{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:)

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{Thoughts for Thursday}

 

Hello! I’m linking up with Annie and Natalie for Thoughts for Thursday.

I am helping out with VBS as a crew leader (Will was in my group) all week and am worn out! Chasing around a group of preschoolers will do that, ha!

Here are some things that are happening around our house…

Summer reading…I love Emily Giffin’s books and was excited to read her latest. My friend borrowed it from the library and passed it on to me (thanks, Ashley!), but I just couldn’t get into it. It focused too much on football.  I’m not into sports but was going to give it a try.  Well, I got half-way through it and decided that the sports talk was just too much.  Any recommendations for good summer reads?  Something light and fun?

The adventures of potty training have started…we picked up some potty essentials a few weeks ago and have been working on sitting on the potty. Harper wakes up most mornings with a dry diaper so I immediately stick her on the potty. She also wakes up from her naps with a dry diaper, which is great! With Will, he was super easy to potty train. However, I waited until he was three and was ready for it. I’m not sure that Harper is completely ready, but we’re working on it slowly.

Fixin’ cars…my husband and his co-worker were repairing my car last week, so Will decided he needed to “fix” his car as well.  Daddy gave him a few tools to play with and he had a blast! Harper wanted to get in the action, too!

Lilies…my husband has a beautiful lily garden and the lilies are in full bloom now.  He has a variety of lilies in all different colors–so pretty!

We have been grilling more this summer than we have in the past, yay! The other day I made some grilled honey lime chicken and roasted vegetables. Well, I just made the marinade and my husband grilled it, ha! It was such an easy and delicious meal! You just marinate the chicken in some soy sauce, honey, and lime juice and grill. How easy is that?!Have a wonderful {almost} weekend!

{weekend happenings}

What a fun weekend! My in-laws (Mimi and Grandaddy) came on Friday morning and spent part of the weekend with us! Will is always so excited when anyone spends the night because that means he gets to “camp out” in the bonus room (our play area) while our guests sleep in his room.

They brought us yummy homemade desserts (both with from scratch crusts!)-fudge pie and rhubarb pie (this happened to be rhubarb from my parents’ garden) and three bags of blueberries from a local farm.

When they arrived on Friday, they took Will and Harper to a nearby park so I could have some “quiet time.”  It gave me the chance to organize our bonus room closet and sort items for a consignment sale and items to donate.

Fresh blueberries! All three bags are all gone! My kids eat these like candy!

Playing with Mimi’s phone and tablet. On Friday evening, they took the kids out to dinner while my husband and I went out for a nice, relaxing dinner sans kiddos.  We went to one of our favorite restaurants in town and had a great time! We called this our Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and birthday celebration all combined into one for us, ha! The last time we went on a “date” was back in December.

On Saturday, I made breakfast and we headed out the door to our local farmer’s market.

I gave Will the task of selecting some green beans for us.

Petting the dogs at the market.

We love to walk across an old bridge and up to a seating area that has great views of the town.  Will and Harper ran around for a while, splashing in puddles and burning off some energy!

A trip downtown is never complete without a visit to Pufferbellies, our favorite toy store!

For lunch, we headed to a local pizza place for a quick bite to eat.  Harper was having a meltdown and refused to sit in her high chair for lunch.  Will was getting tired as well, so as soon as we were finished, we headed home for naps.

After naps, we played more with Mimi and Grandaddy and enjoyed a yummy beer can chicken and grilled vegetables for dinner.  The kids were sad when Mimi and Grandaddy had to leave that evening.  We had a blast! Happy summertime:)

Easy Grilled Jalapeños

Hello! I’m linking up with Kelly’s Korner for her weekly Show Us Your Life.  Today’s topic is favorite grilling recipes. I love it when we grill because it means that my husband makes dinner! I don’t grill at all but love it when he does:)  We say every summer that we are going to grill at least once a week but that never ends up happening. I really want to make more of a point to grill more.

Last weekend, my husband grilled turkey burgers and grilled jalapeños.  To make the jalapeños, you cut the tops off and take out all the seeds.  My husband wore gloves when he did this and I refused to even help with this part.  Contact lenses and jalapeños do not mix!

Cut cubes of cheese (we used sharp cheddar) and wrap a piece of bacon (we used turkey bacon) around the cheese.  Stuff into the jalapeños and grill for approximately 20-30 minutes at medium/high heat.  We got a fancy jalapeño grilling holder recently that worked nicely.  However, you could just put them on the grill and cook.

The jalapeños were super yummy with great flavor but I could only eat one…they were that hot! My husband ate several of them! Yum!

What are your favorite grilling recipes?  I’m on the hunt for a good turkey burger recipe.

5 on Friday!

Happy Friday! I’m linking up with Darci and friends for 5 on Friday! I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend with my family:)

{one} This girl…she cracks me up! I snapped this picture of Harper at Nana’s (her babysitter) last week. She was rocking the big yellow shades, posing on her tractor! She has so much personality..I love her to pieces!

{two} Lilac blooms! It’s definitely spring here in Virginia! This week, temps got up to 90 degrees! It felt like summer! I can’t wait until summer–I will be off from school and at home with my kiddos. I’m starting to plan activities and and fun summer projects for us:) Check out my toddler boy summer must-haves post!

{three} Speaking of summer, the kiddos enjoyed popsicles the other evening with our neighbors.  I need to pull out my Zoku quick popsicle maker and use it more this summer.  My husband and I always say that we will grill more in the summer as well, but for some reason we don’t. I love to grill and would like to at least once a week this summer.  Actually, I don’t really grill..my husband does. That could explain why I love it so much-it means I get a night off from cooking dinner! Any good, easy grilling recipes that you would like to share?

{four} We drove down our road the other evening and spotted this newborn calf.  The cows in the field next to us used to have calves all the time, but a few years ago, the farmer moved those cows closer to the barn for monitoring. It’s been such a long time since I saw a newborn calf in the field near us that I got so excited, ha! I just had to take a picture and text the farmer to let her know!

{five} Chocolate chip cookie pie! Yum! I found the recipe here and decided to make it after my husband saw someone post it on Facebook.  He is frequently showing me dishes and desserts that people share on Facebook and asks me if I can make them.  This chocolate chip cookie pie is really yummy.  I think I added too many chocolate chips though (they all sunk to the bottom) since it’s really chocolately and not as much cookie.  I highly recommend it heated up for a few seconds in the microwave and topped with some vanilla ice cream!

I hope you have a fabulous Friday!