Posted in Friday Favorites, Kids

Friday Favorites {#196}

Hello and happy Friday. Also, it’s March 1st. Wow! February both felt like the longest and the shortest month!

I hope you’ve had a great week.

As always, I’m linking up with Erika and Andrea for this week’s Friday Favorites.

Before I get to today’s post, I wanted to say thanks for all the love for Hadley’s post last Friday. She read the comments and smiled! Let me know if you have any topics you’d like her to share about in the future.

Here are some favorites from the week:

Fave Pics:

It’s hard to believe that Hayden’s last middle school basketball season is almost over.

Last week, we got the professional photos back, and they were so good. I like this one…

…but of course I love seeing my boy smile.

Last week, was the last home game, so they had 8th grade night for the boys. A couple of the team moms are amazing, and put together a really nice celebration for the boys. Hadley’s favorite part of the “goody bag” was the “fat head” of Hayden. haha

The middle school years have felt both long and short. Hayden’s grown so much over the past couple of years, both literally and figuratively, and it was nice to celebrate him (and this team)

Last weekend, was the 8th grade tournament, so we had a busy weekend of basketball.

Fave show:

Well, I dragged it out as long as a I could. I didn’t want to see it end, so I paced myself watching the 6th and final season of The Crown.

It ended nicely, but I wish there was one more season to recap the last few years.

Fave Moment:

I didn’t have to cook Sunday night! We went to Tony’s, a steakhouse in downtown Lex, for dinner…just the four of us.

Let me tell you…Hadley ordered the filet mignon without batting an eye. Whereas, Hayden always says things are too expensive, and wondered if they had “fish and chips” on the menu. πŸ˜†

He settled on splitting a steak and some sides with Travis.

I got the “Rig-a-Tony,” and it was pretty good.

Favorite Foods:

Speaking of food…I tried a couple new recipes this week, and the kids loved both of them.

I made this stir fry on Monday night. I did do a pound and a half of ground turkey instead of just one pound. I wanted to make sure I had enough to take for lunch a couple of days.

This Pizza Pasta bake was delish too. I made enough for 8×11 casserole dish rather than 8×8 size. Again, I wanted to make sure we had enough leftovers.

Am I the only one who didn’t know about the Cool Wrap at Chick-fil-A? It’s so good. I drizzled some of the avocado lime ranch dressing on it which made it even better. I had a professional learning/planning meeting on Monday, and this is what I ordered. I had half of one yesterday for lunch too.

Favorite Find:

I saw these cute colorful bunnies on Amazon, and knew that I “had” to have them. I think this weekend I will go ahead and decorate for Easter since I don’t decorate for St. Patrick’s Day.

Favorite Kid Quote:

Hadley was telling us a story about something funny that happened at school. She said, “I crackled,” and I looked at her…and we both started laughing. I guess “crackled” is a combo of “cackled” and “cracked up.” πŸ˜„

Favorite Mom Meme:

Well, I feel like this applies more to having little kids, but it’s still so true.

Bonus Fave: Flashback Friday

It’s hard to believe that Hayden has been playing basketball for over ten years.

With high school next year, I don’t know what he might decide to play, so I will cherish the basketball memories while I can.

Weekly Recap:

Here are my post this week in case you missed one:

What are your weekend plans? Overall, we don’t have much going on which is very much needed.

Thanks for reading,

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Posted in Weekend Top 5

Hello Monday

Hello and happy Monday! How was your weekend? Ours was good, and today was a Monday we got to sleep in!

I’m even late getting this post out, but that’s ok.

Did you catch my Saturday and Sunday posts?

I’m linking up with Sarah and Holly to share about my weekend.

Here’s a peek at our weekend:

I had a meeting on Friday morning, and as I headed downtown, it was as if I was headed straight to the bottom of this pretty rainbow. Later, when I looked at the pic, I saw a faint double rainbow. The rest of Friday was soggy!

Hayden had basketball practice, and Hadley requested Starbucks after school. I got a Pistachio latte, and we headed home. I put my pjs on and caught the weather because I was hoping for a snow update.

Hayden went straight from basketball to dinner with friends to celebrate his friend’s birthday. When Trav dropped him off, he picked up dinner for us. We ate and hung out with Hadley, but she had an early bedtime due to early wake-up for volleyball the next day.

