What's Up Wednesday - April 27th

It's the last Wednesday of the month so I am participating in the What's Up Wednesday Link Up. 

1. What we're eating this week

Hello Fresh delivered these three meals on Sunday:

1. Shrimp Farfalle with fire-roasted red pepper, lemon & basil

We ate this last night and it was so yum! I love any kind of pasta with a lemon-butter sauce so this was right up my alley. The kids loved the shrimp and the pasta although I had to pick out the red peppers and basil. Great meal - a little heavier than I typically like to eat on a weeknight but still delicious!

2. Pan-Seared Chicken with Roasted Potatoes, Green Beans and Creamy Dill Sauce

3. One-Sheet Sausage and Pepper Hoagies with Broiled Asparagus

We ate this on Sunday evening and it was delish! We grilled the sausage (instead of cooking in the oven) and it was the perfect outdoor meal for our family. The meal is great without the hoagie too!

2. What I'm reminiscing about

Been trying to get the kids yearly books finished....ummm the ones from last year. Oops! Love seeing how much they have grown.  

3. What I'm Loving

When we were in New Orleans waiting for our Garden District Tour I was wondering around a bookstore and saw some cute children's books. I took a picture so that I could look them up on Amazon later - anyhow, I found Finding Winnie and guys - it's a winner! If you have kids you need this book! It is the SWEETEST story about how Winnie the Pooh came to be. I love it!

I also ordered Mother Bruce and it is currently Grayson's favorite book - he wants to read it every night!

4. What We've Been Up To

Birthdays!

We have lots of April birthdays in the family - Papu (my dad), Uncle Nick (my brother), Ethan, Michael and Gigi!

5. What I'm Dreading

hmmmm....Taking my car in to get fixed? Kevin got in a minor accident in it and it needs some work.  It's just another thing to add to my to do list...and driving a loaner is never that fun. I'm just not looking forward to that hassle. I have an appointment to get an estimate on Thursday - all body shops are so backed up because of a recent hail storm. 

6. What I'm Working on

I am helping Michael out with a little party for Sarah's 40th birthday. Her big celebration is a trip to Napa...although this party is turning in to quite the little shindig if I don't say so myself! It's super fun - champagne and sparkles! Two of my favorite things!

VBS will be here before we know it and I am on the decorations committee again this year. Kassidy and I met and discussed initial thoughts for the YC decorations - the theme is Cave Quest. It's going to be lots of fun!

Lastly, I am still working on figuring out selections for our laundry room. We aren't wanting to put a ton of money into this room because, well, because it's a laundry room. When we received the quote for the countertop I realized that I needed to go in a different direction. A less expensive option is to go with a wood countertop like this:

This was an Ikea countertop - I didn't even know Ikea had countertops. Anyhow, I need to figure out exactly what we want to do and make final selections.  

7. What I'm excited about

see #6

8. What I'm watching/reading

Homeland - we are in the middle of Season 3. So good. 

Real Housewives of Dallas.  I know- it's embarrassing for our city, but aren't all of the Real Housewives shows kind of a hot mess? I mean, it's entertainment TV. I don't expect much. 

9. What I'm Listening to

The radio...

10. What I'm Wearing

Planning outfits for our trip to New Orleans was a bit of a challenge for me. Mainly because everything needed to fit in a carry on suitcase. (My girlfriends are serious traveller's and checking a bag is not cool.) I typically like to have lots of options so I needed to scale back and make some decisions. Using Polyvore really helped me visualize my outfits. You can click here to find sources. 

11. What I'm Doing this Weekend

We are suppose to go to a friends ranch but if the weather doesn't cooperate we might just stay back in Dallas...and not have any plans/commitments. Well besides soccer/football games, but if it's raining those will most likely get rained out too. 

However, if we do stay in town I signed up for a class with Piper Michelle, a master/celebrity lagree fitness guest trainer at Studio 6. I am excited and also slightly afraid to do that on Sunday. 

12. What I'm looking forward to next month

End of School year fun - musicals, graduation & parties! Excited for summer to begin! And of course - BELIZE with the fam!

13. What else is new

nada

14. Bonus: What is your favorite mother's day gift to give/receive

I know it sounds silly but I actually really look forward to the sweet little gifts that the kids make at school. It's probably one of the few things that don't go in the trash :) I always think the little questionnaires are so much fun! 

As for the day itself, I love a good family brunch or dinner and a little downtime. 

Adventure Guides: Camp Grady Spruce

While I was in New Orleans, Kevin and Ryan headed to Camp Grady Spruce for the Adventure Guides campout. Their group, the Fighting Cheetahs, caravanned out there Friday afternoon and after some minor car drama made it to camp about 8pm. I don't think they kids got to bed until about 10ish? And the dads...it was after midnight.

playing with the campfire? not really sure...believe it or not, I didn't get a ton of explanation on what was actually happening in the pictures :)

Dads and sons of the Fighting Cheetahs group

They loaded all the kids in the back of a suburban to drive (a short distance) for some activities. 

