High Five for Friday #150 | Thanksgiving Fun + Christmas Begins

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // December 1, 2017 // 6 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Becky, Tif, and Della! Come, read up on what we’ve been up to this week and get to know some amazing bloggers down below!

I hope you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Can you believe that we’re already in the Christmas season? It’s just so nuts. This year has absolutely flown by. Let’s talk about what we’ve been up to the last few weeks.

1. Elizabeth had her little Thanksgiving program at her school last week, and it was precious! I coached her for days, telling her to sing nice and loud. She caught a cold a few days prior, so I was worried she’d not be into it. But thankfully, she sang loud, smiled, and had a great time!

2. Thanksgiving Day was a fun day! My parents stayed with us for the week, and my in-laws drove down on Thanksgiving Day to eat with us. It was a high time! Thankfully a lot of the food was made Tuesday and Wednesday, so that our actual cooking on Thanksgiving was minimal. We watched the parade, did some crafts, and had a wonderful time!

3. Here’s a funny story! One evening I was getting William a cup of milk. I poured it, placed the top on, but then kind of forgot. William was patiently watching me, but when he saw I wasn’t giving him the milk, he disappeared, went to the bathroom, grabbed the step stool, hauled it to the counter, and grabbed his milk! HAHA! He’s never done that before!

4. We started decorating for Christmas this week. It was so sweet to have the kids helping with the tree.

And, every year we have some sort of funny event with decorating. This year I couldn’t help but chuckle because our tree has no decorations on the lower third. HAHA!

And all our candles for our Advent wreath are crooked, thanks to being stored in the hot attic all year! It is just HILARIOUS! I could order more candles, but honestly, I’m embracing the imperfect Christmas.

5. Last weekend we went to a Cookies With Santa event at Elizabeth’s preschool’s church. It was SO sweet! It wasn’t too crowded so Elizabeth got a lot of time with Santa. And William didn’t seem to mind sitting on his lap. We could bring our own camera and snap away.

Today’s featured blogger is Andrea at Living on Cloud Nine! Andrea has been linking up with High Five for Friday for years! She loves sharing the everyday life, fashion and the simple things that make the days special. She helps co-host The Blended Blog’s fashion link up. And you NEED to scan her recipes page! She has so many awesome recipes!! You’re going to find something you must make. Swing over and say hi to Andrea!

How was your week?? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

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Menu Monday | New Recipes To Try

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // November 27, 2017 // No Comments

It’s the last Monday of the month! That means I’m teaming up with my friends Come Home for Comfort and Polka-Dotty Place to share our favorite recipes from this past month that you HAVE to try!

Butter Chickpeas | This was a super easy AND delicious recipe to have when the weather got cooler. You can certainly add to the vegetables you add. I also cooked up some tofu to include for extra protein. But it is the perfect recipe!

DIY Apple Cookies | One day I was cruising pinterest for a fun kid-friendly recipe to use with our oversupply of apples. And then I saw this one! It’s a great recipe to offer up during a play date, where the kiddos can decorate their own cookies. You can also play around with toppings and spreads. It was a great idea!

Skillet Tamale Pie | I was craving chili one night but didn’t necessarily want a bowl of it… I wanted something a little more… sturdy… Would that be the best way to describe this? In place of the meat I just added some of my favorite vegetarian burger crumble. It’s perfect for this kind of recipe! Bonus – Feasting at Home has become one of my new favorite food bloggers.

Making the Perfect Black Beans | I have a few “from scratch” black bean recipes that I like, but this one was delicious! One day, watching Instastories, one of my friends said this was her go-to black bean recipe. I had to try it! And it was amazing. This one did take a bit longer to cook. I have a favorite when I need fresh, cooked beans in a hurry, but these were perfect for a rice-and-beans dinner.

What are some amazing recipes you’ve tried lately? Have you peeked in your trusty recipe box recently?

Follow Whitney’s board New Recipes We Tried And Loved! on Pinterest.

