Things I’m Loving Friday #576

The weekend before Thanksgiving is upon us and I’m sending lots of good vibes to everyone out there who will be hosting a gaggle of people in their homes next week as we prep, clean and get organized this weekend! And for those who will be traveling next week, I hope your travels are smooth and as stress-free as possible!

But, also, how are you!? How was your week? Holiday craziness is picking up steam over here and couple that with our usual commitments, appointments and spending as much time working on my gift guides and other work stuff as possible, you better believe I am ready to exhale a bit this weekend. I miss chatting with you guys here and hope to pop in and do just that next week. In the meantime, keep on scrolling if you’d like to check out this week’s roundup of weekly favs. Enjoy the weekend, my friends!

Things I’m Loving Friday

• Thanksgiving Craft + Activity Planning

I am getting SO excited to have a house full of people for Thanksgiving! Everyone starts arriving on Tuesday and we cannot wait to spent some quality time with our favorite people. Is it bad that at this point I’ve put more thought into kid crafts and activities than our Thanksgiving meal? (I’m largely relying on some of our past tried and true favorites from this Thanksgiving meal plan so I haven’t totally neglected it, I promise.) We’ll have seven kids under one roof ranging in age from 5 months to 10 years old but one thing they all have in common is a shared love of crafts and activities.

While I know free open-ended playtime will reign supreme over everything, here are a few crafts and activities I have planned in case everyone is antsy and needs some structure/entertainment:

Crafts: Gratitude banner (everyone will write what they’re thankful for on a cut-out pumpkin and decorate it to display on Thanksgiving), light-up ceramic gingerbread house painting (I bought 6 of these $5 crafts from Target since the Halloween version was such a hit in our house — I also grabbed these cardboard gingerbread houses to decorate because they looked cute and simple), this marshmallow snowman hot chocolate topper that actually looks do-able, beaded ornaments (this kit has everything included), Christmas window art (our kids loved making these as gift-toppers last year so I ordered this kit again for our whole crew since it has 20 toppers!)

Activities: Obstacle courses, bike + scooter rides, floor is lava, park playtime, puzzles, Turkey Trot, visiting an indoor play place, bonfire outside, cookie baking, scavenger hunts, games (the unicorn games just about everyone can play and enjoy: Snug as a Bug in a Rug, Hoot Owl Hoot, Zingo, Outfoxed — I also just ordered Beat The Parents after reading reviews and think our kids will love it!), movie night (the 2018 version of The Grinch is the BEST for young kids — funny, cute and not scary!)

Also, as I typed all of that out I had to laugh because it seems like a LOT but anyone with kids knows some activities last all of 10 minutes sooo we’ll see how it goes. Flexibility, patience and just embracing and enjoying the chaos is the key!!

• Nobody Wants This: Season 2 (Netflix)

What a gem of a show! I’ve been streaming season 2 of Nobody Wants this on Netflix during my at-home workouts and as someone who struggles to find a lot of shows out nowadays entertaining, this one is laugh-out-loud funny, creative and filled with sweet little moments. It’s a smart romantic comedy and one I enjoyed from start to finish… with the exception of the last couple of episodes which felt a little jumbled and awkward/incomplete to me.

• Advent Calendars

As a kid, my sister and I were SO into our advent calendars! One I remember SO well was a little tree we’d decorate with one ornament for each day every December up until Christmas. It was such a sweet little tradition and so special when we could finally put the star on top!

Advent calendars have definitely taken off in recent years and there’s one out there for just about every interest a child could possibly have. I ended up grabbing one for each of our kids this year but my game plan is to tell them they’re all for sharing, as I think they’ll each want in on the action of every single calendar. (I envision a rotation system of sorts.) I also said heck no to any Lego advent calendars this year because oh my gosh those were intense. Our boys liked them but they always wanted to complete their little Lego for the day before school and would run out of time and then we had little Lego pieces all over the place haunting my dreams.

In past years once Christmas is over, we’ve boxed up advent toys to bring out again the following holiday season which has worked so well to give them new life and add to the holiday fun for our kids. It also means our advent calendars are not one-and-done purchases. Here’s our advent haul this year:

Nee-Doh Advent Calendar: I put a Nee-Doh squeeze toy in each of the boys’ stockings last year and they still love playing around with them so I think this calendar of squishy sensory toys will be a hit.

