High Five for Friday

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

1) Friday evening, since we had no homework to do, Grant and I made some candy cane bead ornaments to get a jump start on Christmas stuff. The best part is that my mom taught me how to make these when I was kid (crafty, she was not but we had fun) and now I get to make them with Grant.

2) Saturday was my birthday. As soon as I woke up, Grant handed me an envelope that said "Mom" (he calls me Mama). Then he told me "I wrote 'mom' by myself! It's a sight word!" How cute is that? I'm not one to make a big deal out of my birthday but Husband wanted to take me out to breakfast and do a little shopping before we took Grant to a birthday party for one of his friends. Later on we had a movie night and Grant got to see Jurassic World for the first time.

Brunch at Briggs! I love starting the day with a dish the
size of a row boat filled with grits :)

We took Grant to a birthday party at this neat gymnastics
place (that's him on a trampoline about to dive into a foam pit).
What a fun place! He had a great time and I dont' think
he's ever been that tired after a birthday party!

Testing out my birthday present on Sunday!

3) Also over the weekend, my little kitchen helper and I made some chicken & rice soup.

4) I had a dinner date with Grant on Monday! Usually he picks Cracker Barrel for our dates. I guess he's tired of it because it was Moe's this time. He loves when they yell "Welcome to Moe's!"

5) Since I was off work on Wednesday and Grant was off school, Husband took the day off and we went to the Museum of Life & Science in Durham. It's one of our usual places on days off but they recently opened some new tree houses so we were excited to check those out. We had a really great day together!

Up in a tree house!

Even with the new tree houses, "Into the Mist"
is still one of his favorites!

6) Yesterday when I got home from work there was a package from my sister waiting for me. Along with a cute new bag, she also sent me three boxes of my favorite store bought cookies! I love packages with treats from home :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Hi there! Today I'm linking up Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) Last week, on Thursday, we had the opportunity to go to Grant's Easter party at school. It was adorable, so much fun, and Grant was so excited that we could both be there. The kids got bunny noses painted on by one of the teachers, there were lots of yummy snacks for them to have, and then we got to do a craft together. 

2) Good Friday was spent in Greensboro at the Greensboro Science Center. Husband doesn't get Good Friday off but he was jealous that we were exploring a new place so he took the day off. I'll get a post up about it eventually, but it was a really neat place. It's an aquarium, museum, and zoo all in one. Lots of neat stuff to see and do and a great way to spend our day off together!

He was so excited about the sharks!

"Look! I'm like Thor!"

Through a tunnel and this bubble, you can go inside the otter habitat!

3) Saturday was Easter prep which meant cooking and my helper was chomping at the bit to get in the kitchen with me. He helped me make the macaroni & cheese and couldn't have been more proud of himself (he also enjoyed the compliments at Easter lunch).

He really is a help!

4) Easter! I'll do more about this soon, but this year the Easter Bunny sent Grant on a little scavenger hunt for his basket. It was a lot of fun to watch him look for all the clues and finally find his basket. And he got to enjoy a little chocolate bunny before heading to Gramma & Grandpa's for a big lunch.

The Easter Bunny brought this dino-lover a new dinosaur book
that might be one of his favorite things ever.

5) My sister sent us a box this week! She sends things to Grant for Easter every year and there was some stuff tucked in the bottom for me too :)

You can never have too many ring pops.

Syracuse sweatpants (and OMG are they comfortable) and three
boxes of my favorite store bought chocolate chip cookies!

6) They recently did pictures at school and they were cap & gown for the kids who will be moving to kindergarten this year. I knew it was coming but I still wasn't prepared. And Grant talks constantly about graduation, the songs they'll sing for us, and how we'll go to the party after. I'm not handling this well. The poor kid thinks I don't want to go because I can't talk about it with him or I'll just start crying!

Not ready. Not even a little.

7) Three words: breakfast for dinner.

Stuffed french toast (with hash browns). One of my favs!

8) Last night Grant really wanted to go outside to fly this foam airplane my sister sent him. He's been begging all week. The storms squashed his dreams. But I had bought the ingredients to make "fluffy stuff" (more on that in an upcoming post) so we did that. He loved it! He played with it for an hour and a half and only stopped because it was bath time. 

