One noteworthy event from the week was my father-in-law’s arrival early yesterday morning. Chase was totally amped-up and couldn’t wait for Granddad’s visit! This visit is actually Greg’s first time meeting his youngest grandson which definitely makes his time with us here in Charlotte feel extra special.
We have a few fun things on the agenda for the weekend that mainly center around food and sunshine and I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll have a chance to type up a blog post and recap everything on the blog on Monday.
Until then, let’s dive into my usual Things I’m Loving Friday blog post where we all chat about what we’re loving most every week. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!
Things I’m Loving Friday
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Chase’s First Day of Preschool
The 2018-19 school year began on Tuesday for Chase and he was clearly more than ready for the fun to begin! When I picked him up after his first day, he was wonderfully excited, disheveled and sweaty in the way only a three-year-old can be after they’ve been playing with some serious intensity. Chase sang a song he learned on the car ride home and told me about the games he played and his new friends. I have a feeling this year is going to be a great one! I absolutely love Chase’s school and his teachers for this year seem amazing.
While I’ll definitely miss having Chase home with us every morning, I know he loves preschool and I’m grateful Chase’s time at school will give me some one-on-one time with Ryder. There’s undeniably a new layer of mom guilt that surfaces when it comes to juggling two little ones and I’m looking forward to being able have some uninterrupted time to cuddle with our little baby. I’m also hoping to have the chance to get a little work done when Chase is at school and Ryder is napping!
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The Greatest Showman Medley by Anthem Lights
After watching The Greatest Showman, my love for the movie’s soundtrack skyrocketed. I’ve enjoyed the music for months thanks to Pandora but something about seeing the movie and the emotions and story behind the songs made me appreciate the amazing music even more. I’ve been rockin’ out to The Greatest Showman Pandora station during my workouts from time to time (it’s oddly motivating!) and stumbled upon an a medley of songs from the movie by Anthem Lights that I had to share here for my fellow Greatest Showman fanatics out there. It’s awesome and I had to force myself not to break out in song at the gym when I first heard it!
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The Whole Smiths‘ Lemon Pepper Chicken
The Whole Smiths Good Food Cookbook is, hands down, the best cookbook I’ve purchased in a while. It was actually a past Things I’m Loving Friday feature and I’m continuing to use and love it on an almost weekly basis. This week I made the lemon pepper chicken from the cookbook for probably the fifth time and I’m officially declaring it my new go-to roast chicken recipe. It’s so darn good and so darn easy. I’ve also officially decided that when it comes to savory smells, a chicken roasting in the oven with onions, carrots and all the fixings is my all-time favorite smell, followed very closely by my mom’s homemade stuffing.
Though I think the cookbook is absolutely worth adding to your collection and always love supporting fellow bloggers (The Whole Smiths blog quickly became a favorite of mine when I found it a few months ago), if you are just hoping to check out the lemon pepper chicken recipe, a quick Google search also found it online as a guest post in the official Whole30 recipe group here. Add this one to your meal plan ASAP! (Note: I almost always add a whole onion and some small sliced golden or red potatoes to the veggie mixture under the chicken and we love it!)
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Exchanging Figs and Tomatoes
My friend Carrie and I swapped fresh figs and tomatoes that we each grew earlier this week and it was awesome! We have a giant fig tree in our yard and Carrie has an amazing tomato plant so we swapped the goods while our kids played and it was such a treat to have deliciously sweet homegrown tomatoes to enjoy all week long.
It’s crazy to me how tasteless some of the tomatoes we get in the grocery store can seem compared to tomatoes grown in someone’s yard. This is loosely motivating me to look into planting a vegetable garden in the future. I can’t say I love gardening but I think it would be an activity Chase would be all about and I know I’d love the end result… assuming we don’t kill everything we plant.
