High Five for Friday

Hi there! I'm linking up with Jennie today to share some fun stuff from the past week.

1) Saturday was the third swimming lesson so we're half way through. I sort of don't feel like he's getting as much out of it as I'd hoped but I'm trying to stay positive about it.

2) After swimming lessons we decided to run some errands for school stuff and had a really great evening. After some clothes shopping, we had dinner at a re-vamped shopping center which was near their new play ground so Grant got to play a bit after dinner. We wandered around for a little bit after play time, found a cupcake shop and got some yummy dessert to go. It was a pretty great Saturday!

Dinner at Red Hot & Blue

Followed by the playground

Then some heavily frosted - and delicious - cupcakes
from Gigi's for dessert.

3) I've been neglecting exercise lately. The only time I really have available to go is in the mornings and that is soooo hard to do. But Sunday morning I decided to get up and go and it was such an awesome morning! (Too bad I haven't been able to motivate myself any other morning this week.)

4) There's been some backyard baseball this week in the evenings at our house and we're having so much fun with it! Somehow, I've become the pitcher and I'm pretty terrible at it but Grant has no idea...for now.

5) Monday was Grant's kindergarten assessment. I had to drop him off at his new school for a couple hours and then this afternoon we find out who his teacher will be ON MONDAY. Seriously? Kindergarten on Monday. I'm going to get through this, right?

I had promised snow cones after the assessment, Grant
went with the dinosaur flavor.

6) Today is Grant's last day at preschool. I think I'm more emotional about that than I am about his first day at kindergarten. He's been at this daycare/preschool for 4 1/2 of his 5 years and they've done so much for all of us in so many ways. To say thanks one last time, I baked some brownie bars for the teachers/staff and Grant wrote them a little note. I know he's really going to miss it there and we will too!

On the left is a picture of him "playing outside" and a flower on the right

Twix Truffle Brownies!

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) I spent a great Saturday afternoon with Grant going all over the place shopping for party supplies for his birthday party. He loves it when we go to Party City!

2) Sunday morning I had a hankering for waffles. No one else wanted any! I was like a short order cook. Grant wanted cereal, Husband wanted a breakfast sandwich, and I wanted a huge waffle loaded up with real northern NY maple syrup from the stash I keep in the back of the fridge. So after getting the men folk squared away, I pulled out my waffle maker. One for breakfast and two more that went in the freezer for this weekend :)

3) Sunday we had a water fight! I filled up every bucket we own with water then Grant and I ran around the yard spraying each other, re-filling, more spaying, etc. We had so much fun! Grant eventually just got in bigger buckets and played that way for a while too. It was such an awesome afternoon and a really great weekend!

4) I started on some of the birthday party prep (I think was Sunday too) to get a bit of a head start. I made some Iron Man masks out of foam. I'm hoping to get some Hulk and/or Captain America masks made too. There seems to be a serious lack of good Avengers party stuff, I think it's going to be a lot of DIY for me so I'm glad I'm starting early!

5) We watched the MLB All Star Game! Or, at least, some of it. Couldn't miss Jeter's last All Star Game! (Did you hear that? My Husband just rolled his eyes.)

Grant clapping as Jeter is introduced :)

6) Still trying to keep up with my walking & running. Mid-week the humidity let up some and I went for a great walk and it was a gorgeous night. I owe Husband a great big thank you for picking up my pre-bedtime routine with Grant so I can go out for my runs/walks. Evening is really the only time I'm motivated to go AND have the time so I really appreciate him picking up my slack and encouraging me to go :)

Happy Friday!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Happy 4th of July! Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) Friday night for dinner I made chicken gyros for dinner with a homemade version of that yummy cucumber dressing stuff. It was a really yummy summery type meal and we had some great corn on the cob with it. Gotta love a meal that pleases all of us! (I used the recipe in THIS POST for the tzatziki sauce)

2) On Saturday we went to a birthday party at a place called Jumpin' Jax for one of Grant's school chums. He had such great time and it was so fun to see playing with so many of his friends from school.

If there is an inflatable slide around, Grant will find it.

Winning tickets on the basketball game!

3) Saturday night, Grant spent the night with his Gramma & Grandpa. So Husband and I went out to dinner, ate too much, went home and rented Monuments Men (and then caught up on NCIS that we've had recorded for months). We're real party animals, huh? 

4) After checking it out several times on Pinterest, I bought stuff to try out ice cream in a baggie. Grant has only recently become an ice cream eater but I thought he'd have fun shaking the bag at the very least. I followed THIS RECIPE but used a quart size bag and doubled the recipe (since I had planned on the three of us digging into it). I couldn't believe it actually worked! Grant was excited about the whole process (especially the eating) and it was really yummy ice cream! We decided to just eat it out of the bag instead of being polite with a bowl and what-not. This weekend we may give chocolate a try!

