friday full o'fun

so on friday, the bean got to skip school in the morning so she could attend a fun event at the local all-girls' high school.  she's part of their "lucy cubs" program for girls in grades K-8th, where she's pen pals with one of the seniors.  she's received a few super cute cards, including one on her birthday, and so she was pretty excited to attend the first "lucy cub day."  they were going to get to meet their pen pals, go through stations on campus where they'd do activities in science, dance and art and then have lunch together.

there was a super fun photo op when we got to the check-in:

guys.  class of 2026. holy crap.

she said they'd done some fun ballet moves during the dance class, worked on an art project that would be displayed at the school during their open house next month, and made some pink sparkly slime as the science activity.

and during lunch, she happened to run into a freshman who'd been her cheer sister when she was on the squad at school.  they got to sit together and she was so excited to spend some time with her.

i took her to school when the event was over so she could get caught up on her weekly tests and things, and then later on when her sister came home from work we headed out to catch a showing of "a wrinkle in time."

we loved that movie, by the way.  it's totally worth a trip to the movie theater.

later still, we were joined by the old lady's special friend for a trip out to K-1 speed - site of the bean's last birthday party.  we signed up to do a race together, and i was a little startled to learn that she'd grown so much since october that she was tall enough to drive the adult cars with us.

the headgear is so attractive.

we had a blast during our race and stopped for a couple of pictures on the way out.

for dinner we ended up at a brand-new dumpling house, stopped at a super popular boba tea spot and then went home to crash for the night.

i'm not sure we could've packed any more fun in that day if we'd tried.  good times.

eye see animals!

our next adventure in dallas was a family outing somewhere super fun:

our visit was well-timed, too.

the bean was out-of-her-mind excited.  she loves zoos and aquariums and all things animal related.  i couldn't even keep up with her as she bounced around from one exhibit to the next.  it was really cute to watch her.  she was mesmerized at the anteater, who wasn't really doing anything but sloshing in the water, pacing from one end to the other.

the icky, humid dallas weather is perfect for a rainforest-style exhibit.  and to add to the stickiness, they had misters going in there.  my hair looked GREAT.  but it was pretty neat in there.

see the giant manatee in the water down there?

hello, toucan sam.

i saw this sign long before i realized that there were two just hanging out right over my head.

we had lunch in the cafe.  i went with the enchiladas...which turned out not to be the greatest choice i could've made.

on our way to see the rest of what there was to see, we saw this guy just kicking it.

and there was some...action going on above our heads.  you get yours, monkeys.  get it good.

i got the heebie-jeebies just at the sight of this sign.  no, thanks.

have you ever seen polka-dotted rays before?  we hadn't either...till now.

below ground, we got to spend some quality time with lots of creatures.

the tunnel with the sharks swimming overhead was a big hit.  i could've sat there and watched them for hours.

this guy apparently felt the same way about us.  he parked himself directly above us and hung out there for a long time.  that face haunts me in my sleep.

i asked him how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop, but he just stared at me like i was crazy.

on our way out...

and then as we got back in the car to head back home, something caught our eye.

always watching...always watching.

wan-derfully excited

you know, i haven't done a whole lot of cooking lately. at least, nothing to really report on - if we've stayed in, i've just busted out some sort of repeat dish. booooring.

but a few days ago, i picked up a couple of smallish lobster tails on sale at the grocery store. literally, two 3-oz. tails - very small, and not really enough to make two complete dinners out of. so when i polled my twirlies (that's my twitter girlies, don'tcha know) and the girls on the cooking board on the nest, i got a nice handful of suggestions. the one that stood out the most was one for giada's brown butter risotto with lobster, from my awesome buddy blake_monster.

so i went home, gathered up all my ingredients, stuck the lobster tails in my steamer basket to cook, and melted and browned up some butter:

the lobster cooked up quickly:

it was my first time ever making any sort of risotto, so i was a little apprehensive. but the recipe was rated "easy," and it was. i added my chicken broth a little at a time as it instructed, and watched my arborio rice puff up and soften to a lovely chewy consistency. and, as it turned, out, when i freed the meat from their shells, it was just slightly undercooked. so i chopped it up and added it to the mixture towards the end of the cooking process, to cook it very lightly and not turn my precious lobster meat into rubber.

