Farmer’s Market, Strawberry Festival, and Mother’s Day!

Long time, no blog! It’s been a crazy few weeks. 

Life has been a whirlwind Between birthdays, visits from the fam, prepping for our upcoming family trip, starting a new business venture, and chasing after our energetic one-year-old. I promised myself I’d squeeze in some time to finally sit down and write this blog post while Bugs took his much-needed nap. I’ve had the layout ready to go for a good two weeks now, but every time I sit down to type, something pops up! I’ll be sharing EVERYTHING on that in early June! I am so excited, and it’s starting to really feel real now that just about everything is finalized. In the meantime, I wanted to share some snapshots from the past few weeks with you all.
Tux has still been enjoying his cozy days on the couch! He has a new stuffed animal he likes to take around the house with him. 
 
I’ve been trying to keep up with the Peloton and my walks as much as possible. It’s been tough with being busy and motherhood, but I’ve tried my best to fit in 15-20 minute rides on top of my daily walks. It’s crazy how much of an impact a 20-minute ride can have. I can burn more calories in 20 minutes of biking than in one hour of walking. 

We are in the phase of loving food one day and hating it the next. This is a fun game! I’ve learned that if I bake everything into a muffin, he’ll eat it. 
 One of my favorite parts of the day is our evening walk after bath time. I like to bring new sparkling water or kombucha to try while enjoying the stroll. I’m usually so exhausted by this time that I count the minutes until bedtime. This is when my brain turns to mush, and I start to wind down. I always tell myself I’ll finish my blogs or work once Bugs sleeps, but I almost always shower and go straight to bed. Trying to work, keep the house clean, feed myself and my family, and watch a one-year-old has been kicking my butt.
He’s at an age where it’s hard to keep him entertained for more than fifteen minutes. We hop from walks, the push car, walking around the garden, the swings, the water table, climbing up the stairs, his playpen, and whatever I can entertain him with. He isn’t the type of baby that wants to sit and watch a show. He’s now on the move! He wants to get into anything and everything, so I have to watch him like a hawk. I’m ordering the baby scenery table from Ikea this week, so if you have any fun ideas for a one-year-old and the sensory bins, let me know (anything he won’t put in his mouth!) 

A few weeks ago, I pulled together some DIY projects for his first birthday! 
 Flying!!! How is he so big already?

One project I finished last week was painting this dark blue entry table in a concrete color. I was never a fan of the blue, and even though I had 100 other things to do, I grabbed a paintbrush and started painting. It only took about an hour, which was good! I love that it isn’t such an eyesore when I’m standing in the kitchen anymore. 

If you missed the birthday party photos, check out the blog here! It was a blast 🙂 

On Saturday morning, I prepared all my sourdough starters for Sunday morning’s cinnamon roll sale. 
 Before it got too hot out that Saturday, we headed down to Fort Mill’s Strawberry Festival with our family visiting from Jersey.  The most delicious strawberries!  Bug’s and I split a grilled chicken wrap from one of the food trucks!  And I came for the coffee! I grabbed an oat milk cold brew from Knowledge Perk.  My little strawberry! My family!
 
After cooling down at the house and hanging out, we headed to The Fish Market in Baxter Village for dinner. Bug’s and I split the salmon salad with cheesy risotto.


On Sunday morning, our family headed out to meet some of their friends, and I woke up at 3:30 am to get started on Sunday’s cinnamon rolls! They sold out in one minute and twenty seconds! It was so fun delivering them. I’ve been keeping up with all of my baking ventures on TikTok! so follow me over there if you don’t already. I’m @taralynntiktoks
After dropping off the rolls and cleaning up the kitchen, I headed out on a walk with bugs, and then we swung in the backyard for a bit before nap time.

During his nap, I rode the Peloton, had coffee while writing thank you notes from the party, and baked some chocolate chip cookies to go with the notes!
When our family returned later that evening, we ate a great dinner at Naf Naf. They have the best salads, and Buggy loves the pita bread with chicken.
 