5) For a couple years now I've been on a hunt for a Derek Jeter jersey that wasn't too expensive (I'm cheap about stuff like this). We don't go to too many baseball games but I thought it would be fun to wear when we go, especially now that Grant has a Yankees jersey. With Jeter retiring this year, I know I won't get to see him play in a game but I still wanted one of his jerseys. Wednesday evening when I got home, there was a box on the table and inside was........a Jeter jersey! Husband surprised me :)

I can't wait to go to a baseball game with it! 

Happy Friday!

Happy 4th of July!!
Have a great weekend!

Mid-Week Baseball Fun

Husband randomly got free tickets to go see a Carolina Mudcats game from work that were good for either last night or tonight. Tonight's weather forecast wasn't good so we opted for last night. We don't normally do things like this on a week night (the game started at 7:00 which is usually when we're winding down and getting ready for bath time), we're kind of sticklers for our evening routine. But every once in a while it's fun to break things up a bit.

Our first attempt for a family baseball outing didn't go well but when we took Grant for his "birthday weekend", that one was much better. This one started out great because when we told Grant what we were doing he got excited. And when we got to the stadium, he was still excited and it pretty much continued like that. We got there just before the start of the game so we got some food, found our seats and chowed down on "dinner".

My little Yankees fan :)

Baseball game AND a hot dog? Life is good.

We had great seats and had a perfect view when Muddy the Mudcat made his entrance on his 4-wheeler (Grant, being a big fan of 4-wheelers, was pretty jazzed).

Our seats were in a perfect spot because we were right near the gate that Muddy uses when he goes on and off the field. Ever since meeting Stormy last summer at the Canes Summerfest, Grant has a soft spot for mascots so he loved seeing Muddy. Husband noticed Muddy was hanging out with his handler behind our section so we told Grant we were going to go get a snow cone, planning to try to get a picture with Muddy along the way. When I pointed out Muddy to Grant, Muddy waved at him and when Grant waved back Muddy motioned him over. Grant brought his little baseball glove so Muddy autographed it and then posed for a picture. He tousled Grant's hair as he walked away and Grant grinned real big telling me "He petted me!" It made him so happy!

Of course, after that we had to find the snow cones. One track mind when it comes to food. Totally my kid.

We didn't say for the whole game, it would have been too late. We stayed about half the game and it was a pretty good, we even got to see firework shot off when someone hit a home run. Before we left, we did hit the gift shop to get Grant a souvenir ball and ended up with a hat too. On our way to the game Grant had been telling us his favorite team was the Yankees but by the time we got home his favorite team was the Mudcats "because Muddy is my friend". 

Husband hates my love of taking family pictures where ever we go.

We had such a good time and it was a great break in our weekly routine. I can't wait to go to more games this summer!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1)We took a day trip to the beach on Saturday and had so much fun together!

2) Sunday was just about as gorgeous as Saturday so I had some playtime outside with Grant. We went for a bike ride then played soccer & baseball.

Showing me where his home run was going :)

3) I love when packages from my sister come bearing bags of delightful coffee. I can't find get Green Mountain coffee in bags here so this is a treat but the golden french toast flavor is one of the few flavored coffees I'll drink. So yummy! If you're a coffee lover and have never had Green Mountain coffee...you're depriving yourself of greatness.

In one of my favorite mugs.

4) Grant wrote his name for the first time! He is a boy obsessed with practicing letters right now and last night he wrote Dad too :)

5) Today Grant will be participating in a trike-a-thon to benefit St. Jude at his school. We've been helping him fundraise for it and this morning I got to tell him that he met his goal - and since then exceeded it - of $200! He was so excited. I know he doesn't fully understand the concept of what they're doing, but he does know he's trying to help people and I'm so happy that that makes him happy. He's also super jazzed about getting ride his bike at school :)

Happy Friday!
Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) I got branded! A good friend got me a new sticker for my car. Husband spent all of Saturday morning cleaning out my car and he put the sticker on too.

2) Lots of playtime last weekend! I finally bought a bike so Grant and I took a bike ride together (with Husband tagging along for a walk) and then we played baseball and soccer. We enjoyed some popsicles outside before nap time too. It was such a great weekend to be outside and we took full advantage!

Saturday

Sunday before the rain came

3) Saturday night we tried to have a Family Movie Night to watch Frozen (torture for Husband since he hates musicals with every fiber of his being). We rented it from "on demand" and it was messing up so bad we ended up giving up halfway through the movie. But Sunday morning it was fine so we got to watch the whole movie. It was very cute! 

4) I'm loving the signs of spring! I have said on several occasions that I love winter...and I do but it's almost April...can we please have spring now??

5) My sister did a "TBT" (which I found out only last week means Throw Back Thursday) and put this old family picture on Facebook. It's actually a picture I sent her a while back and sort of forgot about. I love it!

The good ol' days...back when my sister couldn't talk! :)

Happy Friday!
Have a great weekend!