While Hayden continued having fun by going bowling with friends, Travis and I watched a couple of episodes of Night Agent. We are hooked!

Hayden got home around 11:30, and we all headed to bed.

I was up around 6:15 to get Hadley up by 6:30. She had to be at volleyball by 7:30, and thankfully another dad was taking the girls.

Homer missed Sis!

Pool play started at 8:30, and then Hadley didn’t have games for a couple of hours, but she had to stay and ref.

I ran to Target for a few things before going home to do a quick workout. I’m glad I made the choice to do that because the rest of the day was non-stop.

Then, I headed back to catch the last two pool play games. The girls found their groove and went 2-1 in pool play.

Then, there was a break before bracket play. I went to a nearby restaurant, ate a little lunch and started a new book. I was there about an hour, and it was nice to have a little quiet time, catch up on emails and texts, and read.

These are some of Hadley’s best friends, and for this tournament, they were on two different teams. There were hundreds of teams at this tournament, but of course they ended up playing each other in the first round of bracket play. Hadley’s team won, but the first set was a nail biter…31-29!! We had fun watching them, and these girls did great.

Hadley’s team had one more game, and I think everyone was ready to leave the gym after 10 hours!

Hadley had started to not feel well, and she requested Panera for dinner, so we picked that up on the way home.

Then, Travis and I headed to Hayden’s basketball game.

It was just a scrimmage, but he was playing against one of his besties, and it was a fun game to watch.

Travis and Hayden went to Lex Live with the team to watch the football games, but I wanted to get home to Hadley…and to watch the Chiefs in peace and quiet.

I don’t know how they played in negative temps, but they did…and they pulled out a win!

Travis and Hayden were home around the end of the game, and it was another late night to bed.

Y’all I slept until 10 (after I woke up around 6:00 with a headache…I think they long week, busy Saturday and very little food, for some reason on Saturday, caught up with me. I was thankful that I was able to fall back asleep)

When I got up, I placed our weekly Kroger order…and then I watched two episodes of The Crown.

Honestly, I just spent the rest of the day in pjs which is all that I could ask for. I got lots of texts and Facebook wishes for my birthday which of course I appreciated.

Later, the kids and Trav gave me my birthday cards…

Hadley was amazed at Trav’s bubble letters that included my name and my age…and he said, “I took art in high school!” πŸ˜†

…and look at this cookie cake! They know me so well. haha

We had big family dinner plans, but Hadley really wasn’t feeling well, so we decided to postpone those, and Travis and I headed to get a quick bite to eat.

Honestly, this was still a very nice meal at J. Alexander’s for my birthday, so I really appreciated a few moments with Trav…and not cooking. We brought the kids some chicken tenders home for their dinner.

Then, I was going to finish up this post, but Travis asked if I wanted to watch more Night Agent. So, that’s how I wrapped up my birthday weekend.

This morning, as I type this, I’m enjoying coffee, and a piece of cookie cake for breakfast…and there’s snow on the ground! This is the best kind of Monday.

Posted in Friday Favorites, Uncategorized

Friday Favorites {#148}

Hello and Happy Friday!

Yay for Friday after this super busy week.

As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.

Here are some favorites from the week:

Hadley and I had a lot of fun at her dance competition last weekend.

She was in four dances, two large musical theater and two small group (lyrical and jazz), and they were amazing performances. I love watching her dance.

I can’t wait to see all the dancers accomplish this season.

We stayed at the hotel connected to the convention center where she was dancing in Cincinnati, and the hotel was so nice and convenient. Our room had a really nice view!

I’m not trying to be dramatic, but letting go of my “guilt” for not cooking on Sunday and ordering Thai food instead may have been the single best decision I made all week. From our orders, we had dinner for two nights! Plus, my beef pad thai was delish.

No photo, but on Tuesday, I went out to dinner some neighbors to meet a new neighbor. It was nice catching up with them and meeting our new neighbor.

Hayden had lots of basketball this week. His team won their last regular season game, but lost in the first round of the tournament. The end of a season gets me every time. I know they always give it their all, and it’s a bummer to see heartbroken players.

We’re proud of him and his whole team. They were so fun to watch over these past couple of months.

Speaking of basketball, my MU Tigers have had such an amazing season. Listen, when you live where everyone “bleeds blue” with the CATS, it’s nice when your own team has a winning season! I stayed up late on Wednesday night to watch their comeback victory.

