A Weekend to do Pretty Much Nothing + Happy Mail and Some Serious Fangirling

Well I’m sure you’re just dying to read all about our weekend after that post title, huh?  Riveting.  Haha. 

Our weekend was a much needed weekend to do not much of anything… No commitments, no major projects, nowhere to be except for church on Saturday evening and our usual family lunch and dinner on Sunday.  It was really nice.

Friday evening started out with a bang when Jacob brought home his very first test from school… he had a spelling test for his first two red letters – a and is – and he got them both correct!  I’m such a proud momma!

We went out for pizza for dinner and then made a Target run for a few things.  We had promised Jacob and Olivia that they could each pick out something small as a reward for both having great first weeks in their new classes (even though this was Jacob’s second week).  Jacob picked out a new Star Wars Lego set – this kid is obsessed with those all of a sudden! – and Olivia picked out an Ariel doll even though she has one almost identical to it from the beach <insert eye roll>.  Target was a bit of a disaster as Olivia was exhausted and a bit crazed from the long week at school (you’d think we would have learned from the Toys R Us disaster a couple of weeks ago, but nope).  She whined and cried a good bit, so we hightailed it outta there and went straight home where we let the kids play for a few minutes before whisking them off to bed so B and I could squeeze in a couple of episodes of FNL before bedtime.  I’m totally hooked, y’all.  #CantStopWontStop

Saturday was glorious.  It consisted of baking Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins for breakfast, coloring with the babies, playing, and working on getting the kids’ baby books caught up.  I got to spend lots of quality time with each child and the kids got along so well when they were playing on their own.

Saturday evening we went to church and both kids were extremely well-behaved.  Jacob slept through the first half which was crazy because he never naps, and Olivia sat nicely in the pew reading her little bible.  Both got a little squirrelly toward the end, but that’s to be expected.  An hour is a long time to ask small children to be totally still and quiet.

After church we went out with my parents, grandmother, and aunt and uncle to one of our favorite pubs for dinner and drinks.  At the end of dinner, my aunt busted out the “Snapchap” as Olivia calls it and everyone had fun cracking up over the filters.  I mean, seriously, they must stop with the creepy filters.  These pics of Jacob are absolutely terrifying.  Lol.

When we got back home, there was a beautiful package sitting on the front porch and it was addressed to me.  I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was, so I tore into it and was so excited to see Shay Shull’s (Mix and Match Mama) new cookbook nestled in the box.  I knew it was coming as Shay had emailed me last week to ask if I wanted an advanced copy, but I wasn’t expecting it to arrive so quickly.  It was the perfect Saturday evening treat!  I spent the rest of the evening watching FNL and flipping through it, and there are some excellent new recipes to try.  I’ve already marked a couple to try this week!

I posted a picture of the book on Instagram and a few minutes later look what happened:

Shay liked and commented on my picture!  I mean, seriously!  I’m totally fangirling over here. 

And then Sunday afternoon I get a notification that someone had tagged me in a picture and I see this:

DYING, you guys!!!!  DYING!  Shay is just the sweetest and she has always been one of my favorite bloggers… hers was one of the very first blogs I ever started reading on a regular basis, so when she emailed me last week to ask if I wanted an advanced copy, that was a no-brainer.  Yes!  The answer is always yes!  The new book will be released October 1 if you want to check it out.  And no, she didn’t ask me to promote the book.  I just love her and I make her recipes all the time, so I’m completely honored to have received a copy already and I wanted to share that goodness with all of you sweet ladies, too!

Sunday morning we had leftover Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, did some laundry, and the kids destroyed my lovely made up bed while we got ready to go to lunch.

We spent the afternoon at my in-laws’ eating a delicious lunch that they had prepared and playing card games with my nephews.  They both learned to play “Speed” recently, and that brought back soooo many memories from junior high… do y’all remember that game?!  It’s one of the best card games ever. 

We also played Hi-Ho Cherry-O… and I'm happy to report that none of the cherries ended up in Olivia's nose or esophagus.  ;o)  #LittleVictories

Sunday evening we celebrated my Grandma’s birthday at my parents’ house where we feasted on BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a new recipe for cauliflower cakes that my mom found.  OMG they were good.  I’ll have to share them some time!

I hope you all had wonderful weekends with the ones you love and I hope it gave you a fresh start to the new week!

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending.