a bunch of 10-year-old lushes

the first birthday party of the season was a really fun one, in a place i had no idea even did parties.  one of the bean's BFFs turned 11 and celebrated it in one of the most tween-y ways possible...by gathering all of her closest friends for some organic, fragrant fun at lush.

i snagged this group shot of the girls who were the first to arrive:

and they roamed around the shop that they had all to themselves, free to sample anything that had a tester while giggling and smearing all sorts of stuff on their skin.

once everyone had arrived, the staff got the party started by gathering the girls at the front of the store, where they'd set up a couple of giant buckets of water to drop bath bombs in and test out their new line of bubble brushes and bubble wands.  this, as you can imagine, was a huge hit.

then they moved to another table to play a variation of charades, where they were handed chunks of "fun" - a multipurpose product that can be used as soap, shampoo, bubble bath, and best of all...molding shapes out of it like play-doh.

after that it was "face painting" time...which meant that they got to paint each other with all kinds of face masks before cleaning it all off with wet towels.

one of the moms was roaming around with an instant camera, collecting the prints on a table so that the girls could sign them before placing them in a photo book.

oh, and there was a table of tasty breakfast treats - muffins, cronuts, fruit and cheese, juice and tea and water.

the last hands-on activity the girls got to do was probably the best one - making bath bombs to take home as a party favor.  i'm not sure why i was getting the stink eye from the bean here, but there you go.

once that was done, each girl was handed a gift card to do some shopping.  i figured they'd get to pick a couple of things out for, like, $20...so i was pretty surprised when the bean pulled hers out and showed me that they each had $50 to spend in the store.  wowee!

they all had a blast browsing and debating and putting things in their baskets, while the other moms and i smirked at the sneaky math lesson that the shopping trip managed to squeeze in.

all that was left after that was to sing to the birthday girl, munch on cupcakes and take one more group photo with the whole party.

after we said our goodbyes, a few of us lingered and decided to walk around the mall a little.

we stopped in a couple of shops that the girls wanted to look around in, and ended up here:

i can't be at the hello kitty cafe without picking up one of their pocket pies, especially when the featured flavor is lemon.

it was a fun morning, and a great way to kick off birthday party season 2018.  now we're brainstorming like mad to come up with something for the bean, who has informed us that she plans to have a birthday party every year forever.

yaaaaaaaaay.

a whole lotta randomness for terrific thursday

it's been three weeks since the teen sprained her ankle playing field hockey during p.e. class. she hobbled around on crutches for a week, per the doc's instructions, and popped advil whenever the pain hit. the ankle's better, but she told me yesterday that the pain had moved up to her knee. weird, right? so i got her a doctor's appointment for first thing this morning. she was stoked to be missing science class, and most likely part of english, too. heh.

we enjoyed a nice, leisurely morning (well, as leisurely as you can get with an extra hour) before heading down to the local kaiser clinic. there, she was weighed and measured and the usual crap they do when you see a doc. and then we were led into the same exam room that she got all those shots in.

"this room brings back bad memories, mom. i'm traumatized!" my drama queen teen said.

she was given a gown because her damn skinny jeans were too tight for the doc to be able to check her knee properly. haha! and she was thoroughly annoyed by my singing: "i see london, i see france, i see the teen's underpants!" yes, i'm 8.

while we waited to be seen, the bean squirmed and wiggled till i put her down so she could explore a bit.

more of that lovely kaiser wall decor.

the verdict: the pain in her knee has nothing to do with her ankle. apparently, it's a common condition with a long name: patellofemoral pain syndrome. basically, it's knee pain caused by overuse, weak quads, or problems with the way the kneecap moves. the doc said she thought it was most likely from overuse (i smirked, as did the teen, because it's not like she's in sports or anything), and told her to pop ibuprofen and put on one of those stretchy knee braces with a hole in it when she felt pain.

as the teen put her pants back on, the doc wrote up a note excusing her from p.e. class for another week, and that was that.

so i've never brought a camera into gymboree class with the bean. how very unlike me, right? but at tuesday's class, we found out that one of her little friends was moving out of state and that was his last class. so sad! his mom is really sweet, and this little boy was always so adorable and smiley. i'm bummed to see them go.

finding a new boy to play with (okay, actually, we've known this cutie for quite a while now, too, and his mom is also really friendly and sweet).

bubble time!

hiding from "gymbo the clown" - at the end of the class, the teacher walks around and gives all the kids kisses from gymbo. the bean is not a kissy kinda kid - not with anyone. she turns away from us when we go to kiss her, and sometimes she'll even shoo us away with her hands. gymbo is no exception.

look, it's the bean's first class picture!

i made dinner again last night, and this time it was memphis-style ribs with homemade sauce. i meant to make some coleslaw, too, but somehow managed to get home without the cabbage i could swear i'd tossed into the cart. oh, well. instead, i whipped up a batch of red lobster-style cheddar biscuits and even a batch of sweet tea, and it was all dee-lish!

i treated myself to this little set of philosophy products at sephora. i guess it's a bit of wishful thinking, as it's called "warm by the fire" - it's so damn hot right now, and it's damn near november! ugh.

anyway, inside is a 4 oz. bottle of philosophy's fab 3-in-1 shower gel/shampoo/bubble bath in "hot cocoa," a tube of body souffle in "melting marshmallow cream," and lip gloss in "ooey gooey s'mores." and it all smells divine.

lastly, the bean decided to pluck my sunglasses (yup, i'm still sporting the old, beat-up pair - haven't had the chance to scoop up the promised pair from that interview transcription yet) off of my face. i put them on her, which she seemed to think was pretty funny. and so did i:

yay for terrific thursday!