School Pictures

Well, Happy Halloween! Looking forward to a fun night in our neighborhood! The kiddos are soooo excited!

Wanted to share their school pictures from this year. Good ole Lifetouch. 

These are too cute. I love Grady not totally looking at the camera, hair messed up and collar not right. Molly Anne has clearly never had her picture taken haha! She picked out her outfit and included her special necklace that she bought with her own money at the hotel gift shop in Hawaii this summer. Boys and girls are so different but both so wonderful!

Kindergarten, age 5

3rd Grade - age 8

Busy Halloween Weekend

We had a busy weekend. Kevin was at the beach fishing with some friends. Started with a trick or treat event at my office. They love going to that each year!

The little puppy!

We had a little bike situation with his new bike he got about a month ago. He wasn't riding it and I had to figure out why. Well....our hood is too hilly so he couldn't get up the hills. I took it back to the Trek store and he got one with gears so we solved that problem! I wish I had thought of that when he originally got it. But now he has a NC State bike!


Neighborhood biker kiddos. This other friend Sebastian was soooo kind to Grady and helped him with a couple things. It was adorable. 


Then we headed to the neighborhood kids party!

 

These kiddos loved leading the parade. I promise there were about 50 people behind them but they ran ahead haha. 




We headed home then a babysitter came over to keep the kids and I went with friends to my friend Kelly's home for her fall party. She always has amazing parties. 


This is the black magic Margarita which was amazing!


I picked up my dress on Thursday at the mall. Last minute but it worked!


We wish Kevin had been there with us. 




Kevin came home Sunday morning with fresh tuna and crabs for me to pick! So fun and delish. 




Carved pumpkins...my least favorite activity and checked that off the list!






And got in bed early. Molly Anne has testing at school for reading and math today and Thursday so we all hit the bed early! Chat soon friends! Back to it today. 

Current After School Activities

Thought it'd be fun to "document" what my kiddos are into these days after school and on the weekends. Sadly if they don't start this early, there's zero chance they make the high school teams. I think it's totally ridiculous but I'm here to help them succeed if they want to play sports. So, I put them in what I think are good programs and try to make it work with my schedule, within reason! 

Molly Anne - she is still swimming twice a week at MSA...on year two of this. Technically she has practice on Saturday mornings too but she never wakes up in time for it and the girl needs to sleep by the time Saturday rolls around. She has gotten worked at school all week! She is also playing tennis with a 30 minute lesson at our club each week. In October, she has done a karaoke club at school one day a week and she has loved that. It's put on by one of her favorite teachers so that's been fun. 

Grady - he's playing soccer at his old school. One practice a week and game on Saturday. It's very scheduled and predictable which is nice. He's playing tennis for 30 minutes right before Molly Anne's lesson too. 

I like the two things per child situation - it's PLENTY! And still lets us stay semi-sane. But it is every day that they have something - Monday through Thursday. Fridays I like to CHILL and we leave a lot of weekends. 

Soon, sports seasons are changing. Swim for MA will stay. Unsure about tennis - may depend if they like cold tennis or not haha. Toughen them up! Soccer is almost over. 

Grady is going to play flag football this winter and Molly Anne is going to play basketball. I need to get Grady back into swim and will probably do that in February-ish. He really likes swimming. 

Not sure what Spring will bring. Grady says he wants to play baseball for the third year. Who knows what Molly Anne will do...maybe more tennis or maybe more lacrosse?  She also wants to do gymnastics/tumbling. We will see! They both like to do ALL.OF.THE.THINGS!!! 

Wish List

1. I've posted about these pants before but I just got them in the mail and they're amazing. They have zip pockets and feel a bit dressier. I like them possibly more than these which I wear constantly (which have the band going down the sides). 

2. Put these goldish slippers on my Christmas wish list for Kevin. My Lands End slippers are toast and have been for a couple of years. It's time!

But let's be honest, aren't these amazing?

3. I'll be honest, this amazing perfume is super duper expensive but it's a scent that I've loved since an ex-boyfriend's Mom gave it to me in 2005 (HAHA!). I've only had to buy two bottles since then and I only wear it in the winter. It's my favorite. Kevin knows it's a ridiculous purchase but he may humor me anyway. 

4. I got this sweater that I mentioned last week in the mail yesterday and it's really good. I think it'll be a staple this fall. I may need the cream color since it's on sale.

5. Kevin also found these pajamas on my wish list but in one size up. They shrink! Anyway, I'm pretty excited about these. I don't think I've bought pajamas in 5+ years. 