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Happy New Year! Today I'm linking up Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) With Christmas being just over a week ago, I had to post this picture. This crazy kid is the best and we had such a great Christmas!

2) Santa brought Grant a marble maze for Christmas. Santa was really excited about this gift because "he" thought Grant would be really fascinated by it. Santa was right. Grant think it is - as my mother would have said - the cat's ass. But when Santa ordered it from Zulily...Santa had no idea that it doesn't come with instructions. Have fun with that Christmas evening when you're deliriously tired. It doesn't work out so well. However, after a good night's sleep and an great cup of coffee (with the promise of much more in the pot waiting for me) I managed to get that marble maze going correctly based solely on a picture from the box. Hooray Mama.

3) Friday I cooked a yummy beef roast in the crockpot. I'm typically a terrible beef cooker (or perhaps I just think that because when I eat it I want it to be life-changing and it never is) but this turned out really well. I shredded it to make french dip sandwiches - one of my favorite sandwiches ever. I didn't love it in a sandwich so next time I think it would be good with just some mashed potatoes and a veggie. (beef roast recipe HERE).

4) Saturday we wen to Hill Ridge Farms for their Festival of Lights. Last year I won tickets to this through a raffle at work and I did again this year too! Grant loves to ride through the huge light display on the hay wagon!

5) My Aunt Bonnie sent some Christmas presents to Grant and she told me that she'd put some old pictures in there for me. I love to go through old pictures and there were some good ones in there!

Me and my sister

Me with my cousins Nick and AJ

Me and my cousin AJ

6) Grant's school did early closing on New Year's Eve so I decided to just take the day off and have some fun with him. We went to an early movie, ran some errands, and then just relaxed at home (he got to stay up a little later that night and we had ice cream to celebrate NYE).

Hogging the popcorn and waiting for The Penguins of Madagascar to start!

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) Friday I got to wear a new scarf that I made!

2) Friday night Grant spent the night with his Gramma & Grandpa so Husband & I could go to the Hurricanes home opener. We were very excited! Then they lost. But we haven't had a date night in a while so it was nice to just spend some time together.

3) We practice a lot at home with Grant helping him learn to write. He's gotten so good at writing his first name (I can't believe it's not all over our walls yet because he loves to write it!). Now we're working on his full name and he's even more excited about that!

He was so proud of himself!

4) After consulting with a friend who told me how to make real chicken & dumplings, I tried it out on Sunday (since I had a chicken in my freezer). It turned out great! Seriously, I've been eating it for lunch all week. The best part of making it, though, was my helper. Grant begged to help me. So when it came time, he was the official adder of the dumplings (and stir-er...very important jobs). 

5) Our State Fair started this week. Which I sort of dread since I have to work out there. BUT this will be our last fair of the year. I am looking forward to taking Grant, though. As much as I don't enjoy it when I'm working out there, it's much more fun when we get to watch Grant enjoying himself!

Throwback to my first year working at the fair...back
when I still got excited about it!

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) After seeing something similar on Pinterest, Friday morning I decided to try something new with my hair. I have a thingy that makes a "perfect bun" so I used that and tied it with a scarf I've had for a few months but never really used. It didn't turn out pinterest-worthy but considering I'm generally terrible at styling hair (specifically mine), I think it turned out pretty well. Husband called it "cute".

2) On Friday, Grant ended up at the doctor and was put on breathing treaments and a steroid for a nasty cough so we got to do a lot of hanging out with him over the weekend. It's never fun when he's sick, obviously, but spending some down-time with him is always nice (especially when he's feeling cuddly).

Chowing down on some shaved ice I made him.

3) I tried a new recipe for our Sunday dinner. I LOVE the Pioneer Woman and I've always had good results with her recipes. When I saw her recipe for Slice-Baked Potatoes, I knew they were going on my menu soon. SO good!

Mmmmmm...

4) Monday came and I felt like Grant wasn't ready to go back to school. So we had a restful  and cuddly day at home.

Cuddling in my lap :)

5) I've managed to keep up relatively well with the running challenge I joined in May. I'm not running every day but I am going pretty often. I pretty much curse running the entire time I'm doing it and I can't seem to do more than 1.5 miles when I go but when I'm done I feel great. And if I'm being honest, I'm pretty proud of logging 26 miles in the last month.

Happy Friday!
Have a great weekend!