Our family loves books. I’m a big believer in reading to kids pretty much immediately. Even if they don’t understand anything at first, just the sound of your voice is soothing to them. Eventually they’ll start paying attention to the stories and they’ll have positive feelings associated with reading, which I think is incredibly important.

Anyway, I’ve been reading to both girls pretty much since they emerged from the womb. We have tons of favorites, one of them being Where the Wild Things Are. When Max decides to give up being king, the wild things shout at him “Oh please don’t go–we’ll eat you up–we love you so!” I’m not sure how or when, but at some point I start saying this line to Samantha.

I’ve been wanting some kind of art that incorporated the quote for a while now and the other day I decided to make one myself. It couldn’t have been easier.

I haven’t slept pretty much all week. One of my wee ones has had a fever since Monday night. Unlike normal feverish people, my girl can’t stop talking when her temperature gets high. I mean, she’s a non-stop chatterer normally, but when she has a fever she jumps from one topic to the next before I can even digest what she said first. With her brain in overdrive the girl can’t sleep, which means I can’t sleep since she needs to tell me everything that she’s thinking. I. am. exhausted.

So instead of putting together a regular post, I thought I’d collect some of my favorite links from the week into a little round up:

This is so my life right now.

We shared this story about a couple going around the world having strangers pay for their weddings over on the Bijou Facebook page. I’m still laughing at this line: “The design of the blog features a strong sperm motif, though this may be unintentional.” Do you think they’re brilliant or horrifyingly excessive?

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get excited about this whole fall thing. Roasting vegetables, making some zucchini bread, picking apples. It’s starting to sound pretty fabulous after all.

My daughter has the most sensitive sense of smell I’ve ever come across (yet somehow, she likes the smell of the NYC subway system. Go figure). She routinely walks into the kitchen and scrunches up her face at the smell. She seems to be able to smell when the garbage is getting stinky before anyone else can. She then wants to immediately run to her room, grab a bottle of perfume (every six-year old needs it) and spray the kitchen. This results in a smell that isn’t masked but is suddenly garbage + Country Chic. Trust me, it’s not a good combo. I am most definitely going to try this DIY 2-ingredient air freshener  in hopes of beating her to the punch.

I need these for fall but now that they’re out of stock I might have to settle for these beauties instead.

Last but not least, I love this stud earrings DIY from Anna at In Honor of Design. I’m totally keeping these in mind for the holidays!

I hope you get out and enjoy the last bits of summer this weekend!

I mentioned last week that I put together a little Bored Jar inspired by a few different projects I saw on Pinterest (just searching “boredom busters” there brings up an endless array of ideas for any age group). I thought it would be fun to give you a little peek at our jar and some of the things Samantha has done with it.

With September starting to breathe down my neck, I’m getting serious about working on our summer must-do list. We took our little getaway, swimming lessons are done and summer camp is also officially checked off. We have the rest of August to get through what’s left of our little list. It includes places like zoos, a museum, and a carousel ride–all of which require a certain amount of walking.

My tried and true Gap flip flops are taking their last gasping breaths (I’m just hoping they last until the end of the summer when I plan to retire them). Plus, they kind of suck for anything that requires more than minimal walking.

So, I’ve rounded up a bunch of cute shoes (some of which are from brands that might surprise you!) that can go anywhere your feet may take you–in comfort and style.

Crocs

Dr. Scholl’s

Saucony

Payless

TOMS

Vans

Sperry Topsider

Is there a particular brand of shoe that’s your go-to when it comes to comfort? I’m pretty fond of my TOMS, they never seem to disappoint–plus for every pair you buy a pair is donated to a child in need. You can’t really go wrong with that!

Did you know that August 10th is National S’more Day? Yeah, I didn’t either, but any excuse to eat chocolate is a good one in my book!

No dessert screams summertime more than s’mores. They automatically bring to mind the crackle and smell of a camp fire (and I almost start swatting away imaginary bugs).

I do get bored of the same old thing though. So I hunted around a little for new interpretations of an old classic. Here are some of the yummy treats I found (click the corresponding description below the picture for recipes!):

1 mini cups via A Wedding Story / 2 cake in a jar via How Sweet It Is/ 3 chocolate covered via Jen Loves Kev / 4 cupcakes via Ai Bake Cake / 5 cookie bars via Lovin’ From the Oven / 6 pie via The New York Times Magazine

My mouth was pretty much watering when I finished this essential “research,” so I decided I absolutely had to make some s’mores for Samantha’s post-camp snack (making one for myself too, obvi). I decided the quickest, coolest and easiest option would be the little chocolate dipped sandwiches. But I decided to do them my own way.

Ingredients:

• one graham cracker for each sandwich
• chocolate chips
• marshmallows
• olive oil
• sprinkles

Since it’s so insanely hot out, I was not about to turn on my oven. And forget about an open fire when I’m home alone with my little bean. Lord knows what trouble she’d get us into! Instead, I turned to the next best thing: my toaster oven.

I lined up the ingredients on the tray and baked them at 400°F for a few minutes—as soon as they started smelling roasty and toasty (those are technical terms), I checked on them. When I took them out, they looked like this:

The graham crackers were toasted, the chocolate chips were beginning to melt and the marshmallows were nice and browned. They smelled soooo delicious. Next step? Sandwiching them.

Not thinking (as usual) I grabbed a graham cracker with chocolate chips first and flipped it to put it on top of the marshmallow. Of course, all of my chocolate chips ended up all over the place. It would be smarter to flip the graham cracker with the single sticky ingredient that won’t fly all over the kitchen.

Once we were all sandwiched up, I put the tray in the fridge to cool.

Next up was dipping these yummies in some chocolate. Instead of using a double broiler, I put a couple of handfuls of chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and threw them in the microwave for 45 seconds. If they’re not quite melted enough, keep putting them in for 30 second intervals. Just make sure you watch them carefully. You don’t want burnt chocolate!

Once they were melted enough, I stirred them until smooth (adding a little bit of olive oil to thin it out). Next, I did a combination of dipping my little sandwiches into the chocolate and spooning chocolate into any bare areas. If you’re going to add sprinkles like I did, you don’t have to worry about being all neat and tidy. The sprinkles are pretty and they hide the mess.

Pop them back in the fridge to let the chocolate cool and harden and you’re done! Yummy, toasty s’mores—without the heat.

And for the record, these tasty snacks are most definitely child approved.