it a whole year posting a new Pinterest craft or food item I’ve made on a weekly basis! Today’s post is two in one. I kept seeing a peanut butter sheet cake all over Pinterest and Facebook and wanted to try it. I have made a Texas sheet cake before (chocolate cake with delicious chocolate icing) but hadn’t made a peanut butter cake before now. However, all the recipes I found called for buttermilk and I wasn’t going to get a quart of buttermilk just to use a small amount of it. I googled how to make buttermilk and came up with all sorts of ways to make it, including adding vinegar, lemon juice, or cream of tarter to milk. I happened to have some sour cream that needed used up, so I mixed together sour cream and milk to make buttermilk. It seemed to work well-it was super easy and I loved that I didn’t have to go to the store, ha!
I just mixed the milk right into the sour cream container.
For the peanut butter sheet cake, I used this recipe. I highly recommend making this cake for a large gathering-it makes a huge amount (you bake it in a 10×15 jelly roll pan)!
I thought the cake was good (I prefer chocolate though) but the peanut butter icing was really good! I made the icing on the stove by boiling butter, peanut butter, and milk and added powdered sugar and vanilla to the mixture. It was almost like eating peanut butter fudge!
Yum!
A full recap of my year of Pinterest projects will be on the blog later this week!
{oh hey Friday!}
Happy Friday:) I’m linking up with Karli and Amy for oh hey Friday! I can’t believe it’s already August!
{one} I recently discovered a huge wealth of kids’ consignment clothes on Instagram! I happened upon Jenny Collier’s Instagram resale shop and bought a few cute clothes for Harper. Do you have any favorite Instagram shops where you buy used kids’ clothes? I’d love to hear what they are!
{two} Miss Harper…this girl is so particular about her shoes. She absolutely hates these adorable sandals and throws a fit when we put them on her. She would rather wear her Crocs or rain boots. No kidding-as soon as we got back home, she took off these sandals and put on her red cupcake boots! Silly girl:)
{three} I completed my last summer teacher workday this week, yahoo! Now I have one more full week off before school starts. It always feels so much better to have my room all unpacked and ready to go! Here’s the before:
And after! Much better. Those piles of boxes everywhere were driving me crazy!
{four} We’ve been enjoying some cooler temps here in Virginia this week-low 70s and down in the 50s at night! It seems like fall is coming soon! The kiddos requested to eat lunch outside the other day, which was great for me, since it means less of a mess to clean up:)
{five} Summer grilling! We grilled a delicious meal of pesto scallops and zucchini. I love the nights we grill since that means I just do the prep work (cutting up the zucchini, etc) and my husband does the rest! I could get used to this, ha!
We cooked the corn in the microwave with the husk still on, which turned out great! This method made it so easy to remove the husk and silk!
I hope you have a great summer weekend:)
{mommy//daughter evening}
Last week, Harper and I had a fun mommy/daughter evening while Will and his daddy went to a monster truck show with Aunt Kathy (one of our babysitters) and our neighbor’s son. I rarely go out and do something specifically with just one kiddo. I should, though, because we had a blast! The only main activity I do with each kid separately is music class, which starts back up next month after a break for summer, so it’s been a while.
Our first stop was Target (mommy’s favorite store!!), where we looked at the new fall clothing that’s starting to come out and all the back to school deals. I’m addicted to the dollar tins and use them for a variety of things around the house. I picked up a few more to use as storage for our craft supplies. 
I decided to check out a {new to us} frozen yogurt place in the area. Harper loves getting her mini frozen yogurt! I will definitely be back-they are very kid friendly (they have a kids’ area with toys and coloring sheets) and have lots of seating. The employees were really friendly as well. 
After froyo, we stopped by a local park (one of my favorite parks in the area). It was so nice to just focus on one kiddo and give her all my attention. Usually, I’m back and forth between the little play area and the bigger play area where Will climbs around. Harper enjoyed the extra attention as well. 
We even went down by the river and threw rocks!
Harper and I had a super time! I plan on doing more of these individual kiddo excursions in the future! Will had a good time at the monster truck show and didn’t get home until almost midnight! He was exhausted and ready to see mommy (he’s such a mommy’s boy, ha!).
I’m linking up with Jess and Ashley for “It’s the Little Things.”
Harper and Will 