Five on Friday

1.

This week, Parker and I finally ventured the 2.3 miles from our house over to Lowe Mill, the former textile mill that now houses tons of local artists (including culinary ones!). I had doubted whether I was trendy or hipster enough to go in, but everyone was actually super friendly and welcoming. First stop, chocolate:

Cardamom, chicory, earl grey tea... these were no ordinary truffle flavors. Now I'm obsessed, and determined to sample each and every flavor. 

And the Alabama truffle? All. the. heart. eyes.

Next up - the most adorable coffee shop: Alchemy Lounge. Come summer I'm going to be all over the cold brew coffee on tap! But since it was March, I ordered my go-to coffee shop drink (a cappuccino).

 I loved their system of using playing cards to identify your drink at the counter :) 

And my cappuccino? Straight up amazing. 

 #caffeineplease

Parker was stoked to find a "play for free" Pac-Man arcade game right outside the coffee shop.

He would have played all day long. 

I was able to entice him away with the promise of the popsicle shop down the hall.

Rainbow was the flavor of choice :)

Lowe Mill, we'll be back!

 2.

St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner! I couldn't help but order just one more St. Patty's day book this week...

 

Also, how cute would this sweatshirt be for the holiday?

And finally, these pancakes are the perfect St. Patrick's Day breakfast!

3.

I love having fun shows streaming on my computer during the day while I'm doing housework and Parker is napping (I mostly just listen to them). I played an episode of the new Netflix series The Santa Clarita Diet while doing laundry a few weeks ago, and it was the perfect silly entertainment to have on! I adore Drew Barrymore - she always seems to play quirky, endearing characters, and this show was no exception (I'm almost done with the first season!). Technically, it's a zombie show (um... never thought I'd watch one of those), but trust me, watch the first one and you'll be hooked.

4.

It's been a couple weeks now since I began using the probiotic Columbia skincare products I was sent to try out. I was provided with both the cream and the serum, but the serum is hands-down my favorite. I love the medicine dropper top, and that I can quickly and easily apply it.

The cream is super, super thick, so I like applying it at night and letting it do its thing :) Husby of course makes fun of me for putting probiotics on my face, but I'll be doing the laughing when I look twenty-five again ;) 

According to the literature, you should be able to see a difference in just four days, so I took (makeup free, eeks!) pictures on Day 1 and Day 4 to see for myself. I tried to take the photos in the same room with the same lighting (and no filters). For just four days of use here, I totally think I can see a positive difference :)

5.

I had a Junior League event this week and picked up this mini bouquet from Whole Foods for the hostess - but I was this close to just keeping it for myself! The decorative cabbage just put it over the top for me, and with a price tag of just nine dollars it was a steal. I popped the arrangement into a mason jar and tied on a bow of twine, and it was twelve kinds of adorable. I think Whole Foods is officially moving into my number one spot for flowers over Costco!

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March-ing

Happy March! Little Man will turn four-years-old this month - I seriously do not know how that happened! Unfortunately, March in Alabama this year came in with a bang - severe weather and a tornado watch. I was actually out brunching with some other moms when we got word that schools in the area would be ending early due to the weather rolling in. It was super comforting to be with other moms (who all have way more tornado experience) when everything went down. 

We were eating at the (yummy) bakery right by P's school, so I hightailed it there and brought him home (all I wanted to do was get us home safe - being out and about in sever weather is one of my worst fears). 

Parker's school had talked that day about "hidy spots" and he wanted to know where ours was, so I channeled my weather fear and Herculesed a full size mattress into the hallway (the best spot in our house to weather tornado warnings since it's interior and windowless). Parker added the pillows ;) By this time, we still hadn't really seen any bad weather, so I went about prepping our dinner (Chicken Tikka Masala) for the crock pot. Max texted around 1pm and told us the weather would be hitting us in 15-20 minutes. I'm so glad he did because at that point, I thought perhaps it had just missed us (I need some practice reading the radar maps). I snuggled up in our bed with Parker and told him we could watch a movie - so to him, it was the best day ever. We started streaming Finding Dory on my laptop - Parker's third movie ever (Finding Nemo and The Polar Express were his other two). It's times like these that make me so happy we reserve movies for very special occasions, because P was completely mesmerized and it let me take a breath while the weather rolled in... and it did. 

We didn't actually have any tornadoes touch down, but at one point the hail was coming down so hard that we had zero visibility out the window and I was this close to relocating us to the "hidy hole" hallway outside the bedroom door. Max has me trained to know that hail often precedes tornadoes, so I was on high alert. But, true to southern weather norms, twenty minutes later it was clear and sunny outside... go figure. So we hopped in the car and still made it to 4pm piano lessons. While our hail was maybe marble sized, Parker's piano teacher showed us a picture of baseball sized hail at her house! 

