Friday Favorites - 09-18-20

 I'm so super grateful it's Friday!  Today was an eLearning Day in our county, so I got to be home with my kiddos and help them navigate their classwork while I helped out my own students via email.  It was really nice to have a slower morning where I didn't have to be "ready" til nearly two hours past my usual time! 

I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika today for Friday Favorites!

First up is how Avery entertains herself while her brothers are doing their schoolwork.  She's such a good sorter!  My mother-in-law says she should have Avery come over and organize her dresser drawers!

Next is the awesome German Chocolate Cake we made for my father-in-law's birthday last Sunday.  We were so pumped with how well it turned out!

Our nephew is wearing a new medical ID bracelet and he isn't quite a fan of it yet.  To help him with this transition, I sent a photo of Michael sporting his medical ID bracelet.  My nephew really looks up to Michael, so I'm hoping this encourages him that his role-model cousin has a bracelet too!

I received a few "on point" memes this week!  

This one literally describes Avery for any car ride. 

My husband and I got a chuckle out of this next one:

I shared the following meme with my students and they all think this is a good possibility and a hopeful outcome. 

I saw these shirts on jane.com earlier this week and loved the phrases and the color combos!

Thanks for stopping by!

Until Next Time, 
Much Love, Reba

Fall Touches & Favorite Things

When September rolls around, I pull out my fall decor & get to work making my home a cozy fall retreat! Our temperatures here are still in the high 80s with lows in the 70s but I know the weather will eventually reflect what I already feel like inside!  I update the decor as we move further into the fall. I'll throw in some more Halloween-ish decor (not much and nothing scary) and I'll change it around again when it's closer to Thanksgiving. This time of year just makes me so happy!  

I thought I'd showcase some of my fall decor, and also talk about some of my random favorite things!

FALL DECOR: 

I love my multi-colored felt leaf garland (Target, several years old). I paired it with a cream glass pumpkin, a straw & floral pumpkin (technically a door hanger), and a glass jar mod-podge handprint ghost art project my kids made last year. I added in some fairy lights (buy them at Target after Christmas when they're 60 cents a box!) and I love how cozy it turned out! 

I LOVE my $3 pumpkin door hanger I bought in Amish Country Pennsylvania a few years ago. Since we have double doors as our front door, I don't really hang anything outside anymore. Instead I find spaces inside to hang all these decor items! 

Technically, I think this is supposed to be a bathroom hand towel but I use it in my kitchen!  My other favorite towel is one from "Primitives by Kathy" that says "My Favorite Color is Fall" and it has glitter gold leaves on it (also known as "right up my alley." Give me all the glitter decor!). I bought it in Apalachicola, Florida on a Labor Day weekend girl's trip with my best friend a couple years ago. 

This lumbar pillow is a new addition ($5 in the Target Dollar Spot!). It says Pumpkin Patch on one side...

...and Apple Orchard on the other side. Avery uses lumbar pillows when she drinks her milk sippy cups. The regular one she uses needs a good wash, so she was happy to see this festive option for this season! She's very particular about it showing the pumpkin side up. 

I'm super pumped about these pumpkins being at a low level. I bought these 2 and the cream one on the mantel several years ago and I've always had to place them high up because of the age of my kiddos. This year, I felt confident enough to place these two lower down knowing that I could instruct all 3 kids not to touch. I'm still fairly smart about it though-- I put the fabric pumpkin on the left side that has no barrier beside it, and I put the mercury glass pumpkin on the right side behind the TV where it's slightly boxed in by Avery's toy kitchen. 

This is my little $3 felt wreath (Target, several years old-- do you sense a theme?!). This little decoration is very important to me. It's all I could afford when my sons were in their short daycare stint at the end of 2014. I've kept it all these years to remind me how far we've come. 

This is my laundry room door. The wreath on the right is my "seasons changing wreath." I'll swap out the flower for a pumpkin in October & for darker toned flowers in November.  I made the wreath on the left during a women's craft night. It's made from tiny cupcake wrappers. 

FAVORITE THINGS: 

We have all stainless steel appliances and I usually spray them down with my Thieves Household Cleaner, but they were all looking in need of some extra help, so I searched under my sink and found my Stainless Steel polish.  I forgot I had this!  It quickly shined everything up and my kitchen looks so neat!

