Pool Weekend

Hope everyone had a fun weekend!

Ready for the pool!  Her suit is from Mini Boden but they don't have it anymore!  I love their suits for her though.  Very well made and hold their color!

We went to a farm birthday party on Friday afternoon and the kids had a blast!  Grady chased the chickens and constantly yelled for the tractor!

My friend took this and sent it to me and it couldn't be more accurate of life at the moment!  Sweet boy.

Saturday morning I had to get new tires and an oil change.  Kevin took the kids to the pool and I met them over there.  These two pictures crack me up - dads versus mamas.  Ain't that the truth!

Sunscreen, snacks, bathroom, all of the mamaaaaaa things!  While the guys chill in the pool during adult swim. Funny!

Grady skipped his nap on Saturday and we stayed until 3:30pm!  It's easy to pack a lunch and stay there all day so that's what we did.  When we went home, we all took showers and the kids got on their pajamas.  They had some TV time, an early dinner and bed at 6:30pm!  

We actually snuck out after a gal from across the street came over to babysit.  We just went over to our club and sat on the patio but it was the first time we have gotten out by ourselves and it was so nice!  It was also amazing not to put my kids to bed for the first time in 4 months.  Everyone needs a little break! ;)

When we got home, some friends joined us back on our porch for some social distancing social time.  Glad we built that big ole porch!

Yesterday we laid low all morning.  We all took naps and I meal prepped for the week during their naptime.  We went to the pool for a couple of hours after nap and before dinner.  Easy little Sunday.  We had egg rolls in a bowl last night for dinner (Grady gobbled it right up!) and tonight we are having pizza casserole with this low carb crust.  I wrapped up the weekend with a 4 mile trot with my friend Jen.  Always good to start the week like that. 

Happy Monday!  I'm getting my hair cut today for the first time since February and I can't wait!

Happy Friday

I ran to Trader Joe’s for a quick 10 minute trip this week and grabbed these. The hummus is my favorite with veggie chips and the other two were new to us. They’re delish with veggies!

This is what I really went for. It has some Prosecco in it to give a little bubbly. It’s a good poolside beverage if you pour it in a yeti before you go since it’s glass.  I took this and a container of chocolates to a porch of friend of mine who has had a rough week. 

Grady can do a puzzle by himself!  

Swim team gals!

A hot almost 6 mile run with Jen and Kacey last night. 

Saw this ad pop up on my phone and had to get this shirt!  So fun!

This one won’t drink out of a sippy cup since she turned 5. No more of that!

Probably some pool time happening this weekend. Also getting new tires put on my car. Good times. Gotta love spending money on tires blah!!  Fortunately my neighbor got them for us for a steal of a deal! 

Have a good weekend! 

Swim Team, Tad of normalcy, Lawn Scribe

Our neighborhood started an internal swim team this week.  They'll only practice and it's a few days a week.  No meets.  They practice social distancing and all of that.  Most importantly it's been an exciting thing for Molly Anne to look forward to every day.  She needs the social interaction.  She needs the structure.  It's outside, it's a healthy thing to do, it's all of the right things.  So far, she LOVES it and I'm so glad! 

Last night we went to our club and had dinner out on the patio and the kids played in the grass beside the tables and for about an hour, life felt normal.  It was so nice!  I keep thinking back to how much fun we had!  We saw some friends there and that was exciting too! 

Little Grady hanging out in his crib this morning waiting for one of us to come get him.  That little thumb sucker!  He's so sweet. 

@lawnscribe came by and put these awesome letter decorations out a couple of days before Molly Anne's birthday since we would be out of town on the actual day!  How cute are they?  Lawn Scribe is serving the south Charlotte and Marvin/Waxhaw areas if you're interested!  Such a fun way to celebrate a birthday!  Email Jacquilyn@lawnscribe.com or find on Instagram at @lawnscribe

Corona Days

Wasn't sure if I've really written on here lately about what we are doing for childcare and basically how I'm managing the kids and working.  And what the Fall is looking like.  Not that anyone cares but it may be good for documenting life these days.

After 8 weeks of no childcare, I really needed help.  I'm really busy with work and was back in mid May when I was about at my limit.  I decided to have a neighborhood babysitter come over as she was home from college at Carolina for the summer.  She has been coming 2-3 days a week for part days.  Depending on the week, another babysitter that's in high school, that used to babysit for us on Saturday nights, has been coming over as well. 

This has helped me so much with work.  My office reopened mid May and we are split into Team A and Team B.  Team A goes in on Monday and Wednesday and Team B goes in on Tuesday and Thursday.  All work from home on Friday.  It works and the goal is just to have less people in the office.  We all mostly have our own offices and our space is pretty spread out as it is.  

Who knows what happens this Fall.  Grady's daycare opens back early August and we are planning for him to go there.  If public schools are 100% remote (gasp!!) in North Carolina, Molly Anne may go private for Kindergarten.  I don't really know what else to do for her.  Both kids need the social interaction.  I need to work.  She and I don't do well on schoolwork together, she really needs another person that has an education background and not me that gets frustrated by it all.  I'm not a teacher!

All of my teacher friends also say how important it is for Elementary aged children to have in person instruction.  The good part is, everyone is in the same boat.  And I know how fortunate we are to have other options.  There are A LOT of children in North Carolina that need to go to school to stay safe and to get fed.  So that needs to be considered.  

Everyone's situation is different and there isn't enough known about the virus and those two things are why this is so hard in my opinion. 

