Weekend Fun + A Whole Lot of Fishing

Good morning to YOU! I hope your Monday is off to a good start after a lovely weekend. We filled our weekend with fishing and family fun and I’m popping in today to share a glimpse into what the past few days have looked like around here.

Our Friday night was a fun one! We picked up food to go from Fresh Chef (one of our favorite local restaurants) and also grabbed half a dozen cupcakes from Sweet Cakes to share. Sweet Cakes is actually the same bakery that made the “he or she” cupcake Ryan and I cut into when we found out I was pregnant with baby boy Chase!

Memoriesssss!

We haven’t done movie night with the boys for a while in our house so they were psyched to change into their jammies, curl up on the couch and watch Toy Story while we dug into the cupcakes.

Saturday

Saturday morning began bright and early. Rhett is a great daytime napper but the nights have been a little dicey around here which is to be expected with a newborn. On Saturday morning, I threw in the towel after trying to soothe Rhett back to sleep in the dark early morning hours and ended up heading downstairs with him so he could kick and coo his little heart out on a blanket in my office while I got some work done. I also recently took on a big personal project and am determined to put our family photos into a series of photo albums so I got crackin’ on that as well. I am proud to say I finally finished Ryder’s baby book. WOOP!

I was motivated to complete Ryder’s baby book because the boys LOVE looking at Chase’s baby book (cue all the mom guilt for not having one to show Ryder!) and also because I am hoping to work on Rhett’s baby book throughout the year and figured I should finish Ryder’s before tackling Rhett’s. (Continually updating Ryder’s baby book on a monthly basis was my plan for Ryder’s baby book as well but I think you can see how well that worked out.) I’m determined to consistently update Rhett’s baby book so I’m not overwhelmed with a plethora of pictures to sort through after Rhett turns one. Fingers crossed I stick with it this time!

Oh and I’m also in the process of finishing up photo albums from the years between Chase and Ryder and Ryder and Rhett which is only a little overwhelming! (The photo albums are part of a birthday gift for Ryan in the beginning of October which is my main motivation for hunkering down and finishing them.) I must give a shout out to Mixbook for making the process easy (though still time consuming because I am a bit particular) and for creating photo album designs that feel classic and beautiful without looking super cheesy. If creating a photo album is on your radar, my affiliate link will give both of us $20 off our next Mixbook purchase! I highly recommend them!!

Once everyone else was awake and dressed for the day, we spent some time around the house before heading to Davidson for a birthday party. My mom is still in town to help with the boys during this crazy phase of life (HOORAY!) so she offered to stay home with Rhett while Ryan and I took Chase and Ryder to JJ’s fishing party.

JJ is the little brother of Claire (longtime readers may remember Claire has been Chase’s BFF since they were 8 weeks old and her mom Lauren is one of my closest friends) and JJ is also one of Ryder’s BFFs. Our boys were more than a little excited to celebrate the special day of one of their best buddies! Plus, cupcakes and fishing are two of Chase and Ryder’s favorite things so JJ’s birthday party was right up their alley.

We all brought our own fishing rods and Lauren and Tony provided worms which ended up being an even bigger hit with the kids than the fish we all caught!

Ryder had three huge worms squished up in his hands in the above pic and was in heaven being “bait boy” for Ryan and Chase.

Before it was time to head home, the kids dug into some snacks and Nothing Bundt Cakes bundtinis and I was reminded, yet again, just how delicious those little cakes are when I had a red velvet one, too! YUM!

We made it home around 1 p.m. and I immediately nursed Rhett while the boys ate lunch (kind of… lunch after cupcakes isn’t exactly a slam dunk) and then Ryder went down for his nap while Ryan, Sadie and Chase went on a walk on some local trails together.

