Happy Father's Day!

I hope you had a Happy Father's Day weekend with your family!

We celebrated a little early and Kevin loved it! 

We surprised Kevin with a new tool box, his favorite treats, lots of handmade cards and books from the kids and a new remote control race car.  He loved it!  It's hard to surprise him with gifts he loves, but I did it this time!  He had so much fun driving it with the kids.

Kevin's the best.

He's fun, silly, adventurous, sporty and the kids love hanging out with him. 

He works really hard to take care of all of us.  He plans all of our trips, is always our driver and is rarely in a hurry.  He loves a good deal and finding creative ways to save money.  It's been fun to have him around so much since March.  He's working from home, but he makes sure to take breaks and play. 

He is sentimental about how quickly the kids are growing up and would do anything to make them smile and laugh.  Their joy is his joy.

Happy Father's Day, Kev!

"I love when you swing me!" Fletcher

"I love all the things you grill for us and shooting hoops with you!" Olive

"I love smiling at your funny faces!" Leo

We love you!!

PS I'm taking the next week or so off from blogging.  We are going to be having some family fun!!

Friday Favorites

Life feels a bit complicated and weird (I got reprimanded for buying 3 hand sanitizers instead of the allowed 2 while grocery shopping in a mask this week).  Errands, shopping and being out in public still feel so strange.  I'm eager for more normalcy to our routines.  Things in Indiana are cautiously opening back up and every week we are getting some familiar things back into our rotation.

We've been having a really good time together and I've got lots of favorites to share with you.

My parents came in town for a quick visit!
Everyone loved seeing them and the weather was gorgeous.  This is my new favorite picture of my parents and the kids.

Mention a leak in the roof and the next thing you know my dad is on the roof to fix it.

Leo was chatting with Mimi.  He has lots to say these days.

 Leo slept through the night!  Hooray to all of us!  Sleep is our favorite.

Handsome Fletcher and his poor arm.  I'm glad it's healing, but I feel so sad every time I see all of his puncture wounds, bruises and scars.  He's a tough guy.

Mini Drums.  Our new favorite treat.  They're tiny Drumsticks.  They are a Summer staple here.

I planted this lavender last year and it didn't do much.  Then this year it EXPLODED.  I smile every time I walk past it.  This is Olive's favorite scent so I often find her taking a big whiff of it.

Lots of slow mornings in our pjs has been a favorite this month.

Leo had his 2 month check up.  He's a hefty 13.2lbs and doing great!  He's such a sweet baby.

We've been calling him Squishy because he's so squishable.

We got to head back to our favorite spot in town - the patio at the country club.  We made reservations, ate out on the patio and had a wonderful night out.  We haven't eaten at at restaurant since early March (like many of you) so this felt so good.  Olive kept saying she loved the view - ha!  It was a beautiful night and it felt so good!  Fletch isn't cleared for swimming just yet.  Hopefully he'll be ready soon.

We walked some of the course.  It was so fun to hear the kids talk about golf and be eager to learn.  Kevin would love that since it's his favorite sport.  I'd love to cheer them on!

Summer sunshine!!

Remember earlier this week when I talked about our positive pom pom jars??  Both kids filled up their jars this week and got to pick something special to do.  They couldn't wait to dump their jar and start filling it again.  Fletcher has been asking to dress himself lately.  It's his favorite!

We're ending the week with loads of smiles and happy memories!  Thankful for this crew.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Linking up with Momfessionals today.

5 Simple Dinners

I have some yummy dinner ideas to share with you today!  I haven't done a dinner post since March.  Mostly because we've been having a lot of repeat meals.  We're finally getting back into a good routine of prepping dinner with a newborn.

These meals are all easy and family favorites.  They're also home cooked meals with plenty of shortcuts to make the dinner prep process fairly quick.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend hours in the kitchen prepping and cleaning up every night.

1. Breakfast for dinner
It's always a hit.  No matter the combo, the whole crew loves it.  That's a mom win for sure!

French Toast Sticks from Sams, scrambled eggs with ham and cheese & fruit.

Berry waffles, bacon, eggs & fruit.  I make plain, chocolate chip and berry waffles.  I take everyone's order for waffles and they think it's so much fun to place their dinner order.

 Scrambled eggs & cheese, bacon, tater tots, berries, yogurt and granola.

 2. Grilled Chicken Stir Fry

I liked to buy the bag of frozen stir fry veggies and then add in more of our favorites - onions, sweet peppers, etc.

We all built our own plates and I tried something new - Cauliflower Rice.  The grown ups liked it and the kids wanted to know what this imposter food was on their plate.  They did not like it.

3. Bacon Burgers
Kevin loves to grill.  I prep all the toppings and sides and he does the meat.  We added sauteed onions and bacon to our burgers and they were so good.  We had this meal several times with different sides - corn on the cob, baked beans, chips, tator tots, side salad, etc.

4. Taco Night
We have taco night regularly.  I make the meat, chop all the toppings and then everyone makes tacos their own way - soft tacos, nachos, all the ingredients separate.  I usually make enough meat to have back to back taco nights or have leftovers for lunch.

5. Wraps
These are great for a light dinner or an easy lunch.  This yummy wrap has cheese, grilled chicken, lettuce, avocado and a drizzle of honey mustard on a tortilla shell.  It was delicious!

Strawberry lemonade has been the perfect Summer drink.  The kids think it's so fancy.  I just chop up strawberries into small pieces and add them to our favorite Minute Maid lemonade.  The strawberry straw makes it taste extra good.

