Saturday
Saturday morning began on a very fun note! Chase and I had a special morning mother-son date on the books and attended a Mommy & Me Burn Boot Camp workout together! My local gym offered a 10 a.m. class for moms and their little ones in honor of Mother’s Day and a bunch of my girlfriends and I planned to bring our kiddos along to work up a sweat together (with absolutely zero expectations of actually getting in a real workout other than chasing after our little ones).
(My shoes // Chase’s shoes – Toddler Nikes kill me!)
The whole experience was equal parts adorable and hilarious and I had the best time watching Chase imitate our push ups, squats and jumping jacks. (His push ups looked like a mix between army crawling and doing the worm and his squats looked like he was booty dancing.) The older kids did a great job and actually completed the stations set up around the gym while the younger ones did their best to follow their mother’s lead. I think Chase worked harder than I realized because our normally bird-like little eater downed two bars and a pouch the minute the workout was over and wanted to make sure to show you guys…
Once we said goodbye to our friends, we drove home and ate lunch while we waited for Ryan and Sadie to arrive home from their walk. Chase wasn’t quite ready for his nap yet, so we went on a short walk with Ryan and Sadie after they returned. You would’ve thought Sadie hadn’t been outside for days judging by the way she reacted when we asked her if she wanted to go on another walk right after she returned home from her first walk. Oh happy day!
Chase went down for a nap after our family walk and I grabbed a quick shower before setting everything up to photograph my coconut hemp seed granola recipe for the blog. I also whipped up a batch of my cold quinoa salad to bring to Brittany and David’s house for an afternoon cookout!
The minute Chase was up, we gave him a snack, piled into the car and made our way north for Brittany’s daughter Kaitlyn’s third birthday party cookout and some fun with friends.
Brittany always does the most amazing job hosting whenever she plans any kind of party and outdid herself again with picnic-themed drinks and plenty of delicious food. I made myself a Lawn-Mowgarita to drink and loved it! With temperatures in the 70s, it was the perfect backyard barbeque weather and we loved watching Chase try his best to keep up with the big kids at the party while we enjoyed our drinks and burgers.
After dinner we all sang “Happy Birthday” to Kaitlyn and ate cake together before it was time to make our way home and put Chase to bed. He was clearly exhausted when we left but naturally the minute we arrived home he went into crazy overdrive mode (aka overly tired toddler mode) and started running around the house, practicing jumping, twirling and clapping before we practically had to wrestle him into his pajamas before bed. Silly boy!
Sunday
Sunday was Mother’s Day and since we’re all about experience gifts in our house, Ryan planned a family trip to the North Carolina Zoo for the day which was wonderful! After breakfast, we made the 90-minute drive to Asheboro and arrived at 10 a.m. ready to explore.
As a toddler, Chase’s primary interests include any mode of transportation and animals so we had high hopes for the zoo for our little guy. We parked in the Africa parking lot and made our way to the elephants to hopefully kick off our day on a high note.
Chase had a look of awe on his face for most of our day and seemed to love watching the animals, making animal noises and pointing at pretty much everything with a tail.
For some reason Chase has an odd fascination with turtles (and of course Ryan and I cannot come up with what kind of noise a turtle makes for the life of us…) but the turtles were dethroned on Sunday in favor of the sea lions. We easily spent 25 minutes watching the sea lions swim around and play and had to pry Chase away to keep things moving.
We took a snack break after about an hour of wandering around and shared a large ice cream cone which Chase very quickly took over. Thankfully he thought it was hilarious when Ryan or I would take a bite, so we did manage to get a few licks in from our little guy who clearly inherited my sweet tooth.
Do you guys ever find yourselves looking at pictures of families or people who seem to be alone on Instagram and wonder WHO TOOK THAT PICTURE?! Well, in this case, the nicest man saw us laughing over the ice cream sharing debacle with Chase and ran up and offered to take a couple of pictures for us. He has the same kind of camera I do (I upgraded my camera on Black Friday last year) and was very familiar with it and snapped a bunch of pics. Talk about luck, right!? What a sweet guy!
After our ice cream break, we meandered around the zoo and ended up leaving a little before 2 p.m. The zoo was HUGE (it’s apparently the largest zoo in terms of square footage in the United States) and we were all quite tired by the end of our visit but agreed it was definitely worth the drive!
Chase fell asleep in his car seat for the entire drive home which ended up being his nap for the day. By the time we made it back, he was apparently very well rested and back to his energetic self. We figured we’d make the most of the few hours we had left of our Sunday and head out for an early evening boat ride.
Temperatures climbed into the low 80s toward the end of the day, so Ryan decided to jump in the lake for a dip. Even though Ryan said the water was still quite chilly, Chase wanted in immediately after Dad jumped in the lake and didn’t seem bothered by the water temperature at all.
