Friday Favorites and Happenings

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Happy Friday all! After a busy last weekend, we don't have much planned for this weekend. We have dinner over at a friends house and that is about it. Rory does have golf today with his old work (my current work), so it is just the girls and I for dinner tonight. What do you have planned this weekend?

Onto Friday Favorites and Happenings.

ONE. So a couple weeks ago I told you about a pair of jean shorts at Target that Lindsay recommended to me. I got one pair, tried them on and then wore them a day or two later. They are comfy, stretchy, but don't over stretch throughout the day and are the perfect length for chasing kids around without showing anything. I am not one to turn to high rise anything, but these are amazing. They are so good that I bought another pair. I got the same size that I get in American Eagle jeans (size 2) and they fit perfectly.

Universal Thread Denim Shorts

TWO. I received the Ralph Lauren Romance perfume from Influenster and I tried it on before I went out with my friend Nathalie a few weeks ago. Upon the first time, I hated it. I felt like it smelled too much like cologne rather than a woman's floral perfume. But another blogger and friend, Missy, loved it. I thought I would give it another try since it didn't bother me that much (some perfume scents disgust me and I have to wash it off). And I liked it more the second time. Then I wore it again last weekend for our dinner out and again on Mother's Day. So I guess I found a new perfume that I like.

Ralph Lauren Romance

THREE. I went shopping at Nordstrom Rack to get another body suit that I love from there in a different color, but they only had white which I already purchased. I wanted black or a tank version of the body suit, but they just didn't have it. I did find a tank version online that I am going to order and have it shipped to my local store, so I don't have to pay for shipping. But if you are looking for a great bodysuit, this is a perfect one. 

Elodie Crew Neck Bodysuit

And this is the one that I just ordered.

Elodie Ribbed Spaghetti Strap Bodysuit

FOUR. But I did grab two tank tops for the Summer at great deals. I got this Madewell Muscle Tank and a Halogen Blank Tank. I have the Chealsea28 tanks from Nordstrom that I love, but they are starting to pill and fade. Plus the Halogen tank was only $9.97. Now to get one in white to replace my white Chelsea28 tank. Oh and these tanks are form fitting, soft and a new favorite.

Madewell Vintage Muscle Tank

Halogen Favorite Sleeveless Tank

FIVE. Weekly funnies.

Haha, I feel like this sometimes.

Classic.

I get hangry and it isn't fun to be around me when I do.

Yep, I love these kinds of texts from my girlfriends.

YES!

Haha.

Oh geez. It is awful that people are this dumb.

Have a great weekend. I am linking up with A Little Bit of Everything.

Mother's Day Weekend Recap

I rarely do weekend updates, but Mother's Day weekend was pretty busy and a lot of fun. 

Let's rewind to Thursday when I watched my nephew for a bit while working. He was just so happy being in my arms and he is smiling so much now.

Friday I worked, then went to lunch, read a book out in the sunshine and ran a few errands including getting my nails done. Then we had dinner over at my cousin's house and caught up with a bunch of family. 

Sadly, my nails changed colors on Monday. We are not sure what happened, but they were the color of the tips and I am going back this morning to get the color fixed.

Saturday, I cleaned, we took a walk with Walter, we ran some more errands and then my in-laws came over, so Rory could take me out for an early Mother's Day dinner. But since my in-laws came over early, we headed to the wine bar and had a glass of wine (and a cocktail for Rory) and sat outside hanging out and enjoying the sunshine.

After our drink, we headed to dinner where we enjoyed Italian. My favorite.

Pesto, Salami and Fennel Bruschetta

Spinach, Pear and Parm Crisp Salad (this was my portion. We split the salad).

Spaghetti Carbonara (this was my dish. I never order carbonara, but this was so good and I had the leftovers yesterday.)

Risotto with Octopus and Sausage (Rory's dish. It had a chimichurri with it that was soo good.)

Tiramisu

After dinner, we headed back home, got in our pjs and watched some more Life in Pieces.

Sunday was Mother's Day and I was hoping for a sleep in, but my kids had other plans. Ha. We got up, Rory made me coffee, I showered and got ready in peace and then we took a walk and took some pictures. The girls also gave me their sweet homemade gifts which are now proudly displayed at work. And Rory got me a massage and facial!!

These are always my favorite. Some highlights from Sutton's...I will gladly take the age 23. I do like to go shopping, but prefer online. And the sitting on the couch to relax....ugh. It is true, but I mostly read and prefer a massage for relaxing. I love that she loves my cooking so much. And the because she loves me just melts my heart.