Breakfast on his picnic table he got for his birthday 🙂

It’s officially pool season here! It has been HOT, and I have a little swimmer here. He is obsessed with the pool, and I have a feeling we’ll be coming here all summer long. It’s great for keeping him entertained, and he sleeps like a rock on the nights we go. It’s nice that our neighborhood has a baby pool.
 
I’ve been trying to make big meals in bulk for him and me, but I’m running out of ideas. Let me know what some good toddler foods are! He’s just decided he hates pasta, no more eggs, cheese is slimy, and vegetables are bland. I will attempt a veggie chicken nugget this evening, so I’ll keep you posted! 
He eats better when we are not in the high chair. He thinks eating in the living room on his picnic table or on my lap is fun.

He loves his pop-it books!! Another day, another afternoon pool sesh. One fantastic mom hack is to freeze sliced oranges before heading to the pool, and it keeps him busy for about twenty minutes on the pool chair. He is a big fan of oranges! 
I brought a homemade multi-grain wrap with turkey, bacon, cheese, lettuce, peppers, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, avocado, and mayonnaise.

After I got Buggy out of the bath, I handed him off to Kyle to get my Peloton ride in. So far, I’ve been LOVING Bradley’s pop-punk classes. It brings me back to my high school days. Now that it’s getting super hot here in the mornings, I’ve pushed bedtime earlier; that way, he wakes up around 6:30 am so we can get in an hour’s walk with Leo before it gets too hot here. 
 
Grumples shined down to say hello on his two-year heavenly birthday. I can’t believe it’s been two years without him. I miss him every single day.
 
The morning stroll around the backyard is so peaceful. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in a few more years.
My garden beds are taking off!
 
My little helper.
We headed to Wilsons Garden Center to grab some carrot seeds, and he had so much fun watching the bees buzz around him.  Later that afternoon, we met with his best friend for a pool day.  The best time of the week, trash truck!!! We always have treats for our garbage, man! This time, we have him a bunch of peanut brittle 🙂  Blueberries from my garden!

We skipped our evening walk to the pool and playground for fun.

Once the Bug was asleep, I made a chicken and kale Caesar salad.

One of my girlfriends and I sat on the porch to chat and enjoy a delicious Betty Buzz.
 Another Saturday, another sourdough starter prep!  We headed to the first Fort Mill Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning! We came rolling in style.  But first? Iced Chai oat milk latte from Humble Cup!  We tried the breakfast sandwich from Flipped, and it was probably one of the best things I’ve ever had. It had a fried egg, cheese, and bacon wrapped in a flapjack with maple syrup. It was unbelievable!! And the pancake was so fluffy and buttery, and I’ll never be able to eat a regular pancake again without comparing them.
 On Saturday, I got to work on some brittle orders! I made my maple cinnamon pecan and peanut brittle!

I was up at 3 am on Sunday to finish all of the Mother’s Day cinnamon rolls!

This is my happy place! This is precisely what I wanted to be doing on Mother’s Day! I love to bake 🙂

SO GOOD!!
 I sold out in 20 minutes! 🙂 

I had 30 boxes of cinnamon rolls to deliver! Again, if you want to see more about this process, follow me on TikTok!
 

I finished by 10 🙂

For dinner, we had chicken enchiladas!

And some very yummy chocolate chip cookies with the help of my Bug!

My morning cuddles! I love him so much!

A playdate with his best friend!

We’ve been utilizing this water table! I put some carrot seeds and zinnias in the ground while he played!

My mom started a few more tomato plants and eggplants for me to add to some empty spots in the garden. I need to get some peppers to replace the strawberry plants this week, and then I’ll be all set! I cannot wait to see this thing grow!
 

He already loves digging in the dirt and touching the leaves!
 
Since Kyle was out of town last week, I took over Tux’s morning walks!

I got a cute new crockpot for Mother’s Day! I made a delicious Tuscan chicken and potato soup with it, which was to die for!
 
We were wiping out more hours at the pool! And there is nothing better than ending the week with THE BEST PIZZA IN FORT MILL!! King of Fire is fantastic. We did a family walk down to the neighborhood clubhouse, picked up our pizza, and sat by the fire since it was chilly. 

I hope you all have the best weekend! I can’t wait to share more about all the fun life changes here!