Memorial Day weekending late!

We have had the best past two weekends at the beach. Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend and I never got around to recapping it because last week was so crazy with work. I'm finally documenting it, if for no other reason than for me to look back on in the future!

Memorial Day weekend was filled with beach time, pool time, cocktails, so much food, family and friends. I am so very thankful for the men and women that bravely fight for this country so that we can enjoy weekends like that. 

Vivi was so excited to be at the beach that she wanted to start her days early, at approximately 5am. At least drinking coffee with that view made the early mornings bearable.

Our days were spent on the beach from sun up to sun down. We are so lucky that there is a pool at our beach place so the kids frequently wanted to walk up and spend a few minutes in the pool to swim. Vivi has the best time with her cousins and the three of them just play so well together.

 my bathing suit

Vivi's bathing suit

I made the most of every nap time and sprinted out to the beach to enjoy quiet time with a mimosa in one hand and a good book in the other. Not quite finished with this book yet but I'm really enjoying it!

Vivi's bathing suit

On Saturday Garrett's first cousin Jenna brought her baby girl over to swim and we had the best time! She is 4 months older than Vivi and even though we don't get to see them nearly enough, whenever we do get together it is so fun and special to watch these girls growing up.

Vivi's bathing suit (sold out) | same brand, similar print

Healthy grain free banana bread muffins

I feel like I feed Vivi the same thing over and over. Please tell me I'm not the only mama that feels this way. I love getting new ideas for healthy(ish) things to make for Vivi to switch it up. I saw this recipe on Lindsay's Instagram and thought Vivi would love them and I was right! They were so easy and healthy! Perfect to make on a Sunday and have for breakfast throughout the week. Mornings are crazy at our house as we try to rush out the door to work so having a healthy breakfast prepped ahead of time makes life so much easier.

Grain Free Banana Bread Muffins

Ingredients:

-3 mashed bananas

-3 eggs

-1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

-1/4 cup maple syrup

-1 tbsp liquid coconut oil

-1 tsp vanilla

-2 1/2 cups almond flour

-1 tsp cinnamon

-1 tsp baking powder

-1 tsp baking soda

-dash of sea salt

Directions:

-Blend wet ingredients

-Add dry ingredients to wet mixture

-Optional: add chocolate chips to the top

-Bake on 350* for about 18 minutes

Have any healthy, kid friendly recipes? Send them my way!

++

Grab the button below and link up to Annie, Natalie and Owen on your Thoughts for Thursday post.

Use #thoughtsforthursdays on Instagram and tag us @homeofmalones , @eastcoastnat and @davisduo. Link up starts at 7 am EST.

Follow us on Bloglovin’ too:

Home of Malones and East Coast Chic and Davis Duo

Checking in!

Happy Friday friends! We are currently en route to the beach for a long weekend. I am on call Monday so I will head home super early Monday morning while the family enjoys an extra day off. It has been a while since I have done one of these and I always find it so fun to connect with lots of people that don't usually comment. I love to see who reads my blog and that's the reason I keep at it... to meet new people and connect with other ladies.

So, there are two things I want you to comment about.

1) What are your least favorite and most favorite (is that a thing?) household chores?

2) What posts are your favorite on my blog? What keeps you coming back to read? Weekend reviews, recipes, infertility, mom posts? What do you want more of... working in orthopedics, recipes, exercise, home tours, fashion? Let me know!

My least favorite household chore is sweeping. I despise it! And I hardly ever do it anymore now that we got this vacuum which is literally my favorite Christmas gift to date. My most favorite household chores are folding laundry and vacuuming. Vacuuming is like instant gratification... I swear vacuum lines in the carpet is my love language. Comment below and introduce yourself!

Strawberry patch!

Happy Thursday friends! We have a super busy day in the operating room today so it will likely be a loooong day for me. All the more reason to be extra excited for a long weekend at the beach! Anyways, a few weeks ago we met our friends at a local strawberry patch. Major bonus points: they had farm animals and the girls had so much fun looking at them. They had chickens, goats, peacocks, pigs, turkeys and bunnies. Turkeys are SO loud, I was not expecting that! Vivi was terrified of them ha!