Chase thought getting OUT of the water was the worst idea in all the land, but thankfully some ducks swimming by served as the perfect distraction so his meltdown was short-lived.
Once the boys were nice and dry, we headed home but not before popping into the grocery store to grab a pizza and check RedBox for Moana. I’ve been endlessly stalking our local RedBox to rent this movie for the first time and when it was FINALLY available, I wasn’t going to miss it! (It was SO GOOD and definitely lived up to the hype.)
Our Sunday evening ended with pizza, (more) ice cream and Moana and I went to bed feeling like a very lucky mama!
I hope you all had a great weekend and that your week is going well so far!
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Happy Mother’s Day! Looks like an awesome weekend! Random question, are you ever worried about Sadie’s nails on your boat?
On my honeymoon I learned my favorite move… if I saw anyone taking a selfie I would offer to take a photo. Usually they would be super grateful and then ask if we wanted them to take one of us. Small good deed and an instant photographer for us!
I do the same thing! It works wonders!!
I do that all the time too!
Happy mother’s day to you! Looks like a beautiful weekend. Love the idea of a mommy and me workout, I would get such a kick out of that! Start em young, right??
Your family is the cutest!! So good to see you all Saturday. Should I admit that I’ve been eating the leftover quinoa for lunch for the past two days and now want to cry that it’s gone?! So good! The granola is next on my list for devouring. Thanks for feeding me this week! 😉
Aw yay! Glad you are enjoying the quinoa!!! 🙂 Loved seeing you guys!
Seriously love the mommy and me workout. Mitch comes to a mommy and me yoga class and it’s so funny. He will go into one leg downward dog out of the blue and it always takes people off gaurd before they start laughing at his “workout” move. I love showing humble how to be healthy and happy.
Aw sounds like the most perfect mother’s day weekend. I bet that workout was hilarious, I would loved to have seen all the little ones trying the moves! Happy Mother’s Day to you!
Happy Mother’s Day!! Sounds like a great way to celebrate! I still need to see Moana too–my niece loves it and I need to get up to date with these movies!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Where is the dress from (navy/print) – it’s adorable!
Ditto! I was just going to ask that
Just replied to Lauri and didn’t want you to miss it!! <3 🙂
Thank you! It’s actually a top and a skirt! The top is from thredUP but the brand is B.Jewel and the skirt is from Nordstrom (the brand is Soprano). 🙂
Love your zoo pictures and so glad that you lucked out finding someone who was a) willing and b) good at taking photographs! Random question — as someone who maintains a pretty healthy diet and is very active, how do you handle situations like ordering pizza or going out for dessert? I swear that sometimes total abstinence is easier for me than just a few bites. Do you health-ify your pizza or have any tricks? 🙂 Thanks!
How fun! I can’t wait to take our little guy to the zoo for the first time this summer 🙂 I love the ice cream pics and was definitely wondering who took them!
That too funny you made the comment about wondering who took the picture because that was my exact thought LOL, I was trying to figure out if you used a selfie stick because they were some great pictures!
Oh my goodness y’all couldn’t get any more gorgeous!!! Also, I LOVE Moana! The music is so incredible…dare I say it…better than Frozen! I know I’ll probably get a lot of flack for that lol but really they’re both great. I’m so glad you had such a wonderful Mother’s Day and I loved seeing these pics.
I definitely liked it more than Frozen!
Hi Julie! Happy belated Mother’s Day! That zoo looks awesome. We are going to visit my sister-in-law and her husband in Chapel Hill sometime in the next few months and I am totally going to make them take us there. It looks like a toddler dream come true!
I know you have touched on it in the past, but I would love a post about Chase and toddler food. I am struggling big time with my little one and would love some inspiration. I am going to bake your muffins tonight as a start!
Have a wonderful week Julie!
Looks like you guys really enjoyed your mothers fay!! You really can’t beat the zoo/boat ride/ice cream and pizza! And that gym class with the kiddos is such a cute idea!
Sunday sounds like THE most perfect day! Definitely want to try the quinoa salad and I’m itching to see Moana still too! I’ve been jamming to the soundtrack at work (like any 24 year old should..right?)!
Sounds like you guys had a great weekend and Mother’s Day.
That sounds like just about the best Mother’s Day I could imagine! You deserve it 🙂 That man did an amazing job taking those pictures of your family – they are awesome.
This looks like such a great and fun weekend!!! ALSO I’m glad you were able to find Moana on Redbox, I wasn’t sure if they were carrying it at all and I never see it so I’m going to be persistent and keep looking for it!