My two big kids finished a week of virtual learning this week.  I keep their school papers in my cozy coffee nook.  The school crayons, markers, and our coloring books are kept in this utensil caddy. 

Since I'm back teaching in-person, I grabbed a pair of shoes to be my "school shoes" where I only wear them to school.  I treat them as a neutral and wear them with every outfit.  They're a snake print with gold accents (of course) and best of all, they are from Wal-Mart so they were super budget friendly.  They also have memory foam in the bottom and my feet don't hurt even after standing for hours during the day.  

I really wanted some faux plant accents around the house because I CANNOT keep anything green alive and I know myself well enough to stop trying.  I found a two-pack on Amazon of these little faux grass plants in concrete vases. I staged one on the antique washstand in our foyer...

...and I put the other one on the kitchen cart in our dining room. 

I found a larger faux plant in Target (where else?) that I put on the open shelves in our master bath.  I bought a second one that I staged on top of a filing cabinet at my desk at school. 

Baking really relaxes me, so I love sorting through my favorite old-school Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  Tonight, I'm whipping up a German Chocolate Cake for my father-in-law whose birthday is tomorrow. 

I recently bought myself a new shade of nail polish that I had been admiring for years but hadn't bought yet.  I figured if I can't put make-up on my whole face due to wearing a mask all day, then I could dress up my nails!  It's called "Smokin' Hot" by Essie and it's a dark purple/gray.  It's the perfect fall color and I've already been complemented on my nails after putting it on for the first time!

Hope you enjoyed this random assortment of fall decor & favorite things! What are your favorite fall decor items to add to your home?

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

If I Can't See You...

 ...then you must not be able to see me!

At least that's what Avery thinks. Here is her latest rendition of a super great hiding spot. 

This age is so fun!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Michael's Super Nintendo Mario Party

 Originally, Michael's birthday party theme was going to be "Poison Kirby" but alas, that proved to be too difficult to find supplies.  So he changed it to Super Nintendo/ Mario.  This, I could do.  I have done a Mario party for three out of the last 4 years (year 4, year 5, year 8).  We kept it simple with the invites-- partly due to Coronavirus concerns and not wanting to expose ourselves to too many avenues of exposure, and partly because school wasn't in session yet and we didn't have classmate information. 

We invited our church family and our extended family.  All three grandparent sets were able to come, as well as two uncles, an aunt, a girlfriend of an uncle, and two cousins.  It was a very fun day!  We opted not to do a bouncy house this year (again, covid concerns of little kids jumping on a slick surface where sweat and inevitably some spittle would flounce about).  We had our party at the church building still, because people could spread out and because I wouldn't have to bend over backwards to clean my home to the desired level that I feel is necessary when non-family is coming over. 

We kept the decorations relatively simple.  We used solid red plates, multi-colored cups, and a Funfetti cake with homemade buttercream frosting.  I bought Mario themed balloons from Amazon, as well as a Mario "Happy Birthday" banner, and Mario cake toppers.  Michael scrolled Pinterest with me one afternoon and we picked out some food ideas. 

We had cheese balls as "Bowser's Fireballs" (all labels I printed myself at home), strawberries and green grapes on skewers for "Piranha Plants," blue jello with Cool Whip as "Mario Sky," and labelled soda bottles (Dr. Mario [Diet Dr. Pepper], Mountain Boo [Diet Mountain Dew], Koopa Kola [Diet Coke], and Rex Root Beer [Diet A&W], and regular Coke as well).  We also had classic potato chips (that I forgot to label as "coins"), crunchy Cheetos, and the cake with tinted green frosting for grass and the Mario characters set atop in the order Michael provided. 

We bought a few "yard games" on Amazon for party participants to play.  We bought a bean bag toss game, an inflatable bowling set (very popular with the 2 and 3 year old crowd), and a giant table-top checkers set.  The kiddos also played with the foosball table in the Children's Church room and the toddlers enjoyed playing in the nursery.  All in all it was a super fun day and I'm so grateful to our family and our church family for stepping in and making sure Michael had a fantastic 8th birthday!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba