halloweenie teen

although she still doesn't have a real costume, the teen had some fun at target trying some on.

no, she didn't actually pick one of these.  meanwhile, i was torn between amusement and being grossed out by this one:

because really, what's the first thing you see?  yeah.  gorilla nipples.  not cute.

anyway, she's been super preoccupied with what comes a day before halloween:  homecoming.  oh, man.  between the floofy dress and the sparkly shoes and the limo and dinner and cruising out to hollywood afterwards and the "i need hair and makeup done!" i'm all homecoming-ed out.  damn.

we did go and have her nails done.  and she was so stoked when they were done:

okay, so yeah - they're totally cute on her.  now let's just hope she doesn't chip any of 'em before saturday night.  the day is already super tight between the hair and makeup appointments.  oy vey.  give me strength.

today's post is brought to you by the letter...uh, A.

so i'm in the middle of making the teen's pettiskirt to match her sister's, so they can wear them for part of our upcoming family photo shoot.  i'd originally meant to have it done in time for the bean's party, but i ran out of time.  luckily, i managed to salvage the idea by proposing some super cute sister pictures during the shoot.  i can't wait - with the background i'm envisioning, they're going to be EPIC.

i also got all of the thank-you notes out.  actually, they've been out for over a week, but i've had other things to blab about here.  heh.  anyway, here's an example of what they looked like:

i've already heard from a number of folks who've received theirs, and i'm all tickled that they went over so well. 

something else i'd meant to have done before the party was to recreate part of the decor in the bean's room from the last bedroom she had - wall letters spelling her name out.  the ones we'd used before were from paper source, just cardboard letters that we'd spray-painted pink.  we'd just used some double-stick tape to adhere them to the wall, so when we removed them they ended up in pieces.  oh, well.  i wanted to get some nicer ones for this time around - maybe some wooden ones i'd seen in pottery barn kids.  but then i came across a tutorial on one of my favorite crafty/sew-y blogs for wall letters made with felt, and decided that they'd look really cute.

i wanted to use the good stuff - wool felt instead of the cheesy poly-blend crap - but my local joann's only had super boring, ugly colors.  meh.  and then i found the stacks of felt in all sorts of fun colors - 4 sheets for $1.  well, shit.  i couldn't pass that up!  i added some contrasting embroidery floss and managed to skedaddle outta there after ponying up less than $5.  that was a first.

after scouring dafont.com for a fun font to use, i finally picked one.  i printed all of the letters in the bean's name (no, they won't actually spell out "the bean," sillies), enlarged to about 400-pt font.  i traced them onto the felt and cut two of each letter.

i used a whipstitch for the edges of each letter, left an opening, and then poked fiberfill stuffing inside.  i sewed the opening shut, tied a knot, and admired my handiwork.  not perfect by a long shot, but supposedly that adds to the homemade "charm."  whatever.  i'm happy with them (although i'm not completely done yet, slacker).

hopefully they'll look cute when they're all finished and hanging on the wall.

ballers

so this is how we spent our saturday night:

a fundraiser for the teen's school's peer assistance group came in the form of a basketball game between members of the glendora school district's faculty and staff and a group of guys made up of actors from random tv shows called the hollywood knights, plus a DJ and other reps from our local top-40 radio station.  the teen was super excited for this thing, with a couple of guys from "the secret life of the american teenager" scheduled to appear.  she loves that show.  i...don't.  all they talk about is hooking up and girls are getting pregnant left and right and even if that's the reality for today's teens, i really don't need it staring me in the face.

anyway, with it being a school fundraiser, we had no problems shelling out $25 for VIP passes, which got us courtside seats.  the hub was originally going to come along, but decided the UFC fight with his buddies sounded more interesting.  so we brought rock-ell along instead, who was more than happy to take the upgrade from her measly general admission ticket.

we got the last three seats right next to this empty row - which turned out to be the celebrity team's section.  whee!

after watching some silliness involving various audience members and the radio station reps, the teams came out to warm up.  there was much excitement as the "celebrities" came out onto the floor.

this guy, who had a great smile and was super friendly, is in a show on ABC family and was in a disney channel movie that starred selena gomez and demi lovato.

he seemed to be wondering what the hell he was doing out in BFE on a perfectly good saturday night.

see, this is how close we were sitting to them:

the only name i'd recognized from the celebrity-lineup was cody linley, who's been on "hannah montana" and was one of last season's "dancing with the stars" castoffs.  he was super cocky and could hardly be bothered to mingle with his fans.

and yeah, i felt super wrong taking this picture of him, but i did it anyway.

the teams came out for their introductions.

even the bean, who'd been a little startled by the level of noise at first (and clapped her hands over her ears), got into it after a while.

this was about the last time the faculty team was even with the celebs:

tip-off!

both the teen and rock-ell fell all over themselves as they drooled over this guy.

at one point, their p.e. teacher (who was assigned to guard him) took him aside and pointed the girls out to him (they weren't hard to spot, as he walked by them every few minutes and heard them proclaim their love every time).

and the next time he came over, he grabbed a towel to dry off and tossed it to rock-ell, who damn near passed out in ecstasy.

it was pretty stinking funny.  on the other hand, the teen and i both thought this dude was pretty super delicious.  he must've thought i was such a creep, because every time he turned around, he was facing my camera lens.  remember, my seat was really close to him.  muahahahahaha.

this dude was rock-ell's tormentor.  he was from the radio station and periodically strode by with t-shirts, balls, and other giveaways, and when she would try to get his attention, he'd fake her out.  he'd make like he was handing her whatever was in his hand, and when she reached for it, he'd yank it back and laugh maniacally.  buttwad.

at halftime, the cheer squad came out to perform.

while they shook their thang, the football team came out to ensure that the crowd didn't surge forward and rush the halftime act - some dude whose name i can't even remember anymore.

and then tables and chairs appeared on the floor for the autograph session.  good lord, i thought i was going to get trampled.  thank goodness i'd put the bean on my shoulders - otherwise, she'd have suffocated in the crowd.  but the teen managed to get some decent shots.

when the game was over, the guys stayed on the floor and happily posed for pictures with everyone.  the bean and i might've snuck into a couple of shots we weren't supposed to be in.

again, my stupid face made its way into a bunch of pictures.

rock-ell was fangirling up a freaking storm.  with her precious michael copon-sweaty towel in hand, she elbowed her way through the crowd that surrounded him to get a solo shot of herself with him.  we laughed our asses off as we stood behind him, waiting for a turn, and watched her lick his arm.  when he finally turned around and noticed her, he grabbed the towel back, wiped himself off again, made like he was going to stick it down his shorts, but stopped short as everybody squealed.  he handed it back to her, and she was over the freaking moon.  he asked if he was going to see us at the afterparty, but when we said we hadn't gotten access, he shot us an apologetic look and turned to the next group of giggly girls.

outside, we tried (unsuccessfully) to gain entrance into the "afterparty" - actually a dinner catered by the peer assistance group in the school's event center.  so they settled for waiting around for a glimpse of the guys as they left for the night.

the bean entertained herself just fine, and shot the radio dude a dirty ass look when he came over to pose for a picture with her.  heh.

and then it was all over.

good times.  as word spread through campus the next school day about the game, tons of folks were bummed to have missed it.  so next year when those VIP tickets go on sale, we'll have to jump on 'em.  they're gonna sell out fast.