If this first short week of “summer” is any indication to how the rest of the season is going to go, I better buckle up! And grow more basil because I find myself wanting to eat it at every meal…

The past few days flew by in a whirlwind. It started with one typical, slow-paced day of boot camp, a bagel date with my girls, having friends over to play, followed by swim team.

Then by Wednesday, things got kicked up a notch!

dress // shoes no longer available (similar & similar) // necklace // clutch

I had an excuse to curl my hair, put on a dress and snap a blurry self-timed photo because Molly and I took off to uptown Charlotte to check out the opening of Craft City Social Club at The Sheraton and the City Lights Rooftop Bar at the neighboring Le Meridien.

The decor was swanky and the views were amazing.

We lucked out with a perfect evening to enjoy a couple adult beverages like this prosecco with King of Pops’ pops dipped right in.

Delicious! The orange basil was my favorite. For more details, check out Charlotte Agenda’s coverage of the new hot spots with a focus on the food, fun and drinks.

And if you’re local and decide to go for a visit, please get the ceviche! Amazing.

I had such a fun night out of the town, something that doesn’t happen very often, and made Molly promise to let these girls nights out be more of a regular occurrence.

Oh and her romper y’all, look —

It is SO cute and she got many a compliment on it. Check it out!

Thursday morning started off slightly overcast, a perfect morning to check off one of our summer bucket list items.

With most of the local strawberry farms closed for the season it took some serious searching to find the little gem that is Little Oaks Farm.

They still had tons of beautifully ripe strawberries and the girls and I wasted no time filling our baskets.

And sampling a couple… for quality control sake of course.

The farm itself is so adorable and far enough out that it feels like a real breath of fresh air.

Though there aren’t any hayrides or hoopla like other patron-focused farms, Little Oak Farms offered us a peaceful morning of picking and we left with several pounds of strawberries, big smiles and stained dresses.

…which I immediately stain treated (with success!) as soon as we got home.

After solid naps for all of us (me included because #partymom), we went to work on the berries.

I washed the berries thoroughly then my best helper with her favorite knives took charge of cutting off the tops.

Using this recipe, we turned our berries into 12 (4 oz) jars of jam and still had a full bakers sheet full leftover to freeze for smoothies.

I almost ate a jar straight for dinner, but alas, I had already defrosted our steak.

Fridge veggies and rice tossed together with this simple sauce.

That brings us to today- FriYAY!

I’m hoping to get things in order around the house and maybe squeeze in boot camp and some grocery shopping before another girls night out tonight- painting and wine! I’ve never done one of those classes so I’m looking forward to it. Then tomorrow we might hit up the NCHE homeschool conference in Winston-Salem, but we have yet to make solid plans.

Honestly, I’m also itching for some R&R and list-making to organize my scattered mind that I seem to have lately, so hopefully we will find some downtime this weekend too.

Have you ever done one of those sip and strokes classes?

Is it true they can make anyone a painter? haha, I hope so!

What is on your agenda for the weekend?!