Five on Friday!

We have one heck of a celebratory weekend ahead! Today is Matt's birthday and Monday is Thomas' birthday!

one. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MATT! I LOVE YOU!

 

two. My sister got promoted at work! To celebrate I sent a Piñatagram to her office. How fun is that colorful piñata!? And it is filled with...wait for it...CANDY! I just discovered pinatagrams and think they are the coolest surprise ever to receive in the mail. The piñata arrives outside of a box with a custom message and is the happiest little gift.

three. I confess I have a bit of an obsession with delicious smelling hand soap. I usually stock up on soaps from Bath & Body Works when they run ridiculous sales. Anyway, Matt could care less what our soaps smell like so I thought it was worth mentioned to you all that he recently declared he has an all time favorite hand soap scent - Sea Salt Citrus. Normally I don't go as far as fruity or citrusy soaps but this one, oh man, it really is THE best scent of ALL TIME. And for Matt to notice, that says a lot! It's on sale at B&BW for $3.25 right now but if you miss the boat or want this soap within the next two days you can find it here too.

four. One of my favorite things to share on the blog is new products! I recently received a coupon to try out Johnsonville's new chicken kabobs. I actually had no idea that Johnsonville made more than sausage so I was interested to see what their new chicken kabobs were all about. The flavorful line includes four varieties including lemon and herb, teriyaki, sweet BBQ and sweet chili lime. I picked up the lemon and herb flavor for our 4th of July grill out! The convenience of purchasing marinaded kabobs just a few hours before our party was so nice! We threw them on the grill with some hotdogs and everyone was really impressed with how tasty they were! I am definitely going to try out the other flavors next!

"I naughty" - Caroline Grace (during a conversation about her recent bed time bad habit)

five. HELP! We have been going through a new ummm "phase" with Caroline recently that I am desperate for some advice on. On a good night we get Caroline to bed around 7:30 pm'ish. Most nights she will stay up for almost two hours singing to her dolls, playing with her stuffed animals, asking for water, screaming "I looooooove yoooouuu" and so on. All that is fine and we just ignore her until she falls asleep, usually around 9 pm. However, things have taken a turn for the worst the past few weeks. Once Caroline has run out of things to do in her crib she's been stripping herself out of her pajamas and removing her diaper. She thinks it's hilarious until she needs to potty and pees in her crib. Then she cries and screams for us until we go in, strip her bed, redress her and tuck her back in. Talking to her about it in a calm (or not so calm) voice doesn't phase her, zipping her up backwards in onesie jammies didn't work and I don't think she'd care enough about a reward system by the next morning. Has anyone else gone through this and have any tricks or advice? We are not above creative bribery! HELP!

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Wanna join April, Natasha and I on the Friday fun? You can link-up on any of our four blogs every Friday! All you have to do is...

1.) Write your post about five things you're lovin' this week (or any five things you want to share!).

2.) Share the logo on your blog and link back. 

3.) Link-up at the bottom of the post so some new readers can check out your five things and say hello!

4th of July!

I guess I should consider this post part two of our amazing holiday weekend. We crammed SO much into the long 4th of July weekend, including our staycation during the first 24 hours. So let's recap the rest...

Late Friday a concrete crew arrived to make my driveway dreams came true. After years of cursing and tripping over gravel (including a 37 week pregnant belly flop, twice), Matt and I finally pulled the trigger on having our driveway paved!

The kids were absolutely fascinated by the entire process and had the best time supervising the crew from the window. Early Saturday morning the concrete was poured and we stamped both mini's hand in the sidewalk.

The kiddos had the best time the rest of the day with Ms. Jamie and Mr. Travis while mommy and daddy were away for some much needed r&r! On Sunday we arrived home at noon and began getting ready for the neighborhood parade.

The kids were too excited to nap, so instead they helped tear apart the tissue paper pom poms I made for their wagon float. Later that afternoon we invited friends over to join us for the hottest one mile walk ever for the neighborhood parade and then over for hotdogs.

