We had a really fun week this first full week of summer. Boy did it feel like summer — until the weekend that is. We’re in major sprinklers, wildflowers, picnic + beach-mode over here these days!
The temps really started to climb right out of the gate last week. Sadly, that meant I had to leave Jackson home on our Tuesday/Thursday runs. One of the benefits, though, meant I could run farther than I normally do with him {I try to cap his runs at 4 miles – even 3 is a bit much for him!} and our Tuesday run took us to COFFEE.
I’d been craving coffee shop coffee and was feeling comfortable going to the window on a quiet Tuesday morning. It was such a treat! Our little “coffee shop” is actually inside the local hardware store, which is practically town square where we are. The kids were so excited to get some milk, too. It had been more than 3 months since we’d gone out for coffee.
To mix things up during the week we did “art on the deck.”
The kids love it. Really, I do too, though it always ends the same – paint EVERYWHERE. I was cracking up the whole time watching Hannah paint. She was literally reaching around her little body and painting her butt blue.
We ended up with some lovely pictures and the kids creativity was piqued.
We indulged in a mid-week, late afternoon beach trip, too! I was in disbelief how busy the beach was. We managed to, again, find a little pocket where the kids could play on the shore.
These two just LOVE the beach.
I spontaneously decided to take the kids back to the beach the next morning and boy was I glad I did. We had the BEST time.
I don’t normally do morning outings because if Hannah falls asleep in the car that means she won’t take a nap in the afternoon and it makes the day muuuuch smoother when she can take a nap at home.
In any case, we ventured out to the beach and it was so absolutely lovely. We had the place practically to ourselves and the kids could just run and spread out without me hovering over them to keep their distance from other people.
Ben requested a “breakfast picnic” one morning, so we brought our plates out to the grass and had ourselves a lovely morning meal.
His idea of a breakfast picnic transferred into our weekend plans. We packed up our picnic gear and headed for the beach very early on Saturday morning.
We were met with clouds and intense wind when we arrived, so our beach picnic was rather short and chilly and likely will be revisited another time.
The coffee, coffee cake and company were still delicious!
Alex got out on a big long mountain bike ride on Sunday along with some friends he hadn’t seen in months and months. He absolutely loved the ride, and it sounds like the company of his friends had been missed tremendously.
They were well-prepared for a little tailgate post-bike ride.
In food-related news, I was only mildly inspired to cook anything exciting last week. We grilled burgers, had takeout twice and I made the most delicious veggie fried rice and another night we had a fun dinner where we all got to put together our own quinoa bowls with BBQ roasted chickpeas – it was SO good. The latter two recipes are from the Two Peas & Their Pod cookbook, not available on their site. {side note: that is one of my favorite, go-to cookbooks and I highly recommend it, along with their blog.}
The kids and I spent one afternoon in the kitchen. One of our summer fun activities {stay tuned for the list this week!} was to make ice pops, so we checked that off!
We also pulled together a massive coffee cake for our breakfast picnic at the beach. I had a lot of coffee that day.
It’s never ever stress-free or mess-free to cook or bake with these littles but gosh I just love it. It’s always chaotic and it doesn’t ever go completely smoothly but I rarely care. They both love to help and be involved with anything I’m doing. It’s the perfect way to not only teach them about cooking and baking but introduce them to one of my passions. Worth the clean-up for me!
Here’s to a short work-week for Alex! We are so in need of an extra day this next weekend. What’s everyone doing and cooking for the Fourth?!
