eating our way through the west side

a few weeks ago, i dropped by to check out a newly-opened party store in l.a., owned by one of the girls who'd been a wan-derful women's expo supporter.  she and i have been e-mailing and tweeting back and forth, in an attempt to maybe forge an alliance between the shop and my own pink paper designs.  after a couple of attempts to get together that didn't pan out (all my fault), i was finally able to set and stick to a date to come out again and meet when she was around.

she invited me to bring the girls down for a fun gathering at the shop - trick-or-treat bag and cupcake decorating and halloween cardmaking for kids ages 3-15.  perfect.  and the teen's buddy rock-ell was free too, so we scooped her up and hopped on the freeway.

except that the bean fell asleep in the car on the way.  of course.  i was expecting her to, anyway, considering she'd just had her first gymnastics class as a "tiger.'  she kicked ass, by the way - when the coach asked for volunteers to lead the class and be the teacher, she was the first to jump up and get the job done.  she actually went through the first obstacle course first and showed all the kids what to do, and when she sat down and the coach told her she'd done a good job, she replied "i know.  it's because i'm the teacher."  heh.  that's my girl.

anyway, we were hungry as none of us had had anything to eat yet that day.  and as we drove along, the teen lit up and breathed "we could go to versailles!"  i thought this was a fabulous idea, especially since she's back to eating chicken and can fully enjoy the garlic chicken/rice & beans deliciousness that versailles has to offer.  not to mention, the last time we'd had a hankering for it, we'd been totally assed out.

she looked it up on her trusty iPhone, and lo and behold - the shop was literally around the corner from one of versailles' locations.  it's like it was meant to be.

i picked up two orders of mouthwatering chicken and rice, hopped into the car, and we headed off to find a good spot to sit and eat it.  the shop is near some residential streets, so we ended up parking on one of them to enjoy our lunch and wait for the bean to wake up.  so delicious:

the teen and i demolished that shit, man.  by the time we were done, all that was left was a sad carcass and a bunch of onions (which none of us like).  rock-ell did her best, but had quite a bit left over.  no worries - we were only too happy to pack it back up and save it for later.

just then, the bean opened her eyes - after only a 1-hour nap, half of her usual.  oh, well.  so we found a parking spot in front of the shop, fed the meter, and headed on in.

while the girls took the bean and got her started on making a card, i spent some time chatting with yvette, the shop owner.  she'd mentioned perhaps adding on another invitation designer to her staff, and since she'd liked my work on my website, thought maybe i could do a little freelancing.  um, YES.  not to mention, we set a date to do a stella & dot trunk show in the shop!  yay!

i finally tore myself away from business talk to go and have some fun with the girls.  the bean was obviously still drowsy, but was interested enough to get into the project at hand.

the teen and rock-ell decided to move on to the next station - trick-or-treat bag decorating.  bright orange canvas bags were provided, along with a whole bunch of fun stuff to adorn them with.

meanwhile, i, of course, eyed the snacks.

the bean had fun putting stickers and stuff on her bag.

and then when she'd put as many on as she possibly could (well, she could've done more, but we had to leave stuff for the other kids too), we moved on to the cupcake station.

she chose red velvet, while the girls opted for vanilla.

with a little help, she piped on some frosting and topped it all with colorful sprinkles and some green sanding sugar.

she had just as much fun eating it as she did making it.

the teen's creation.

after we were all done (and made a purchase to show our appreciation for the fun stuff we'd gotten to do), we bid yvette farewell and headed out.  despite our full stomachs after lunch and snacks, the teen was dying to introduce rock-ell to the mother of all cupcakeries:  sprinkles.  since we were only a few miles away, i decided to indulge them.

on the way there, we decided to drive up rodeo, just for fun.

and then we were there.  the line was out the door, but not nearly as bad as it's been in the past.  and this was the first time i'd returned to sprinkles in at least two years.

 we drove through west hollywood on our way home.  the teen is obsessed with all things marilyn monroe and snapped a picture of formosa café as we drove along.  marilyn had been a regular customer there, and so of course we'll have to go one of these days.

we got home a little after 5, just in time to get home, empty the camera, freshen up, and head back out to our activity for the evening:  a basketball game/fundraiser at the high school featuring a line-up of "celebrities" (the quotes are due to the fact that i didn't know the majority of the folks slated to appear) and faculty and staff members.

more on that to come.