Weekend Recap

Hi there, friends! I hope that you’ve enjoyed another weekend! Time for a quick rewind to catch you up on our recent adventures. It’s kind of like a cell phone photo dump! Here we go…

We had a very hot, very humid week with a lot of afternoon thunderstorms. You’ll see that most of these pictures look very gray…thanks to plenty of storm clouds! Classic Virginia summer…

Early in the week I snapped this picture as I was loading up my blender to make Gazpacho. It’s the fastest and most garlicky way I know to enjoy so many of the veggies from our garden. I’m desperately trying to keep up! Recipe coming soon…

Casey had a play date with his friend Aidan on Tuesday. Aidan lives on a big horse farm so Spence loved that he was able to take a quick spin through the barn when we went to pick up his brother!

Horse kisses!

While Casey was with Aidan, I dropped Gibbs off at The Inn at Willow Grove to go to a children’s book reading and signing with his friend Liam. He enjoyed the story, but he really loved the warm cookies and ice-cold lemonade that was served!

On Wednesday morning we ran some errands and then met my friend Margeaux for a walk in her neighborhood. The boys brought along their bikes, but spent much of the time complaining about the steep hills and the heat (um, hello…we live in the mountains!).

Thursday afternoon we headed over to James Madison’s home, Montpelier. It’s about a 10 minute drive from our house and it has always been one of our family’s favorite places to get outside and walk.

We don’t buy tickets and pay for the mansion tour…instead, we take advantage of all of the free walking trails through the Landmark Forest.

There were fawns EVERYWHERE!

Since we were super hot afterwards, I decided to drive into the town of Orange so that I could treat the boys to their first ever Slurpee from 7-11.

It seemed like a good idea, but I paid for 3 of them and only 1 was (kind of) enjoyed. Spencer dropped his on the floor of the store before I even finished paying. Gibbs and Casey just thought that the Slurpees were too sweet (say WHAT?!). Lesson learned…

On Friday morning we woke up to less humidity and perfectly sunny skies. With the 75 degree temperatures I knew that we should spend the morning outdoors. We went up the road to our neighbor’s farm and picked as many apples as we could carry. The Ginger Golds are ripe now, but there are also a few other delicious early varieties to choose from. In my opinion, apples are Central Virginia’s BEST produce.

54 pounds of apples later, I have my work cut out for me! Gibbs has requested applesauce and Casey has requested both an apple pie and an apple cake. I guess I know what I’ll be doing for the next week or two…

Spencer was in the backpack while I put the other two boys to work!

Saturday was a really busy day, so I basically left the house around 8:30 a.m. and didn’t return until close to 4 p.m.

My morning started with a hair cut. Casey came with me, while Keith stayed home with the other two boys.

My hairdresser gave me this new shade of Mary Kay lipgloss, knowing that I would love the rose-gold color (I do!).

Meanwhile, Keith walked Gibbs and Spencer to the farm across the road because there was a lot of equipment parked in one of the fields. Spence had to check it all out!

After my haircut, we scooped up the rest of the family and headed into Charlottesville for swimming lessons.

Post-swimming lunch at Subway!

Then Gibbs was dropped off at Liam’s house for a play date (and ice cream at Yoder’s),

while Spencer and I went grocery shopping.

Keith took Casey into the woods for the afternoon to go “gem mining” (i.e., looking for cool rocks in the river).

My friends at Arctic Zero sent me this awesome shipment on Friday so that I could try their new Chunky Pints,

so of course my Saturday afternoon snack involved some of the Cookie Dough Chip. OMG. SO GOOD!! I feel like this stuff deserves more attention, so I’ll probably be talking about it again soon. Let’s just say that for only 75 calories per 1/2-cup serving (and only 300 calories for the entire pint) I was in dessert heaven. I still need to try the Buttery Pecan, the Cool Mint Chip, A Lil’ Bit Chippy, and the Key Lime Pie. I’ll let you know what I think of each flavor when I’ve had a chance to give them a full taste-test!!

We had grilled chicken fajitas for dinner and then all 3 of the boys helped me bake an Apple Crisp before bed. They were all so exhausted from the day that a total meltdown followed…and bedtime came shortly after.

Sunset!

Today has been a much calmer day, which we all needed.

I started the morning by peeling and slicing a bunch of apples to put in the slow cooker. I’m making my favorite Slow Cooker Applesauce (which the boys requested), and the house currently smells amazing! I’ll share the recipe on here soon.

Keith spent much of the morning doing yard work outside,

and I was able to make (and photograph) a few apple recipes for the blog. I turned my kitchen into a mess, but it was very productive!

I gave the garden some attention, did some laundry, changed the sheets on the bed, and took care of some other stuff around the house.

We just finished a lunch of leftover pizza (love those easy meals!) and now we’re getting ready to put the boys down for some quiet time.

Enjoy the rest of your lazy Sunday afternoon, and have a great week ahead!