happy disney lunar new year!

so as i mentioned before, while i was off doing my 5K thing, lilcee had taken mini cee and the bean to disneyland for a super fun playdate.  although it ended up being a pretty chilly day, and the bean ended up borrowing her BFF's big jacket to stay warm.  while i was making my way home to get showered and cleaned up after the run, they were happily sitting side-by-side at flo's v8 cafe enjoying some waffles and bacon.

while in carsland, they had a ball on the flying tires and junkyard jamboree rides.

i made a quick pitstop at starbucks for some much-needed caffeine and then scurried down the freeway to join in the fun.  after the long process of parking and taking the tram to the park entrance, i found myself in the longest line i've ever been in to enter california adventure.

i'd been hoping it would warm up a bit, so i'd just put on a thick sweatshirt.  but i was still a little chilly, so i ducked into one of the shops and picked up a cute scarf.

when i finally found my little group, we decided to head to san francisco street and check out how disney does chinese new year.

mickey was dressed in his very best chinese finery, while mulan and her dragon friend mushu stood nearby for photo ops.  the line was pretty long, but we got in it anyway.  and wouldn't you know it, as soon as we got to the end of it, a cast member was making the announcement that the characters were getting ready to take a break for some tea and cookies.  but disney doesn't leave you hanging completely - minnie sashayed out to take pictures with everyone.

in the nearly-hidden "up"-themed wilderness explorer camp, the girls had fun going down slides, exploring caves, crossing the net bridges, and the bean finally got her chance to ride the tire swing that she's finally tall enough for.

plus, they got to say hello to dug.

we made our way back towards san francisco street to take the girls on the little mermaid ride just in time to catch mulan's chinese new year procession.

after a potty break, the bean managed to sneak in a quick picture and ribbon dance.

snack time!  these freshly baked almond cookies were really tasty.

the last ride of the day was on king triton's carousel.

oh, and they got to say hello to another friend on the way out, too.

all of that excitement proved to be too much for the bean, who passed the eff out even before lilcee could drive out of the parking structure.

it was, like, 6:30.  she slept all the way home, continued to snooze on the living room couch, and all the way through until 6:30 the next morning.  man.  i may have to send her to disneyland with lilcee more often.

super shopping

 

i love me some old navy.

in fact, my favorite time of the month (that sounds funny) is when i get to buy our monthly quota of scrip - which almost always comes in the form of ON gift cards.  in my defense, they're one of the few offerings on the extensive list that gives more than 4% back to the school.  and that's really the point of the whole scrip thing anyway, isn't it?

so although the bean is required to wear uniforms to school, she still gets to wear whatever the hell she wants in the afternoons and on weekends.  or, more accurately, whatever i pick out and hand her.  unlike her sister did at her age, she never fights me on what to wear.  this makes shopping for her clothing super duper easy.  

ON is having one of their awesome kids & baby sales right now, and it's perfectly timed because i was thinking that her spring wardrobe needs a little sprucing up.  and because we live out in BFE, our local store is generally pretty darn well-stocked.  yay for us!

she digs coming here with me, mostly so she can visit her plastic friends:

ON is consistent in that you can find all sorts of good shit and know that if it's not marked down during one visit, you can go back a week later and find it magically on sale.  with damn near every piece of kids' clothing included in their current sale, it was especially fun browsing through the colorful clothing racks.  just to make sure we were picking up the right sizes, we lugged our pile o'loot into a fitting room to try stuff on.  watching this kid preen in front of a mirror is comedy, i tell you.

check out what $75(ish) bought us:

i made her play supermodel for me.  fashion show!  she looks so darn grown-up in this ensemble.

she worked it.  i don't know what's up with that whole cocked-to-the-side leg thing, but it sure is cute.

but the novelty didn't last too long.  after the third outfit change, this is what she gave me:

well, it was good while it lasted.

i was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

i will shank you with my 5K medal!

my fabulous february of sunday runs continues!

this time, it was the first-ever live ultimate run in santa monica.  i'd actually signed up for this via one of those deal-a-day websites...back in june.  crazy, right?  in fact, mr. lilcee and mr. winnie had forgotten we'd even registered for the damn thing until just a few weeks ago.  and then my friend interview (who is cousin seven's ex-boyfriend from high school) decided to join in the fun too.  he's been doing some pretty crazy training and got himself down to a 7-minute mile.  i can't even imagine.  so he decided to strut his stuff for this 5K and see if he could finagle an award.

