Another school year in the books

I am now the mama of a rising 2nd grader AND a rising Kinder! Here are the 1st & last day side by sides. They are getting so big!

and this one actually didn't go to school but she will go 2 days a week next year.


These girls. I swear each of them have grown 2 inches. When you look at them from just 9 months ago you can see the changes. I should have made them get out the chalkboards again. Something to remember next year :)

Haven't participated in a long time!

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School's Out! My COOL WHIP Everyday Celebration! #FMcoolwhipmoms #spon

Quick, easy, and delicious. COOL WHIP Whipped Topping finds itself on our family's table all year round. I can remember back to being a kid and at every family event someone made Pistachio Fluff, did you ever have that or was it just our house? COOL WHIP was served every Thanksgiving and Christmas with delicious pumpkin or pecan pie and also summer's apple and berry pies. COOL WHIP isn't just for pies though. I enjoy a little dollop on my fresh berries. Sweet summer berries make an easy dessert during the week and our family can't get enough of them!



In true zoo style we celebrate everything so the first day of summer break deserved it's own little party. I am going to share a Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie recipe that I really love. Super easy to make and it is a hit with the kiddos. It was rainy and yucky outside and the girls didn't get to play like they wanted to but knowing the pie was coming for "bessert" that night gave them something to look forward to.

Ingredients

COOL WHIP Whipped Topping - mostly softened
Chocolate Ice Cream - mostly melted
Peanut Butter Chips
Chocolate Pie Crust

Then assemble the pie - first up most of the peanut butter chips


On to the mostly melted chocolate ice cream


Top it off with COOL WHIP Whipped Topping and the rest of the peanut butter chips


Now freeze! Sometimes I freeze it overnight sometimes (like this time) I freeze it for the day (approximately 5 hours). And Enjoy!



Prep time on the pie was about 5 minutes. The hard part is waiting until it refreezes to dive into it! Chocolate, peanut butter, ice cream, and COOL WHIP - it doesn't get any better than that! You can mix and match chips and ice cream to make up your own personal COOL WHIP pie. I saw mint chips at the store that would be fantastic with a mint chocolate chip ice cream. COOL WHIP also has 2 flavored Season's Delight varieties, Sweet Cinnamon and French Vanilla, that you could get really creative with. I could just dunk a wafer cookie in the Sweet Cinnamon and my sweet craving would be satisfied.

Yummy treats don't have to be difficult or time consuming and COOL WHIP helps you make them easily. COOL WHIP Whipped Topping has a ton of recipes on their website that you can try out tonight for your family. Or maybe you have a special dessert you'd like to share? Enter COOL WHIP's Fan Dessert of the Month Contest for a chance to win $500! Simply make a COOL WHIP dessert, take a photo, and upload it here. Enter now!

Sponsored posts are purely editorial content that we are pleased to have presented by a participating sponsor. Advertisers do not produce the content. I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.

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Project 366 - Week 22

Summer, summer, summertime
Time to sit back and unwind

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We had some friends of ours over. It was a very good day!


And I think that they were all worn out. Want to know why?

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This was taken at almost 9am the next day - diva!


It was also Daddy's birthday on Monday so we had a surprise party for him.

We decorated


and the girls were in charge of his cake


Old Man!



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Oh Burning Love Burger how I love thee. Dinner out with the fam to celebrate Daddy's 42nd year on this earth.

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Why didn't I plant cucumbers? Ah well, here is hoping that my friend has too many of them and takes pity on this cukeless mama. This one in fact was part of a salad last week. Yum!

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Who is this grown up looking girl with the sassy new hairdo? Her little friends got their hair cut and baby girl decided she wanted hers done too. It is absolutely adorable on her!

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It's official school's out and summer is here! 2 musts are ice cream


and lots of fun nights hanging out on our deck. I love lazy summers like this.

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I told the girls to give the poor (literally) tooth fairy a break and not wiggle for the rest of June, at least!


We teach them all the important life skills here


and to be able to laugh at each other and have lots of fun!


But most of all love each other


and eat chocolate. Daily.

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Project 366 - Week 21

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A wonderful day spent with the family. I love Sundays - especially during the summer!

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Just like that - dos!

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The summer program at the little library near our house is going to be a ton of fun this summer! They have music, story times, and them a whole bunch of activities for our older kiddos. Love that library!

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New bling for our Rhubarb from the Value Village's 1/2 off day.