On Wednesday, it was over 75 degrees! The temps have been amazing. I decided to run an errand before picking up Hadley, and realized, while in Walgreens, that I was wearing my slippers!

Favorite Mom Meme:

My kids like to test my patience…haha

Bonus Fave: Flashback Friday

Well, now that it’s March, and I’ve talked a bit about basketball in this post, it made me think it’s about March Madness…

I usually do throwback photos of the kids but…this memory for 2012 is a fun one for Travis and me. We went to Atlanta to watch the CATS play in the sweet 16 game. Then, we spent the night in Knoxville the next night and enjoyed a dinner out.

I love the pic of us on the left. I had it framed in our room forever.

Weekly Recap:

Here are my posts from the week! They include a little bit of everything.

What are your weekend plans? Well, our weekend is starting a bit early. We’ve been hearing about the potential for severe weather all week, and last night they decided to cancel school due to high winds, rain, and the potential for tornadoes…and it’s not an online learning day!

We also have another dance competition and track meet on tap.

Have a great weekend!

Posted in Friday Favorites

Friday Favorites {#104}

Hello and Happy Friday! We made it to the weekend!

I’m linking up with Andrea for this week’s Friday Favorites.

Some favorites from the week:

Hayden’s team made it to the championship game for the district’s middle school season! While they were better than their record showed, this team came a long way this season. They entered the tournament the 6th seed, and won a close game in the quarter finals two weeks ago. Then, they won the semi-final game by one point and moved straight to the championship. It was a close game as well, but they lost. They definitely took the loss to heart, but they were so fun to watch. Of course, we’re all proud of their effort.

{I love these photos, but my fave is the one of Hadley finding Hayden on the court after the close semi-final win!}

Travis was in California for work, and spent most of his time at Santa Anita track.

On Saturday afternoon, while I was out running errands, I got a few texts about Travis being on TV. Then, I saw my sister-in-law share his interview on Facebook. One of his farm’s stallions had three horses running in the big race, so Travis was interviewed on TVG. So proud of him, and the interview was great. I would have watched it live had I known πŸ˜‰

Saturday night, Travis was out of town and Hayden was at an overnight. When it’s just Hadley and me, she requests take out Chinese food and a movie. We watched the Clifford movie, and it was so good.

Homer was very concerned about what was happening with these pups!

On Sunday, Hadley had her second dance competition of the season.

Her small group routine came in 4th in their category, and the large musical theater number was the highest scoring routine of the competition.

They are so fun to watch.

My school had a big game this week, and it was sweet watching Hayden watch the big boys play.

Favorite Food(s):

I was proud of myself for meal prepping my lunch this week. On Sunday, I browned some ground turkey and taco seasoning. Then, I put that in a tortilla with eggs, a few black beans and some cheese. I put a few in the fridge to grab for my lunches this week.

One night this week I made a recipe I’d seen on an Instagram reel: Lazy Enchiladas.

You cook taquitos as directed. Then, you pour a bit of enchilada sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish, put the taquitos on the sauce, cover the taquitos with sauce and shredded cheese. You bake on 400 for 15-20 minutes. So good!

Favorite Quote:

Usually my favorite quotes come from the kids, but Travis had me laughing on Sunday night. I asked him about the TV interview and if he knew what they were going to ask beforehand. He said he didn’t know specific questions, but that he had a general idea of what they may ask. He said he had a few responses prepared because, β€œThat’s what TV, people do, Jen.” 🀣

Favorite Mom Meme:

So many shows and so little time…

Bonus Fave: Flashback Friday:

Elementary Facebook memories pop up all the time, but this one hit me…and really made me miss the elementary years. This was taken after the Read Across America 3rd grade performance in 2019.

They look so little and cute.

Weekly Recap:

My posts this week included a recap of how I spent my personal day off, many of the errands I run, and all the lists I have on the “Notes” app.

Hey! Monday is our Not Just a Mom link up, and we’d love to have you join us.

This topic this month is: reading habits

Well, we have a chance for significant snow tonight through tomorrow…and then we “Spring Forward.” hmmm….that just doesn’t seem right!

That being said, this weekend should be a good one filled with baseball, basketball, a few errands, and some downtime.

So, that’s it for me today. Thanks so much for reading.