ELLEN & MOM CAME TO VISIT

Summer fun has continued in full force, and last weekend it included my mom and sister and two nephews, much to the delight of my children.

(Violet super loves Hutch.)

Ellen came first, and we hit up the pool in the crazy heat.




This is when Hutch began his love affair with popsicles.

Our children steadily made their way through tons of fruit.  Especially cherries and grapes.

Ellen wanted to learn how to make sugar cookies, so we whipped some up to practice on.

And, she graciously offered to make pillow shams for William and Violet's room that I had been meaning to get to for ages.  She's a million times better at sewing than I am, so I majorly scored on this.



Mom arrived that Thursday night, and we spent more time at the pool, because that is one of the only things to do outside in Arkansas in July.




Hutch got to have another popsicle.

John was in and out heading to Atlanta for two nights, and then on his father/son trip to St. Louis, but we did see him some.  The cousins had a blast being together, though they were less than thrilled about a picture in our final moments together.




(Hutch was laughing so hard at Lily falling repeatedly into the ottoman.)


Lily spearheaded a note writing campaign for Ellen to take home to Luke so he would not feel left out, and he texted a pic of what she wrote.  We just like to get the word out about chicken.  😂 😂 😂 😂

Both Ellen and Mom were so kind to me in the midst of the sometimes chaos that is my home.  We had a great time together and missed my other sis and sis-in-love being with us - fortunately, we'll all be together soon in another week!  Summer does have its perks, but saying goodbye is always hard.

CHOCOLATE TASTING EVENT AT IZARD CHOCOLATE

Earlier this month, John hatched a super fun idea, and on Tuesday evening, it all came to fruition.  His birthday is coming up next week, and he said that this is how he wanted to celebrate.  You know I love any excuse to party, so I was totally game on, especially when the planned evening checked so many of my favorite boxes.

Great Friends ✅
Delicious Food ✅
Local, Bean to Bar Chocolate ✅ (turns out, this is one of my favorite boxes)
Tasty Drinks ✅
Specialty Cheeses ✅

I've many time sung the praises of Little Rock, and we have found one more reason to love our city: Izard Chocolate.  John found his way into Izard Chocolate a couple of months ago, and as I've cut back on my overall sugar intake, I have increased my dark chocolate intake, because antioxidants and health, of course 😜.  My go-to chocolate has become the Izard Dark Chocolate and Almond Bar, and I probably grab a square of it at least twice a day.  Okay - probably more than that.  I hide it from the kids, so you know it must be good.

John started talking to the proprietor, Nathaniel Izard, and asked if he would ever be willing to do a chocolate tasting/demonstration for a group.  He was, and so John's birthday party was born.  When we pitched this idea to our friends, we realized that three other people in the group had birthdays right around John's, so we turned it into a joint birthday party at Izard Chocolate.



We started the night at our house with sushi and other light fare.  I didn't want to spoil our stomachs for all the chocolate that was coming later.

(Quick and easy party tip: grab a roll of cute wrapping paper and use it as table runners everywhere to tie things together and jazz it all up!)

From our house, we caravanned to Izard Chocolate in Hillcrest where we found this delightful setup awaiting us.  I think my exact words were, "Well, this looks magical." 😍

(Isn't that the truth?)

Nathaniel had given us a list of wines that would pair well with his different chocolate offerings.  There were palette cleansers in the form of almonds, crackers, artisan cheeses, mineral water and strawberries to have between trying various chocolates and drinks.  He explained some of the differences in the chocolates and what to be looking for as we sampled them in turn.

After working our way through our papers - and let me just say that I sampled and LOVED every single thing on there, we were treated to a walk through the space and how chocolate is made.  As a life-long chocolate lover, this was fascinating!

  

All in all, this was a most delightful way to spend an evening, and we thoroughly loved the entire experience.  Thanks so much, Izard Chocolate!
(For more information about Izard Chocolate, check out their website.  You could even contact them to get your own tasting/demonstration scheduled, which I highly recommend!)

FATHER SON GETAWAY

In a perfect world with endless free time, John would write up this trip.  But - July has thrown us its fair share of curve balls, and I'm gonna throw some pictures and a few words up about this and call it a day.

William is the lone boy in our family, and John wants to make sure that he doesn't get lost in the girl shuffle around here.  And, John likes to go to a Dodgers game at least once a year (see 2015, 2015, 2014, 2013, etc.).  We decided it made sense to put those hands together this year, and John took William to St. Louis on Saturday and Sunday for a mini-Father/Son getaway.

John's expectations were pretty low, because William is just 3, but they mostly had a really great time.  The driving went well - they actually drove all the way (6 hours) in one shot on the way there.  They hit up a Porsche dealership on the way, because John had a friend who works there, and both John and William enjoyed seeing the "Fast Cars" as William called them.

They had a late lunch and later headed to the Dodger/Cardinal game.  Their seats ended up being in the sun 🙈, and since we are currently living in the Heat Dome, it was crazy hot at the beginning.  They walked quite a bit, saw a lot of people and made it back to their seats when the shade did.

(The Cardinal needed to cover their Dodger logos.)

(He loved his Kale chips that John had brought along!)

They got to see almost the entire game, and the Dodgers won!



Sleeping in a hotel room was infinitely easier with just the one child.

They had breakfast at The Mud House before heading home!

I'm so thankful they had a great time and that John is committed to investing intentional time and energy into our son's life.