High Five for Friday #149 | My Favorite Thanksgiving Traditions

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // November 17, 2017 // 4 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Becky, Tif, and Della! Come, read up on what we’ve been up to this week and get to know some amazing bloggers down below!

A quick note – next week there will NOT be a H54F link up. We’re taking the day after off, and we hope you do too! Relax, enjoy time with friends and family, and digest. HAHA!

I blinked. It’s November. It’s Thanksgiving already… I seriously spent this whole week in denial that Thanksgiving was next week… I could have sworn I had a few weeks still to go! We are hosting both of our families here at our house this year and that’s so exciting! My husband is actually on hospital service next week, so we weren’t able to go out of town for Thanksgiving as normal, so everyone is coming to us, and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

But since Thanksgiving is next week, I thought I would share my 5 favorite Thanksgiving traditions! Thanksgiving is actually my FAVORITE holiday!!
1. No Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving | My family was always rigid about this, and I’ve kept that tradition going! No Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. No decorations up until after Thanksgiving. I really want to enjoy and savor Thanksgiving. I hate that this season just moves so fast!! So I love taking Thanksgiving slowly.

2. Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade | Even though the parade sneaks in as many commercials as possible (Netflix has killed me… can’t watch regular tv) it’s still one of my favorite traditions! I love the beginning excitement of the parade beginning, and watching the floats and Broadway performances. And now that I have kids, we wait patiently for Santa to arrive! Elizabeth started watching the parade back when she was just 2 months old! But it was only last year that she started to get it and like it. Looking forward to this year!

3. Funny Crafts | Now that I have kids we do try to do a fun Thanksgiving craft each year. It started out as a way to keep Elizabeth and my niece entertained while my mother-in-law cooked and prepped for Thanksgiving. And now it’s just something fun to plan! Sometimes it’s a fancy Pinterest-inspired craft… sometimes it’s a cheap craft kit from a craft store (like this year). But each year it’s fun! If you want fun ideas for crafts and other cute ideas for Thanksgiving, my friend Whitney over at Polka-dotty Place ALWAYS has fun kid ideas!!

4. Food Food Food! | Some Thanksgiving foods are just mandatory! Stuffing. Cranberry sauce. Pie! Honestly, is there anything better than sharing a beautiful, delicious meal with people?

5. Home Alone | I think this tradition started when I was in Middle School. Home Alone was ALWAYS on tv Thanksgiving evening. So post-dinner, while prepping to eat dessert, Home Alone got flipped on! Home Alone is one of my favorite Christmas movies. And Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without Home Alone at some point during the holiday!

What are some of your favorite traditions?? I hope you all have a glorious Thanksgiving!!!!!

Today’s featured blogger is Sarah at Meet the Shaneyfelts! She’s a wife and school teacher in Alabama, and loves to blog about her daily life! I love her day in the life blog posts. And her ladies Christmas gift guide is so good! Great ideas there! Be sure to swing over and say hi to Sarah!

How was your week?? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

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High Five for Friday #148 | Cheese and an Injury

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // November 10, 2017 // 3 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Becky, Tif, and Della! Come, read up on what we’ve been up to this week and get to know some amazing bloggers down below!

It’s November already?? What has happened to 2017? I am always just amazed at how fast the autumn goes. I’m not quite ready to be thinking about Christmas yet…. Anyway, what have you been up to this week? Can’t wait to hear about it!

1. This past weekend was another weekend that just was jammed packed! Saturday we had a full day at church. And then on Sunday we had 2 events! I highly recommend a busy day on time change day. Sunday morning our church had a fundraiser walk for a church member who just had a kidney transplant. It was a delightful event and we had a good time! And then Sunday evening we had a birthday party at a bouncy house place. It was tons of fun! In fact, we decided that we needed to have an adult bouncy house party.

2. I received my 3rd trunk club box…. and I didn’t keep anything from it. I’ve decided that these clothes subscription box services just aren’t for me. I NEVER end up keeping anything. I’m SO picky about what I’m keeping clothes-wise these days. If it’s not 100% perfect, then there’s no point in keeping it. Are you a subscription box person??