Hot and cold, hot and cold... the weather still can't make up its mind. 

We switched out the bookcase for the new month - birthday books, St. Patrick's Day, and spring books too, March is one busy month!

Parker insisted on reading every single St. Patty's Day book right away - this one is a favorite!

Just like last year, Parker wanted to make a St. Patrick's Day rainbow out of Fruit Loops... any excuse to buy Fruit Loops ;)

This was his last year's version:

He looked so much younger making it last year!

And then, what to do with leftover Fruit Loops? Top homemade donuts of course! I just followed the recipe for these baked mini donuts, then instead of a cinnamon sugar topping, I poured on melted white chocolate and sprinkled on Fruit Loops. 

Happy March!

6

Rainbow Pancakes!

Keeping with our March/St. Patrick's Day theme of rainbows, I decided to whip up some rainbow pancakes this weekend. They might just be the cutest thing I've ever seen. 

Since I knew I would be using lots of bowls for all the colors, I kept it simple and used a boxed mix for the batter (verses making them from scratch and dirtying even more dishes). I made the boxed mix batter in a big bowl, then spooned all of the batter evenly into six bowls and added food coloring to each. (And clean-up really wasn't that bad since everything just went into the dishwasher after.)

The secret to cooking colored pancakes is to keep the heat low. If it's too hot, you'll brown your pancakes and won't be able to see the awesome color.

And that color is awesome, am I right? 

I'll be whipping up another batch come breakfast on March 17th - the perfect St. Patrick's Day breakfast! 

7

Marching into March!

March! This year, you will bring Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and will also deliver me a three-year-old! Yes, Parker's THIRD birthday is coming up this month. 

 Yesterday, we changed out our wall calendar in the playroom to welcome in the new month. This activity is perfect for sequencing and practicing fine motor skills. Plus, Parker just loves it. We talked about how March will bring spring and St. Patrick's Day - the March sign even had a rainbow on it! 

Next, we made our own Fruit Loop rainbow! I wasn't sure how my almost-three-year-old would do with free-handing it, so I drew out a template, then added Elmer's glue on top of the lines, one at a time. Parker added the correct color on top of each line of glue until the entire rainbow was complete. This was the perfect pace for Sweet P! And again, lots of fine motor practice. And fruit loop munching. He was so proud of his work at the end! 

He was super excited to spot all the rainbows in our St. Patrick's Day books, too!

So what else is up my sleeve for March? 

Well, years ago, I saw the cutest idea on Pinterest and, this year, it's finally time to recreate it! (I've been waiting for Parker to be old enough to understand and be excited about it.) Last week, I picked up all the supplies:

On Easter Eve, you plant "Magic Beans" (regular ol' Jelly Bellys). Then, Easter Morning, you go out to find that they've "sprouted" into lollipops!! So of course, right now the lollipops are hidden, while the beans are ready to be introduced to Sweet P.

And you know we'll be recreating our awesome Cool Whip Dyed Easter Eggs later in the month!

Click here for the post!

Today I'll be bringing down the Easter boxes from the attic and sprinkling faux eggs on every imaginable surface (sorry, husby). Still, I'm itching to add to my collection with some of these darling Easter finds...

Bunny Tumblers | Speckled Eggs | Carrot Bundle | Bunny Ramekin | Chick Dish | Bunny Plates

The bunnies with the glasses and that baby chick with the crown? Killing me! 

Happy March!

6

St. Patrick's Day Yumminess

Little man and I have been busy baking up green treats for our friends and neighbors! I'm loving that, at almost two-years-old, Parker can now get in on the fun!

We of course had to make sugar cookies (read more about my sugar cookie secrets here!). I actually tried piping the icing on for the shamrocks this time, which worked well since they had lots of tiny corners. 

And I just love how they look in mason jars!

Next, I dove into the Mint Oreosthat I forgot I had purchased. I made just a regular batch of boxed brownie batter, broke up a bunch of the Oreos, and stirred them right into the batter. I baked them like normal, and oh my word, they turned out perfectly. Kind of like Cookies & Cream ice cream meets brownies meets a leprechaun. 

And finally, since I had a bunch of Mint Oreos leftover still, I made a bunch of Oreo pops. 

I tied on some of the extra paper shamrocks that Parker had painted on to the mason jars. They worked perfectly as tags for the treats.

Wishing you the luck of the Irish today!

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