Friday Favorites: End of School Year Edition

YES!!! We have officially called a wrap on the 2015/2016 school year! And this is how we feel about it...

Well that's how mommy feels about it. My kids love school, but summer means swimming, going to the beach, water balloons, and playing with their friends all day everyday - so they are are excited too.

Bye-bye alarm clock - see you in August!

Now to end the week with some of our favorites lately. Linking up as usual with some of our favorite bloggers today, and hold on because I've had a lot of favorites this week!

ONE

Cute graduated from pre-K! Oh my, wasn't he just born yesterday?? I've been ignoring the fact that he has gotten so big, but it hit me this week. We were able to participate in his end of the year party, where he and his friends played games, built legos, and generally ran around like the crazy boys that they are. Following the party we were able to watch a little graduation ceremony. I can't believe my sweet baby boy will be in kindergarten next year! 

While it makes me sad to see how fast he is growing up, it definitely was one of my favorite moments this week. 

TWO
Normally at the end of the year I make fun little themed gift baskets for the teachers, complete with a well coordinated printable. Well this year mama didn't have time for that!  I did find these super adorable stainless steel water bottles, and attached a gift card. 

Seriously, how cute are these???
If I didn't live in the land of five million cups, and continuously have to battle my husband's Yeti obsession I totally would have grabbed one of these for myself. They had a ton of fun colors and patterns for summer. 

THREE

Like the end of most school years, things have been crazy these last few weeks. Even though everything is fun, it is exhausting! It's been hard to sneak in even a few minutes of "me time" in anywhere to rejuvenate, but this week I made a conscience effort to do a little something here and there - even if it is just for a few minutes. I realize my sanity depends on it, and there is only so much wine drinking that is acceptable.

One of my favorite new finds is this Barre3 app. We've professed our love for barre classes before, but sometimes it's hard for me to work a class into my schedule. The app has some fabulous mini workouts, and most can be done in just minutes.

 I love the kitchen ones!

FOUR

Last week, Mr. Cute decided our house needed a technology upgrade. With that we switch cable providers, and I am absolutely clueless as to what any channels are, and long gone are some of my recorded shows. Everything is complicated and voice activated and completely overwhelming right now - not that I have much time to sit and actually watch TV. However, this little technology bump ended up causing one of my favorite moments this week.

Late the other night, I decided to sneak in a quick walk on the treadmill. Once I finally figured out how to turn on the TV, the first thing that popped up was one of my all time favorite movies - Sweet Home Alabama! I was able to catch the last 20 minutes of it, and I completely forgot how much I love that movie!

Fun fact: Part of the movie was filmed at the college I graduated from during my Freshman year. The white mansion throughout the movie was on our campus, and several students were even able to be extras during filming.

Second fun fact: It's also where Remember the Titans was filmed. 

FIVE

Monday was particularly a crazy day. Normally this is my grocery shopping day, but last minute I had to take Baby Cute to the doctors and it took up a good portion of our free time. On our way home from our excursion, I was all prepared to order some pizza delivery when I pulled into the driveway and saw this...

(Hi Max! We see you!)

I thought I had paused our HelloFresh box for the week, knowing how crazy it would be, but I have never been so glad to be scatter brained in my life.

(Sausage Bolognese - with hidden veggies! The kids were clueless.)

Such a lifesaver, and so yummy! 

I was totally able to put off my pizza delivery ordering until Wednesday. ;)

SIX

Our weather has been finicky here lately, but that hasn't stopped me from breaking out all the summer gear. For Mother's Day, Mr. Cute and the kids gave me these adorable flip flops. 

| Bag | Nail Polish | Earrings (similar) | Watch | Shorts | Scarf (similar) |

They were so excited because they were pink (my favorite color), but I'm so excited because they are SO comfortable! They feel and wear very similar to Rainbow flip flops. I usually wear a 6.5 and my husband grabbed these in a 7 and they are perfect! They also come in a ton of fun colors. Definitely my new favorite!

Ok, now to officially kick off our summer with a fun weekend ahead!

And we have some HUGE things for you next week to celebrate with us.
Seriously - HUGE!!!

We are so excited! Until then - Happy Weekend!!

