that is so fetch

one of my friends hit me up with a really fun theme for cookies - one of her daughters was going to see the mean girls musical at the pantages theater with a group of friends.  it had turned into a big group outing with all of the moms as well, and of course they wanted to make little goody bags for the girls.  

mean girls is one of my favorite movies, so these were a blast for me to make:

the bean and i went out to dinner with lilcee and dailygluttony that evening, and i don't remember if i was the one who brought it up, but it quickly turned into "let's go see it together too!"  before we'd left the dinner table we'd picked a date for the following week and secured tickets with a pretty decent price tag.

our typical pre-show meal is from shake shack, which is just across the street from the theater.  mmmm.  although we were a little bummed when the employee stationed at the entrance announced that they were all out of custard for the night, so there were no shakes to be had.  boo.

oh well.  it didn't dampen our excitement for the evening.

going through security was quick and easy, which is always nice.

i posted that picture of my cookies on instagram earlier in the day and noticed that two of the cast members (adante carter, who plays aaron samuels and nadina hassan, who plays regina george) had liked it, which was kinda cool.  

our seats were up in the mezzanine, but the pantages is a pretty small theater so we still had a great view of the stage.

being a big fan of the movie, i was a little leery of how i would like it in musical form.  you really never know how it's going to turn out, and sometimes you love the original actors in those roles that it's hard to accept new faces.  i gotta say though, this was really fun to watch and the production was really well done.  there were a few changes to the story, but nothing huge and disappointing, and we had a great time being out with our friends for an evening out in hollywood together.  and we were extra glad that we weren't seated two rows ahead of us - because when the show was about 3/4 of the way done the guy who was sitting in front of the bean and me apparently projectile vomited all over the people in front of him.  yikes.

never a dull moment, amirite??

random iPhone photo dump time

it's time for some random photos, because that's always fun.  well, for me anyway.  heh.

i got to enjoy my first starbucks fall beverage last week - the salted caramel mocha.  and it's likely my last, because it was way sweeter than i remembered and not really something i'll want to revisit.

while browsing the local outdoor furniture store with the hub, we came upon this...because who doesn't want a dinosaur in their back yard?

while the bean was at a slumber party, the old lady and her special friend and i took one final trip to the l.a. county fair for the 2018 season.  we really made the most out of those season passes, i'd say.

not to mention, i wanted one last batch of those caramel crack fries before they disappeared for a year.

the next night, we enjoyed the first of hopefully many "steak sunday" evenings in our brand new back yard.  i can't lie, guys, i really love it back there and i think we're going to be spending a ton of time there year round from here on out.  it's probably the best investment we've ever made.

last week was picture day at school, and this is our first "milestone" photo with the bean standing where the brick wall used to be.  the renovations have moved into the house now, and both fireplaces are gone now.  no great loss because we lit one of them maybe once in the last 8 years, and now it's so much more open and airy in the house now.

also, the old brown walls are now a pretty shade of blue-gray, thanks to the teamwork between the hub, MIL and the bean.

the old lady and i headed to the japanese supermarket while the bean was at cheer practice, and while browsing for fun drinks to take home we couldn't stop laughing at some of the descriptions.

i made about four batches of brownie bites for the bean to take to school and cheer practice on her birthday.  they were actually really easy to make from scratch, and she said they tasted just like brownies from a box (high praise, i assure you).  they seemed a little boring looking, so i plopped an m&m on top.

and of course, i can't have a wednesday, october 3rd without this shirt making an appearance.

happy mean girls day, everybody!

mean girls, the unfunny version

yesterday, i packed the bean some lunch before picking her up from school.  she and MIL had a good, long list of various local parks that they visited regularly, and i thought it would be fun for her to munch on some grub while playing on the swings and slides. 

plus, it gets her nice and tired and ready for her afternoon nap.  hey, i never said i didn't have an ulterior motive.  i've got a bridal shower to put together for this weekend and i have a to-do list a mile long.

anyway, we headed to a playground we've been to quite a few times before.  we used to live around the corner from it, and so it's familiar to both of us.  when we got there, there were quite a few kids already there.  i forgot that our local school district has spring break this week (including the teen, who sadly is at her dad's for the whole vacay), but the bean is pretty good at handling herself when there are lots of others around.

i got us settled at one of the picnic tables at the edge of the playground while she got started on climbing and all that good stuff.  she came over to take a bite and a sip of juice, and then asked me to come with her to play. 

there was a little girl on the equipment she chose to play on, and she told me "i'm gonna ask her what her name is."  yet one more thing i'm grateful to MIL for - she taught her to start a conversation and be friendly whenever she sees other kids.  i heard her go up to the girl and say "hi, what's your name?" only to be completely ignored.  so she tried again:  "hi, my name is bean.  what's your name?" and this time the girl looked at her and said "i don't like you and i don't want to talk to you."  she turned around, ushered her little toddler brother along, and walked away.

the bean came back to me and said "she went away, mommy.  i'm gonna go slide."

after a few more trips back and forth to eat and play, we headed over to the little kids' section of the park, where she came upon two little girls who were playing with shovels.  i saw her go over, stand back and watch them quietly, and the girls glanced at her, grabbed their toys, and run to their mother.  i overheard her tell them "you can share, it's okay if other kids want to play with you," and turned back to her magazine.

those girls came back over, where the bean had moved on to something else, looked at her again, and went on playing together.  the bean was singing to herself, and they glanced at her again, giggled, and began to mock her made-up song.  i was furious, but sucked it up and told her "come on babe, wanna go swing some more?" and we walked away from those little brats.

what the hell?!?  i couldn't believe how awful these kids were being to her.  they were all a little older - maybe 6 or so - and yeah, i know how mean kids can be.  but seriously, she didn't do anything offensive aside from ask their names or simply be there.  what little bitchcakes.  i seriously wanted to slap them all across the head.  i mean, look at this face:

thank goodness she's still little and totally oblivious.  the snubbing went right over her head.  as we packed up our stuff and headed back to the car, she looked up at me with a smile and said "i had fun today, mommy.  i like people."

ah, the innocence of youth.