Our weekend was a great combination of relaxing and adventurous and I appreciated the combination of calm moments at home coupled with some family fun away from the house.
Friday
The weekend kicked off on an exciting note on Friday when 13+ women (and even more kiddos!) came over for my friend Carrie’s baby sprinkle.
(I purchased those adorable cupcake toppers off Amazon and was so impressed with the detail for only $8! They had textured hair on the zebras and giraffes and rope tails on the elephants and lions.)
Carrie is expecting her second child at the end of August and a couple of my girlfriends and I teamed up to celebrate her newest little one. Carrie requested a casual, kid-friendly sprinkle so we put together a play date-style celebration, complete with plenty of eats and treats and an array of toys for the kids to play with while the adults did their best to chat among the chaos.
(Maxi dress: Old Navy – I’m 5’8’’ and ordered a size small tall for extra length and it fit great! Breezy and super comfy! // Bralette: Free People – similar)
Thanks to my co-hosts, I only had to worry about decorating our house, putting together drinks for everyone, buying plates and utensils, arranging toys for the kids and ordering cupcakes from Whole Foods. My girlfriends handled all of the adult and kid snacks which took a lot of the stress away from hosting! Tag-teaming parties is the way to go!
As for the drinks, I want to quickly share a simple recipe for the tropical pineapple spritzer I made for the sprinkle because I had multiple people ask me for the details. I totally made it up but it was basically 3/4 liter of lemon-lime soda, 1 liter Whole Foods Tropical Blend Italian Soda (ridiculously tasty!) and 5 cups of lemonade, plus a bunch of freshly chopped pineapple thrown into the mix!
I barely snapped any photos of the sprinkle décor since getting everything together with Chase in tow wasn’t exactly a breeze, but fortunately some friends snapped a few pics otherwise I wouldn’t have much to show for Friday’s party!
Everyone left around 12:30 to take the toddlers home for their naps and I hope Carrie enjoyed every minute of her sprinkle! I know we all had a lot of fun celebrating such a special time in her life!
The fun didn’t stop when the sprinkle ended on Friday because Ryan and I had plans to head out for a dinner date night later that evening. We initially had a babysitter on the books for Friday for a quadruple date night with friends that ended up getting pushed ahead to last Sunday night but Ryan and I were not about to let a babysitter go to waste!
Once our babysitter arrived and Chase had her racing cars all over our living room with him, we headed off to Kindred, our favorite local restaurant in Davidson.
I just LOVE date nights with Ryan so darn much. It felt so nice to unwind with my husband and talk a mile a minute together at the end of a busy week.
We concluded our date night with a trip to Two Scoops Creamery for ice cream. Apparently the Cookie Monster flavor is a “must try” and despite the crazy blue color, we both gave it a shot and it was… awesome.
The base tastes like a creamy almost-whipped vanilla ice cream and it’s packed with Oreos, vanilla wafers and cookie dough (I think!?) and we felt like we were 12 years old digging into bowls of bright blue ice cream again.
Saturday
Saturday morning began with peanut butter baked steel cut oatmeal for breakfast followed by a family trip to the gym! Lately I’ve been in the habit of taking both Saturday and Sunday off from the gym so it felt extra nice to sweat on a Saturday morning.
Once Chase was settled in childcare, Ryan and I warmed up with some incline walking on side-by-side treadmills and it took me back to our Ocala days when we’d warm up together before our morning workouts almost every day. Meeemories!
We then split up to do our own thing and I tackled an upper body workout that I absolutely loved! It kept things moving thanks to a bunch of supersets (and quadruple and triple sets!) and I took a screenshot of the workout after I shared it on Instagram Stories because it’s definitely one I want to do again in the near future.
Post-workout, Ryan and I scooped Chase up from childcare and headed off to the library to return and check out some books… but not before we made a brief pit-stop for some doughnuts!
Nothing like refueling after a workout with freshly glazed doughtnuts, right!?
Our morning trip to the library ended up lasting almost an hour since Chase was all-in and loved playing with the blocks our local library has set up in the kid’s area. This gave Ryan and me a chance to alternate hanging with Chase while the other browsed around and picked up a few new things to read.
We left with a bunch of new books for Chase (I love keeping library board books in the car for easy car ride entertainment) and made it home with enough time to eat lunch together before Chase’s nap.
While Ryan put Chase down for his nap, I leashed Sadie up and drove to a local park for a walk with my favorite furry lady!
Sadie and I walked on shady paths for a little more than three miles while I caught up with my friend Michaela on the phone. It was so nice to be outside without feeling the heat of the sun beating down on me. (It was over 95 degrees on Saturday and SO humid. And that’s coming from a former Florida girl!)