he was so excited for this race that he got down there super early - like, an hour before the bib pick-up was even going to begin.  silly boy.  and after dropping off the bean with lilcee to hang out with mini cee (and head down to disneyland for a playdate), mr. lilcee and i carpooled and managed to arrive a full hour before race time.  despite our worries about finding parking, it was easy breezy.  and interview had picked up our bibs and tees for us.  it wasn't very busy.

the start line was all decorated in the live ultimate colors.

before the sweatiness.

only in santa monica would they use a lotus for the pace car.

the national anthem was sung by missy aguilar, who mr. lilcee recognized immediately as a friend of his (and who also sang at his and lilcee's wedding).  she did an awesome job, and then the organizer of the run came out to say a few words.

the course was a really good one, running along main street before curving down towards the beach.  i didn't take a whole lot of pictures as i was really focused on the run, but i did pause for a second for this (admittedly not very good) shot of the famous sign at the pier.

as with last week's run, when i caught sight of the finish line not too far ahead, i got a crazy rush of adrenaline.  when my nike+ app told me i was hovering just above the half-hour mark, i sprinted like mad in the hopes of crossing the finish before i hit 30 minutes.  sadly, i didn't manage to PR this time around, but 30:21 isn't too bad, right?

and just as i was catching my breath, i spied some familiar figures heading my way.  ken and sabrina are the race directors for the hollywood half (as well as the awesome 80s 10K i did in october and a few other races too), and i chatted with them for a few minutes.  they're such a nice couple, and i really like them.

i caught up with interview too, and we got someone to take the "after" shot for us.

i like the unique shape of this medal, although those corners are pretty stinking sharp.  if i ever need to shank someone, i know what i'm gonna reach for.

mr. lilcee and mr. winnie, who'd done the 10K, found us when they finished.  we headed down towards the pier to check out the expo and then make our way back to the parking lot.  i love the santa monica pier, as cheesy as it is.  and i have fond memories of the bean's first birthday party in this building:

at the expo, we grabbed some recovery drinks and samples of granola and power bars.

there were lots of folks crowded around the tent where the final results were posted.

while mr. lilcee went over to missy aguilar to say hello, i decided to check out my official finish time.  i was pleased to find that it was just a couple of seconds off from the time reported by my app, and even more so to see that i'd placed #6 for my age group.  not fast enough to actually win anything but bragging rights, but i'm good with that.

and then it was a mad dash to get home, clean up, and meet up with lilcee and the girls down at disneyland for an afternoon of fun.  i sure do love packing in as much action in my weekends as i can, huh?

edit:  here's me, missy aguilar, mr. lilcee and mr. winnie!

me want cookie!

because i am either a giving person or a glutton for punishment, i'd volunteered to bring some homemade cupcakes for a bake sale fundraiser at the bean's school.  i'm always willing to help, especially if it's something i can easily accomplish, and i earned a "free dress" day for her in the process.  win-win, right?

although the drop-off day came right on the heels of a monstrous, super complicated batch of cookies that i still need to share with you.  so i was rather baked out at that point, but i made a commitment and i was sticking to it, dang it.

so after perusing my pinterest boards for something fun/easy/eyecatching, i stumbled across this adorable idea.  using this recipe for delicious chocolate cupcakes, i finally got to use a set of super cute cupcake liners that have been in my kitchen, just waiting for the right opportunity.

with some leftover royal icing, i "glued" some chocolate chips onto white candy melts.

i busted out my wilton #233 tip for the first time and mixed up some blue frosting.

because i wanted to package the cupcakes individually (easier for me to transport, and i'm hoping easier for them to sell), i dropped the cupcakes into a plastic tumbler after cutting out a little section from the top.  i dropped squirts (that sounds GROSS) of blue frosting onto each cupcake to make it look like hair:

then i wedged two of the "eyes" i'd made and stuffed a famous amos cookie into the hole i'd cut out.

although it definitely wasn't my idea, i think these are just so cute.

see, they present well, right?

the ladies at the drop-off were so sweet when i took them in.  i'm really curious about how they did at the sale, but i feel like it would be weird to ask.  oh, well.  i'm just gonna assume they sold like hotcakes and brought in a crapload of cash for the fundraiser.