3. See this sweet smiling girl? This picture was taken about 10 minutes before she fell off my husband, while playing “horse”, and smack her forehead right on our hardwood floor. Honestly, I couldn’t look at her. I was worried I was going to see blood and a crunched up nose. THANKFULLY all she ended up with was a goose egg bruise on her forehead. Nothing else. She was even thrilled with the idea that the bruise would eventually turn purple. “I love purple, mommy!”

4. We did have quite a few kid giggles this week. They were highly entertaining this week! Elizabeth was sweet to share her Thanksgiving hats that she made at school. It was fun to snap a pic of my pilgrim and indian.

5. And then this guy. He was adorable. He’s really starting to come into his little personality. He’s saying words and walks around just having a blast at all times. I couldn’t stop giggling with him Thursday because he was walking around with a blanket on his head. I tried to snap a pic, but then he saw me pull my camera out and immediately started saying “CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE”. He’s a funny, sweet boy that keeps me on my toes.

Today’s featured blogger is Bri at School in Our Slippers! She is a wife, mom of 3 kiddos, and living in Montana. She loves to blog about home life, sharing all the funny, sweet moments that happen each week! Swing over and say hello to Bri.

How was your week?? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

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High Five for Friday #147 | The Cute Halloween Picture Struggle

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // November 3, 2017 // 4 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Becky, Tif, and Della! Come, read up on what we’ve been up to this week and get to know some amazing bloggers down below!

1. Let’s start with the fun one – Halloween! I had so many fun activities planned for the day, but in the end, we didn’t do much. But it was still delightful! We had friends over for dinner and then we hit the sidewalks to get all the candy. It was a fun evening! But how did you all get such delightful pictures of your kids in their costumes?? The struggle was real here…

But this was the best of the bunch of my butterfly and construction worker.

But then I took 100 million pictures…

And then William just gave up on me…

Anyway… yay.

2. Our last weekend was another crazy busy one. We had a church small group over on Friday night. We had church all day on Saturday. And then Sunday was a birthday party AND a baby shower. It was a full but FUN weekend! I love weekends like this. I’m so grateful to be a part of a church where we actually enjoy hanging out together 🙂

3. The best part of the baby shower was the baby shower cookies I got to bring. They are ADORABLE! If you are local to Durham and need cookies, you MUST check out Bulls Eye Baking. She did a fantastic job.

View this post on Instagram

I got to bring the CUTEST cookies to a baby shower today! Those bow ties ? if you’re local to #durhamnc then I highly recommend @bullseyebaking. Cute AND tasty!! #babyshower #bullcity #cookiesofinstagram

A post shared by Katie (@ktcupoftea) on Oct 29, 2017 at 5:16pm PDT

4. For this month and the next, this is why it’s wonderful to live in North Carolina. The weather is cooler, but not cold. It’s not humid. It’s a win! I’ve been sneaking in so many walks these last few weeks. In fact, yesterday I hit my 10,000 steps by noon! HAHA!

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Autumn neighborhood walks are the best. #fallinthesouth #fallweather #bullcity #durhamnc

A post shared by Katie (@ktcupoftea) on Nov 2, 2017 at 7:56am PDT

5. Friends, I know things have been so quiet and underwhelming over here and on the YouTubes…. It pains me. But it’s been helpful for me to mentally “shed” the blog responsibilities for a while to tackle some other things. I promise, I’m actually writing loads in my head! My list of blog post ideas is so long. I can’t wait to check a few more things off my project list to get back to blogging regularly. Thanks for sticking with me. And I promise – I DO read your blogs too! But hoping soon I’ll be back to spending time with each of you. Le sigh… #perfectionistguilt

Today’s featured blogger is Katie from The Mishaps and Mayhem of A Solitary Life! Katie is also a regular contributor over on The Blended Blog, which is a blog full of fashion and lifestyle tips. She’s a blogger and teacher living in New York. Be sure to swing over and say hello!!

How was your week?? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

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