Fall Scavenger Hunt + Free Printable

A favorite fall activity to do with my boys is go on a fall scavenger hunt.

I make up a list of things we have to find and we grab a basket and set out on our 'treasure hunt' as we call it. I usually just scribble something down but this year I got a little more official so that I could share it with you guys too!

Griff dubbed himself official basket holder and took the job quite seriously.

We set out around our neighborhood to see what treasure we could find.

 

I make the list simple enough for them to do on their own with my direction and full of stuff that's pretty easy to find, like all the different colors of leaves.

And acorns/nuts

I like to put some learning stuff in there too, like find something that is straight, round, smooth, or rough, etc.

And the bonus is to find something special to them. This one was Grady's.

We went all over checking off our list.

We came back pretty excited about our finds.

We only didn't find one thing on our list and that was a pinecone.


But look at all our beautiful treasure!


Feel like doing one for yourself? Here's a link to a free printable to take on your treasure hunt!

Tag us on Instagram (@shelbygoodman) if you use it! The boys would be so excited to see!

Fall Cooking: Best of Soups

I so look forward to the change in seasons and new seasonal ingredients to cook with.

When there's a chill in the air, the first thing I want to make is soup.

An afternoon with nothing to do but sip wine and make a big pot of soup is so relaxing to me.

And the end result is always so gratifying.

Looking back in my blog, I've shared a few soup recipes that I love. But my #1 has got to be 

Butternut Squash Soup. It's so creamy and delicious and tastes SO good with 

crusty bread dipped in it.

I shared a step by step recipe for how to make this soup back in 2011 and 

I don't think I've ever missed a year making it. You should definitely try this one.

And here is the rest of my list of soups that I add to my rotation every fall/winter:

Potato Soup

Image via KeyIngredient

Chili

image via Family Fresh Meals

Vegetable Soup

Image via SavorHome

Corn Chowder

Image via DamnDelicious

I hope you'll try some of these and add them to your fall dinner line-up!

Refinishing the Floors + bObi Classic Review

The other big project we tackling before moving into our new house, besides painting everything,  was ripping out all the carpet upstairs and refinishing the original wood floors.

Here's what we started with:

Old and stained carpet in all three of the bedrooms upstairs.

Peace out carpet, see ya never!

And then here's the state of the floors we had to work with underneath the carpet.

Our master bedroom floor was in pretty rough shape but the final product 

was so beautiful and full of character.

The biggest part of the job was just sanding all the floors down so we could start

from scratch. We rented a commercial floor sander from our local hardware store.

Here's a close up difference of sanded vs. unsanded.

And we had to deal with old glue/adhesive lines in Grady's room.

Thank goodness it was just this room!

Stripped off all the old glue and scraped off all the tape by hand.

Then he had to hand-sand edges and super rough spots.

Knee pads required.

The original floors restored and ready for poly.

We decided to go with a clear poly so that the floors would look as close to original as possible and flow down the stairs and with the rest of the house. 

And the finish product was so beautiful and so worth all the hard work!

And as a mom of little boys I am so thankful not to be dealing with carpet anywhere in the house and especially not in these high-traffic areas. Super big shout out to my hard-working hubby who pulled an all nighter doing this so that we only had to rent the sander for 1 day! 

So, with a completely carpet-less house we were so excited to add our first ever bObi Classic robot vacuum to the family!

I feel like she's become the 5th member of the Goodman household.

Setting it up was so simple and user-friendly with it's step-by-step guide included.

Once we let her free in the house, we were so pleased by the work she did

(and honestly a little grossed out by all she swept up since I had just recently vacuumed)

She fit so easily and found her way around in tight spaces.
Shimmying around these tight corners were no problem for her.

She had no problem going from hardwood to rugs.

She got in the places I have a hard time getting to.

This breakfast nook is one of my favorite features of the house but it

is constantly plagued by crumbs. And this mama doesn't like to sweep after every meal.

And I totally love the schedule feature. I can schedule her to run at 2 p.m. everyday and she jumps off the dock and gets to work while the kids nap and I get other stuff done.

It's probably the closest I'll ever get to having a maid.
And after reading this robot vacuum horror story I decided I can't let her run while I'm sleeping.
And I don't even have a dog.

She does a great job. I don't have any pets but I do have two newer wool rugs that still shed a bit and she makes sure those sheds get swept up!

I also love that I can move her upstairs and just let her go to town. She goes under beds and gets dust bunnies and she knows not to fall down the stairs!

My only complaint with her is that she has a hard time finding the dock when I tell her to go juice, it's like she gets distracted on the way to finding it. But we'll give her grace on that cause we're kind of a messy family, hah!

Overall, we are so happy with the way bObi has jumped into our family and totally started pulling her own weight. She took my vacuum duties off my plate and I couldn't be more grateful. (I still pull out the old fashioned vacuum and get corners really well every so often. Okay, only when company's coming, don't judge me.)

To get more information and reviews on the bObi Classic, visit bobi.bobsweep.com

Disclaimer: I received the bObi Classic for review purposes but all opinions are my own.