counting down the last few days of 2019

the bean goes back to school today after a little more than two weeks off.  it's kind of a bummer because it's been lovely to be able to sleep in/stay up late, not worry about the routine, driving from one activity to the next, yada yada yada.  but like i reminded her, the sooner she goes back the closer we get to the next break.

we managed to squeeze in a dim sum date with some of my cousins after christmas, which is always a good time.  along with all of the usual dim sum treats i was excited to find what my friend weezermonkey dubbed the "smurf house" a long time ago - a little cup of almond milk tea topped with a lovely layer of puff pastry.

and afterwards a few of us headed over to a local boba shop to satisfy the bean's craving.

while we were enjoying cousin time (and the old lady was slaving away at work), the boys headed up to the mountains for some snowboarding fun.

with a new year's eve party to throw, we decided to pack up the christmas decor a little earlier than usual.  it's always a bummer to put it all away, but we did have it up for a good amount of time and besides, christmas was over anyway.  still...bleh.

and look!  our family christmas ornament collection.  it was while we were putting up the tree that i realized that we'd skipped buying one in 2009.  lucky for me, i found it on eBay and i'll just have to pull out a picture from that year's family photos to put in it one of these days.

the only good part about putting christmas away was finally being able to put out the new welcome mat i'd been saving for weeks:

the old lady's BFF gifted us with this cute set of wine glasses that go with that welcome mat pretty well.

so the only actual schoolwork that the bean was required to do over the break was to finish up a book report that she'd been dragging her feet over.  and to her credit, she'd actually completed it well before christmas day.  except that rather than placing it safely in her backpack and zipping it closed like i'd suggested, she...didn't.  and teddy being teddy (crazy chewing puppy mode that i can't wait to see end), he got ahold of the ziploc baggie she'd put it in and dragged it into the back yard to destroy.  the report was in the form of a giant jigsaw puzzle made out of poster board with her hand-drawn illustrations and report text on the pieces, and while she attempted to repair the pieces that had the most damage, she ended up having to just suck it up and redo the entire thing.  and because teddy is a lunatic, he still managed to get ahold of a few of the new pieces she'd done.  so when she finally buckled down and put all of her focus on just powering through and getting it all done, the hub created a workspace for her that teddy couldn't get into:

she finished it just in time for us to start getting ready for the party.  we were having her two BFFs and their families over - the same group we'd done friendsgiving with just the month before.  the hub had gone to costco to grab a couple of tower heaters to use in the backyard to make sure that we'd all stay warm while enjoying dinner and waiting for the ball to drop.  i'd ordered some fun (hopefully non-cheesy) decorations and party favors, which everyone helped me put up.

teddy and cocoa both had festive outfits for the occasion:

i put together another one of those charcuterie boards:

and the hub fired up the barbecue to grill up some steaks, salmon and veggies.

one of our many desserts was this whole tres leches cake from porto's:

and it was a fun and laid back evening of food, wine, chatter and laughter.

we gathered everyone together for group photos that we'd forgotten to do at friendsgiving:

the old lady had been doing her best to finish binge watching "friends" before netflix took it out of their rotation, which was scheduled for january 1st.  she finished the last few episodes well before midnight, and then out of curiosity after we finished those group photos i tried to pull it up on my phone and found this:

it was like 12:10.  netflix was not playing around when they said the episodes would be gone.  man.

oh well.  out with the old, in with the new?  happy 2020, everybody!

friday: friends, food, fun

friday was a super fun day from beginning to end.  after a crazy workout at orangetheory with the old lady and dropping off the bean at school, i got to meet up with some friends for dim sum.  we kicked off the foodfest with an order of the special bbq pork buns, which was covered in a crunchy sugary coating that sounds weird, but was oh so delicious:

followed those up with an order of the more traditional baked pork buns and this delightful flaky pastry that also had the bbq pork inside:

and tried an order of their pork and shrimp shu mai topped with truffle shavings. so good.  i could have eaten about ten of these.

i guess it doesn't look like much, but there were lots of tasty treats passed around that table.

and then we got the super friendly hostess to take a group picture (or four, really) for us.

mollydog got another dose of doggy dialysis:

and the bean was super excited to report that she'd won a bonus surprise prize at school for raising a nice chunk of money for their upcoming fun run school fundraiser.

a few hours later, we got cleaned up for her very first end-of-the-season cheer banquet.  coach had asked the girls to wear team colors and since i didn't really want to put her in white or black, i'd headed out to my fabric supplier and picked up some royal blue lace.  she loves bell sleeves, so it was easy for me to pick a pattern to sew up for her.  and topped off with one of my old stella & dot necklaces, she loved it.

when we arrived, i found a little surprise next to the table assignment chart.  you guys, i'm so not a shots kinda girl.  but i took one anyway, and while i still had to do it in three separate gulps it wasn't bad at all.

the dessert table was pretty awesome, and our table was right next to it.

they'd done a pretty awesome job of dressing up the room.  there were lots of balloons, pictures from throughout the season, a DJ playing all sorts of music from old school hip hop to current jams, lots of sparkle and team colors galore.  i managed to snag this with her before she disappeared for pretty much the rest of the evening:

of course, she came over to share the loot she snagged from that candy buffet.

my favorite cheer mom.  she's always there looking out for the bean and loves her like one of of her own, and we adore her.

she and the hub have a fantastic relationship too.  heh.

oh, and there was a photo booth too:

i'd call that a super fun friday from start to finish, yeah?

sunday funday with the cousins

with competition finally over and a couple of weeks until the next one, we were happy to get down to the business of relaxing and enjoying the bean's week-long thanksgiving break from school.  and our first order of business was meeting up with a bunch of my cousins to enjoy some delicious dim sum to celebrate three of their birthdays.

i was a little surprised to arrive at the restaurant on a sunday at noon and not have to wait even a few minutes for a table that would seat up to 15 of us.  as everyone trickled in one by one, we started ordering small plates from the carts being wheeled past us and got down to grubbin'.

only one of us was interested in the chicken feet, though.  and it sure wasn't me.  not my thing.

oh, and i dig the mouth guards the servers wear.  so very sanitary.

the bean was super duper happy to be reunited with her cousins.  she hadn't gotten to see them in quite a while, and after they'd gotten their fill of their favorite dishes they were happy to settle back and play games on one of their phones while the rest of us sat around and caught up on each others' lives.

we got one of the passing servers to stop and take a group photo of us, because why not?

and then the hub got to hold cousin r's new baby for a few seconds until he started to cry and got handed right back to his mama.

and later on, the bean was happy to get home and mix up a fresh batch of slime, which she dyed in a few different colors to make unicorn slime.

not too bad for sunday funday.