Weekend Recap!

Happy weekend, friends! I’ve got a phone full of photos from the week. Shall we catch up a little bit?

Since Monday was a holiday, Keith (and Spence) spent some time mowing the grass and taking care of yard work before he headed north for the evening to participate in one of his (many) fantasy football drafts. The season is upon us!

I pulled out the fall house decorations,

and found this little (or big?) Praying Mantis on the summer wreath that I pulled off of our door. The boys were impressed!

We were in Charlottesville on Monday afternoon for an appointment, and as we were climbing back in the car in the parking lot we saw an Ice Cream Truck go past with its music playing. I quickly buckled everyone up and chased the truck into the next neighborhood where it stopped! Hah. I’m that crazy mom! Since we live in the country, my boys had never seen an ice cream truck (much less experienced the actual treats), so I figured this would be the perfect introduction. It was HOT, and I can’t think of a better way to close out our summer on Labor Day!

Tuesday was Casey’s last official day of summer break, and he just opted to stay home and play quietly (which was fine with me).

Molly joined us in the shade,

where I sat on the porch and read a magazine while supervising boys and dogs in the yard.

Casey also helped me bake and decorate a batch of mini cupcakes to take to his preschool class on Wednesday. Can you tell he picked out the colors?!

We used the remaining batter to make a small cake for dessert that evening. Although we celebrated Keith’s birthday last Saturday, his actual birthday was on Tuesday. We made sure to enjoy a special dessert with Dad after dinner!

The boys and I set up an ice cream sundae bar, along with the cake that Casey and I made earlier in the day. I love this picture, which I snapped before serving everyone. Look at Spencer crying and screaming because he wanted the sweets RIGHT NOW. This kid has NO patience!

Once everyone had their cake and ice cream, there were smiles all around…

Casey VERY RELUCTANTLY returned to preschool on Wednesday morning. This was the closest that I could get to a smile. (He actually had a really good morning and seemed pleasantly surprised when he got in the car at noon and told me that it was “fun!”)

Fortunately he was a bit more cooperative when his teacher asked for a photo!

Since I was in town to drop Casey off at school, Spence and I took advantage of the sidewalks and went for a 2 mile walk/jog. Speaking of exercise, are you joining me in the 2-week Fall Into Fitness Challenge? I’ve included a free workout calendar and clean eating meal plan for the week, and now would be the perfect time to do your grocery shopping and get prepared! I’ll post Week #2’s workouts and meal plan on Wednesday, so stay tuned for that!

It was so humid and hot. Post-workout sweaty pic!

I snacked on a smooshed pumpkin protein muffin on my way home,

and then ate this yogurt with my few remaining blackberries for snack. It was good! I could really taste the fig in it. Spence loved it too and shared a few bites with me.

After we picked Casey up from school, we had lunch at Subway. Always a hit!

Turkey sub for Spence, cheese pizza for Casey, and Roast Beef sub for me.

I managed to sneak in a very quick run through HomeGoods, too. Definitely one of my favorite spots (but my wallet doesn’t agree)! This guy wanted to reach out and grab all of the breakable dishes on the shelves…

Casey had soccer practice on Wednesday evening before we all came home and CRASHED from such a busy day.

Thursday was a rainy day, so I dragged these two guys to Costco for a TON of stuff. It’s incredible how much money we spend there on a weekly basis. Yikes.

I came home to put away the food and noticed that the freezer in our spare refrigerator had been left open. MAJOR FAIL. I had to throw away a lot of meals that I had prepared in advance, as well as some raw meat. That just KILLS me. 🙁

About the same time I received a phone call from my bank to let me know that there had been some fraudulent charges on my business credit card. Someone stole the card number and managed to purchase some luggage online (among other things) on behalf of The Seasoned Mom. To say I was frazzled and upset by this would be an understatement. I’m still dealing with it and trying to set-up my automatic payments for a variety of sites that I had tied to the card. Such a pain!

Keith worked late that evening, so I threw together one of the quickest and easiest meals in my kitchen: quesadillas with guacamole and salsa (and a side of Matchbox cars).

Friday morning’s breakfast included these Blueberry Muffin Overnight Oats,

and after dropping Gibbs off at school, the younger two boys and I made a pit stop for some Friday morning breakfast treats: donuts for the boys…

and a Cookie Dough-flavored iced coffee for me!

After we dropped our boys off at preschool, my friend Mollie and I took Spence for a nice 45-minute walk while we chatted. You can tell that Spencer was very excited about this time with the ladies.

He perked right up, however, when he saw THIS TRAIN right in front of us on the way home. Made his day (or week?)!

I couldn’t pass up these giant Honey Crisp apples when I was at Costco earlier in the week. I’m 100% sure that if I could only eat one fruit for the rest of my life, this would be it. Perfect, in my opinion!

When we returned home from picking up Casey at lunchtime, Molly the dog was nowhere to be seen. I checked the voice messages on our phone and sure enough, the Animal Shelter had called to say that someone had turned her in. Talk about an adventure! This gal snuck out of the gate when we were heading out to school in the morning and fortunately some kind soul delivered her to a safe place. Instead of a nap, Spence and Casey spent the afternoon with me at the Animal Shelter picking her up and filling out paperwork (and in the short time that she was at the shelter, two other people tried to adopt her!). We’re so glad that she’s back home with us!

We picked up Gibbs in the afternoon and had a quiet evening at the house while Keith worked late again. Dinner was an easy slow cooker meal that I salvaged from my defrosting freezer on Thursday (we had the Healthified Crock Pot Beef and Broccoli from THIS post).

Check out that dirty face! That’s what happens when he plays in the bushes with his brother!

Our weekend plans took a sharp turn on Saturday morning when it turned out to be a very gray and rainy day. The morning soccer games were cancelled, and so was a visit from our friends Mary and John. Suddenly we were staring at an entire unplanned Saturday!

Since the weather has finally cooled off, I microwaved some Apple Cinnamon Steel Cut Oatmeal (that I told you about in THIS post), and fancied it up with some chopped apple, pecans, and some maple syrup. Pumpkin Spice coffee on the side!

I spent some time making and photographing a side dish for an upcoming post, and I also put dinner in the slow cooker before we headed out. We made a very quick stop at the grocery store and then grabbed lunch at Hibachi Grill & Buffet in Charlottesville, which the boys had been requesting all week!

Once we got home, I spent the rest of the afternoon wading through three boys’ clothes. I had to sort through the cooler weather stuff and put away some summer items. It was pretty overwhelming, but it also feels good to have tackled the project.

We then finished off our Saturday with a delicious dinner (recipe coming soon!), baths and bed for the kids, and football watching on the couch for us.

This morning we woke up to gorgeous cooler weather!

I’m hustling off to pack up some lunches so that we can take advantage of the day and head out for a hike. Have a great day, and check back tomorrow for a new fall recipe!