On Monday morning we got the kids up and surprised them with a trip to Mimi & Grandad's house. The kids had the very, very, very best time at the neighborhood pool party. There were kids games, a yummy lunch buffet, a DJ and more!

While Mimi, Grandad and Ann chased Caroline around the kiddie pool, Matt and I let Thomas experience the lazy river for the first time too. He loved lounging on daddy and even enjoyed his own tube for a bit (just like Caroline last year).

 I'm still shocked this even happened but Matt managed to take Caroline down the pool slide without having a heart attack...

After wearing the kids out at the pool we returned back to Charlotte, ate pizza and put the kids to bed!

And that was a wrap on our first 4th of July as four!

Previous 4th of July weekends: 2015 // 2014 // 2013 // 2012 // 2011

Matt's Birthday Staycation {Sans Kiddos}

This Friday Matt turns 36! To celebrate (early) we took off for a seriously overdue night away together over the 4th of July weekend...right in our backyard. No really, on Saturday we pulled out of our driveway at 12 pm and 17 minutes and 1.8 miles later we were collapsing into loungers by the hotel pool Uptown! I had to pinch myself multiple times throughout the trip to see if we were dreaming.

I am embarrassed to admit that Matt and I haven't been away overnight together since our babymoon 2.5 years ago. We've both spent nights away from the kiddos separately for bachelorette/bachelor parties, work, etc. but never together. We told each other before we had kids that we would never let this happen to us. And then it did. So after a seriously tough year, we made a commitment to shift our focus back to each other with our New Year's marriage resolution which includes monthly date nights and two weekends away together annually. So finally, we got away for the most special occasion - Matt's birthday!

When planning the weekend, it was super important to me that we stay Uptown, close to lots of walkable restaurants and that the hotel had an outdoor pool (with a bar)! The Omni had all of those things so I booked a room a few months ago and began planning the rest of our stay. 

Upon arrival we were informed that our room was not quite ready. We were an hour early so we weren't surprised that they needed a few extra minutes to prepare our room. The sweetest girl at the front desk, Kelly, assured us that it would be "worth the wait." We gladly dropped our bags behind the desk, ran downstairs for a yummy taco lunch at Vida and then grabbed some loungers by the pool.

Our room key arrived a few minutes later with our first round of blackberry margaritas and we thought it was interesting that there were multiple room numbers for the key. We weren't in any rush to go upstairs though and continued to relax at the pool alllllll day long. Maybe a little too long. Finally, after 5 hours of relaxing in the sun we decided to pack it up and check out our room.

We were super surprised to learn our room was on the top floor. And even more surprised when we got to the end of the hall and discovered we had been placed in the Presidential Suite. I'm still not sure how this even happened because we are definitely not that cool but we were SO excited and thankful to Kelly for hooking us up. Our suite consisted of multiple rooms, sitting areas, bar areas, two bathrooms, rose petals spread across the bed, windows surrounding us with spectacular Uptown views, a bottle of champagne on ice and a beautiful birthday dessert for Matt. It  was unbelievable. 

For dinner I surprised Matt with dinner reservations at Bentley's on 27. 

We had big ambitions to get drinks after dinner and stay out late but due to our pool party (and being old) we didn't quite make it past dinner and passed out super early back at the hotel. 

The next morning we SLEPT IN until 7:30 a.m. (ha!), drank coffee uninterrupted in bed and relaxed until heading to our last stop of the trip - brunch at Fahrenheit! 

It was a perfect 24 hour birthday staycation! And I would be remiss not to mention how this trip absolutely would not have been possible without the most wonderful babysitter, Ms. Jamie (and her amazing hubby too). Not only is she our date night sitter, she is Caroline's teacher and loves our kids as her own. She knows their routines, personalities, rules, temper tantrums, likes, dislikes, etc. just as well as us so we felt so comfortable sneaking away for a night. She and her hubby are rock stars and have honestly become an extension of our family to us and our babies. 

Happy early birthday, Matt!

Previous Matt celebrations: Matt's 31st Birthday // Matt's 32nd Birthday // Matt's 33rd Birthday // Matt's 34th Birthday //  Matt's 35th Birthday