Happy Friday, friends! I’m linking up again today with Darci and Natasha and friends for Five on Friday again!

1. Hudson has had swim camp all week. Oh my goodness, what a fun thing. I love that he is old enough to do some of the fun day camps around town, and we were thrilled to do swim camp the week after his swim lessons. His swimming has improved by leaps and bounds. Or by strokes and dives? Whatever. He is working so hard and always talks about how he wants to practice. The awesome instructor who runs the camp posts pictures to Shutterfly every night so the parents can see what the kids are up to. I loved these pictures of Hudson!

He has improved so much, has gained tons of confidence, but he still has to be watched so very closely. I know with practice and repetition this summer he’ll get there. I guess our days of wearing floaties or puddle jumpers are over.

2. My mom sent some new books to the boys this week and they are loving them. Hudson is especially loving them! KK saw them on the Today Show and ordered them on Amazon right then for the boys. We’re always on the lookout for great new children’s books.

Twenty Big Trucks in the Middle Of The Street by Mark Lee is one of them. I love that it counts and names all of the big trucks. It’s a great book!

Squirrel’s Fun Day by Lisa Moser is the second book. It’s a little chapter book with short chapters and it’s the first chapter book I’ve read aloud to Hudson. It’s fun to read a new chapter every night at bed time.

 

3. I mentioned already that I watched Scandal at the end of May, and I was having withdrawals. I love me some Olivia Pope and President Fitz. So Todd and I watched House of Cards on Netflix after that. We absolutely loved it! But it was even more intense and messed up than Scandal.

 

So to keep with the presidential theme of shows for this summer, we’re back to watching West Wing again. Because, let’s face it, there’s not much on TV this summer, and I feel like we’ve watched almost everything.

4. I don’t love the price tag, but I really love some Lululemon. The pants fit like a dream and work wonders on the lower body. And I love how breathable the tops are. My absolute favorite Lululemon item right now for Pure Barre, walks with the stroller on a hot morning, and just running around town is the Tame Me Tank. This top is so flattering! You may have to search eBay for it because they appear to be sold out in almost every size. But I got this tank in three colors because I love it so much.

 

5. I’m super duper stinking excited because we’re heading back to Orange Beach, Alabama at the end of the summer for our family vacation. And while we’re there, the lovely Sarah Lyn Photography will be taking our family pictures again. Molly told me about Sarah Lyn last summer before we went to the Gulf and I’m so glad she did. Sarah Lyn is a natural with families and just likes for her subjects to just do their thing while she captures the memories. If you’re ever in the Destin, Florida area (and she will travel all over the panhandle), you need to contact her!

Oh my goodness, sweet baby Hayes. He was so little!

 

 

1. I have to keep writing brain dump posts and random posts because I keep forgetting to take out my camera when we’re doing fun things. I know, I know, it means I’m having fun, too, and not focusing on taking pictures. But I want pictures! It makes for more interesting blogging, sure, but it also will be important to me and my kiddos someday. Gotta remember to take pictures of the fun!

2. And we are having so much fun! This summer is already flying by, and we’ve been filling our time with more fun that we have in the past. The boys’ ages are so great that I feel like we can just go, go, go, nap, and go, go, go some more! We’ve had lots of trips to the pool, the zoo, swim lessons, swim camp, romps in the backyard with the dogs and the slip ‘n slide. I really gotta remember to take pictures of the fun!

3. We got our preliminary kitchen cabinet drawings today and I’m starting to feel panicky. Once again, I gotta remember to take more pictures because I want to do an actual house update. But now that I’m looking at the kitchen cabinet drawings I’m trying to decide if we want more drawers or more cabinets. And do we want any glass doors or will that drive me crazy having to keep them tidy? I’ve been pretty low key and easy-going about house stuff so far, but these decisions just make me nervous.

4. I’m going to see Nina in just a couple of weeks! It will be so great to have a couple of days with my dear friend. And then we won’t go on vacation until August. We’re going back to Orange Beach, Alabama. Gulf Shores/Perdido Key/Orange Beach are just my favorite place because they bring back such great memories. And I’m excited about a late-summer vacation!

5. I was heading to choir rehearsal last night, and I left the house 45 minutes before I needed to be there. And then I spent the next 50 minutes sitting in stand-still traffic on the interstate. Good gravy, that’s so frustrating!

6. I do not like wearing makeup in the summer. I need to share my favorite summer makeup with y’all, but I really would just prefer not to wear it at all. (Here’s last year’s post on my favorites for summer.) And in a perfect world of perfect skin and long, dark eyelashes instead of my super blonde, almost invisible eyelashes, going makeup-free for three months would be fantastic. But, alas, I don’t live in that world and I really need makeup.

7. It’s hot, y’all. Somehow it jumped from a cool 85 degrees to 98 degrees in just a day. Hello, summer! So nice to see you so soon!

*The Erin Condren Life Planner winners were posted on the Rafflecopter. All the winners will be hearing from Erin Condren’s team directly, so sit tight. Congratulations!!

*You can still enter to win a copy of A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet! 

