My favorite way to spend Saturday Morning.

My absolute favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning is to head down to The City for beignets ( say "ben-yay") and cafe au laits. Cafe Du Monde, located in the French Market in New Orleans is famous for their beignets, blanketed in powdered sugar, and cafe au laits made with coffee and chicory.

To be honest, it is a touristy place. You have to wait in line to get a seat in the open air seating. For us though, that is part of the fun. There are always guys making balloon animals for the kids, face painting, and musicians that love to play "Twinkle, Twinkle" so the twins will dance and sing along. If that doesn't entertain you enough, simply look across the street to see all of the horse drawn carriages, St. Louis Cathedral, and local artists who have set up their work for view and sale.

A beignet is a french-style donuts, or fritters. I swear they dump a pound of powdered sugar on each order of beignets (3 to an order). Click here for a recipe.A cafe au lait is equal parts coffee and hot milk. What makes it special is the kind of coffee. It's New Orleans style. Dark roasted coffee mixed with chicory. Chicory is the root of the endive plant, roasted and ground up. It gives almost a chocolate flavor to the coffee and takes the bitter edge of the dark roast. Delightful.
The kids had a beautiful time making a mess of themselves.

Twin B decided she would lick up any residual powdered sugar.

Being a good twin, Twin A did the same.We had powdered sugar EVERYWHERE!! Look between her eyes, yep, powdered sugar.
The Dude starts to get panicky with the mess, but I urge him to just chill and enjoy the moments.
Excuse the lack of makeup and tired eyes (I was out late the night before). But look at that cute lil Pickles in my lap!
I think he liked the beignets too.
Can't leave any sugar!!

The Dude was trying to get a pic with Twin A, but as you can see, all she was interested in was stealing the powdered sugar off of his plate. HA!

Afterwards, we took a carriage ride through the French Quarter. The kids loved it.

Still clutching that cafe au lait.

After our ride, we walked around, looking at all the artwork. We spotted this young bride getting the New Orleans skyline painted on her gown. Yes, PAINTED on her gown.

It really was friggen amazing up close.

New Orleans really is a beautiful city, full of history. It's not dirty, like I think people imagine it. I know I always thought of it smelling of urine and vomit, but it's been cleaned up in recent years.

Right now, everyone is gearing up for Mardi Gras. Never in my right mind would I venture to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, so I'll just stick with some decorations in the city beforehand.

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Down 5lbs. Not as far as I'd prefer to be in this weight loss journey, but it's better than gaining!