June Trader Joe's Favorites

Hi Friends!  We just got home from a fabulous family cruise - more on that later this week! - and stopped at a Trader Joe's in Nashville on our way home.  It's about 3 hours from our house, but it was on our way.  We ended up stopping at the Hillsboro Pike location.  It was super well stocked.  I wish we had room for bunches of peonies and a tiny olive tree, but instead we focused on groceries this trip.

We repurchsaed some favorites and tried some new things.

Several of you recommended last month that we try the frozen croissants.  We purchased a couple of boxes and loved the chocolate ones.  They were so fancy and so good.  The kids thought they were fine so I'll probably save the rest for myself - ha!  I thought the mini croissants would be good with salads.

We repurchased the cut white corn and vegetable fried rice.  The garlic shiitake green beans, roasted potatoes and roasted corn are new to us.

Yum!

We bought pizza dough, pizza sauce and pepperoni to make our own pizzas.  I am so excited to try this for dinner one night this week.  Their shredded cheeses were $5+ a bag so I skipped those.

We repurchased this salad mix.

I've been on a Caesar salad kick and have purchased Caesar salad kits from all the grocery stores.  Trader Joe's is my favorite!  I bought a salad kit and a bottle of Caesar dressing.

This was a new salad for us.

I thought this would be yummy warmed up with pita chips.

I was so excited to try this and I didn't care for it :(  It was too runny and I didn't love the flavor.  It just felt like something was missing.

We got some taco shells to try and picked up this s'mores mix.  We didn't love it which was disappointing because we love s'mores stuff.  It was very heavy on the chocolate, barely any graham cracker and a little marshamallows.  We'll stick with the Sam's s'mores mix.

What should I pick up at Trader Joe's next month??  Are there any Summer staples we need to try?

Welcome to the Family, Hardy!

My parents surprised us all and got a new puppy!  My mom has been wanting a dog and then they met Hardy.  It was love at first sight.  He is their new favorite child.  He's got beagle colors, corgie legs and they found him at their loal humane society.

I got to meet him via Facetime first and then we went over for some puppy snuggles the next day.

Hardy's feet don't touch the ground much becuase everyone loves to hold him.

He gives lots of puppy kisses.  

We had fun picking out puppy toys for him.

My mom jokes that she wanted a dog and the dog loves my Dad the most.

He came to Olive's birthay party and the cats were not a fan of his friendly little face.  Haha.  We are definitely cat people, but he sure is cute.

It makes me happy when Fletcher can have happy dog encounters.

All the grandkids, kids and neighbors love this cute little guy.

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  I have a big round up of lots of favorite moments from the past few weeks.

The best parts were:

1. Olive babysat for the boys for the first time!  We had a work dinner to go to and she volunteered to babysit.  I'm loving this new stage of life.  Everyone survived the evening and she's ready to babysit again.

2. Visiting Grandma.  We dropped off her favorite treat and got to visit for a bit.

3. Summer appointment time!  Leo and I had dentist appointments this week.  He insisted on sitting right in between his favorite two people.

4. The boys loved this police surveillance vehicle at the mall!

5. Lunch dates with fancy lemonades!  We mixed blueberry, acai and regular lemonade to make the yummiest combo.  

6. Homemade bread.  I made a loaf of chocolate chip bread this week for breakfast.  Mr Mittens was very interested in it as it cooled.

7. Walking buddy.

8. We went to a friend's 40th and Fletcher loved the shooting simulation.  He beat several people including the birthday girl.

9. Fletcher had a friend party to go to and loved seeing his school buddies.

10. Olive is really enjoying all of her new birthday gifts.

11. Mr. Mittens thinks he owns the place.

12. I love sidewalk chalking with the kids.

13. I'm trying something new this year.  I didn't buy any flowers to pot.  I'm just trying to grow flowers from the flower seeds that I harvested last year.  I've got a mix of Marigolds, Lantana, Vinca and Zinnias.  I've got some sprouts coming up so I'm optimistic.

I also bought this seed mix to grow in pots.  I'm hoping to end up with a lot of flowers to cut for bouquets this summer.

14. Lilo & Stitch.  We took Leo and Olive and her friends to see the new Lilo and Stitch.  It was cute!  Leo loved his first movie.

15. First camp out of the Summer!  The boys had perfect weather and an amazing sunset for their first camp out of the Summer.