Easy White Chicken Chili

Well I'm down a crockpot because the one we got for our wedding 10 years ago no longer works. This recipe would have been perfect in a crockpot if I had one but I didn't so I threw it all in a pot on the stove and boiled it then let it simmer for a few. Then on the table it went!

I combined this recipe and this recipe to make the below recipe! When I tell you that this took me 10 minutes to make, I mean it! Easy for after work. Both of my kids loved it. Grady is super into soups right now!

Ingredients:

- half onion diced

- 3 cloves of garlic 

- 2 cans of 15 ounce cannellini beans, drained

- rotisserie chicken diced

- 32 ounces chicken broth low sodium 

- 8 ounces of mild salsa verde (half a jar)

- shakes of oregano, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper

- Toppings - shredded cheddar, sour cream, cilantro if you have it and avocado (2 avocados if you're Grady)

Directions:

1. Saute the onion and garlic in some olive oil

2. Add the beans, chicken, broth, salsa and spices. 

3. Let boil and simmer for about 5-10 minutes.

4. Serve and let your kids put on their own toppings

Getting Pumpkins

We had an awesome visit to Hall Family Farm a couple of weeks ago but we never got any pumpkins on that trip! One day last week we had some extra time so I took the kids to Union Market. They have loved going there over the years. 

Also, gone are the days of cute smocked pumpkin outfits for a pumpkin patch visit. Crazy! Now it's - put some clothes on let's go out the door! 

They each picked two big ones to carve, two mediums to just have and two smalls for their rooms. 



Of course Grady is pulling and Molly Anne is pushing. Haha.





Checked that off the Fall list!

OIB Oysterfest Weekend

We had a fun weekend down at the beach. We got to see some of our new landscaping overhaul we've had done and tweak that a bit. It looks awesome though and we will be excited to have that done! Next up is the boat lift. We've been on the list for that for about 5 months and we hope to have that done by January. It has been halfway permitted so that's a good thing!

Friday night we just hung at home. Grady and I went over to Sharkys to get flotilla t shirts. Flotilla is the boat parade Thanksgiving weekend. Kevin's company helped sponsored it this year so his name happens to be on the tshirt! 

Saturday early bird walking to see the sunrise and getting in a workout. It was stunning. 

Then we had a bit of chaos with the landscaping guys, irrigation guy, and Furnitureland South all coming at once! 


But we got our chairs and side table that we ordered! It's Polywood and won't go anywhere with wind and will hold up perfectly in the salt air!

Then we headed over to the Oyster Festival! They always have great music. We enjoyed listening to Ryan Perry who has played at our club before as well. 


The shucking contest is always fun to watch and the kids love it. 


Met up with our next door neighbors from home to hang out! Bunch of crazies, all of us together! 

We ended up going to our friend Ashley's house and hanging there then calling it an early night. It had been a longgggg day! 

Sunday we played outside and I ran to the surf shop and found a cute dress and wooden ships sweater. Their sweaters are so good. 

We made it back to Charlotte at 5, picked up my Walmart grocery order and got our act together for the week! Always good memories in OIB! 

Five on Friday

1. Grady had his last Dubose picture taken yesterday! It's hard to believe this little phase of our lives is over. The cute little black and white portraits. Ahhhh!!! Will share when we receive!

2. The book fair is going on at the kid's school this week and I got to work for a few hours one of the days. It was fun to get to be there when Grady's class came in!



3. Poor Mills...!!! But Molly Anne loves to work out with me at night...anything not to go to bed! She doesn't want to miss a thing!



4. We've had a bunch of landscaping start at the beach and that's exciting. We are installing irrigation out back, putting sod down and adding a fence. We are also widening the driveway, fixing a drainage issue and adding a bunch of stone in landscape beds. Can't wait for it to be done!

5. Quite honestly it's been a rough work week. I feel like I say that too often. I don't mean to be negative, just realistic. It's not all rainbows and butterflies over here. 

Talk soon friends. Looking forward to a reprieve this weekend.

Good finds

1. Love the vibe of this sweater and it's light enough that we can wear it in the south too! $69

2. This top screams holiday party or "going out" when it's cold outside! I never know what to wear when it's 40 degrees but you still want to look fun. This top would be it!

3. A classy gold headband would complete an outfit for sure. Good to have in your closet. 

4. This dress caught my eye at the store. Something a bit different but still easy to throw on and look put together. 


5. A top that is great for work but you could also dress it up for evening by wearing black leggings too. 


Happy shopping! I hate everything in my closet at the moment so I'm on the hunt!