you can take the girl out of disney...

so we've been all sorts of busy since we returned from our fantastic vacation.  it was the bean's week of downtime between vacation and summer school, so we alternated between just hanging out doing nothing and getting out of the house to get stuff done.

the old lady let her poke the little stick through her ballot on election day, and we all got our "i voted" stickers.

i decided that it was high time for her to learn how to play one of my most favorite board games ever...

and she took all my money.

i enjoyed a rare night out with a handful of our girl scout troop parents, which was really fun.  it was very sweet of them to treat me and my co-leader to dinner, and we all had a blast hanging out without the kids around.

i don't know who was more relieved when the first day of summer school came - me or the bean.  she goes a little crazy when she has too much downtime at home, which in turn means that i'm a little buggy too.  we're trying a new program this year located in a nearby college, and she reports back every afternoon on how much fun they're having.  the program features six different classes that they rotate through, and then they spend a couple of hours in the afternoon swimming.  it's a pretty sweet deal, and she's really having a great time.

target got my hardest side-eye when we walked in this week and spotted this.  because NO, target.  just NO.  too damn soon.

i finally got rid of those disney princesses on my nails and replaced them with...this.

the old lady and i tried out the new sunset happy hour at starbucks.  this is their brownie trifle - which is basically layers of whipped cream, chunks of brownies and chocolate and caramel syrups.  super sweet.

and since i spent pretty much the entire month before vacation not doing much cooking, i'm trying to make up for it.  i started with some pansit and lumpia:

and then when summer kicked off with insane triple-digit temperatures, i turned to my old friend the instant pot to help me make dinner without breaking a sweat.  one night, it was bbq'd ribs:

and on another, a hawaiian plate lunch.  this is kalua pig, steamed cabbage, rice and homemade macaroni salad.

i've even gotten a little sewing done.  with the bean doing swim lessons every day, i decided to tackle my second-ever swimsuit pattern.  i think it turned out pretty cute:

and when a friend shared a photo on my facebook feed of a super cute tee, i decided i'd DIY that sucker using all of my crafty devices.  i cut the transfer out with my silhouette machine, sewed up the tank with fabric i already had on hand, and used my heat press to iron it on.  a $30+ shirt done all by myself for less than $5!

and, of course, there have been cookies.  these were really fun to make.

although i'm not too thrilled about the heat, i'm pretty excited for what else summer has in store for us.  you know us - we always manage to find some fun stuff to do.  i can't wait to dive in.