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Hello Fresh

I have reached a new dinner high. Not even thinking about dinner. It comes mail ordered straight to more door step. 

Ok let me back-up. 

I have been in a dinner rut lately. Between the end of the year scramble of activities, and navigating multiple food allergies, I feel as though I've hit a dinner wall, and literally eat baked chicken and vegetables every night. 

And that's if I actually attempt to make dinner. Sometimes a smoothie is just way easier.

I had seen multiple articles and endorsements for Hello Fresh, but until our friend Katie posted her meals on Instagam, I had no personal point of reference if they were any good or not. 

On a whim, I decided to take the plunge, and the following week the first box landed on my doorstep. I thought I would share with you guys my thoughts, in case any of you have been curious about Hello Fresh as well.  

As I opened it, my inner OCD was so impressed! It was so well organized and labeled! Everything was packed well, and gave instructions on where to store it, what to do, etc. until you were ready to actually make the meal. 

 The idea is that Hello Fresh creates a healthy recipe, buys the ingredients for you, packages them, and them ships them for free to your door step. Each meal is easy, requires no special tools or equipment that the average kitchen wouldn't have, and takes approximately 30 mins of time from prep to table. 

This more than appealed to me on multiple levels. 

I don't have to plan what's for dinner that night - check. 

I don't have to worry about shopping for said dinner - check.  

It doesn't require a whole lot of thinking and time - double check!

I ordered the Family Box containing two meals a week. The Family Box is geared towards a family of four with the idea of recipes that aren't so adventurous that kids would be put off from eating them.  

When I received the first box and saw what meals we were sent, I have to admit I was a little nervous. Beef Stir Fry is not a meal usually in our repertoire, but I figured if at all fails, I at least had chicken nuggets on hand. 

We let the kids help make it so that maybe they would be a little more excited about actually eating it. Call us optimistic? 

This being our first trial run, we were greatly surprised, but it was super easy and took less than half an hour. 

Not only that it looked, and smelled, delicious! 

And shockingly our kids loved it. The only thing left behind was a small amount of rice and a few vegetables that Mr. Cute packed for lunch the next day. 

Later in the week we made the Vegetable Quesadillas with the homemade Guacamole. 

They were equally just as yummy, but we cheated just a little bit. We added some chicken to them. While we liked the idea of just eating vegetables, let's be honest - we are meat eaters in this house. 

The following week, I skipped the box because we had a particularly crazy week and I knew we wouldn't have any time to even eat at home one night (sad, right?). So last week, I picked right back on it. I think that is one of the options I love the most. It's a subscription box, but you can opt in or out as you wish. 

As with the first box, everything that came was well organized and easy to make. 

The Apricot Glazed Chicken took me a little longer to prep than it stated, but that might just have been due to the fact I was also attempting to pacify three hungry children at the same time, and kept getting distracted. 

Even with the extra prep time though, it was most definitely a winner. And I love that you get the recipe cards with each meal so that if you like one you can remake it in the future on your own - this recipe most definitely will be in our rotation now. It was SO good!

Funnily enough, last week's box also came with a different Beef Stir Fry Meal. It was slightly different than the one in our first box, and I think the family agreed they liked this one even better. 

Overall, I have loved the Hello Fresh box. I like knowing that in a pinch - and with limited time to cook-  I'm able to put a healthy meal together for my family. We lucked out and the kids have eaten everything that we've been sent so far, but again you can see the menu ahead of time, pick and choose what you want, or don't want, or opt out for that week if you don't think it is something your family will eat. 

I asked Mr. Cute his thoughts since he made two of them himself and has been home to try all of them with us. He agreed that it was nice to not have to think about making dinner, and that it shook things up in the dinner department. 

Hello Fresh has three box options: 

Classic: The most popular option, with meat and vegetable based meals. 

Vegetable: Meat free meals.

Family: Family friendly recipes, with less bold ingredients. 

If you are interested in trying Hello Fresh you can use the following code for $40 off your first box (no matter what box you choose). Enter code X2AND4 for the discount. 

Have you used Hello Fresh? Or another dinner subscription service? What did you think? 

I'm so curious - and definitely open to trying other options. The less I have to spend my day worrying about what to make for dinner the better. ;)