april photo dumpin’

the rest of april went by pretty fast, and we squeezed as much fun as possible in there. first up, the hub’s birthday.  he’s not one to make a big deal out of the day, so it was pretty low-key.  and with the bean still in france, we just hung out at home and bbq’d for dinner.

while i was at it, i painted a banner to surprise the bean too.

they got home the day before easter and was thrilled to show everyone all of the souvenirs that they’d picked out for us on the trip.

i busted out a fun skirt for easter sunday boot camp.

speaking of easter, i crocheted a few fun toys for the little miss’ first easter basket.

i had easter goodies for everyone.

the bean and i headed out to pasadena one morning to find the viral onigiri time kiosk.  it was delicious and totally worth the trek.

on our way home from that TFT open house, we knew we needed to kill some time so that we wouldn’t be sitting in stopped traffic for two hours.  we decided to head to the century city mall and came across this pop-up for arih, a new line of korean instant noodles and probiotic sodas that was a collaboration with - you guessed it - BTS.  we spent a good amount of time here, sampling different flavors of noodles, hanging out and peoplewatching.

i was super excited to head to dodger stadium with my friends for hello kitty night.  the giveaway was a really cute HK x dodgers hoodie, and we made sure to get there nice and early for the best chance at getting one in the right size.

this was the closest we got to hello kitty herself.

i splurged and bought these adorable mini cooler-shaped drink cups.

obligatory group photos, featuring weezermonkey’s two adorable children.

another foodie outing with the bean took us down to the oc, chasing yet another item that had gone viral on instagram.  this time: giant salmon nigiri that was totally worth the drive.  we placed the order online and then arrived at this ghost kitchen setup with lockers assigned to each order.

another day saw the hub driving me out to the grove on a weeknight for something i was ridiculously excited for:  a book signing with the fabulous la lucci herself - susan lucci, best known as erica kane on “all my children.” the show is long gone, but the fandom is still very much alive.  and i was so starstruck that i don’t even remember what i said to her.

the bean represented the homeland at a school multicultural potluck event.  we ordered a hundred pieces of delicious lumpia shanghai, which i’m told disappeared in about five minutes.

i finally hit the 250-class milestone at barre!  only took three whole years.

2026 girls’ weekend at the langham somehow managed to coincide with the bean’s last prom.  of course. and with me not wanting to miss either event, i ended up doing a lot of driving back and forth on that saturday.  we kicked off the weekend with a lovely tea at the hotel:

and then i raced home to help the bean get ready for prom.  they’d hadn’t wanted to wear a suit this time and opted instead for a vest with a long-sleeved dress shirt underneath.  and instead of the matching slim-cut pants (which we’d also bought as a back-up), i pulled out the perfect chunk of champagne-colored stretch satin and offered to make a pair of wide-leg pants.  after a few mishaps along the way, they got themselves dressed and i thought the ensemble looked really cute.

with all of the photos taken and the kids safely on the bus to the venue in downtown l.a., i headed back to the hotel to rejoin the group for some shenanigans.  with time being so short, we decided to just stay on property the whole time and ended up ordering some late-night taco bell via door dash.

while we were enjoying our tacos and mexican pizzas, i got a call from the bean.  turns out the pants were a little too big - and during a particularly emphatic dance break, they’d slowly slid down and pooled onto the floor at their feet before they realized what had happened.  omg, i died laughing (and the bean was laughing as they told the story, so i was really relieved that it hadn’t resulted in any life-altering trauma).

the next morning, with the group opting to skip boot camp, a few of us gathered at the hotel gym to get our sweat on.

to close out the month, my cousin hooked us up with tickets to the jonas brothers concert at yaamava.  the old lady invited her OG bestie, and i was happy to get ballerina to come with us too.  she’d been wanting to see them in concert, so it was perfect.

this couple got engaged during the show:

and then, much to our surprise (and not in a good way), the guys wrapped up the show and exited - just an hour after they’d hit the stage.  ONE hour.  we were so disappointed.

oh well.  we’d still had a great time together, had really good seats, and thanks to my cousin hadn’t even had to pay for the tickets.  can’t really complain here.