5 Things + Weekend Open Houses

We're out of school in these parts and life is happening poolside!  For this week's 5 Things (yeah, I know it's been a minute but...life!) I thought I'd keep it all summer related!  Prior to school getting out my husband and I sat our kids down for a heart-to-heart moment that was along the lines of: while it IS summer for you, it is NOT summer for us.  Meaning, we both still have jobs to do and things to accomplish.  We set some ground rules on chores, bedtime and overall daily structure.  Today is day 1 and so far so good.  Talk to me on day 39 and I'm sure my story will have shifted a bit.

We're working on getting our outdoor grilling area set up and running smoothly.  Compound Concrete recently re-did our countertop out there and we are over the moon about it.  It's even better than I thought it would be and I had high expectations.  I love that I can literally hose it off.  I've got a rug, some planters and lights I'm swapping out...hopefully in time for Memorial Day.  Tune in on IG stories for all of the behind-the-scenes, but here are 5 Things I'm loving for summer!

1. Last summer we did an overhaul on our POOL TOWELS.  It might sound silly, but if I was going to start replacing pool towels, I wanted good ones.  We really use and abuse these, as in they hang dry in the sun all summer long and get washed once a week.  I found my favorites at PBTeen.  Fun patterns, good price point and the quality I needed.  Love this one, and this one have this, and this.  One day I'll go crazy and buy this one and this one...but not until my kids stop leaving them at someone's house.  So maybe never. 

2. It was my birthday this week and Scot surprised me with a bathing suit I had mentioned liking...6 weeks ago.  Bonus points for him, major bonus points for me, because I was right, it was a dang good suit!  Here's a whole bunch of other suits I think are awesome.  I have this one in navy and love it too!

3. As part of our summer heart-to-heart we spent some serious time outlining summer goals and expectations.  If I'm not careful I can let the whole summer slip by with my kids without making any progress on anything.  We've got some summer jobs lined up so they can earn money for some of their activity which including me setting up email accounts for my two oldest so I can Venmo them!  I love the idea of Venmo for my kids, it's an easy way for me to pay them and an easy way for them to save.  I don't know about you but if their is cash in their pockets it gets spent asap.

4. Max has the cutest little nose that is constantly getting sunburned!  We're working on getting him in the habit of putting sunscreen on his face each morning.  He's had so many burns on that nose, that I'm feeling a little nervous for 25-year-old Max.  While we're getting him in the habit, I think I'll just get all my kids going.  Any face sunscreen you love?  I bought him SunBum (mostly because I thought he'd like the packaging and be more willing to use it) but wasn't all that impressed with their product specifically for faces. I've liked their other stuff in the past, so bummed about that.  haha...bummed.  Let me know if you have a product you love!

5.  Speaking of protecting against the sun.  Stocked Luke up on full body swimsuits because he of all my kids has THE most sensitive skin.  He was outside without a shirt for 30 minutes the other morning and that night he was pink.  oops.  We had him in this this morning and we all about died at the cuteness.  Picked up this and this too.

With the weekend upon us, you know what that means, Open Houses!

These links are for those of you that love walking houses as much as I do or are in the beginning stages of looking for a home.  Use the links below to see the list of weekend open houses going on across the Valley.  If you haven't used these links before, I break each list into different cities, then they are sorted by price, so you can find what you're looking for fairly quickly. Once you find a property you want to walk, click on the 'open house' tab at the top right to see the date & time of the open house...and be sure to let me know if you find a gem!

MESA  ||  GILBERT