14 is a bit young. Ha. The girls did ask my real age and now remember it. But I said that is ok to say other ages. Avery and I rarely swim together as she does this mostly with her dad, but I still thought it was sweet. And she is spot on with spaghetti and homemade pizza. And I loved the she is good at golf. Rory laughed. Not cool.

These handmade gifts are the best. I love looking back over the years and seeing how much they have changed and how much they have learned.

Sutton captured this.

Pretty flowers in the area we took our walk in and took some pictures.

Then we went to brunch and it was a bit of a disaster. The food was incredible, but the service SUCKED. And that sucks when it is Mother's Day. We ordered our food and drinks and still an hour later, we didn't even have our drinks. Our waitress kept saying they were coming, but she never put our order in. I think she was super hungover. The manager ended up comping almost the entire meal. We never complained, but she knew that the waitress totally messed up. But the good news is the food was good.

After brunch we headed home, packed up some items for Lake Tahoe and then headed up there to just be in my favorite place. We shopped a bit, walked around and had ice cream. Oh and the girls napped on the way there.

The cutest little art pieces at the ice cream shop.

As we were heading down, we ordered to go pizza. When we got there to pick it up, they were very disorganized and I had to sit and wait 20 minutes inside while Rory and the girls sat in the car. They were just too busy and totally messed up our order. So needless to say, food was a bit of a let down on Mother's Day, but at least I spent it with my little family!

Then we took Walter on a walk per my request to get out and enjoy more of the beautiful sunshine together. I walked with a glass of wine and just enjoyed the rest of my evening. Once we got back, the girls and Rory headed outside to play with some kinetic sand. I called my mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day and then I settled in for some time to myself and watched my new favorite show Million Little Things. It was the best ending to a beautiful day.

Show Me Your Books - April

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes.

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day. I have a recap coming Wednesday, but in the mean time, books. Or as I read, a book.

This month I only read one book. I had other books come up in my library holds, but I was savoring this book. I read the third installment of You. I love the books and I really love the show. I can't wait for season 3 to come out. I know it will be very different than the books because season 2 veered way off from the books. But nonetheless, I took my time reading the book even though I probably could have torn through it in a coup of days.

You Love Me - Caroline Kepnes

This book has very mixed reviews, but as I said, I really enjoyed it. When I am reading it, I hear Penn Badgley's voice. And I love how much the word You is used in the book. It just brings me back to the previous books. 

Joe moves to a small town near Seattle to start his life over. He volunteers at the library in which he made a sizeable donation to. He meets you. Everything seems perfect until you find out about her past. Does Joe stay? Does Joe go back to his old ways of "getting rid" of the people who get in his way?

The ending (before the epilogue) got a bit weird and uncomfortable, but overall the book was still good. If you are a fan of the previous books and the show, I would read this. I would give it four stars.

Here is Amazon's synopsis:

Joe Goldberg is done with the cities. He’s done with the muck and the posers, done with Love. Now he’s saying hello to nature, to simple pleasures on a cozy island in the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in a long time, he can just breathe.

He gets a job at the local library—he does know a thing or two about books—and that’s where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe won’t meddle, he will not obsess. He’ll win her the old-fashioned way . . . by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, they’ll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after in this sleepy town.

The trouble is . . . Mary Kay already has a life. She’s a mother. She’s a friend. She’s . . . busy.

True love can only triumph if both people are willing to make room for the real thing. Joe cleared his decks. He’s ready. And hopefully, with his encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him.

What have you read recently?

Friday Favorites and Happenings

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes.

Happy Friday all! And happy Mother's Day to all you mommies out there (including fur baby mommies). We don't have too much planned this weekend other than I am getting my nails done, date night on Saturday night and then Rory and the girls have things planned for me on Sunday for Mother's Day. My fingers are crossed for warm weather and sunshine all weekend.

Anyways, onto Friday Favorites and Happenings.

ONE. I realized that I never talked about the new cookie/baking sheets that I got while I was in Vacaville. I have these in the full size and another in the corrugated cookie sheet size. I love them all. They are non-stick, clean beautifully and last for years. I have had my other ones going on 8 years and they still are amazing. So when I was in Vacaville, I picked up the quarter size. It comes in a two pack and these are perfect for cooking leftover pizza, chicken strips and many other things. Point is, Vacaville has better sales tax rates than us and I got them on sale.