After visiting all the animals we made our way into the field to pick strawberries. It was such a gorgeous morning and we were basically the only people there. Vivi stood in one spot and ate about 30584 strawberries, stems included. I picked a whole carton full of huge, juicy strawberries for only $6! And they tasted a thousand times better than the ones from the grocery store.

Note to self: bring a bib next time. She was covered in strawberry juice from head to toe and was happy as can be. We enjoyed strawberry shortcake, strawberries in our oatmeal and cereal, and on our salads for the next 2 weeks!

++

Grab the button below and link up to Annie, Natalie and Owen on your Thoughts for Thursday post.

Use #thoughtsforthursdays on Instagram and tag us @homeofmalones , @eastcoastnat and @mrsordavis. Link up starts at 7 am EST.

Follow us on Bloglovin’ too:

Home of Malones and East Coast Chic and Davis Duo

Weekending: wedding and baby shower!

Shew, I am still recovering from this past weekend! It was packed full of fun! Friday was spent running errands, a play date with her friend Ruthie, and cleaning the house from top to bottom. Friday night we went to our friends' new house for pizza. They have a daughter a year older than Vivi and they play so well together, it's adorable. They are welcoming TWIN boys in a few months so our play dates are soon to get much crazier!

 Friday night I received the BEST FaceTime call EVER.... my best friend Kate is engaged!!!!!! We have been best friends since 6th grade and she was a bridesmaid in my wedding. Vivi's middle name is after her so she is so very special to us. She deserves all the happiness in the world and I can't wait for all the festivities to come!

Saturday we shipped Vivi to my in-laws for the night because we had an out of town wedding. I missed her so much but it was fun to have a "date night" and celebrate our friends!

 Sunday morning I was up early to do last minute preparations for a baby shower I hosted at our new home. Our good friends (mentioned above) are having twin boys soon and it was so fun to sprinkle her and her boys with good food and gifts. Hosting is one of my favorite things to do and it was so fun to "break" our new house in with lots of people! I also absolutely love putting together flowers and I loved how the arrangements turned out. 

 On the menu was cucumber sandwiches, fruit skewers, ugly dip, chicken salad phillo shells, Oreo balls, and cake. Everything was delicious!

 I can't wait to meet these sweet boys! And how beautiful is their mama?

 The rest of the day was spent playing outside, going on a bike ride and grilling out for dinner. A packed full weekend! Now I'm already looking forward to Friday because we are beach bound for Memorial Day!

Kitchen: before and after!

When we first walked into what is now our home for the first time, I couldn't get over how ugly and dark the kitchen was. I mean that backsplash?? Ew! Garrett kept saying over and over to focus on the "bones" of the home and that we could make some cosmetic changes. I'm not a "fixer upper" type so this was hard for me but I trusted that the kitchen could be made drastically better with a few updates.

The one thing I majorly compromised on in our home search was a kitchen island. I realllllly wanted one but we just could not find a house we loved with an island. I also really wanted white granite but again, we just couldn't find it. We considered replacing this granite but decided that since this isn't our forever home, it would be a huge waste of money. It's amazing how much lighter the granite looks with the cabinets painted and the backsplash replaced! 

Our counter will eventually have bar stools (if I can ever find any I like) and I plan to change the light fixture. We had to purchase a new dishwasher right after moving in even though the previous owner said it worked perfectly for him. Must have broken the night before we moved in (insert eye roll emoji). I'd also love to update the microwave and oven but they work perfectly fine so we will keep them for now.

Finding the perfect subway tile was such a pain! We went through so many stores before finally finding the color and shape we wanted with finished edges and no bullnose edges. The tiles are hand made so they don't lay perfectly flat which I was hesitant about but it gives it a neat touch. I am super happy with the paint color we chose for the cabinets which is Sherwin Williams Dover White.

What I learned through this process: I will never buy a fixer upper. My nerves could hardly handle these few cosmetic updates and I haaaate making these design decisions.

Before:

During:

After:

Do you like tackling home renovations or are you a "move-in ready" kind of gal like myself?

++

Grab the button below and link up to Annie, Natalie and Owen on your Thoughts for Thursday post.

Use #thoughtsforthursdays on Instagram and tag us @homeofmalones, @eastcoastnat and @mrsordavis. Link up starts at 7 am EST.

Follow us on Bloglovin’ too:

Home of Malones and East Coast Chic and Davis Duo