playdate paint jobs

in my quest to keep the bean busy during her week off from school, i finally got my shit together and coordinated a playdate with my friend nanette and her girls.

i suggested meeting up at the americana at brand, since it looked like a pretty decent halfway point between us. and upon further inspection of their website, it seemed that they offered free kids club activities on the day we were planning to meet. yay for free fun stuff!

we arrived first, with enough time to stroll around a little and check out their rather impressive holiday decorations. this christmas tree is gigantic. 

and while santa's cottage looked awesome, we were bummed to see that it had taken the place of the playground i'd been banking on for the girls. 

the bean enjoyed the water show at the fountains. 

we spied nanette and her brood the very moment they exited the parking garage, and the bean was super excited to finally be reunited with her friend em. seems the feeling was mutual. 

they made themselves comfortable at the arts and crafts tables and cranked out a couple of cute thanksgiving decorations. i'd show you what they looked like had i not forgotten ours in the bottom of baby mimi's stroller. oops. 

my kid is not usually a big fan of face painting, so i was surprised when she asked to get in line to have something fun drawn on her face. the lady was really good, and i grabbed one of her cards for - well, just in case.

this is my favorite picture of that day. em was hesitant at first, only consenting to have something painted on her hand. but her curiosity was most definitely piqued, wouldn't you say?

she was pretty proud of her new (temporary) ink.

it was enough to give em a little push, and she sat down in the chair for some facial artwork of her own. 

how cute are they? i love how they both made sure to turn just so for the camera.

i melted a little more every time i overheard the girls say "come on, let's hold hands!" 

little blue boxes all over a christmas tree. sure, why not?

we went into barnes & noble to look at books and have a little storytime. 

then they entertained me with silly faces as we waited to be seated for lunch. 

it was a super fun way to spend an afternoon, and we'll have to do it again over winter break. i wonder what sort of shenanigans we'll get into next time.

fix number six

so my stitch fix boxes have been really good the last couple of months, right? that just means i was due for a dud anytime now, and i've gotta say...if it had to happen, i'm glad it was this one. with holiday shopping season upon us, i really had no business even scheduling a fix right now. heh.

this time, i received two dresses. this fit & flare LBD is pretty basic, but comfy and cute. $68:

the other dress was superbad. like, how unflattering! striped 3/4 sleeve knit dress, $68:

this open cardigan was the sole winner in this shipment. $48, but i got to apply my $20 styling fix credit towards it. 

i'm already bracing for it to be stolen out of my closet by the teen, who's already given it the googly eyes when i showed it to her. 

the last two items were both sleeveless tops. i mean, i know I live in soCA, but come on. 

boring ass front pocket sleeveless blouse in burgundy, $58.

the other, a black velvet detailed hi-lo tank.  it's a'ight, but not worth $58:

see what i mean? total flop, this fix. but that's totally okay...because that closet cleanout credit from thredup is coming, and should be applied to my account just in time for the next box. sweet. 

oh! also, annie - if you're still interested in that hello kitty toaster…email me.

pieces of me

i know it's totally corny to do a "thankful" post on thanksgiving, but it somehow seems wrong not to. you know?  so okay, here goes - in no particular order:

the teen is my constant companion, who indulges every crazy whim, makes me laugh all the time, and loves me no matter what (as i do her).

the bean chose "halona" as her native american name for their thanksgiving play at school. it also happens to mean "the lucky one," which is super appropriate, yes?

these are all of the medals i've managed to add to my collection this year. i don't know how long this running thing will last, but for now i'm having a blast with it. 

we've come to appreciate mollydog a lot more in the last few weeks, thanks to the antics of the dog we're still taking care of for g-wan. she's super lazy and not tremendously smart, but she's sweet and cuddly. 

um, i have a gold starbucks card. 

thanks to the lateness of thanksgiving, resulting in a shortened holiday season this year, our christmas lights are already in place. yup. 

i have the best husband in the whole world. really, he's just awesome - he makes me laugh, is a neverending source of support, works his ass off to keep us all happy, and is truly my very best friend. he has my heart forever. 

our christmas cards have arrived!  and packaged so nicely, too. 

i hope that next year, we can celebrate thanksgiving with my mom. this year, she and my stepdad are off on a fabulous european river cruise. hope they're having lots of fun. 

thanksgiving is odd without the ILs around. now that everyone is all spread out, we have to settle for facetime and text messages. i miss them. 

i don't get to see my friends nearly as often as i'd like to, but whenever we do get together it's guaranteed to be a good time. 

i've already mentioned my own little family, but they deserve a second mention. i can't even imagine how sad and boring my life would be without them. they bring light and love and joy and happiness to my life, and i can only hope to do even half as much for them. 

i hope that your thanksgiving is as wonderful and joyful and peaceful as ours is. 

i mustache you a question

so after our triumphant hike to the hollywood sign, we headed out to bib pickup for the next day's mustache dache. yes, i realize the spelling is atrocious, but i'm guessing that it's due to the existence of similarly themed runs. whatever. this one came to my attention via living social, with a crazy cheap deal for entry that i simply couldn't resist.

picking up my bib was easy peasy, since it was midday on a friday. we were in and out of there in like five minutes. 

the next morning, i headed out while everyone was still asleep and made my way to downtown l.a. i'd taken advantage of prepaid parking and found a spot in the structure pretty easily.  the course went through elysian park near dodger stadium, and i boarded one of the free shuttles to the start line.

it took about ten minutes to get there, and a good sized crowd was already milling about and warming up.

i didn't have the time nor the inclination to sport a fake 'stache, but i did throw on the one item of clothing in my closet that went with the theme. 

i suppose i could've dropped some cash on some official merchandise...but i didn't. 

i'm excited for this race on thanksgiving morning, with the teen.

more mustachio'd silliness. 

by the time i made my way into the corral at the start, the sun was beaming down so hard that i had to take my sweater off. it was time to transform into my alter ego. 

check out the official pace car:

as i'd anticipated, the course was mostly on an incline, with a couple of pretty gnarly hills. and just as i glanced at my phone and noticed that i was right around 2.65 miles, i saw this:

SO not a full 5K. what the hell? oh, well. i accepted my finisher's medal anyway. 

water!

whatever. i'm pretty sure i made up for the last half-mile walking through the crowd and back down to the shuttle anyway. that totally counts…right?