Friday Favorites: New Year, Cold Days & Getting Organized

Today I am posting my first Friday Favorites of 2018. I am so happy to be linking up again this year with Erika, Narci and Andrea for Friday Favorites. I’ll share a peek into our last few days and a few of my favorites of the week!

New Year’s Eve

As I mentioned last week, we have a standing tradition with some very good friends on New Year’s Eve. We had a blast this year and the older kids even made it up to midnight! My friend and I had so much fun getting ready for the New Year’s Eve celebration ! Our hard work paid off as the kids loved the set up!

Even the Christmas tree was decked out for the night!

The gold foil photo backdrop I ordered this year was so festive. It will be a must for next year. We added the #NYE balloon and streamers to create a fun photo shoot.

The menu for the NYE kids’ dinner was simple favorites: chicken fingers, pizza, fruit, crackers and of course dessert! I was so excited to use my new galvanized metal stand for serving the meal. Yes, now I have two tiered stands. Can a girl ever have too many?!

Galvanized Metal Stand

Cold Days and Crafting

Another favorite of the week was two days off from school due to the cold! The kids went back to school on Wednesday and then school was called off Thursday and Friday! I don’t have a single picture from our days off, but we had a lot of fun with crafting, building Legos and forts and spending time with friends!

My daughter has been trying out the craft kits she received from Christmas. This Make Your Own Mini Eraser set is so cute and allows for lots of creativity. She also loves this Make Your Own String Art set and has created some adorable art! I find that it is always good to have a lot of crafts around during the winter! I try to save some of the craft sets the kids get as gifts and bring them out on a cold and snowy day!

Getting Organized

It is always refreshing to get organized after the holidays! I feel like the holidays are so FULL of stuff: decorations, food, activity and fun. By the time January starts, it is time for a much needed respite from all.the.things. On New Years Day, we took down all of the Christmas decorations and got back to a much emptier house! I think I’ve had some type of seasonal decorations up in our house since September!

I’ve been working hard this week to start a clean slate and get back to a quieter normal. I shared my word for 2018 with you on Monday and I’m really trying to keep it front and center this year.

One of my favorites of the week was printing out new calendar pages and writing down all of our appointments and important dates for the year. I am still in the market for a day planner to help with my personal and blog goals. However, I love my clipboard method for tracking our family schedule. I purchased the clipboard from Target and then found these beautiful free calendar printables from Short Stop Designs. I received these fine tip colored pens for Christmas and can’t wait to use them to make my calendar more festive! This is my third year using this clipboard method, so it must be working!

Similar Clipboard (Or a fun option HERE) | Fine Tip Colored Pens

Speaking of clean slate, my husband and I embarked on our second round of Whole 30 this week.This 30 day food plan has been the only proven way for me to get back on track with my health goals. In case you missed my post on Wednesday, I shared how to complete the Whole 30 as a busy mom. Most of my tips could apply to any healthy eating plan!

It felt good this week to get back to my usual (Whole 30 approved) breakfast of eggs, sweet potatoes and fruit!

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I will be back here on Monday with the first Clear the Clutter Challenge post! This first week, we will be showcasing our cleaned out pantries and kitchen cabinets. I’d love to have you join in our challenge and share your cleared out spaces on the Clear the Clutter Facebook page!

I hope you all have a great weekend! See you next week!