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Ordering Matching Christmas Pajamas
I am officially insane. I already ordered Chase and Ryder matching Christmas pajamas! What!? (Chase will be sportin’ the separate version and Ryder will wear the footie ones. I can’t handle the cuteness I picture in my mind.) In my defense, three of my friends and I are planning a matching Christmas pajama party this year with our kids in lieu of our annual ugly sweater party and we’re all coordinating our little ones’ pajamas. We maaay have let our excitement get the best of us and ordered the Christmas jammies the minute we had the idea. (Wait… Does that make us even MORE insane!?) Can you tell I am so, so, so ready for the holiday season already!? I swear something about the arrival of September always makes me want fast forward to chilly weather, hot chocolate, cozy pajamas and holiday traditions. I am READY for it.
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RetailMeNot Giveaway Winner
Congratulations to Mira, the winner of the $500 VISA gift card from the RetailMeNot giveaway! Mira was emailed first thing this morning. Thanks so much to all who entered!
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Friday Flashbacks
Blueberry Banana Protein Pancakes (A staple in our house — and a big-time hit with toddlers — that’s also freezer-friendly and made without protein powder.)
Exercise Ball Ab Workout (A challenging core workout that will take you through three rounds of size stability ball ab exercises.)
Question of the Day
What is one thing you are loving this week?
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One thing I am loving: for some reason my 9 week old has taken up sleeping from 9pm-6/7am straight through. I fully expect this to not last but I’ll take it for now! I feel so refreshed this week!!
Love the pjs/I don’t think you’re insane. I would totally do the same but my little one is growing like.a.weed. I think I need to wait until closer to December…but matching pjs are an absolute must! 🙂
Enjoy your weekend!
WOOHOOO!! So happy to hear this for you, Laura!! Wishing you a very restful weekend! <3
Chase’s pre-school pics are adorable! And I recently discovered the library has a lot of the cookbooks that are on my wishlist, so I’ve been requesting them and trying to cookbooks out before I decide to purchase. I’ll definitely need to add that one to the list! Happy Weekend!
Oh!!!! Awesome idea! I need to dive into my library’s cookbook collection. That sounds like a great way to find some new recipe favs.
Thank you again Julie!!
Have the best food and fun filled weekend with Ryan’s Dad!
I’m hoping to catch up on some sleep and knock a bunch of things off of my todo list!
You are so welcome!! Hope you enjoy the gift card!! 🙂 Have a great weekend!
Awe… Chase looks so big and cute in his back-to-school pictures. 🙂 Happy Friday, Julie!
Chase’s first day pics are adorable! You are definitely NOT crazy for buying those pajamas, and the fact that you did made me even more excited for the holiday season (didn’t know that was possible!!!)
I will definitely be trying that chicken recipe, I have been OBSESSED with store bought rotisserie chicken lately…mainly due to laziness…but this recipe will be nice when I’m ready to fire up the oven in the upcoming cooler months. Thanks for the recommendation!!
Oh gosh, Chase’s pictures on his first day of preschool are just so cute!! He is getting so big! I agree this week went by super fast! Yay! I hope you have a great weekend, Julie! Xoxo
I’ve also noticed the lack of taste in grocery store tomatoes compared to home grown and farmer’s market ones! I’m not a gardener by any means (I live in an apartment in Chicago), but I grew tomato plants and lettuce on my back porch this summer and LOVED it. Tomato plants seem to be easy enough, so you should definitely go for it! Keep us posted if you do.
Happy Friday!
Thanks Amy!!! Your comment makes me feel like I MIIIIGHT be able to tackle tomatoes!
I ordered Christmas PJs this week too! I loove having my boys match! Cannot wait to see your adorable boys in their PJs! A baby’s first Christmas is so, so special! The holiday PJs are always out in October at Target…and quickly disappear…so you are not crazy at all!