16. Kevin's grandma Sharon turned 87!  We had a great time celebrating her.

17. Addison graduated!  The first cousin in the cousin crew graduated high school and is heading off to college in the Fall.  Olive and I enjoyed celebrating her at her graduation.  She's the sweetest!

18. Backyard rainbows will always and forever be my favorite!

I hope you have a great weekend!

Linking up with Momfessionals

School Day in the Life: PreK, K, 3rd and 6th

We juggled a lot this year!  We all had to make changes to our routines and schedules and day to day life to make life work with two working parents.  Many of you know the juggling and scheduling required!  I wanted to document a school day in our life with us at three different schools mostly so I could remember what life was like my first year back to teaching.

A PBJ for me on the days when I just couldn't handle packing one more lunch or fixing one more meal.

5:45am My alarm goes off.  This is easily the worst part of going back to work :)  My night owl tendencies struggled to adjust to this early morning wake up call.  Time for me to get ready.

6:00am Fletcher's alarm goes off and he's ready to tackle the day.  He gets ready fast and is downstairs quick every day.  No wake up call necessary.

6:15am I'm done getting ready for the day.  Time to start breakfast for everyone - usually oatmeal - then wake up the house by opening curtains and turning on lights.  Fill 8 water bottles and assemble 4 lunch boxes.

6:30am Wake up Leo.  He is not a fan of any wake up plan.  Mornings were easier on the days he woke up on his own.  That only happened about half the time.  We all eat, the kids have some screen time and then we get ready to leave for the day.

6:50am Wake up Olive.  She prefers a mom wake up vs an alarm.  We said goodbye to her and to Kevin and we headed to school.

7:20am I eat a protein bar in the car and chat with the boys.  We arrive at school with the boys.  Drop off Leo to before school care to play with his buddies and head into school with Fletcher.  Turn on lamps, lights, log into all the things and be ready to greet my students at the door.

7:30am School starts!  Fletcher helps out in my classroom for a few minutes, chat with my students and then heads to his class.

7:30-3:05 TEACH non stop.  I did everything from morning meeting, read alouds, phonics and check class work.  Then my kids go to specials and I plan.  I tried to get as much work as possible done during my plan, my recess breaks and my lunch every single day.  We're lucky to have two recesses and a full time assistant to keep life in K running smoothly.  Then I handle dismissal for my class and walk to pick up Fletcher at his class.

3:10pm Close down my classroom for the day.  I'd wrap up and tidy up all the things.  Fletcher would pass out morning work for the following day, put up the question of the day and eat a little snack.  Once my room and desk were all clean, we'd head out.

3:30pm Pick up Leo.  We'd walk in and grab him from after care.

4:00pm We got home to Olive!  Some days we were early enough to meet her at the bus stop, some days Kevin met her at the bus stop and other days she handled drop off on her own.  Every day was different.  That was true for most things in our life.

4:15pm Smoothie and snacks for everyone!  I'd grab an iced coffee for myself and catch up on socials, emails and any last minute work things that needed attention before tomorrow.

4:45pm Prep dinner, work on homework, let the kids play

5:30pm Dinner time.  We eat dinner together most every night.

6:00pm Clean up dinner, pack 4 lunches for the following day and tidy up the downstairs.  More time for the kids to play upstairs, outside or with friends.

7:00pm Hit the showers, finish the homework, watch a show and relax.

7:30pm A little snack for everyone before bed.

7:45pm Start bedtime routine!  Bible with Kevin.  Snuggles with mom.

8:30/9pm Kevin and I hang out and chat about our days.  Finish all the things that didn't get done earlier - dry dishes, pack snacks in backpacks for 3 kids, lay out backpacks and every single thing we need to walk out the door in the morning.  Each kid gets a pile.  Shoes, backpacks, jackets, homework, important items, etc.  Different pile of lunch boxes and water bottles on the counter so that I can fill them in the morning.  Sometimes the kids help with laying everything out and sometimes I do it all after they go to bed.

Kevin heads to bed.  I work on blog things and enjoy the quiet house for a minute.  The house gets picked up and cleaned up every night before bed.  The kids help with their stuff and their zones.

11pm-ish I head to bed.  Always wishing it was earlier, but that never happens.  5:45am always came too early.  

We did it!  We all learned to do new things and new skills this year.  Yay for us :)