We've been eating lots of salads for lunch and side salads at dinner time.  Hard boiled eggs, croutons and vinaigrette dressings are our favorites.

What are you eating this week?

10 Summer Mom Hacks

It feels like we're getting into the swing of things for summer over here.  The weather has warmed up and our schedules are even more flexible now that we're all on Summer break.  Kevin's still mostly working and counseling from home, Olive and Fletcher are just doing school work that I plan and we are spending tons of time outside.

I thought I'd share some things with you that are making our lives easier.

Hope you find a few things that would be helpful for you at your house.

1. Mini Drums
These mini drumsticks have been such a hit this Summer.  The kids and adults love them.  We also love the Lil' Drums that are about twice the size of these.  They are about 3 inches long and they are SO good.  They're the perfect little treat on a hot Summer day.  We've gone through a couple boxes of them already.

2. Positive Pom Poms
I talked about these on instagram last week.  I noticed I was spending too much time focusing on the negatives with my kids and wanted to shift my focus to be more positive.  I gave each kid a jar and the idea was to keep an eye out all day long for the good things they were doing.  They'd earn a pom pom for them.  They couldn't ask for a pom pom - the grown ups had to notice the behavior.  We also didn't take away pom poms for poor behavior.  Just focused on the positives.  Once their jar was full, they get to pick a reward.  Olive filled hers first and requested a sleepover in mom and dad's room.  We are all enjoying this.

3. Free Library Programs
Check out your local library and their free programming for Summer.  Ours is doing amazing things.  We're using their curbside pick up, personal librarian services to have them select books for each kid and then I signed the kids up for a free painting class.  We registered online, picked up our free supplies a couple days later and then did the facebook painting class the following week.  They loved it and I loved adding some new art to our playroom.

4. Lego Masters
The kids are still enjoying building challenges.  I give them a theme and then they create.  I give out fake awards built out of legos.  They do all the building.  Olive built a cupcake for me for this edible build challenge.

5. Teach Your Kids to Help You
We're learning how to help water our plants.  The kids are great helpers with a little bit of guidance.  It really cuts down the work time for all of us when we all work together.  I've done this with folding towels, putting away laundry, cleaning up toys, setting the table and unloading the dishwasher.  It's fun to teach the kids new life skills.

6. Summer Meal Prep
Meal prep looks a little different now that I'm not packing lunches and it's HOT.  I'm doing some things once a week like shopping, washing and chopping and making hard boiled eggs.  Carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and melons are great to cut up in advance. 

I'm doing something new to give us healthy snack options.  Every morning I pick a couple of things to chop up for easy snacks.  Cucumbers and peaches have been my go to.  That way when I'm feeding the baby or busy doing something else the kids know that there are healthy options for snacks right inside the fridge.  We love it!!

7. Surprise Your Friends
A sweet friend texted me last week to say she'd left a surprise on my porch.  We opened the door to find a box of donuts waiting for us.  It was a sweet surprise.

We surprised our neighbors with some sourdough bread.  I love to bake, but don't necessarily want to be eating tons of baked goods.  Baking for others is the perfect solution.  We introduced ourselves to some new neighbors and shared another loaf with neighbors who helped us with a project.

8. Eat outside
We have a really shady backyard that works perfectly for eating outside.  The kids requested lunch in the dome.  I said yes because that meant easy clean up for me and a fun lunch for them.  We do snacks and meals outside whenever we can.

9. Flexible Fun
We had a big storm roll through last week and lost several giant branches out of our cherry tree.  I was sad at first, but then these two had the best time playing in their tree fort for several days.  They used their imagination and played outside for HOURS.  It's hard to capture all the details of their build, but trust me, it had sections, rooms and they did lots of cherry picking.

10. Go on Walks
We've been sneaking in nightly walks whenever we can.  Leo loves them and the exercise has been good for all of us.  I'm hoping to get into a good routine of walking with a friend or walking by myself to clear my head.

What things are you doing that make your life easier/better this Summer??

Strawberry Picking

Happy Fri-YAY!!

Many of our favorite events have been cancelled this year, but I'm happy to report that strawberry picking was still an option for us.  It's outdoors and everyone can spread out.  We took the whole family on a little road trip up to our favorite spot in Rosedale, IN.  Ditzler Orchard is our favorite place for strawberries, apples, cider and pumpkins.

I've taken the kids strawberry picking for the past 3 years, but Kevin's always had to work.  This year he's working from home much more and was able to get away with us.  The weather was gorgeous yesterday - cool and sunny.  It was the perfect time to head to the strawberry patch.

Olive and Fletcher LOVED it.  They taught Kevin how to pick berries an easily filled their mouths and baskets.  We can home with tons of berries.

Leo HATED it.  He didn't care for his sun hat.  It was too windy.  He didn't want his paci.  Didn't like riding in the wrap I was wearing.  You name it and he wasn't a fan.  He was just grumpy about the whole event.  Good thing berry picking is quick.  He's just like his big brother.  Fletcher cried almost the entire first time we came here with him.  Maye he'll enjoy it more next year when he can get some of the berries :)

We all agreed that eating warm berries in the sunshine was delicious.  The berries just taste better when they're freshly picked.

We've enjoyed finding fun ways to eat our berries - strawberry lemonade was a bit hit with dinner, fresh strawberries and bowls of berries + whipped cream.

Hope you have a sweet weekend!  See you back here on Monday :)