tons and tons of girl scout cookie fun

the girl scouting fun never stops!

last week, the bean and my co-leader's daughter worked it at several cookie booths together.  we've noticed that they seem to feed off of each other's energy at the booths, which turns into a ton of cuteness that customers can't resist.  they make up funny little songs and dances to entice customers and also to thank those who just walk on by, and as a result, these two have now sold over 500 boxes of cookies each:

they both really wanted to hit 500 this year, which is a huge difference from last year's 250 sold.  of course, last year we only did 3 booths as a troop and this year we signed up for 25, so there you go.  speaking of cookie sales, our local chapter was offering this awesome patch to all girls and volunteers who did any sales in the rain.

while that promised "el niño" hasn't really made much of appearance, when the forecast finally showed a bit of precipitation for one day last week, we scrambled to book a booth at the grocery store.  and sure enough...

yay!

also, at our leader meeting, we were presented with a certificate for retaining 100% of our girls from last year.

we've already had a couple of our girls drop out this year, so sadly we won't be collecting another one of these.  that's okay, though.

oh, and we had a special guest at one of our booths last week:

she's made the greatest assistant leader ever.  she's sold lots of cookies at work and comes to help us out at as many of our meetings and events as she can.

now we're in the final two weeks of cookies.  cross your fingers for me that i survive until then.

filling a day off with lots of fun

this year, the bean had the day after valentine's off for president's day.  the hub and i picked her up from lilcee's office bright and early so that we could take her to a cooking class she'd signed up for at the claremont chef's academy.  a handful of her friends had also registered for the chinese new year-themed class, and they were all excited to spend some time together doing something fun.

while they got started on their 3-hour workshop, the hub and i headed out for a rare breakfast date.  he'd taken the bean to a local airport a little while ago to see an air show, where she got to ride in a biplane AND a helicopter:

they'd also had breakfast at the cafe there, and he'd told me that it was way better than the other local airport cafe we've visited before.  so that's where we went.

i had to agree with him - this cafe was way better than the other one, even just from walking in and seeing the decor.

even the menu was nicer, with more of a selection.  and a little of the history of the airport was printed on the back cover.

because he'd raved about them, i went big - biscuits and gravy with eggs and bacon.  i wasn't disappointed.

we walked around a little outside after we were done.  had to work off a few of those calories, after all.

a little later, after he'd gone to the lounge to get some work done, i headed back to the packing house to pick up the bean.  she and her friends were happily enjoying the fruits of their labor.

there was orange chicken, fried rice, egg rolls and almond cookies.  i got to sample everything too, and it was all really delicious.  and now she's all fired up to do summer camp there this year.  we'll see.

and because they'd already had lunch, the other parents and i decided to let them extend their time together a little and headed over for a little post-workshop treat.

believe it or not, the fun still wasn't over.  we took one of her friends home with us and stopped at a park on the way to let them get some wiggles out.  they had a blast running around the playground for an hour before it was time for the bean to work a shift at that day's cookie booth.

two more weeks, people.  in two weeks cookie season is over.  march 6th can't get here soon enough.

a whole lotta love day

valentine's weekend was super busy and super fun.  the day before was spent workin' it at a local wally world, selling as many cookies as we possibly could in a 4-hour period.  we put in some effort, though, and gussied up our little table as much as we could.

valentine's day is one of the easier holidays to decorate for - lots of hearts everywhere.

and we pushed "bundles" - putting various flavors together and dressing them up with a little tulle and ribbon.

and with all of those elements in place, we finally reached our long-standing goal of hitting 3-digit sales in one booth.  we were exhausted at the end, but so proud of the girls for the hard work they put in.

the next morning, i got up to bring supplies to that day's scheduled cookie booth and made a pitstop on the way home.

this place is well-known locally for their fresh strawberry donut, which is basically a glazed donut cut in half and stuffed full of fresh glazed strawberries.

as for me, i indulged in another one of their delicious treats - a red velvet donut with a delicious cream cheese filling.  and look at how cute and festive my little kate spade mini wallet is:

that picture pretty much covers some of my most favorite things in life.

later, after dropping off the bean for a sleepover with mini cee (thanks again, lilcee!), the hub and i got dressed up and headed out to a nearby cuban restaurant up on the hill.

one of his oldest and dearest friends was finally getting married, and we were excited to be there to share in their wedding day.  it was a warm day, but that made for some really pretty views as the evening came upon us.

and i got to bust out my glitter kate spade shoes again:

the ceremony was short and sweet, and very emotional for the bride and groom and their blended family.  afterwards, everyone milled around and enjoyed tray-passed hors d'oeuvres and adult beverages.  including me, with my quarterly cocktail:

one of the bridal couple's shared interests was represented in the form of a mini cigar bar:

and the sweetheart table was cute.

cake!

lots of food.  it was all delicious, including the scallops (which i typically don't like).

and the hub indulged my request for at least one full-length photo.

it was a lovely wedding and we had a lovely time.  but we're definitely can't hang anymore...we were outta there by 9:30 and in bed - snoring, no less - by 10:30.  how lame are we?  but we got a really good night's sleep.  hahahahahaha!

patriotism and presents

friday was a jam-packed day - yeah, a lot of our days are, but this one was particularly crazy busy.  we kicked it off with the patriotic program that the bean's class had been working on for the last few weeks, in celebration of president's day.

'murrica!

the kids put on a really cute program, during which they dressed up as historical figures such as paul revere, abraham lincoln, martin luther king jr., JFK, and my personal favorite...betsy ross:

she was actually one of six girls who played betsy ross, and they all got to recite a line that described her life and her contribution to our country.  there were, of course, lots of songs full of patriotism and facts about the various states that make up our country.  during this one, the kids held up flags that they had hand-drawn for the state that they'd been assigned.  the bean was one of a handful who got two states:

the teachers had asked the kids to invite their family members who were members of the military, past and present, and the program was capped off with a super emotional tribute to them.  the kids proudly walked their family member up to the stage, where they clutched their hands and beamed at the audience.  and there were a few who held a picture of their loved ones who had passed on, and i'm pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye in the house.  i mean, come on - cute kids in costumes singing patriotic songs and military vets??  i told the teachers they needed to put boxes of tissue at every row for next year, or at least give us a heads up.  anyway, it was a really touching assembly and we were happy to get to see the bean for a few minutes before she had to get back to class.

the old lady and i had time to run a couple of errands before we headed back to school to help out with the classroom's banana split valentine's party.

their classroom was super festive with all of the cute bags they'd decorated to hold their valentines.

later, after her usual friday routine of piano lesson and hula class, we headed to the church for our girl scout valentine's party.  the meeting was set up with various activity stations, which always seems to go over really well with the girls.  here, we set up the photo booth:

a station to make a frame for that photo:

card making supplies for making valentines:

here, they got to use perler beads to make a really cool bowl.  i never did get around to a shot of the finished product, but because the bowls took awhile to bake in the oven not everyone got to make one this time.  i'll show you what it looks like when we get a chance to bring that craft back.

my bargain shopping in target's dollar aisle had paid off when i found these super cute felt envelopes for the valentines they had for each other.

before the party started, my co-leader, the old lady and i got together to make a sample frame so that the girls could see what it would look like.

and as the girls finished theirs, i wrapped them up in sparkly tissue paper so that they could take them home as gifts for their families.

the meeting was a smashing success, and we were wiped out when we finally made it home.  of course, we had just enough time to get some rest before the weekend.  the fun never stops, folks.