as for the teen, i threw together a fun dish using some stuff i'd forgotten about in the pantry. i boiled up some chow mein noodles, tossed in some frozen veggies, and thickened up a bottle of teriyaki sauce with a little cornstarch and some brown sugar. i mixed it all together, and voila! a lovely meal that she really enjoyed.

earlier that afternoon, i'd printed up a recipe that my buddy ssinca had linked me to - a rice krispy concoction that incorporated half a cup of nutella and some crushed-up chocolate hazelnut wafer cookies. the teen cut it up and had a hunk of it for dessert, and the bite i had was SCRUMPTIOUS. oh, so good.

and, a couple of non-food related items - my beloved stella & dot just came out with the most adorable line of little girls' jewelry. while it's supposed to be for mini divas 3 and up, i figured that the bean could handle it - at least, long enough for me to snap a couple of shots. i want to get some better pictures of her modeling the pieces to use in my own advertising, but that'll come later. for now, this is the best i got:

lastly, there's something new that's been occupying a good amount of my time and attention. a couple of weeks ago, during my last visit with my esthetician for a brow shaping, she mentioned that she'd just participated in a fun party with a friend of hers. said friend has a lovely, large home and is always being asked to throw sales parties - jewelry, make-up, cooking products, you name it. well, she finally got tired of being asked and decided to just pick a day to have everyone come and set up a table in her expansive living room. everyone invited a few friends, and had a blast.

i realized that this could be a great way to get more exposure for stella & dot, as well as to offer the opportunity to other ladies who do direct sales from home. and then i thought it'd be fun to expand it even further and maybe make a live action mini-etsy out of it. i put the word out to a bunch of my buddies, asked them to spread the word, found a venue, picked a date, and less than a week after the fire was lit under my ass, we had this:

do you love the name? 'cuz i do. haha! i'm pretty excited about it, because not only are we doing this in less than a month, but it looks like the idea has gone over so well with a lot of vendors that we're already on track for a repeat. i'm dying of curiosity as to how the first WWE (hahaha, i still crack up at the acronym) will go, but wouldn't it be cool if it turned into a monthly thing, in different venues and cities, with all sorts of fun vendors?

if you're local and find yourself with some free time on june 5th between noon and 4pm...come out and see us! and if you've got something to sell and would like to join us for future WWEs, drop me an email.

so fun! i can't wait.

nba finals > everything else

my friend amber and i have been trying to get together for weeks. weeks! and when our schedules finally allowed us to pick a day to meet up for dinner, we were super excited and chose a cute looking restaurant somewhere halfway in between us.

of course, we didn't think ahead and realize that the NBA finals would be going strong, and game three was on our "date night." with both of us being gigantor laker fans, this simply would not work as originally planned.

i felt like a total buttface as i did it, but i dropped her an e-mail on tuesday morning - not canceling, but wondering if we could switch up the venue to a joint where we'd be able to hang out, have dinner, AND watch the game. we could always hit up the other place on another night when the lakers weren't playing for the championship. i hit "send" and hoped for the best.

i should never have doubted her. she'd thought of the same thing that morning and laughed when she read my apologetic e-mail. after we debated a few places, she suggested hitting up the vault in pasadena, where she was able to secure a reservation. sold!

i was amused at the number of plasmas that lined the walls. and here i'd been worried about not having a good view of the game from where we'd be seated.

we both opted to go non-alcoholic, ordering instead tall frosty glasses of good ol' coca-cola.

we had a great time chatting, catching up, venting, what have you. it'd been too long since we'd had the opportunity to really talk, aside from e-mails - and you know that just isn't the same.

in between gabbing, we managed to eat a little. club sandwich for me, burger for amber.

the food was solid. nothing spectacular, but it was a'ight.

we got the server to take a picture of us. sorry, amber, i should've looked at it and made her re-do. guess the "great photos by servers" streak is broken.

then we took this after the game (you can tell what the outcome was by our faces). i'm amused that the server made it a point to tell us that she'd gone to photography school.

outside, these were lit all around the patio:

and we were puzzled over this sign.

i could google it, but i don't really care that much. heh.

and now i sit, after an awesome game four win. it is good to be a laker fan. oh, how i love derek fisher. LOVE.