Friday! We made it! We’ve had a fun week of pre-school, appointments galore, vacay prep, and swim lessons over here this week. It’s been busy but it also made this week fly by which was a-ok with me since Nathan was gone for the second work week in a row and we leave for vacation on Tuesday. I am in desperate need of some relaxation, focused family time, and the beach. And a drink now that I think about it but still a while to go yet before that’s going to be a reality. 
We’ve got a pretty busy weekend coming up so I’m going to jump right in to these Friday Five:
Cat & Jack Modes of Trucks Backpack | Cat & Jack Shorts | Cat & Jack T-Shirt | Native Shoes
1. First Day of Pre-School
(First day of school pictures or a Cat & Jack ad? Hard to say, lol. We do love Cat & Jack! Also yes, these are the best pictures you can hope to get of a two year old. I’m going to need someone to explain to me why our culture teaches them to say “cheeeeese!” That does not encourage stillness. Sigh.)
My baby boy had his first two days of Jumpstart this week! He had an absolute ball and basically ran into school each day which made my mama heart SO happy. I already have pre-school songs stuck in my head constantly!
After You by Jojo Moyes | The Wedding Date | Something in the Water
2. Beach Reads
Here’s the line up for the books I’m taking to the beach! I ended up picking up Crazy Rich Asians yesterday at Target as well because I have been on the waiting list for it for months at the library and want to read it so I can see the darn movie. It looks so good! I also already started Something in the Water and while I’m not totally hooked yet, I am very intrigued to see where everything is going. I’ve had the sequel to Me Before You, After You, on my bookshelf for a while now and have heard great things about The Wedding Date, too. Four books is a lofty goal but I’m up for the challenge!
3. Homemade Chex Mix
I always, always, always make a batch of my homemade Chex mix for road trips and have been dreaming of the batch I will be making this weekend for weeks now! I’ve been making it for years and tweaked the recipe on the box over and over before I found our favorite combination. If you’ve never made homemade Chex mix before I promise you, you need it in your life!!
4. TJ Maxx Fall Candle Haul
I had about 30 minutes to kill before I needed to start heading to pick up Camden from pre-school and I was right by TJ Maxx so I popped in to browse. Holy fall goodness you guys. All of these candles smell like all my fall dreams coming true and all of them combined cost less than one full priced one at Bath & Body. I love you TJ Maxx. I totally lit the Falling Leaves one yesterday afternoon while I worked and it’s heavenly! I picked up some super cute fall dish towels and three Halloween-themed books for Camden, too. I’m such a sucker for holiday themed books. I got a few other non-fall things too and you can see my whole haul over on Instagram stories if you are interested!
5. Legging Season
I fully embraced the cooler weather yesterday and wore my favorite leggings while I ran around town! I wore these Old Navy High Waist Moto Leggings literally all winter last year. And spring. And really up until the day it was just too hot to wear leggings that were getting tight on this preggo belly. You better believe I snatched them up quick when I saw they had the exact same style in a maternity version and they are just as good! I ordered my pre-pregnancy size (M) and they work perfectly. The description says they are both the 7/8 length but I’m 5’4 and find them to be full length on me. Just a heads up!
Thanks for stopping by, guys! I hope you all have a great weekend!
Keep up with all my posts on Bloglovin | See day to day pictures & stories on Instagram | Read my tweets on Twitter | Like the Rachel Emily Blog on Facebook | Pin along with me on Pinterest
Linking up with Katie, Amanda, Liz, Claire, and Erica.
The post FRIDAY FIVE appeared first on rachel emily.