We had a lovely autumn weekend here in Michigan.
Honestly, I adore fall weather, but I prefer it to happen from September to November, not early June!
Never would I guess that I’d be bundling Avery up in a sweater at this point in the year, but it’s been downright chilly lately!
On Friday we met some friends at the playground for an hour or so before dinner. Again we had to get bundled up, but it was nice to get out of the house. Grace had a really fun time, but you’d never guess it from these two pics I managed to snap on my phone!
After our park date we headed home and I whipped up dinner using my imagination and the ingredients we had on hand. I’m generally a recipe kind of girl (even though I’m known to tweak most recipes a little) but I’ve been trying to get a little more creative. I’m also trying to be open minded about making up new recipes rather than trying to convert my old stand-by’s into dairy and grain free meals. It’s been fun to tinker around and make up new things!
Earlier this week I “invented” a really yummy shrimp marinade (olive oil, fresh garlic, lime juice and a splash of tequila) and then grilled the shrimp and served it with a tex-mex type of salad with avocado-lime dressing.
And on Friday I made a steak stir fry over cauliflower “rice”. It had red bell peppers, broccoli, and onions with a teriyaki glaze. I think I might start posting some of these dinners even though they are usually me just throwing things together. I bet I could come up with pretty good estimates of the quantities…
After dinner we got the girls ready for bed and then chilled out in the living room. Andy cozied up with a novel and I cozied up with the laptop. I’m a technology girl, what can I say? :)
I was basically browsing Amazon for food books and drooling over this food spiralizer which I just might have to order today. I was also snacking on some sugar snap peas that my sister recommended. They’re pretty good! Crunchy and refreshing for sure. They won’t stave off any junk food cravings but they were a nice snack. That pic also may be strategically showing my nail polish too :) The rose gold color is Rage by Orly and the light pink is Ballet Slippers by Essie.
On Saturday morning we lazed around after breakfast and Avery was hamming it up for the camera :)
Later that morning my sister came over and we headed downtown to check out the new Whole Foods. She had the idea to get “big sister” and “little sister” pictures :)
It was a little crowded for being a Saturday, but overall I was impressed with the store. They pretty much had me at Free and Accessible parking! And it’s nice to see good businesses cropping up in Detroit and making our down town area a little brighter.
After Whole Foods we still had a lot of energy so we headed over to the Detroit River Walk with hopes to walk by the river with the girls, but they were setting up a big event down there and we were also deterred by expensive parking.
Instead we hopped over to John King bookstore (which is a HUGE used bookstore that I love) but Avery was getting hungry and Grace wasn’t as thrilled with the kids section as I had hoped, so we decided to come home for lunch and nap time.
While the girls napped, Ellen and I got crafty and made a bunch of cards to have on hand. We’ve both been finding ourselves needing cards at the last minute so it’ll be nice to have some available. I snapped a pic of this simple one she made so I can copy the idea later :)
Sunday was a celebration at church. We heard from people throughout the congregation who were celebrating what God has done in their lives this year. I was one of the video clips featured and as soon as it popped up on the screen I got totally uncomfortable and just wanted it to end! Something about seeing myself on camera makes me so uncomfortable. Kind of like hearing a recording of my voice. I’m always like, “do I really sound like THAT?”
But it was encouraging to hear all the stories, watch all the baptisms and cap things off with a church-wide picnic on the lawn. We were one of the last families to leave because it was so nice catching up with people and watching Grace have fun in the bounce house.
Last night we rented a couple of movies. We picked Brave for Grace….boy I loved that character’s crazy red curls and all of the great accents :) Silver Linings Playbook was our pick and we both really enjoyed it. I’m a sucker for movies about messy family dynamics and throw in a love story and you’ve got me. Coming from a family with a history of mental illness, I found myself nodding along with many of the scenes highlighting the character’s bipolar disorder. Overall it was fantastic and totally deserved the Oscar buzz.
What did you all do this weekend?
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