Friday, July 14, 2017

Friday Favorites - Basketball Camp Edition

Happy Friday, Friends! 


ErikaNarci and I are all sharing our Friday Favorites and we'd love for you to join us!  Grab our graphic, link back to one (or all!) of us and link to your blog at the bottom of this post.  Easy!




Earlier this week Griffin and I picked up one of our FAVORITE girls and headed to Playstreet.  The girls were an absolute blur while we were there ;)  They had so much fun and were so cute together!


Watch out, world!


Mermaid tattoos and then lunch and ice cream al fresco :)



The boys spent the mornings this week at basketball camp and they had a great time!  The varsity coach ran the camp with the help of high school players and my boys FAVORITE part was getting to hang out with the "big boys".


I mean how awesome is this?!?!  They didn't just play basketball... the high school guys led little devotions during break times and were so exceptionally kind to the little ones.  I love that my boys will see familiar high school faces as they go to and from classes.



My FAVORITE kind of night in the summer are ones spent poolside where I don't have to make dinner :)  Can I get an amen?!?!  




Amazon Prime day was a fun part of this week and my FAVORITE purchase was the Osmo Genius Kit.  I haven't had a lot of extra time this week (more on that later) to write a full review with details, but the short version is that it's this AMAZING device that holds your iPad and reflects your camera down onto the surface in front of you.  The Genius Kit included tangrams, numbers and words and all three kids are LOVING it!  The "Monsters" app for it is so neat... it shows them what to draw and then "lifts" those drawings into the picture!  I promise I'll share more details and info in the coming weeks as we play with it more - but the initial review is GLOWING!



A couple of my FAVORITE pictures showed up on Facebook as part of the "on this day" app and y'all look how sweet!





Summer vibes are our FAVORITE! 

I've added a "Shop" tab at the top of the page that's filled with lots and lots of our FAVORITES.  Favorites from the Nordstrom Sale, my regular favorites that I'm wearing currently, gift idea favorites, etc.  I'm hoping to keep this page up to date with new sales and deals and gift ideas.  



The next picture I'm filing under "not funny now, but probably funny later"...


... and to add insult to injury the door had been broken for a couple of days before this happened and we had paid to have it repaired the day before.  Adding this incident onto an already crazy week... dishwasher leak, fence repairs, insurance stuff, etc., etc., etc.  When it rains it pours, right? :)

I feel like I've spent HOURS on the phone the past few days and have had to be available for repair services and such which has affected our afternoon swim time so I'm so looking forward to a relaxing weekend with lots of time poolside with the kids.

Happy Friday, Friends!

PS - This post contained affiliate links - thank you for supporting my blog!


31 comments :

  1. That devotional picture on the basketball court has my whole heart!

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    1. Right?!?! So blessed by those high school boys this week!

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  2. Love the Shop tab, I'll be checking that out a lot! The pics of the kids are sooooo sweet. Hope you have a great weekend without any more surprising household problems. ❤

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    1. Right?!?! My mom texted me yesterday morning and told me to "try not to break anything" today. Hahaha

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  3. Happy Friday! I'd love to hear more about the Amazon Prime item in another post. Have a great weeken!

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    1. For sure!!! I have a couple "tech" type things I want to write about and I'll include the osmo because it's amazing!

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  4. Ughh yes when it rains, it does pour! We've been dealing with some stuff too, no fun! Umm GG is looking like a young adult in those pics with her sunnies!!! And how fun the boys at basketball camp!

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    1. Right?!?! I feel like I need to stick her in pigtails and ruffle pants STAT!

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  5. That new Play Street looks like fun and that little drawing thing is so cool! Also-bummer of a week, friend! That dishwasher thing happened to us too. :(

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    1. It's so fun!!! Bowen would be obsessed! Next time we'll grab him too!

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  6. Raise your hand if you have backed into your garage door. shamefully raises hand
    http://www.lettinginthelightblog.com

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  7. PlayStreet looks like so much fun. I wish there was something like that near where I live. Happy Friday!

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  8. Basically, Ashby wants to move in with you guys. Hope that's okay! ;)

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    1. We'll take her any time!!! They talked CONSTANTLY and held hands and giggled and were so stinkin' precious!

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  9. UGH! So sorry about the garage door incident. Would you believe that's actually a fear of mine? Maybe because many moons ago my next door neighbor did the same thing. I saw it on your insta story :( Love GG's little Birkenstocks. We just ordered a "big girl" pair for my daughter. ;) Happy Friday!