So the planner in me wants to know exactly what August 17th is going to look like but I've come to terms that I don't know until it's announced.  Then we will cross that bridge when we need to cross it and do what we think is best for our children. 

Dinners this week

Anyone else in a dinner making rut?  I texted my friend Ashley last week and told her and she was like that's funny because I just told my husband the same thing.  I think we've all cooked SO much since March that we are done with it!

My SIL and I were chatting Sunday about what we make and she gave me some good ideas and I gave her some.  It's always good to get new ideas from people.  Here is what I'm making this week:

1. Sheet pan chicken fajitas.  I used the Smart Chicken Organic tenderloins.  Yes, they're more expensive but they really are that much better.  And my SIL told me about the Badia brand of seasoning for tacos and fajitas so I grabbed some of that at Teeter this weekend.  It really is delicious and tastes more authentic.  I just marinated the chicken and peppers in olive oil and the seasoning for a day before I threw it on a pan and into the oven for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.  Served it with grapes for the kids.  Easy meal for when I'm in the office that day.

2.  Italian Salads

3.  Taco Salads - I always like to have these on days I'm at the office too because I'll make the meat the night before and dinner is basically done when I get home.  

4.  Egg Roll in a Bowl

4th Weekend in Pawleys

We had the most fun weekend in Pawleys at my brother and SIL's house!  

We left our house around 9am on Friday morning and knew we'd make it to Sumter around 11 in time for an early lunch and ideally Grady would nap from there to Pawleys which is about 2 hours.  He typically naps around 12pm so it all sounded ideal but I knew it wouldn't really happen.  He maybe slept 40 minutes which was fine. In Sumter we got drive thru Chick Fil A and had a little picnic in the Staples parking lot where Kevin took Molly Anne in to use the bathroom and I serviced Mills and Grady haha.  Staples was a pretty low key place to go into versus a Wal-Mart.  No one was in there and we wore our masks. It really did feel odd to be going in a place!  

We arrived and went straight out to the end of the dock.  The view is so amazing and never gets old. 

I went to grab our groceries we had ordered at their local grocery store and they came home from camping at about the same time. It's easy to order groceries and that's what Emily and I both did.  We had coordinated lists earlier that week.  She usually gets everything but she doesn't need to be doing that every time we go down there!

Uncle Clay took us on a boat ride that evening.  Emily put Grady to bed which was a nice treat for Grady and I both ha!   

We went next door to their neighhor's house who just built a rooftop deck and isn't the view unreal?!

A nighttime cruise at high tide and we had to duck under this bridge to get through haha. 

Saturday was Molly Anne's birthday!  I had taken some presents down for her to open and they gave her some super fun outdoor toys too!  Emily always gets things from the Toy Isle and they have the most fun things there.  

We packed up and went over to the creek beach for the day.  Grady likes a boat ride!  Actually both of the kids do.  Molly Anne asked constantly to go out on the boat haha.  

Happy girl on her 5th birthday!!


Grady had so much fun out there.  He kept running down the beach and into the water and splashing head first.  Totally normal and fine!  



He powered through his normal nap time and had himself a fun day!  There was no stopping him!

She loved her new mermaid tail!  She really wanted one but all I read about were drownings if you weren't a really good swimmer.  This one is for "toddlers" and goes up to size 5T and her feet can stick out of the bottom and she can walk in it.  It is perfect for her.  She can pretend she's a mermaid as she wanted but it's safe (in my opinion!) too.  





We grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs and had pretzel salad, macaroni and potato salads.  I had brought some cupcakes with us to celebrate the birthday girl!  They got pulled off the counter by a little boy so they were pretty messed up but Molly Anne didn't care - haha - they still tasted the same!  

Five years old!  Such a fun birthday to have - July 4th!

So grown up and going to kindergarten!!!  Unreal!

We watched fireworks from the dock!

Sunday morning I took Mills down the dock.   He loved running up and down it and stopping to look for fish or whatever he heard/smelled.  



Grady buddy boy!  He was taken GOOD care of this weekend.  The girls just loved getting him bathed and playing with him so much.  Two older girl cousins plus an older sister = a happy Grady!

My kids didn't want to leave yesterday.  One told us she didn't want to leave and we could just tell Grady didn't!  Back to reality at home this week!  Always good to be home but thankful for the memories with family!

Random Wednesday

I think I'm going to sign off after today to enjoy the long weekend with the fam jam.  But I had some random pictures from the last couple of weeks to share. 

Neighborhood girls night to celebrate two birthdays!  We all sat 6' apart outside then took a picture together and we all laughed afterwards because none of us breathed while we took it since we were so close. Anyone else done this unknowingly?!  

The boyz. 

This boy loves some dirt.  He poured it all over his head last night.  All boy all of the time!

Peloton obsession running deep party people. 

INHALE CONFIDENCE, EXHALE DOUBT. 
GREATNESS IS NOT A HANDOUT.
THIS AIN'T DAYCARE.
I love Alex and his sayings!

Mills at night after the kids were in bed and he has to dodge the cars to get up in his chair.  He doesn't care.  

Molly Anne wanted to take a picture on the golf cart on our way back from delivering a birthday gift in the hood. 

Life of 2.0!  Grady starts yelling TRACTOR the second we walk into Charlotte Aquatics now.  I figure 20 minutes of tractors isn't going to kill him haha.  

Molly Anne's friend Emme gave her this adorable M&D Horse Barn for her birthday and she had so much fun naming each horse!

Happy July 1st!