It looks like you had a great mother’s day weekend! Your pictures are always so gorgeous, and Chase is just so adorable! I love Moana!! I’ve watched it about 5 times in the past month, haha!! (And I find myself singing songs from the movie randomly throughout the day) Whenever I see someone taking a selfie when I am out with my hubby I always ask if they want me to take their picture, and in return take a picture of the two of us 😉 it’s a trick I learned years ago in Disney World! It’s worked every time! Haha!!
The music in Moana was SO good!!! The “How Far I’ll Go” song is beautiful!
Your weekend sounds nothing short of fabulous! You really can’t go wrong with a movie, pizza, and ice cream 😉
Also, that picture of you all and the ice cream cone is precious!
Hi Julie! Adorable weekend! From the mommy-and-me workout to the zoo and ice cream pictures. You totally lucked out by having a camera-savvy guy take that super cute pic of your fam with the ice cream. I always seem to start or end a weekend with pizza, pajamas and ice cream — I feel ya! Happy Tuesday to you! 🙂
Beware, now all of the Moana songs will be stuck in your head. I guess buying the soundtrack doesn’t help that either…!
Also, where is that super cute denim dress from? I’m guessing via ThredUp but I love it!
It is a thredUP find! The brand is Life in Progress. I couldn’t find it online :/ This one from ShopBop is kind of similar but more of a cami-style denim wrap dress: http://bit.ly/2pR9oYA
Looks like a wonderful Mother’s Day! I thought of you and prayed that you would have a wonderful day.
Wow! What a busy and fun-filled weekend! Even doing half of that stuff would poop me out. Those ice cream pictures are so perfect! And extra special because you probably wouldn’t stage them that way, either- just sort of happened. I love when strangers take pictures for me– I try to offer it to strangers when I can. A couple summers ago, I ended up with a free day by myself in San Francisco, so I took a boat ride under the Golden Gate Bridge. I asked a nice lady to take my photo 🙂
What a fun weekend and great Mother’s Day. Adorable photos and so glad the nice gentleman came up to you and asked to take your photos. Too Cute!
Chase is the cutest lil guy I’ve ever seen. 🙂
Happy Mother’s Day, what a fun weekend! My almost three year old likes to work out with me sometimes, I get such a kick out of his squats.
Your paragraph about the guy offering to take your picture is a RIOT because I was seriously JUST thinking “how did she get someone to take these adorable candid pictures? I don’t remember her saying her family came into town?!” And then you answered it. So funny!! Glad you had a fun weekend. 🙂 Your friend’s backyard is gorgeous! Wow!
Julie- I love your dress! Where did you find?
Thank you! It’s Life in Progress but I ordered it on thredUP!
Your weekend sounds like the perfect mix of adventure and relaxation! 🙂 Loved the family pictures; I usually do wonder who took the picture but didn’t even think about it today until you mentioned it. ha! That’s so nice of the man to take it for you guys! Can you share where you got your dress? You always have the cutest outfits!
The brand of the dress is Life In Progress but I ordered it on thredUp!
Thanks for the tip on Moana! Went and picked it up at the Red Box in Harris Teeter to see if my boys like it before we invest on buying it for the Apple TV.
We all really loved it! (Well, we put Chase to bed after about 45 minutes but he seemed into it at least. 🙂 ) Hope you guys enjoy it!
I love chase’s hand on your arm in the lunch photo! Too cute! I also had ice cream twice on Mothers day! Woot! What is the point of working out so hard if ya can’t have good bowl of ice cream every so often!!
Looks like y’all had a great weekend! What lens do you use with your Canon?
Such a sweet weekend! And I’m definitely making that quinoa salad!
Happy Mother’s day again! What a lovely weekend. Thanks for telling us about the stranger who took those candid shots with the ice cream cone, I always DO wonder how those shots happen!! You guys are going to cherish these photos forever. So cute! And you all look so happy.
Question: If you don’t see this, I may ask again another time this week- but what can I get a new friend who is about to give birth (with her fourth kid) in the next couple weeks? We’re new friends, and haven’t known each other long, so she wouldn’t expect a gift for me, nor are we in the “buy her a new stroller” category of friends, but I would like to get her something that would be useful and not a duplicate of something she might already have from her other kids. (What would you have liked to receive? Diapers? Care products for yourself? I’m unsure! We’d like it to be practical rather than ornamental, but relatively inexpensive since we’re on a budget.) If you see this, thanks!
I think a great idea would be a home cooked meal, frozen meals or a gift card to a local place that delivers. I am sure having meals on hand or ones that can be delivered would be a huge relieve to a mom of 4! It was to me when we got home from the hospital.
I agree with Bethany! Dinner after she’s home from the hospital or essentials like diapers and wipes would be appreciated! Or, if you’re comfortable, offering to watch her other children for a morning or afternoon when they’re back from the hospital to give her time alone with her baby might be appreciated!
Thanks Julie! Thanks Bethany! These are great ideas.