Friday Five {April 2022}

Happy Friday Everyone!

One – Current Happenings!

Happy Friday, friends! Well, I had planned to get this Friday Five out LAST month… but, a last minute sponsored post fell in my lap. So, this month I’ll have TWO Friday Five posts. This one is for April and the last Friday of this month I’ll share a Friday Five post for May! I enjoy sharing these posts, because I catch y’all up on what we’ve been up to, some of my favorite finds, etc.

So, how are you all hanging in there?! IT HAS BEEN SO BUSY HERE! It seems the Spring is always SO dang busy. We have had dance competitions nonstop, band stuff, track meets, a May birthday where ONE of my teens will start driving (help!) AND our trip to San Diego is in early June. I do not have enough hours in my day to get everything done! I am ready for those lazy days of summer!

April was a challenging month for me. Between both my kids, we had about 7 days where they missed school due to being sick! Yes, lots of sickness. No Covid, just the other crud that is going around. We also had some other things going on and the Spring is just always so dang busy with all of the end of the year stuff on top of everything else. Anyway, in April it was my dad’s 80th birthday! My dad is mostly home bound these days, so we decided to do a small party at my parents house. I ordered some 80th decorations, a shirt and hat for him off of Amazon and then I picked up some delicious cupcakes by a place down the street from my house called Cake House Design. We Door Dashed food from this local place by us called Fitz’s. They have bottled soda, the best floats and burgers. It was delicious! And, as a bonus to the party… I had a sick kid home the day of it and most of the week leading up to it. I really hope we are done with colds/germs for awhile now! Fingers crossed!

We had a really fun and relaxing Spring break! We have been going to The London Tea Room for a high tea every Spring break for a few years now. This is something I truly enjoy and I am PRETTY sure Brian and the teens enjoy it too. I have been trying to get away from having a daily coffee and The London Tea Room has some really delicious teas that they sell and ship. Check it out HERE (and no, this is by no means sponsored!). My two favorite teas I buy from them are Cream Earl Grey and the Naughty Vicar. The Naughty Vicar is really flavorful and SO good, it is a black tea with blackcurrants and vanilla. Just a warning, if you do order from them, it is LOOSE tea. You can buy a loose tea strainer here (THIS is the one I use!) and it makes it SO easy to use loose tea. Some other activities we did on Spring break was eat at the Hi Pointe (it’s a burger and shake place) and we checked out Main Event, which has laser tag, arcade games, bowling, food and more.

The last two years we have gotten a delicious fish fry meal to go from Assumption Parish on the week of Spring break. It is always SO yummy and I love that I can order it online and Brian just goes and picks it up! We tried a new to us restaurant recently (photo above on right) from this place called Poke Doke. I have been really into poke bowls lately! I tried a poke bowl for the first time at the Hello Poke at the Foundry in St. Louis, but when I saw that this new restaurant on Door Dash we decided to try it. My poke bowl was pretty healthy, I had silk tofu (it is buttery soft and so delicious) in it, tempura shrimp, mango, cucumber, pineapple, brown rice and some other mix-in’s and toppings. It would have probably been fairly healthy until I decided to pair their Watermelon Boba Tea and a Mochi donut with it. But, I had to try them. Oh, it was DELICIOUS!! If you haven’t tried a Hawaiian Poke bowl yet, be sure to find a place near you that has them!

I’ve found a coffee house that I really enjoy visiting in Kirkwood called Teleo Coffee. One of my favorite things to do is to check out new (to me!) coffee houses. But, I’ve been to Teleo a few times now. The wooden frame/open air deck at the front of it is so charming. I wanted to try their breakfast bagel sandwich at my last visit and it did not disappoint! I got their Lavender Iced Vanilla Latte and it was delicious! If you’re ever in St. Louis, the Kirkwood area is so charming and there is a lot of neat shops, a farmer’s market and food places to check out.