Playing with worms

Ryan caught a fish! (Not sure what is on his face...or why Kevin left if there)

The Fighting Cheetahs. On Saturday night there was a "play" put on by some of the older campers and their fathers. 

Little Campers

Five year olds with fire torches. Seems safe. 

I loved getting all these pictures throughout the weekend. It looked like such a fun time!

and I know my sweet boy had a great time!

Stonewall Auction 2016

I LOVE the 80s.

We had such a blast at this years Stonewall Jackson Elementary Auction. 

So much fun meeting new friends, raising money for Stonewall and of course dancing like crazies to the Spazmatics! 

So excited for Ryan to start kinder here next year. 

There are so many wonderful families!

NOLA Girls Weekend

Last weekend I headed down to New Orleans for a little girls getaway. It was the perfect trip! I love these little girl trip because my friends are amazing at planning all the details. They basically had our days scheduled and booked back in February and it did not disappoint! I love being able to show up and enjoy the weekend. Oh and the company isn't bad either :)

We arrived in New Orleans at 9am and Shannon's sweet mother-in-law picked us up and chauffeured us to The Roosevelt Hotel. We checked in, changed and set off with no destination in mind. We walked through the French Quarter and down to Jackson Square before deciding that we were hungry for lunch. Although our reservations weren't until 12:30 we thought we would get there early and see if they would seat us. Lucky for us, they did!

Lunch at Luke's was delish! Perfect way to start our food tour through the city. 

A little envious of LJ's lunch - the soft shell crab po-boy. A-MAZE-ING!

After lunch we ubered to the Garden District for a walking tour. 

Our guide was a history professor at the university and was incredibly informative. It was the perfect mix of history and entertainment. Not to mention we had amazing weather, so walking around was incredibly enjoyable. 

We posed for a pic against the wall of the cemetery. Only to find out five minutes later that the walls are 10 feet deep and have bodies buried inside of them.  (It is the outside wall to the Lafayette Cemetery.)

Headed in to one of the oldest cemeteries in NO. 

After the tour we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. 

Before dinner we popped into a little Mexican spot for happy hour. I don't recall the name of it, but they had good drinks and good guacamole. Win win for our group!

After our little happy hour we headed over to the two-time James Beard award-winning restaurant, Peche, in the artsy Warehouse District of New Orleans. 

After Peche we walked back to the hotel. We had one quick drink at the bar then decided to hang in our rooms - we were in bed by 10:30. I know, crazy. 

The next morning we woke up and headed out for brunch at Brennan's. A must when in New Orleans as far as I am concerned. Trust me. 

Cheers!

The food was delicious. I got the lump crab meat & mushroom omelet. Love. 

Afterwards we decided to grab some more drinks and walk around the French Quarter. 

Here we are in front of Jackson Square. Also kinda looks like Disney World here...

Who doesn't love a good overlay?

We were all like:

Can you guess who's house this is???

Yup - Brad and Angelina's. It's on the market for $6.5 million if anyone wants to snap it up. What a steal. lol

We stopped in for a drink at Pat O' Brians. No hurricanes for us though. 

And it wouldn't be a trip to New Orleans without some beignets. Since the line at Cafe Du Monte was crazy we opted for Cafe Beignet (We read amazing things about this place from Kevin and Amanda, our "blog friends"). 

Cafe Beignet did not disappoint. After inhaling those we did a little more walking around. 

The oldest bar in New Orleans - Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. To be honest, it smelled like vomit inside. Luckily you can have beers our front, so we did.  We eventually made our way back to the hotel to freshen up for an early dinner and Ghost Tour. 

We ate dinner at Tujague's (pronounced Two-Jacks). This was our least favorite place. The atmosphere and food were underwhelming. 

After dinner we went on a French Quarter Phantoms Ghost Tours . This ghost tour was my only request while on this trip - I had heard amazing things about it! Plus I just love a good ol ghost story. Anyhow, I wasn't impressed with it. Perhaps it was that our guide had just moved to town two years ago and seemed more like an 'actor' that a historic ghost tour guide. Oh well, maybe next time!

And it wouldn't be a trip to NO without a little time on Burbon Street. We ended up at The Cats Meow which is a karaoke bar. and apparently we were all really into it. It's a karaoke bar, so we a little Garth Brooks...as well as others.  Please note that our friend Susanne is pregnant. As a sober friend she watched out for us and took embarrassing videos throughout the night. #notsharingthose

The next morning we took our time getting ready and packing up. We did a little shopping before heading to Commander's Palace for our three hour lunch!

It was delicious and the perfect way to end our trip!

We had such a great weekend! We have already started planning our next trip. (And when I say "we", I mean "they".) Love traveling with these ladies!