Williams Sonoma Gold Touch Quarter Sheet

TWO. Last weekend we took the girls to two birthday parties on Sunday. One was at an athletics center where the girls got to jump on a trampoline, do tumbling, an obstacle course and more. I didn't get any photos from the first party as I was talking with the moms most of the time. We were exchanging phone numbers so that the kids can have playdates this Summer and still hang out after in case some of the kids go to separate schools. The girls have been in a private school this year due to the pandemic and next year they will be going back to public school (I think). But it was so good to meet and hang out with the girls friends parents.

Then we had a break of time before heading to another party at a trampoline center. This is one of my best friends daughters party, so we were all involved and took more photos. Here are a few highlights. And yes parents wore masks the entire time and kids under 10 did not have to wear them.

The birthday girl jumping

Sutton jumping

Avery's face. Ha. And that cake was made by my best friend, Stacey. She makes most of our cakes!

THREE. After the second party, we stopped in Scheels to see if they had something that Rory had been eyeing. Of course the girls and I headed to the women's clothing where I found so many new items that I wanted. From O'Neil to Billabong to BB Dakota, they had so many cute clothes. I tried on two dresses per the girls request and they said I had to get one for Mother's Day. So I got one. It is super cute, flattering and not revealing, but yet perfect for Summer.

BB Dakota Barbara Ann Dress

FOUR. Here are a few photos from our life lately.

Walter had a groomers appointment, so Rory and I grabbed a sushi lunch while we waited for him to be done (it was a Thursday).

My best friend Nathalie (the girl in shorts next to me) came into town and I spent all weekend with this crew. It was one of the best weekends and soooo needed.

Rory had a softball game on Tuesday (and another on Thursday), so I took the girls to Thai food. They are obsessed with Thai food and always want roti, panang curry and pad thai.

Sutton is one happy girl!

I have so many more photos of my nephew, but I picked one cute one from this last week!

I had a Board meeting this week, so I did business on the top and fun on the bottom. 

FIVE. Weekly funnies.

This is the worst and happens all the time.

Were they drunk?

And this is why you don't tattoo names on yourself (says that as I have my kids names on my rib cage, ha)

This couldn't be more true right now.

I loved that movie and this made me laugh.

Have a great weekend. I am linking up with A Little Bit of Everything.

We Bought a New SUV

Happy Cinco de Mayo all!

So I feel like I should have mentioned this awhile ago, but I didn't. And I tried to write about this in a Friday Favorites post (last week) and it was just too long for a favorite, so I changed it into a post of its own...

I never told you all this, but we bought a new car a few months back. I am not sure why I didn't tell you all. So this is how the story goes...back in November I had someone ask me to purchase my car when I was at a local grocery store. I thought it was a bit weird, but the guy was in his 50s and I had seen him before at the store, so I knew it probably wasn't a scam. I told him no that I had no interest and went about my day.

The next day I looked up my cars value (2018 Honda CR-V) on Kelly Blue Book. I must have clicked the wrong link in there because not even 2 hours later I was getting a bunch of local dealerships calling and emailing me about my car. I hadn't even put any of my info in, but you know how the internet is. Anyways, I looked into the price and told Rory about the calls. And at this time, I had about $11K in equity on my SUV.

I was getting about 5 calls a day. It was crazy. I kept telling them I wasn't interested in selling my car. I did talk to the Mercedes dealership more as they were just so persistent. And I dreamed of a Mercedes, but knew it wasn't within our budget.

Fast forward a couple months and we thought, if my car has that much interest, maybe we should sell it and get a family car. Something we can both drive around (even though I drive it mostly) and has more room for the kids as they get older and have friends in the car. 

So we test drove some cars over a couple weeks. We test drove the Acura MDX (like the Honda Pilot but luxury), Audi Q5 and Q7, Volvo XC 60 and XC 90. Also, I did a bunch of research on the cars in between the weekends that we test drove these cars. We also looked at (online) the Genesis GV80, the Infiniti QX60, and the Kia Telluride. I also started following The Car Mom on IG for some negotiating advice, for her amazing car tours and to see what my options out there were. She has a ton of car tours on her website and she has the one we ultimately picked.

We quickly took off the Infiniti and Genesis as they were in Sacramento and we didn't want to drive 2 hours every time we had a service. Then we took off the Acura. I loved my Honda and the Acura was really nice....like super nice, but we wanted something different. And then we took off the Kia Telluride as we would have to order one since our Kia and ones within 250 miles were sold out. And we didn't even have one near us to test drive to see if we liked it.