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Decisions, decisions. Goodwill on Thursday had 3 BRAND NEW pair of flip flops for me to choose from. I left the Haviannas because they felt like they would hurt my toes.

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Where oh where did the Lucas girls go?

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I let them stay up too late on the weekends. Here we are on our deck and she has my Kindle reading a book. Nights here in NC are gorgeous and my kids should get to experience them once in awhile :) Plus they are awesome company - love me some Lucas girls!

This is the only posts that I seem to be able to publish these days. I don't love what starts coming out when I type so I delete most things I write. There have been too many bad anniversaries swirling through my head. Too much sadness inside me and with my "due date" quickly approaching it is a dark time in my heart right now and that's all I am going to say about that.

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Project 366 - Week 20

It was bound to happen. I have had so much on my mind lately and a day slipped by with no pic. So
140/366 - nothing. So bummed with myself :(

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Sometimes it is a little thing that changes your world like my new Enell sports bra for instance. Love!

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I don't normally allow this but I was having a "Yes" moment.

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I have been to better DMB shows but the group I was with was super fun and it was nice to get to a girls night concert again. Since having babes I don't see shows like I used to and I realize each time I see one how much I miss them. BNL in July? Possibly!

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I haven't seen anything this funny in a long time. What a fun little pup!


The first thing to come out of our garden! Yay! It's going to be a good summer.




I wish I had better pics from Violet's preschool graduation but Ruby makes it next to impossible to do much but tell her "No, just sit there" and "Please stop getting up" or "We have to be quiet right now". I will miss it. I will miss it. I will miss it.

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Breakfast with my girl. We won't do this again until the fall but I can't wait for summer so I can do it will all 3 girls! Except probably not Panera because it will cost like $20 for all of them to get filled up :)

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Green flag!


What a fun day at the track. Except we weren't really at the track. We were indoors and not outside baking in our 90+ degree NC day. It was nice :)

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Project 366 - Week 19

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How was your Mother's Day? To be honest, mine was less than fabulous. The kids woke up fighting and a 2 hour car ride to the zoo was the last thing that I wanted to do. But I promised. They love the zoo so that was fun to watch them with the animals but unfortunately my experience at Pauley's Front Porch (from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives) was not what I expected. They were the reason we went to Columbia and the service stunk, the bathroom was broken, and my hamburger was mediocre. We did see a wild drug bust on our way out of town though. Drug dogs, cops ready to shoot with pistols and shotguns. Crazy that we were allowed to just drive by. Unreal in the movies sort of scene. Girls are still talking about it.

This is what I wanted...
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and this is what I got. No fun!

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Our hydrangea is about 6 feet tall full of gorgeous blue blossoms. I will take full advantage this year and fill vases in every room but what about next year. Cut back or allow to grow another 3 feet? Decisions decisions :)

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Hubs brought this home from work for me to try. I was afraid to try it. Back when I worked at the mill I would take these over the counter pills to stay awake and they would make me feel really funny and I worried that this was the same thing. Monster is not the same as the pills I used to take but I am a coffee snob and this didn't do it for me. Let me be clear, this did nothing bad to me I just didn't care for their coffee taste. Coffee snob. Beer snob. What has become of me in my 40's?

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This was sent to my husband to try and get him home before dark lol :) You can tell my desperation some days to get a photo a day. I forget and scramble looking at my phone to see if maybe I took one. Too bad the chicken isn't skin side up because it turned out extra good this night. Lucky you to see what we ate for supper on May 17, 2012 lol :)

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Jessie, did you forget to take a picture again? Why yes, I did. I bought another book. For years I checked them out of the library but I wanted to read this and realized that the digital download from the library I am on the wait list for isn't for my Kindle - ugh! I sucked it up and paid for it. There are only 2 books out of 3 right now in this trilogy. It will drive me nuts when I finish the 2nd and am left hanging. Just started it but so far so good! You see the book in the background, yes I read it. Thankfully I didn't buy that one because I was not very impressed with the writing. I probably won't read the others either but I had to see what the hype was all about. *shrugging*

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"Look over here Ruby" Yup, that's what I get most days :) I decided to go for a walk with the girls yesterday. What on earth was I thinking? What's really crazy is that I will probably do it again today. 35 pound stroller, 125 pounds of kids, and an 80 pound dog. Someone asked yesterday if I had triplets. Really?

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