Four on a Friday

How has the week treated you? It's been a busy one for me trying to get everything lined up for this weekend and Oliver's party so I thought I'd share a few things that I've doing and enjoying this week.

1. Books

When I thought we were going to have to evacuate Charleston and spend hours in traffic due to the hurricane, I went to the library and got a couple of books on tape. Even though we didn't end up evacuating, I still wanted to listen/read the books I had gotten. The first one was Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. I've been wanting to read this book for sometime but there is a constant waitlist for it at the library. A good thing about audio books is there typically aren't waitlists so new titles are usually available. The bad thing about audio books is that they are long... like 11 hours long. If you spend a lot of time in the car or have time to listen to them, then they work out rather well.

Back to the book, I really enjoyed Paula Hawkins previous work, Girl on the Train, so I was excited to read/listen to Into the Water. The book was good but not quite as good as Girl on the Train. It's worth reading if you enjoy a suspenseful who-done-it.
I also listened to One Plus One by Jojo Moyes who also wrote Me Before You and Paris for One. If you've read either of these books then you know her style. Girl has issues, girl meets boy, girl and boy argue, they fall in love, girl and boy separate over a misunderstanding/drama, and conclusion with things working out for one if not both but life lessons learned along the way. Cute book.

2. Television

Tv lately has been crap so I decided to check out a couple of shows on demand and came across a great one. I started watching The Sinner one night and ended up watching six episodes (all that were out at the time) and stayed up until midnight which is really late for me. The story begins with the main character murdering a stranger for no apparent reason while she's at the lake with her family. As the episodes unfold, her past is brought to light revealing where she came from and part of her past that she can't remember. It's pretty mature at times, so save this one for after the kiddos go to bed but it's so interesting how the plot unfolds. 

3. Pumpkin Crafting

I seem to have a slight obsession with pumpkins this fall. They're all over my house. From the mantle, porch, kitchen, table, console, etc... I've added pumpkins large and small. I made a couple out of gingham soft fleece using these tutorials here and here. I wanted to try both tutorials to see which made a better pumpkin and to tell you the truth, the pumpkins for each were easy and turned out looking basically the same. If I had to do it again, I would go with this one here that's just a circle since it required the least amount of sewing. For each I added dried beans (for weight) and poly-fill. I made with stems and leaves using green felt which I cut and glued into shape.

I made the gingham pumpkins and bought the solid colored ones at Target

4. Party Prep

All week I've been consumed by Oliver's party. The planning, prep, and making things is a lot of work but it's the kind of work I love to do. I wish I could do these sorts of things for a living. Today was no different. I made candy apples that I will wrap up and have as favors for guests. I've never made a candy apple before and it took some time but they turned out great. I followed this recipe from Just a Taste and my apples turned out looking perfect. The only thing I would add is that if you've never cooked sugar before, the cooking part takes time. It took me at least 30 minutes to get the mixture to the proper temperature. Just be aware that it does take time. 

How pretty does that look?

Everything is lined up so I should have tomorrow off from party prep, other than cleaning, and then Sunday it's on. I can't wait to show you what else I've been up to.

Have a nice night and a great weekend!

Weekend Wrap-up

As I'm sure you're all fully aware, this past weekend was Father's Day. I bought Pierce his Father's Day present a few weeks back. He picked it out and couldn't wait until this weekend so he's been using it since I bought it for him. So what did I get him? For the main gift I bought him this watch which I suggested in my guy gifts post found here. Since the present had already been given, I didn't have to stress over that but I did ask him what he wanted to do for the weekend. We haven't visited Pierce's parents in months, so that's what he decided he'd like to do. We packed and headed up to Greenville to let the boys spend some quality time with their Gram and Pops. 

On Saturday morning we visited the Greenville Zoo which the boys loved. It's a small zoo but has a good variety of animals that you can get up close and personal with. 

The leopard was their favorite.

After the zoo we went to downtown to Greenville to get bite to eat and do a little shopping. Greenville has a great downtown that has been revitalized with lots a wonderful restaurants and shops. We stopped in Mast General Store, O.P. Taylor's Toys, and Anthropologie to name a few. Then grabbed lunch at Trio Cafe. 

I got the ham florentine calzone was yummy. 

After the shopping, we headed back to the house and worked on a few crafts for the kids. This was Oliver's first time painting and he loved it! I think he could have painted for hours but were doing it outside and about 20 minutes in it started to rain. Thankfully he had enough time to paint some lovely pictures for daddy and Gram. 

The boys were going to have to have baths after the painting (Ollie's belly was it's own canvas) so once it started raining, I let them play in the rain. 

I rained for a while but I had checked the weather and packed several craft options. Slime is all the rage and Emmett has been dying to make some. We tried out a couple of recipes I found on Pinterest. I'll share the recipes and our reviews of each along with which was Emmett's favorite in a future post. 

Which one is his favorite slime?

On Sunday the boys gave Pierce his painting and some other crafts I helped them make for him. We like to beat the traffic, so we played a little more with the grandparents at the park then headed back to Charleston. 

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there... especially this hunk who is a exceptional father and wonderful husband. 

We made mini handprint keychains from each of the boys. 

Emmett painted these mugs. Each mug comes in a kit I found at Michael's. You get the mug and paint for $1.50! Have your little artist paint, then bake for 30 minutes, and voila! An easy, affordable handmade gift that's sure to big a smile to the recipient's face.  

We had a wonderful weekend. I hope ya'll did too celebrating all the wonderful dads in your life.