Top Five Friday!

Here's five things I'm loving lately!

1. This picture!

I posted the picture above on Facebook a few weeks ago & meant to post it here too, but it totally slipped my mind until now. Anyhow, I just adore this picture. There are few things I enjoy in life more than brownies & ice cream, and now that I get to enjoy them with these two sweet girls is just pure bliss!

2. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
We made {THIS} recipe on Wednesday, and they are definitely a favorite at our house now!! Derek & the girls devoured them! On a separate muffin-related note, the carrot muffins we made were just eh, and we also tried a cinnamon muffin recipe last week that was good but it wasn't better than just buying the pre-made mix at the store. But do yourself a favor, and make the pumpkin chocolate chip recipe! You will NOT regret it!!

3. Mud Day!!
Yesterday was Mud Day at Shelby's school! So, so fun! I seriously cannot even begin to put into words how much I adore her school. It is a dream school for these kiddos!

All ready for Mud Day!!!

4. Baby Chicks
Another thing I love about Shelby's school is all of the pets they have! They have a bearded dragon, snails, baby finches, and a hedgehog just to name a few! This spring they got to observe eggs in their incubator, and they had 25 chicks hatch! The chicks are heading to the farm this weekend, so the kiddos got to bid them farewell before their departure. Both girls enjoyed the chicks, but Hadley was particularly fond of them! Every day after dropping Shelby off in the Art Studio at school, Hadley & I would have to make a pit stop to check out the chicks. ;)

5. Books!
I'm terrible at remembering to blog about books that I've read, but those are some of my very favorite posts to read on other people's blogs! I love getting new book recommendations and hearing about what types of books other people enjoy. So, here's a few I've read lately!

I read The Five Love Languages for Children and Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids back-to-back, and I think they really complement each other well. Both books have a huge emphasis on cultivating relationships with your children. I read them both with Shelby in mind, and I think they are geared really well for her age (4.5) but I think they're definitely applicable to much older/younger kids as well!

Their Name is Today is a book I would never have picked up on my own, but it was gifted to me by Shelby's school and I really enjoyed it! Quick, easy read but very powerful!

Derek and I rented The Giver one night, which I read when I was younger. I still had my copy of it, and I enjoyed re-reading it again an adult!

Yes, Please! came up on a lot of recommended reading lists for me, so I decided to give it a try. I enjoyed some of the anecdotes she shared throughout the book, but overall it was just eh for me. Not a book I'd personally recommend, but it's obviously loved by a lot of other people!

I would never have thought I would have enjoyed Killing Kennedy as much as I did!! But I loved it, and I learned so much! I kept stopping to read to share interesting factoids with Derek if he was in the room with me. ;)  This type of book is definitely not one I'm typically drawn to, but I'm excited to read the other books that Bill O'Reilly has written now!


Happy Friday to you!! :)