I hung out with my mom and a sleepy Rhett, worked on my photo album projects a little more and did some cleaning around the house before Ryder was awake and Ryan and Chase returned. The rest of our Saturday passed by in a blur of dinner, ice cream and an early bed time for the boys so my mom, Ryan and I could watch Batman Begins before we got too tired. Random conversations earlier in the day on Saturday revealed that my mom has never seen any of the Batman movies and since Ryan and I both love them, we’re determined to make our way through the trilogy during her visit! She gave the first one two thumbs up!

Sunday

Sunday morning began a lot like Saturday morning. Rhett, Ryan and I were up niiice and early. Ryan headed off to Lake Norman State Park with Sadie to meet up with his dad for a hike while I hung back with Rhett and worked for a bit on the computer until everyone else was up for the day. Some of the dreary weather from Saturday carried over into Sunday morning, so we spent the first part of the day at home where the boys had fun with their window crayons until Ryan arrived home with doughnuts and the sun started shining a little brighter!

The boys’ window crayons were an early quarantine purchase for rainy days that they still love. They’ve also become a “throw in” birthday present idea for their friends’ birthdays because all the kids seem to think they’re really cool. Apparently coloring on windows is the jam!

The doughnuts Ryan picked up came from Daylight Donuts, one of our favorite spots in Mooresville, and we all shared an assortment of the sugary treats before making our way out to the lake for more fishing.

We joke that the fish we catch near our house aren’t fancy fish because they have no problem taking hot dogs as bait. We caught six bluegills and, once again, the boys were in heaven.

Ryder recently got his own fishing rod (the same one Chase has) from my Aunt Laurie for his birthday and we have yet to remove the weighted plastic green fish at the end which he adores because it lets him practice casting and reeling without the need for hooks and bait. Every time he’d reel the plastic fish in, he’d yell, “Mom! Green fish! Big one!”

By the time we made it home, everyone was ready for food so we fed the big kids lunch, Ryan grilled up some chicken for the grown ups and I nursed Rhett. As I fed Rhett, I was hit with some intense exhaustion and felt like I could fall asleep on the couch. Once Ryder was asleep and Rhett was fed, I took full advantage of my mom and Ryan’s encouragement to take a nap — my first one since Rhett was born — and it felt amazing. Kind of. Honestly, I slept for just under an hour and woke up feeling very groggy but I still think a little extra sleep was what my body needed on Sunday afternoon after a bunch of back-to-back nights with multiple hours of awake time in the middle of the night. Rhett doesn’t cry a ton in the night but he’s super restless sometimes and doesn’t seem to love sleeping in his bassinet. He loves to snooze while he’s being held or curled up next to me which isn’t something I’m comfortable with from a safety perspective so it’s made for a lot of  middle-of-the-night sleeplessness. (Last night I was up from 1:45 – 4:30 a.m. BLESS YOU, coffee!)

Thank goodness newborns are so darn cute. It’s their ultimate defense mechanism, I’m tellin’ ya!

Ryder was up from his nap soon after I was so we figured we should take advantage of the 80-degree sunny weather and ended up heading to the little beach near our house where Chase and Ryder splashed around and enjoyed an early evening swim as we relaxed in beach chairs.

We arrived home about 20 minutes before my friend Alise stopped by with dinner for our family. She totally spoiled us with the most amazing spread of chicken satay, rice, salad, homemade peanut sauce/dressing and unbelievably tasty granola bars.

It was a great way to end the weekend, that’s for sure!

Before I fell asleep last night, I also spent some time reading Majesty by Katharine McGee. It’s the sequel to American Royals, a book I read last fall and loved, and it’s been a great read so far. Both books give me serious Gossip Girl vibes but with a little more depth and creativity. They’re the kind of books that feel like an escape and are simply FUN to read. I don’t have much left of Majesty so I have a feeling you’ll be seeing it pop up on Friday’s list of Things I’m Loving if it continues to be as good as it has been so far.

And now I’m hearing all the boys waking up so it’s time to log off the computer and morph back into Mom Mode. I hope to check in again soon! Have a great Monday!