After such an active morning, I was ready for some chill time on the couch when we got home! Ryan, Chase and I spent the early afternoon hanging out around the house, reading Chase’s new library books and relaxing as a family.
Eventually we made it out of the house for a quick trip to the bowling alley! Ryan and I thought Chase might enjoy bowling and bought one game (One round? I don’t know what to call it!) for the three of us!
Chase LOVED pushing the ball off the dinosaur ramp and our super random Saturday evening activity was a big hit with our little man! We walked through the arcade (which absolutely blew Chase’s mind) before piling back into Ryan’s car and picking up subs for dinner on our way home.
Sunday
Sunday began with breakfast and kitchen cleanup while Ryan met up with our friend Nick to fix an issue with our boat lift. While the guys worked on the lift, Chase, Sadie and I hung out at home and then headed out on a morning walk since the weather was much cooler than it has been in weeks. Temperatures still reached nearly 90 degrees on Sunday but the morning started out cool(ish) and when I mentioned a walk to Chase and Sadie, I’m not sure who seemed more excited!
We walked about two miles around our neighborhood and arrived home 10 minutes or so after Ryan was back from his boat lift fixin’ adventure. Since the boat was ready to go, we quickly changed into swimsuits, packed up some snacks and headed out to spend a couple of hours on the water.
(Check out Sadie’s tongue flapping in the wind! Haha!)
We puttered around the lake for a bit and swam at a deserted shallow beach before heading home in time for lunch and Chase’s nap.
While Chase napped, I got a jump start on this blog post and planned out our dinners for the week ahead before grabbing a much-needed shower.
We spent the rest of our Sunday getting ready for the week ahead (grocery shopping, food prep, laundry, etc.) and crawled into bed an hour or so after Chase went down because we were pretty darn pooped and I was dying to dive back into The Marriage Lie.
I hope you guys all have a great week ahead! Thanks for stopping by the blog and reading about our weekend adventures today!
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What a great weekend! We seriously need a date night here! We have not been on a date in 15 months (minus one day date). We live far from family so it is just tough. The bowling looks fun too.
It really is challenging without family close by sometimes! We found our favorite babysitters through my gym’s childcare and then the recommendations of fellow mamas in the area. It was honestly very difficult for me to leave Chase for a long time but it DOES get easier when you find babysitters you love and trust. I hope you guys can find someone wonderful to help you enjoy a fun date night soon! <3
Every Monday when I read your post I think, “I need a boat!” Haha. We have our eyes one and am so excited to spend time on the water relaxing!
You fit so many fun things in! The sprinkle looked adorable, I love those cupcake toppers 🙂
That’s so nice the library near your house has a little play area for kids! It probably makes picking out adult books easier since you don’t have to take Chase with you (assuming Ryan is there!)
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Looks like such a fun weekend! My husband and I were just talking about how we need to do a date night…with so much time spent with family, work, and travelling this summer we feel like it’s been ages since we went out just the two of us!
Have a great Monday!
I Love that picture of You & Chase at the end <3 <3 <3 So sweet! I just did that upper body workout this morning… my arms are JELLO! 🙂
Woohoo!! I am actually STILL sore from it today!
You always pack so much into a weekend! I can imagine how nice the date nights together must be. And OMG that ice cream, sound amazingggg!
We had a very similar weekend – busy but fun! I love weekends close to home where we can go do activities, but also have time to hang out at home!
A Baby sprinkle is such a cute idea! And that monster ice cream looks interesting, but ill take your word for it as it sounds delicious!
Sounds like a wonderful weekend! I have two questions. Any chance you know where your silverware caddie came from you used for the sprinkle?
Also the sandals you’re wearing on you’re date night (you can see a little bit of them in the pic you’re holding your ice cream in), they look super cute, do you have a link for them?
Yes!! The silverware caddy is from Zulily but there’s no brand on it, though I do see it pop up on the site for sale ALL the time! (I felt like it was following me around until I finally bought it! Haha!)
The sandals are from Nordstrom and I ordered them a few weeks ago! Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/2urapvS The color I ordered doesn’t seem to be available anymore (it was more of a neutral/cork color) but they still have a couple of options! They’re flat, lace-up sandals and are really comfortable. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Thanks so much for all the info. The sandals are part of the anniversary sale!!! Yes! I’ll keep a look out for the caddy. I appreciate you responding.
Happy Monday 🙂
The sprinkle was beautiful and looks like so much fun! Your boat days definitely make me so jealous…even though I hate boats! Would you mind sharing what those sneakers are you wore on the walk with Sadie?