 

*Today’s post is a review of Sophie Hudson’s book, “A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet.” And, with Shay from Mix and Match Family and Sheaffer from Pinterest Told Me To, we’re giving away 9 copies of the book!

I spent a lot of my weekend devouring the most wonderful book of short stories. And I laughed out loud. Often. And I cried. I wiped away tears as I remembered my own grandmother standing at the stove. And the way her home smelled when she made gravy. And the way she offered us ice cream, and when we’d get excited about the ice cream, she’d confess that she only had Cool Whip, not ice cream. And we were tickled to eat it anyway, straight out of the bowl.

As I read A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by BooMama’s Sophie Hudson, I was full of the warm fuzzies. Because, there’s nothing like family. And in the south, there’s nothing like family and food.

Sophie’s book is full of hilarious stories of family that are just overflowing with heart and love. We all grew up in families with funny quirks and funny expressions and, if you’re lucky like I am, delicious food. And at the heart of that food is a matriarch, who taught all the women how to prepare it.

Sophie’s book made me laugh and cry and remember. And it made me think of so many of our own family memories in very small downs in the deep, deep south in Louisiana. I remembered friendships that go back for generations and stories of forgiveness and grace. I chuckled as I thought of my own parents’ China pattern and laughed at the endearing way my mother-in-law orders her steaks (“with absolutely no pink”) and how my grandmother took us to Western Sizzlin’ when we came to visit. And how my Dad and grandfather sweated through their dress shirts on Father’s Day 1990 at Bonanza in Ruston, Louisiana, because the air conditioner had gone out. But my grandmother absolutely had to get his soft serve vanilla ice cream from Bonanza that day.

Sophie’s book helped me remember and made me laugh. Those family stories are absolutely priceless, and I know that when you read her book, you’ll remember the beautiful stories that make up the fabric of your family, too.

I’m super excited today because I’m teaming up with Shay from Mix and Match Family and Sheaffer from Pinterest Told Me To to give away 9 copies of A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet!

Yes, there will be 9 total winners! There are lots of different ways to enter, so just follow the Rafflecopter and I’ll cross my fingers that you’ll be a winner. Because this book absolutely warmed my heart and you all need to read it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is the first time I’ve picked up my computer since early Friday morning. I even had some fun posts to share with you from around the blogosphere, but it just didn’t happen.

We had a fantastic weekend. I don’t know what it is, but even as a stay-at-home mom, I live for the weekends. And, of course, the biggest difference in the weekend versus the weekdays is that Todd is with us. Having him home to play with the kids, talk to, hang out with, and just do fun family things together makes the weekends so much fun!

Most of these pictures were posted on Instagram this weekend. (If you’re not following me on Instagram, then these are all new to you!)

On Saturday, I wanted to cram the day full of all the fun things. We wanted to tire the boys out as much as possible and after a really rainy week, we just craved some time outside.

We met the Fuller family at the park early on Saturday morning. All the kids ran around and Todd and I got to catch up with our friends.

After the park, we headed for the zoo. The boys and I usually go to the zoo during the week, and it had been a pretty long time since we went with Todd, so this was a fun treat. The zoo membership is just the best investment. Columbia has a really great zoo and we love to go and spend about an hour. Having the zoo membership makes us feel like we don’t have to spend all day there, but we can go, look at the animals, run around a bit and then leave. Because we know we’ll be back the next week.

 

Hudson’s new “cheese” face is a little scary!

Hudson still loves to ride in the stroller at the zoo when it’s just us. When we’re with friends he wants to walk. But I love that he still loves the stroller, and since Hudson loves it, Hayes is still willing to ride, too. It definitely makes it easier on us to keep up with them! The kangaroo exhibit is just so neat. We just walk right there where they are.

 

 

And these sweet koalas. That sweet baby! Oh my goodness. Maybe once of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

After naps on Saturday, we went to the pool. We spent a couple of hours at the pool, and then ended up eating supper at the pool before heading home.

Hudson’s week of swim lessons have made him pretty fearless in the pool, which would normally be a great thing. But right now, he can’t swim unassisted, and we hate to put his float back on him. He has swim camp this week (from 8:00-11:00 every day) and then another week of lessons next week. I’m hoping that by the end of next week he’ll be in good shape. Until then, I’ll just be watching him like a hawk and trying to reinforce what he’s learned in lessons.

The boys slept great on Saturday night! It was such a great day with just the four of us.

On Sunday after church, Todd went to play golf with a friend, and the boys and I planned to go to the pool, but it was just way too rainy outside. So they took naps, I folded a ton of laundry, and then we played inside until Todd got home. (Yes, Todd played golf in the rain. Such dedication! But he still had fun!)

Todd’s parents offered to feed the boys supper and put them to bed last night so we could go to a movie, and we were just tickled by the offer and couldn’t pass it up! So we went to see The Internship last night. It was really, really cute. Maybe not as funny as Wedding Crashers, but we laughed a lot, and I was looking for my friend’s sister as an extra in the movie since she works at Google.

I hope you all had a great weekend! Do you live for the weekend, like I do? Do you try to soak up as much Daddy time as possible?