Three – What I’ve Been Loving Lately

Shop This Post:

 

I’ve been really into perfume lately and I’ve been trying out some new scents to see which new bottles I want to add to my perfume collection. One of my purchases during the Sephora Spring Sale was this Sephora Favorites Deluxe Perfume Sampler. What is really cool about this sampler set is that not only do you get 7 adorable small bottles of perfume, but it includes a voucher to purchase a 1 oz bottle of one of these perfumes for FREE (in store OR online)! I am still trying them out and I haven’t decided which one I’ll choose to redeem my voucher on yet. These are my favorites of the bunch:

Yves Saint Lauren – Black Opium – I really love the notes of adrenaline-rich coffee mixed with white flowers and the sweet sensuality of vanilla in this perfume. This is one of my FAVES of the bunch and MAY be the winner!

Chloe Naturelle – Ohh, I really love this one too!! The scent is long lasting and I’ll get a little whiff of it on myself throughout the day and it smells so good! This is a fresh floral and woody perfume with a vegan formulation. The bottle is super cute too!

Atelier Bohemian Orange Blossom – Ok, so this one surprised me… I didn’t think I’d love it when I read the name… I thought, oranges? Um, ok… but, a friend of mine warned me that this would smell SO dang good and you know what? It does! It smells like sweet baby mandarin oranges and its very intoxicating. I love it! I may need this in my collection eventually! I don’t see a full sized bottle of it for sale on Sephora, though. Bummer!

The other perfumes in the collection did not disappoint either. There wasn’t any that I didn’t love, but the three I mentioned above were my FAVES! The set also included Clean Reserve, Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia, Nest Golden Nectar and Versace Dylan Turquoise (this was my least favorite of the bunch).

Shop This Post:

These rattan earrings from Amazon are adorable and come in several different colors. I’ve been looking for a few pieces of jewelry that I could take with me for our trip to San Diego and these will be perfect with swimsuits, maxi dresses, or even a tank top with denim shorts. They’re inexpensive, so I don’t have to worry about losing them.

This Chobani Sizzlin’ Brown Sugar Creamer is delicious! I love to make myself a delicious iced coffee at home and 2 tablespoons of this mixed into my coffee is a real treat (and is only 8 grams of sugar!). That’s a lot less sugar than if you’d pick up an iced coffee at Starbucks! I usually add it to freshly brewed coffee that I’ve chilled in the fridge, add ice and then I foam up a half cup of low-fat oat milk to add on top. Such a treat!

We finally finished the third season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It started out a little slow for me, but then I really enjoyed it once we got about midway through. So, I think next up for us is going to be the Bridgerton, Season 2. And, I still want to watch Sweet Magnolias, Season 2. We are so slow at watching shows! And, I’m STILL working on finishing the third book to a series I started LAST summer Troubles in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand. I’m hoping to get better about reading more this summer. I used to read A LOT more than I do now! The books I’m planning to read first this summer are A Minute to Think by Juliet Funt (kind of a self help book on prioritizing your time better) and The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth (trashy fiction! Ha ha!).

Nathan went on his FIRST trip ever away from us with his Wind Symphony band group at school. It was such a good experience for him! They went to Kansas City and ate at the Crown Center, saw the Money Museum and Jazz Museum and then they also visited Jeff City in Missouri. They did several concerts while touring. Nathan was in charge of loading and unloading the busses with some others and WOW, that is a pile of instruments! I bet he slept good at night! Lol!

This isn’t the best photo, but Nathan got his class ring! He has a clarinet on it and then an image for cross country. I can’t believe he will be a JUNIOR next year!

Autumn has kept me VERY busy with four dance competitions (all local) in March and April. There is one on Mother’s Day weekend again (sigh), but thankfully it ends in time for us to be able to go out to eat at my favorite seafood restaurant for some scallops later that evening. Food makes me happy, so I’ll be looking forward to that nice meal while I’m doing her hair and helping her with her makeup EARLY on Mother’s Day morning! Ha! Do any of you have any nice Mother’s Day plans?