Ahhh I need to order Christmas PJs soon! It’s crazy that it’s time to start thinking about making those pre-orders! #monogramallthethings
You are totally not crazy. I am psyched to decorate our house for fall, go apple picking, make pumpkin flavored things…and by Thanksgiving I won’t be pregnant anymore which is crazy to think about 🙂
You comment inspired me to look up apple picking in our area and a local orchard just started offering hayrides and apple picking this weekend. I think we may go tomorrow!!
Enjoy! I love going earlier in sept bc you can still get honey crisp aka the BEST apples
If you decide you want to try vegetable gardening next year, I highly recommend starting out with a tomato plant, based on my experience. I suppose the climate in North Carolina is a bit different than the climate here in Chicago, but if tomatoes grow similarly in North Carolina as they do in Chicago, I can tell you from experience that they are SUPER easy. I’ve been much less attentive to my tomato plant this year than I was last year (I’ve only fertilized it once or twice, and I’ve only made a point of watering it when it’s been 90+ for three or more days in a row. Otherwise I let the rain take care of it for me.), but it’s still produced roughly 20 tomatoes. The only real issue I’ve had with my tomato plant this year is that the squirrels keep treating it like their own personal salad bar and eat my tomatoes before I get to them! But as far as keeping it alive, I haven’t had any trouble in that department. It’s a very beginner-friendly plant!
Thank you for the tip, Bethany!!! Between your gardening knowledge and bird knowledge, I feel like you are quickly becoming my go-to resource for our nature-related interests! I so appreciate your advice!
You made me laugh out loud with your Christmas planning already as I have a lunchtime frappucino trying to extend summer. I moved from NC to Michigan and I can go for fall I suppose…but winter can stay far away!
Haha! Love that! Will this be your first Michigan winter!?
Preschool pics are adorable! I’m wondering how many days a week & hours per day Chase is going to preschool. Next fall I will have a 3 yr old & a 5 month old. I’m wondering how much preschool to sign up for. I’m just afraid the 2 hour a day isn’t worth it since it’s 20 minutes away. But I feel guilty doing the all day option when I have the ability to be home with her.
We did 2 days a week last year and Chase loved it. I was really on the fence on whether to do 3 day or 4 days/week with Chase this year and his 2-year-old teacher strongly encouraged me to do the 4 day a week program for him b/c of the fact that I have another child AND the fact that Chase will get such great stimulation/socialization away from home that will provide me with one-on-one time with our baby. We’re basically one week in and I can already say I’m SO glad we opted for the 4 day a week program! It’s just under 4 hours a day and Chase seriously LOVES it. Plus, it a weird way I feel like it makes me a better and more patient mom when he’s home since I’m not so overwhelmed ALL the time and feel good about the school he’s going to Mon-Thurs.
We put D into a 2-day/week preschool when he was 2 (coincidently just after E was born) and it was the best decision. Loved the one-on-one time that you’re finding with Ryder and it helped D get used to the idea of going to school. We carried that through to Kindergarten for E and put him into a half-day program so we’d have some one-kid time then as well. Enjoy this chaos… it’s so much fun! XO
Oh no, look what you started!! Now I’m totally on the lookout for Christmas pajamas. 🙂 She had about four different pairs last Christmas. Something I’m loving from the last week is going on a family hike. Hiking with a toddler is so completely different than how my husband and I used to hike. Running, tantrums, carrying, trying to prevent her from picking poison ivy…even though we didn’t go far at all compared with our old pre-baby hikes, we were both exhausted! Lol
Haha! I swear shopping for Christmas pajamas took me down the rabbit hole — so many cute choices! And that’s awesome that you got out on a family hike… and I SO agree about the difference in hikes from pre-kids to post-kids. The distance goes WAY down but the level of exhaustion after somehow goes WAY up!
So glad to hear Chase is enjoying preschool! This week, what I’m loving is taking chances in the kitchen! I conquered several cooking tasks I’d be nervous to do, but was glad I did after seeing how it turned out!
That’s awesome! Did you make anything in particular that might be worth sharing? I’d love to check it out!