Fall, Is That You?

How was your weekend?  This week is dragging slowly because  Emerson is sick and Matt is traveling. But, we had a wonderful weekend with some incredible fall-like weather!

We had our porch screen in last week and we spent a ton of time outside enjoying the space over the weekend. At one point we even had to bring blankets outside because it was so cold!  I am in love with the porch and am sooo happy we did it. We just sat and watched all the mosquitos and flies on the outside with smiles on our faces:)

We kicked on Friday with a cheese plate and then made a pizza after Emerson was in bed.  We are pretty boring on Fridays these days and always so the exact same thing, but I’m always so tired at the end of the week.  Can’t wait to add some wine back into this tradition.

Saturday was really rainy, but I was so thrilled with 66 degrees that I took a chance and walked Emerson to the bakery for morning muffins while Matt was at a workout class.  It’s amazing how the temperature made such a huge difference in my energy and ability to walk a bit. We shared a giant carrot oat muffin and then walked home in the rain. We didn’t get too wet in rain jackets, although I couldn’t get mine to zip over the bump:)

We killed some time waiting for Matt to come home on the porch and Emerson helped me unpack some Beautycounter samples that arrived (head to Instagram at 9pm tonight if you want a free Countertime sampler btw). I hit up Trader Joe’s during Emerson’s nap and bought a bunch of new stuff to mix things up.  I got falafel mix and have been eating balls on kale and quinoa salad this week; t’s been nice to have lunch prepped and ready to go in the fridge.

Saturday night, the three of us went to Midwood Smokehouse and used a gift card we’ve been saving from Matt’s parents.  The menu has so many options, we had a hard time deciding. In the end, we couldn’t resist the pulled pork nachos.  We probably could have just had this for dinner, but we also ordered the bbq salmon with hushpuppies (for Matt), baked beans, and bacon-wrapped jalapeños. The nachos were pretty incredible and we still have half the gift card left!

I did a workout video on Sunday morning (and think maybe I hurt my leg/groin/something in my pelvis that was not happy on Monday) and then we took Emerson to a park for the morning.  In an attempt to balance out the meat-heavy dinner, we had lunch at Living Kitchen and had the most amazing kale salad and veggie burger. Em loved it too and I’m finding that she surprisingly eats more when we have meals like this and share with her versus ordering from  kids menus (she had one bite of the decadent mac & cheese the night before). Living Kitchen is one of my favorite restaurants in Charlotte but it’s not super close to our house and I always forget about it (and it’s a little pricey).  I need to go more often!

We rounded out the weekend with some cleaning, and then Emerson didn’t really nap and randomly started running a fever.  So we watched Daniel Tiger all together and got her in bed early. This actually made for a relaxing evening as we rested with her and went to bed early too! And now, somehow, we are in the last week of summer. See ya.