Sure! They are New Balance sneakers and they’re from BeallsFlorida.com! They were under $60 and I got them this past spring through a blog collab and LOVE them. Super comfy! 🙂
I love the blue and yellow colors you used to decorate for the baby sprinkle. It looks so pretty.
I remember spending lots of time at the library when I was a kid. I loved it there. It probably also helped that I was a huge bookworm and would read just about anything that I could get my hands on.
This sounds like the most perfect weekend. These recap posts are my favorite of yours to read! You are such a good example of how to lead a super balanced life with your family – I love it. 🙂
What cute cupcakes! I just went to a friend’s one year old’s birthday party. They served an ice cream cake with green frosting – you can only imagine how that went haha.
Ummm best weekend ever! Look how happy Chase is!!
On the pb baked steel cut oatmeal, can you use regular old fashion oats, or does it have to be steel cut?
Did you check out the new Duck Donuts in Huntersville? I want to try it but I’m sure it’s mobbed right now. We’ve had them at my parents in Williamsburg VA and they’re so yummy!!
Soooo we were planning to go there on Saturday morning but I read that the opening was delayed until today so we went to The Bakery Shoppe in Huntersville to satisfy our doughnut craving instead. It’s definitely on my list though!!
I follow them on Facebook and I’m pretty sure they were open this weekend – but it looked really crowded so I’m betting you made the right call!
I am always so impressed that you get home with a tired tot in tie for him to nap in the crib! My 22 month old always passes out in the car and doesn’t transfer to the crib – how do you do it?!
Date nights are definitely my favorite 🙂 We don’t have kids yet so we try to do them once a week knowing they’ll be fewer and far between in the future!
Your weekends always seem so fun, Julie! I love the recaps, and they inspire me to possibly begin this series on my blog. I’m sure it’s fun looking back and seeing just how much fun you all had!
Also, that ice cream sounds DIVINE. I have been on a huge cookies & cream kick lately (Ben & Jerry’s Mint Cookie is where it’s at), and now I think an ice cream visit is in order this week!
It sounds like you had such a great weekend! Omg, that picture of you and Chase at the lake is just too sweet!!! I’m so happy you guys got out for a date night, it seems like my husband has been working so much we haven’t had a “date night” in quite a while. However, we do go on vacations to be together since it seems like that is the only “quality time” we have together these days! Have a great week, Julie! Xoxo
That workout looks rough! Bosu ball push ups bring it to a whole new level!! And it looks like you did a great job with the sprinkle. I love baby showers so much!!
I don’t mean this to sound critical – just an honest question. It seems like so many of your friends’ celebrations are scheduled during the day Monday through Friday. Doesn’t everyone have some friends that aren’t stay-at-home moms? I hope all of your working friends aren’t left out of the fun!
Not critical at all! Most of us have a handful of friends who do work outside of the home but a bunch stay home with their kids as well. For this sprinkle, we asked Carrie if she’d prefer a weekend or a weekday sprinkle and she was all about a casual weekday morning. We’re throwing Chase’s bday party on a Saturday so my extended group of friends who also work away from home can come, too! I think some of the weekday stuff pops up because people don’t want to take up a weekend day when people seem to like to spend that time with their families or travel, too!
You get so much done in a weekend than most people get done in a week! Looks like a really fun time. Thanks for the great post as always! I’ve always wondered, since you’re very active, do you stretch after your activities (like your walks, for example)?
Thanks!
I bet Saddie loved that LONG walk! Cute baby shower idea, looks like you had a chill weekend! We are in the process of moving so I can’t wait to get my ch ill weekends back!
That ice cream sounds delicious, even if it is bright blue 🙂 I love your instagram stories of your workouts. They’re so easy to screen shot and use at the gym for inspiration! I like incorporating the bosu pushups lately!
I have no idea how you fit some much into your days! Could you share your scheduling secrets?!
Love Sadie’s ears and tongue flapping in the wind! 🙂
You should try turkey hill double dunker premium ice cream! It looks like it’s sold at Harris Teeters in NC. It is mocha ice cream swirled with crushed oreos and giant chocolate chip cookie dough chunks. I had a similar Ben & Jerry’s flavor last weekend, and I 1000000x prefer the turkey hill! It’s like the most decadent frappucino.
Oh and a suggestion is to have it affogato. Put some in a mug and then pour some hot coffee over top. It tastes amazing!
Omg Cookie Monster ice cream???!!! That sounds amazing!
Did your mouths turn blue from that blue ice cream? 😉
Cute shower! I threw my high school best friend a bridal shower over the weekend and it seemed to be a success, as well!