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    1. You'd better believe it's now a fear of mine too ;) hahaha

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  10. Sorry it's not been a great week. We have the same model of van. LOL I still love ours and will keep rocking it. #nocarpaymentsrocks Sorry your week has been so crummy with dumb adult stuff. No fun in the summer! These things come in 3s so hopefully you are done with all 3!

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    1. Girl! We joke that we're going to drive it until we can pass it along to Luke when he's 16 ;)

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  11. Shame, what a week!! Love the new blog layout, Andrea. I know talking about money is a sensitive subject, but perhaps one day you can do a post about how all these affiliated links work on blogs and what % from sales bloggers can make? Have a fund weekend with your crew!

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    1. Thanks, Bernadine! The way affiliate links work are pretty much like being a salesperson in a store except the blogger is receiving the commission instead of the in-store person. Commissions can range from 1-2% to 10% (or a little more... I honestly can't remember... it varies by store and by item). They're a great way for me to share the things I purchase and love and earn a bit of extra money that goes toward my kid's tuition and vacation :)

      The downside of affiliate links for me is that I feel like it skews people's perception of our spending a bit... the amount of money I spend on clothes and such isn't "normal" and that's because when you're blogging items they need to be current (I'm hoping that makes sense). So for example, I may buy two Anthropologie dresses (not cheap!) and a few tops at a time (even though I bought things the month before) - but that allows me to link to those items, make commissions and offset the cost. I don't love linking to things that I don't personally own (although I have done it before... I can't buy EVERYTHING I love and some things are too good not to share!) so that means buying more than I would if I didn't blog.

      I hope that all makes sense and that my use or affiliate links comes across as authentic and not over-the-top.

      Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment!

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    2. "use OF" not "use or" above :) Wish I could edit!

      Also - let me know if you have any other questions - more than happy to answer!

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    3. Thanks so much for responding to this, makes total sense. I have no problem with bloggers receiving a commission, just always wondered how it works :)

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  12. Great post! Love the pictures. I nominated you for the Sunshine Blogger award. www.ashleenicoleblog.wordpress.com

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  13. Also what I think readers are unclear about is that clicking on affiliate links places cookies on your computer and tracks your purchases for the next 30 days. So you would get a commisssion if I were to buy something from that store not just the item you linked correct? Thank you for adding a disclaimer. Some many bloggers try to hide this and I think that is dishonest

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    1. I've heard the 30-day cookie thing before (from sources other than RS) and being totally honest - I really don't know the answer. I looked on the RS site and searched for any info I could find and didn't see anything referring to cookies. (I even googled it and saw several sites referring to RS having a 30-day cookie length, but I have no idea where that info came from).

      When I look at my analytics I don't see anything that would indicate that I'm receiving commission from anything other than the item that I linked to - but I can check with my rep and if there's something I need to add to my disclosure I definitely will.

      I feel like I've always tried to be super up front about using affiliate links and describing what they are (and yes... there have been times when I've left it off of a post and when that's happened I've added it as soon as I realized) as well as adhering to guidelines given to me when I've worked with brands on collaborations and such. I would never want a reader to feel like I'm being dishonest or trying to hide anything and if that's the case I hope that they would feel like they could get in touch with me in the comments or via email to get an answer/explanation.

      Thanks for reading and for your comment, Sarah!

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    2. One more thing I forgot - I do think that if you were to click on my link for let's say a shirt and then add 2 pairs of pants to your cart and check out that I would make a commission on the whole purchase (but there's no real reporting of this... so I don't know how that all works for sure. My analytics just list the item and the commission earned). I equate this to you going into a store, picking up a few things on your own, getting an associate to help you get the right size shoe and then checking out and that shoe associate getting commission on your whole purchase not just the shoes they helped you with.

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  14. Thanks Andrea I aporeciate you taking the time to respond. I appreciate it!

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  15. I know many people (aka women) get their panties in a wad about bloggers making money on their purchases. Personally, I have no problem with it. The time and energy that I save by seeing someone else wear it and give sizes/opinions makes it more than worth it for the blogger to gain a commission from me. I don't care if the blogger says it's an affiliate link or not. Time = money in my book (time spent for the blogger to find and blog about said item--so they should make money and my time saved for not having to look through an entire website or drive to the mall). For those who are upset by the thought of cookies being attached, there is one, very simple, super easy way to not have that happen. If you use internet explorer as your browser, go to internet options on your computer and delete browsing history (which also deletes any cookies, temporary files and saved passwords). Google how to delete cookies on your specific browser. This can also be done on your phone. Very simple and a smart thing to do for privacy reasons.

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