playdates rock

a handful of us have been trying to get it together for months and meet up with the kiddies for a playdate at kidspace in pasadena.  we'd set a date a couple of times and had to reschedule because everyone's always so busy.  but we finally managed to find a date that worked for us all - yay!

i'd been to kidspace a couple of times before, but always for junior league meetings and never with the bean in tow.  i knew she'd have a ball, and we dragged the teen along too. 

when we got there, the bean was happy to say hello to mini-lilcee and her doggies.

nanette and em arrived soon after, and we started making our way up to the museum.  it was cute to watch the bean and her BFF trotting across the lawn.

to get inside, you get to walk through this cool tunnel, decorated colorfully with fun stuff to touch and feel and look at.

i admired nanette's super duper cool lens.  i think we know what i'll be asking for next, right?  maybe...mother's day?

we got in line to pay our $10 admission and receive our handstamps.

engaged at kidspace!!  that will only be amusing to a few of you, but whatever.

i love that our kids love each other.

the main building housed a nature-type exhibit.  there were fun things to see, run through, climb up and down.

outside, we found a waterplay station.  the bean must've had ESP about this, since she's the one who chose to wear her rain boots that morning.

but i didn't really have extra clothes to put her in, and wasn't all about letting her get soaked.  besides, i didn't want her to be a bad influence on the others.  so we ushered her away from there and towards the track, where there were fun tricycles to ride.

there were other fun things to do on the museum grounds, too.

the teen and i giggled over this dude's resemblance to will ferrell.  can you see it?

there were little toy cars stuck in the concrete, which was fascinating to the bean for about 2.75 seconds.

we decided to head out and grab some lunch together.  on our way to mike & anne's, not too far away, nanette called to let me know that em had fallen asleep and they were heading home.  we were bummed, but totally understood.  and as we sat outside, waiting for a table, the bean spied this cute doggy and i told her to ask first if it was okay to pet him.  and as the man smiled at her and said "oh, sure, she's really friendly," i about shat myself.  i knew that face!  it was totally long duck dong from "sixteen candles"!

i was stoked to have had a perfect excuse to snap a few pics, although i'd left the good camera in the car and was armed only with my iPhone.  but still - you can see him, right?  i'm so sorry, LDD, i know you have a real name, but that wouldn't be as fun.  and i kept hearing gongs in my head and flashing back to awesome scenes from the movie.  heh.

after lunch, the three of us decided to walk about a block down the street to check out my sweet cupcake.  i wasn't in the mood to have one (i know, i know), and the girls chose one to share - the "animal cracker" flavor.

well, okay, i might have had one bite.  and it was pretty tasty. 

we made the bean walk most of the way back to the car, and we didn't make it very far before i looked back and saw this:

yeeeeeeah.  pretty awesome day.