Things I’m Loving Friday #482

What a week! Man oh man am I ready for the weekend. Our week was jam-packed and I feel like I’m just beginning to come up for air. Our days were filled with a two visits to the boys’ preschool for Meet the Teacher, annual well-check visits at the pediatrician, a visit to an ENT for nasal cauterization to help with Chase’s recurrent nosebleeds, work travel for Ryan, celebrating Rhett’s third birthday (the highlight of the week!), martial arts and a few more odds and ends that came together to make the week feel like a whirlwind.

We are thrilled to have a long weekend at home on the agenda and plan to fill our days with family fun and time with friends on the lake. Some of our closest friends will be joining us for lake fun on Sunday with their kids and we’re really looking forward to a full house!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this week’s roundup of Friday favorites!

Things I’m Loving Friday

• Celebrating Rhett’s Birthday + Rainbow Cake

Celebrating Rhett’s birthday this year was all kinds of fun because HE loved celebrating his birthday so much! He’s been anticipating and talking about his birthday for months (due, in large part I’m sure to the fact that his is the last of our boys’ summer birthdays) so he was thrilled when it was finally his special day. (And good news! He’s now telling people he is three and not seven. It finally sunk in.) With our two youngest boys still out of school, we were able to fill Rhett’s day with lot of his favorite things. At three years old, this looked like a MyGym class, a trip to the “big” pet store and an afternoon play date at Discovery Place Kids with a few of his friends.

What excited Rhett the most on this birthday? His rainbow cake!

When I tell you we’ve been hearing about Rhett’s desire for a rainbow cake on an almost-daily basis since this past spring, I mean it. I followed this recipe (but used 1.5x the ingredients for 6 layers and used my own buttercream recipe) and he loved it! I had a momentary panic when the natural food dye I used for “blue” looked anything but blue (see the bottom layer) but it thankfully turned around. Also, the cake was HUGE. I’ve never made a 6-layer cake before and it certainly was quite the monstrosity. I think I’m still doing dishes.

• Munchkin Color Lab Bath Toys

Whenever people ask for ideas for gifts for our boys, bath bombs are a go-to reply from me. They’re something our boys never seem to grow out of loving and I not-so-secretly love that they dissolve and don’t increase the number of toys we have all over our house. Bath bombs and bath toys in general get a thumbs up from me because they’re usable and somehow always feel special to our boys. Our latest bath time gem: The Munchkin Color Lab bath toy set. It’s been a fun alternative to bath bombs and such a slam dunk with our boys that it quickly became a go-to gift for me to give to toddlers. (Truth be told, all three of our boys absolutely love the colorful tablets and the way they make their bathwater so vibrant but I think the packaging makes it a toy geared toward younger kids which is why it’s a gift we’ve given to toddler friends.)

You can drop the tablets directly in bath water for a colorful bath, add them inside of the whale or fish toy so the color comes out of the bottom (Rhett LOVES this) or add them to the color mixing toy which continues to be a highlight for all three boys. It’s a gem of a toy and anything that helps prolong bath time fun at the end of the day is a win in my book!

• A Weekend at Jellystone Golden Valley

I meant to recap our mini vacation to Jellystone Golden Valley on the blog this week but my early morning wake-ups for work time were bulldozed by early morning wake-ups from the boys so a brief highlight in today’s post will have to do. We adore Jellystone Golden Valley so much and opted to spend a couple of nights at the campground in a cabin to celebrate Rhett’s birthday as a family last weekend! It’s such a great spot for families because there is so much to do from mini golf, gem mining and jumping pads to fishing, hiking, swimming and arts and crafts activities.

One of the big changes since our last visit was the addition of a giant blow-up obstacle course on the lake.

This thing was huge and impressive and our boys had a blast climbing all over it, sliding down the slides and jumping off the high jumps into the cool lake water. Our visit coincided with 90+ degree temperatures outside so we spent a lot of time in the lake and at the water playground.

(Worth noting: A few years ago, Jellystone invited our family to the campground when they initially opened but we’ve happily paid to return a few times since. I meant every word when I said we’d be back and cannot recommend it enough to families with children in the area.)

• With Love from London by Sarah Jio

My rating: B

Sarah Jio was one of my favorite authors when I was in my early 20s. Her books are easy to read and often lighthearted enough to not feel too intense or heavy. They’re cozy little novels and With Love from London fits right into this description of her work. While it wasn’t a completely believable story (if you read it, you’ll know exactly what I mean), it was charming enough to hold my interest and was an enjoyable, breezy read before bed. (Also, if you read it and notice the authors use of the phrase, “I liked him/her immediately” over and over again, I did, too, and it grated on me a bit.)

The story bounces back and forth from the present day life of Valentina Baker to the life of her mother, Eloise, as she went from a single woman living in London to a married woman with a daughter in California. When Valentina was 11 years old, Eloise vanished and with her disappearance came unanswered questions and an intense longing for a relationship with the mother she fiercely adored. Valentina could never understand her mother’s abandonment as all of her childhood memories with Eloise were magical and filled with love. Decades later, upon Eloise’s passing, Valentina inherits the bookstore her mother nan with her best friend in London. Upon her arrival, Val realizes this may be the way she will come to understand her mother and finally get the answers to the questions she’s held in her heart about her disappearance for more than twenty years.

• August 2023 Top 10

A while back I began sharing a top 10 list at the end of every month as a way to give you guys a glimpse back into some of the blog posts you may have missed or some of my favorite finds you may have had on your radar that got lost in blogging and social media mayhem. See below for July’s top 10!

Blog Posts

• Turkey Vegetable Meatloaf
• Recent Looks #3
• Cottage Cheese Zucchini Breakfast Casserole
• Easy Orange Juice Chicken Marinade
• Favorite Podcasts for Kids
• Oatmeal Apple Crisp
• DIY Memory Boxes
• Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins
• Picture an Hour: August 2023
• Friday at Carowinds

Your Top 10 Favorites

• Clear Mesh Pouches (Aka the pouches I used to organize our electronic junk drawer. I’m happy to report this system is working SO well and has easily held up!
• Colorful Beaded Necklace (Isn’t this necklace just so happy? I love it so much.)
• Have You Filled a Bucket Today? (I love that this made the list! It’s our absolute favorite book for helping the boys understand kindness in a way that makes sense.)
• Meat Chopped Kitchen Tool (Please tell me you guys are finding this as helpful as I am!)
• eufy Handheld Vacuum Cleaner (A replacement for the Bissell handheld vacuum I previously had that our boys broke. I like this one even more and think it has better suction. So helpful for cleaning up car messes, cleaning crumbs out of drawers, etc.)
• Target Ribbed Tank (The $8 tank I’ve been wearing non-stop.)
• Beach Riot Dupe Bikini (The swimsuit I’ve been wearing all summer long. Looks just like the Beach Riot version but with better booty coverage. Mom life friendly!)
• Twisted Tennis Dress (So flattering! I ordered it in black and blue. Comfy and practical for running around with the boys on hot summer days. I think it will be cute with a denim jacket or hoodie layered overtop this fall, too.)
• Cats and Dogs Reversible Puzzle (A puzzle our boys reach for over and over. The pieces are reversible so it’s two puzzles in one!)
• Nighthawk Ride-On (The hit of Chase and Ryder’s birthdays this year. They are obsessed and fly around on them every single day.)

Question of the Day

What is one thing making you smile today?