I have always wanted an Audi and I loved the Q7. The seats in the second and third rows move with a simple push of a button. It is all electronic. It has a great 360 camera, an Audi light that projects to the ground when you open the doors, a great sound system (super important for me), it handled well, had great horsepower, beautiful interior, well made, large moon roof and so many other creature comforts. 

The Volvo XC 90 had a large moon roof, massaging chairs, a cabin air filter, amazing sound system, tons of space, was very fast, had 4 different "road/speed" features (eco, everyday use, dynamic and off road) a refrigerated glove box, so many creature comforts and amazing reliability.

We took another week or two to figure out what we wanted to do. I know both vehicles are luxury vehicles and have great reviews, reliability and are more within our price range (Mercedes and Range Rover are not). But when it came down to it, the Volvo will last longer. The salesman at the Audi dealership told me that the Audi is amazing and that is all he drives, BUT they are short term cars meaning they are meant to last for 100K to 150K miles. The Volvo can go way longer than that. Plus the Volvo has built in booster seats in the back (they are the only vehicle to do this so far). I am a huge fan of that.

So as you can guess, we went with the Volvo XC 90. The XC 60 was amazing and cheaper, but we wanted more room with a third row.

So I introduce you to our car...

And now you know. And no we won't be buying a new car for a long time. Hopefully at least 10 years. 

Amazon Prime Purchases - April

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes. 

It's time for another round of Prime Purchases. I didn't much much this last month and that seems to be the common theme when I don't have birthday gifts, Christmas or big holidays coming up.

So what did we buy this last month?

Save

linking up with Tanya

Kids Sleep Masks (2 Pack)

We have hit the stage where the girls get scared of the dark, being in their room at night and are wanting to be near us all the time. I check on the girls each night before I head to bed and I started noticing Avery was putting her pillow over her face at night. I asked her one morning why and she said because she was scared of the dark. I told her that she has her night lights, but she was still scared. So I suggested they try sleep masks. So far they work out pretty great. Now to fix the nightmares that Sutton has been having that keep her up some nights.

Powder and Bronzer Brush

I bought this brush because my powder round that I use was ruined. The girls got into my makeup one day and put on the NYX lip gloss that is meant to stay on even with a mask. They also put on mascara, bronzer and eye shadow. And they used my expensive powder round to put it on and try to take it off. I tried cleaning it, but it was ruined. So I decided against spending $16 to $20 on another round and got this brush instead. It has worked great and it is less than $8.

Iron Supplement with Vitamin C

So I had surgery back in January, and I had a follow up for it. I had to have a blood draw and it turns out my iron is really low. Like way low, so I was told an iron supplement would be beneficial to me. And my doctor said to get one with vitamin c because iron is hard to absorb and it will help. So far it has been helping and I am not as tired as I was feeling (perks of being anemic).

Tide Washing Machine Cleaner

So we all know that I normally use Affresh to cleaning my washing machine. But since following GoClean on IG, I decided to give this a try. She says Tide powder is amazing and cleans most things. So when she recommended this cleaner instead of the Affresh, I had to try it. It took awhile to get in and I just got it, so I will try it and report back.

Tom's Children's Toothpaste

This is the girls favorite toothpaste and we were out, so I got a three pack. So much easier than remembering to get it at the grocery store.

VGA adapter to HDMI cable

This is a random purchase, but I needed this adapter for work. I didn't want to rely on our IT department getting it in before we had to start back at work two days a week, so I bought one. I am so glad that I did because two weeks back in the office and they still don't have any.

Steve Madden Travel Sandal

Remember when I got these shoes in the clear color? Well, I loved them so much that I bought them in tan. I get more compliments on these (both pairs) shoes than any other shoes that I have. They are comfy, have no break in time and are fun. Plus they are on mega sale.

Mario RC Scooter

The girls had a birthday party yesterday and we needed a gift. The boy loves Super Mario, so hopefully he will enjoy the gift. And one thing I wanted to point out...this boy went to preschool with the girls and they haven't seen him other than friend gatherings once or twice since they all went to Kindergarten. Well when they all saw each other, it was like no time had passed. I just love that!

Bissell Cordless Hand Vac

So I bought a new car handheld vacuum. And while I LOVE my Shark vac for inside my house, I wanted something for on the go. As I said on Friday, a fellow IGer said amazing things about this vacuum and I knew I had to have it. It comes with a regular charger and an usb charger for charging on the go. This is a moms dream for being on the go.

So what did you purchase this last month on Amazon?