3-D Printer Toy Vending Machine Advent Calendar: Our boys LOVE teeny 3-D printer toys and this advent calendar looks SO COOL. It functions as a mini vending machine little ones can twist and then an egg containing a little animal or Christmas toy drops down for them to open. I know our boys will absolutely flip for this one. (Note: Amazon hiked up the price on this one since I first ordered and initially shared on Instagram and I hate that!! Keep an eye out in case it goes back down in the next few days.)

Buildable Train Advent Calendar: Anything with vehicles or trains are always a hit in our house and since our boys always love a building project, I can see them loving this one and playing with the little train for years to come during the holiday season.

• The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers with Alex Kiester

Genre: Mystery/Suspense / My rating: C+

The Missing Half was my most recent read and while it was entertaining enough to finish, I felt semi-checked out and never fully invested the entire time. I suppose The Missing Half is a decent name for this book because for me it was missing something. There were twists that didn’t feel all that surprising, dysfunctional characters I didn’t care about and and ending that was unsatisfying. It almost felt like the author was going for shock value but somehow fell flat in the storytelling so it never quite got there.

Amazon Summary: Nicole “Nic” Monroe is in a rut. At twenty-four, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years—since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace.

On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home. The driver’s door was open and her purse was untouched in the seat next to it. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both cases eventually went cold. Nic wants nothing more than to move on from her sister’s disappearance and the state it’s left her in. But then one day, Jules’s sister, Jenna Connor, walks into Nic’s life and offers her something she hasn’t felt in a long time: hope. What follows is a gripping tale of two sisters who will do anything to find their missing halves, even if it means destroying everything they’ve ever known.

• Cyber Week Sales

A lot of companies have already launched their Black Friday sales — aka what has essentially become “Cyber Week sales” — and here are a few that popped out at me:

• 30% off Rothy’s: YES EVERYTHING on their site is on sale! What!? Time to grab a pair of their clogs! I call these the fall/winter version of Birkenstocks — crazy comfy and so easy to slip on and go! I have the chestnut color and love them.
• 25% off Ruti: If you were hoping to grab their On the Loose Work Pant I cannot top wearing, this is their lowest price of the year. My love for theses pants is through the roof.
  They can be dressed up or down and are a great, more elevated alternative to sweats and leggings for active mom life.
• 50% Off FRE Skincare: I am SO THRILLED the company behind my fav vitamin C serum is offering 50% off their entire site exclusively with my code PBFINGERS!!!! I cannot recommend the C Me Serum enough — it’s velvety smooth and I apply it every morning and evening to brighten skin, reduce dark spots and pigmentation, and smooth lines.
• 20% off Stakt Mats: My fav super-thick workout mat that folds up easily and can also work as an elevated surface during workouts. Their bundles are 25% off for additional savings.
• Up to 70% off Wayfair: Some of the rugs we love in our home are on super sale including this rug from our big kids’ room, this rug from Rhett’s room and this rug we have in our play loft.
• 30% off Ruggable: Speaking of rugs, more of our fav rugs are on sale! We have these floor mat rugs in front of our vanities in our bathroom, the big kids’ bathroom and our downstairs half-bath. This is patterned rug runner + floor mat rug we have in our kitchen and mudroom. And this is the large rug we have in our living room!
• 30% off Velvet Caviar with code GIFTS: Love these phone cases! This is my current case and I just got this one I am pairing with this cute peppermint MagSafe grip ring for the holidays!
• 20% off NodPod: Hugely helpful for my middle-of-the-night wakeups and the most-stolen gift I brought to Ryan’s work white elephant party last year! Keep this one on your radar for those hard-to-buy-for people during the holiday season. I also accidentally left my original Nodpod at a VRBO earlier this year and upgraded to the silk version and it’s lovelyyyy.

• Friday Flashbacks

Thanksgiving Meal Plan (Am I using this post from last year to plan our menu again this year? Yes, yes I am!)

Christmas Gifts for Kids: The Hits (A throwback post highlighting the gifts our kids loved most at ages 7, 4 and 2. And this is the same kind of post but highlights gifts from a year prior! )

Question of the Day

What is one thing making you smile this week?