i'm an optimist, you know.

what football game?

i didn't realize until just recently that in my quest to conquer even more races in 2013, i'd booked back-to-back-to-back-to-back runs for the entire month of february.  like, my calendar has a race on it on every sunday for the whole month.  when i sent my list of calendar items to the hub recently, i totally got a cyber side-eye for it.  yikes.

the very next day after the color run, i was back in the car bright and early heading out to carpool with mr. lilcee to the redondo super bowl sunday 10K.  our original plan was for me to bring the bean, drop her off with lilcee and mini cee, and then they were going to head out to disneyland to play.  then i was to head home to shower, pick up the teen, and we'd go down to meet up with them.  but since the bean ended up totally out of commission for the day, we had to scrap the whole idea and let her stay home to rest.  she was so bummed to miss out on a super fun playdate, but i assured her there would be lots of other opportunities.  and she was feeling so icky, she didn't put up much of a fuss.  that's how i knew how horrible she truly felt.

mr. lilcee has done this particular race a number of times before, so he volunteered to drive us out.  but somehow we didn't end up down at the beach until about ten minutes before the start of the run.  we actually had to jog down to the race expo in order to pick up our bib and still make it on time.  oops.  and we were literally still pinning those bibs on and heading over to join the crowd as the gun went off.  whew - we really cut it close, but it was all good.

for me, 10K is still a rather daunting distance.  this sounds silly considering the half marathons i've completed (as well as the sucky long training runs for them), but that 6.2 miles always seems like more of a challenge for me than any other.  i don't know why.  odd, huh?  although the cool thing is that with every new10K i do, i somehow manage to shave off a minute here and there and end up with a new PR.

there was a lovely stretch of the course that took us along the beach.  it was an unseasonably warm morning, and i was happy to feel the ocean breeze.

i'm not sure at which point this was taken, but here you go.  you can totally see my tired ass huffing and puffing as i scurried towards that finish line.

i was making pretty good time, feeling like i could possibly continue the streak of new 10K PRs until i found myself at the bottom of this very steep hill.  i think i even groaned and said "are you KIDDING me right now?" out loud as i approached it.

i'm not gonna lie.  i stopped trying to run and walked my happy ass all the way up that damn incline.  with hills like that, i find that when i walk them, i'm pretty much going as fast as i would if i were running anyway.  so screw it, i just save my energy and walk as quickly as i can.

this strategy totally paid off as i turned the corner and finally caught a glimpse of the finish line.  and i don't know where it came from, but i caught a crazy burst of energy and i found myself sprinting like a madwoman for the last few hundred yards until my feet hit that timing strip and i was done.

i look pretty happy, don't i?

up ahead was the finish line festival.  i went over to check it out and realized that the hordes of people lined up were waiting for their free beer.  no, thanks.

my mom had mentioned that she was volunteering here.  i'd looked unsuccessfully for her at the water stations, so i sashayed around the vendor booths until i found her.  yay for my mama!

we chatted for a few and then she went back to work as i headed over to another booth to get a gander at the medal i'll be earning next weekend:

this run is sponsored by kaiser permanente.  they even had a mobile medical center where they were offering free physicals.  hey, why not?

i had my weight, blood pressure, and BMI checked out (i'm all good, in case you were wondering), but the nurse totally threw me for a loop when she said "okay, i'm going to do a quick sugar test so i'm just going to do a little finger stick."

ACK.  i hate needles.  i don't like anything involving sharp objects prodding around for some of my nice, warm blood.  i protested for a nanosecond and then tried to laugh it off:  "i'm such a baby, haha!"  she told me that even the big burly men balked at this part and assured me that it was no big deal.  i looked away as she started swabbing with the alcohol wipe, and then i felt her place something on my finger.  i held my breath as i heard a clicking noise and realized - oh!  she wasn't kidding!  it really didn't hurt at all, and i barely felt it.  whee!

i'm all good in that department too, by the way.  thanks for worrying about me.

mr. lilcee hadn't been able to connect with his friends who'd also run the race, and so with the big football game looming ahead and me wanting to get back home to tend to the ailing bean, we got outta there and headed back towards home.

the lilcee family may very well get sick and tired of us, as we've got plans to hang out for the next two weekends in a row.  heh.  i better bake them something delicious to make up for it.