Lady date with my best gal

I had the best girls day with my favorite daughter, HeaBug.

After soccer this morning, we went to the Penelope Lane Boutique in Seal Beach where the little miss very carefully spent her $10. She came up on a little ring, Hello Kitty hair clip, Hello Kitty earrings, a sugar cookie and a new pink flower clip.

After the Boutique we went to PREP kitchen essentials for a Parents and Kids cooking class. It's the same place that I took the 6 week pro chef series this summer, love it!

We made Sweet Potato Gnocchi with butter sage sauce, spinach salad with a warm bacon dressing, and an apple tart.

She is a serious "taster". HeaBug likes trying everything at every stage.

Of all the things we made, her favorite was the spinach salad! She asked to come back tomorrow. Because she is bright and a little precocious, often times Adults are initially charmed... interested at least in holding conversations with her. I'm always riding that line between proud and nervous what she's going to say lol...

We wrapped up an awesome day by watching The Parent Trap on HBOgo. Weeks ago I had her watch the original with Haley Mills and she loved it! I saw the newer version with the adorable and pre cray cray Lindsay Lohan, she loved this one too.

I am so grateful we can spend amazing time with our kids. While us chicks were doing our thing, Mr B and JT ran errands and then took a bike ride to Seal Beach and back.

Love our Ohana.

-mrs. b

The Penelope Lane Spring Boutique

This place is just too much fun. It's like Etsy come to life. Vendors (crazy, amazing, talented, smart, funny) come together once a season to this rad boutique at the Seal Beach Country Club put on by my girlfriend Sarah of Little Penelope Lane. HeaBug LOVES to go with me to go "shopping"... She's a dangerous one, always putting pretty things in the bag.

We browse, we sample, we chat and of course we buy. It's great because there is a centralized checkout so you just pay once. I scored on some SUPER cute things. My favorites are a vintage window with vinyl graphics from Inspired Window and a large B from Little Ms. Berry. These were the icing on the cake that is my dining room wall vignette.

Gratitude turns what we have into enough.

Such a fun girls afternoon. 2nd best part was the snagging the 1/2 off baked goods at the end of the day. Oh my the yumminess.

JT's Dinosaur Report

JT was assigned to do a dinosaur report. He chose the Velociraptor. I helped him navigate how to open the windows on the computer and guided him as he did his own research. He had the option to hand write the 5 paragraphs on this informational report or to type it. He chose typing. We sat there and I had him place his hands on the home-row keys. (He knows a little about it since he's started learning to type thanks to a fabulous and free BBC website!) I walked him through most letters... T, index finger, left hand up, H, index finger right hand out, E, middle finger left hand up... You get the idea. But he typed every bit himself.

He also had to put together a diorama. We spent an afternoon and went to the book store in hopes of finding something in the clearance area that we could cut up and use pieces of but we had NO luck! We did find some fun things at Michaels, river rocks, glitter glue, confetti and desert plants (thank you California Mission Project kids). So Mr. B picked up some sand paper from lowes and we printed out a desert landscape picture and glued that to the back. Our pair of velociraptors came courtesy of Amazon Prime. I penciled out the layout for JT and gave the boy a glue gun. There were only a few things I had to re-glue but he did it! It's really important for me that he does his own and takes responsibility for his own projects. They don't always come out as cool as "I" would want them but they are his own work and he can be proud of that. I think there's more to be taken away from that for him in the long run than something pretty that his parents did for him. Way to go JT, he got an excellent grade on his project and we got to see it displayed at Open House.

Trick or Treat, Halloween for the B's

Our first Halloween activity was the Trunk or Treat at the school. Last year we did this cramazing maze. ( BTW, Cramazing is my word mash of Crazy+Amazing. ) We did not have the man power to pull it off this year though. Bummer but for once it was nice to show up to an event that I did not assist in planning, help set up, organize, volunteer for or run. We just went, had a nice time and went to sushi after.

Costumes... HeaBug is Merida from Brave.










 JT is Westley from the Princess Bride.

 

Mr and Mrs B as Mary Poppins and Bert. We got a lot of wonderful comments on our costumes. A quick shout out to Breezer who sculpted Westley's fencing foil handle and created the awesome burn wound on his shoulder from liquid latex. She also customized Mary's hat, tie and Bert's chimney sweep broom!

It would not have bee successful without her!

 Trunk or Treat Fun!

The kids loved getting to see their pals and going round and round and round stockpiling the candy.

The lovely and talented CAKESTINA had a Creepy Cakery set up. It was fabulous. Lots of ghoulicious treats! It looked so awesome and professional that people kept getting in line to purchase items! Even though they were just for decoration. Unless you happen to be tight pals with Cakestina herself. Wink Wink.

The next night, we went to a Trunk or Treat at our church. It was awesome and we had a great time. The same night, Breezer and Joanna went to the Long Beach Zombie walk. That's her, with the liquid latex.

We got to carving our pumpkin while sipping sparkling pumpkin/apple cider and eating oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

 HeaBug's preschool had a trunk or treat the morning of Halloween. It was so cute to see the little ones in their costumes.

We went trick or treating that night. Breezer and Joanna stayed at the house to pass out candy to the mountains of trick or treaters that we were expecting. They didn't come. We hardly got any. I guess there are fall backs to living on a nice, quiet and out of the way street. Not many passers by. She looked awesome with her Dia De Los Muertos makeup though!

(We donned moustaches for trick or treat and by the end of the night, Merida needed Daddy to hold her and wear her wig... because her feet hurt and she was sweaty)

 Kids had a blast trick or treating, we have more candy than we know what to do with....

If you find yourself in the same predicament, consider shipping some candy to our troops. 

Here's the address:

Operation Shoebox

8360 E Highway 25

Belleview, FL 34420

our buddy Super B turns 5!

My darling, clever and creative friend Cakestina threw a fantastic 5th birthday party for her little man, Super B. I was happy to shoot some photos for her and even happier to share them with you!

Recycled refrigerator box made a great telephone booth. Handy for changing into your super hero clothes or for stealing kisses from ones honey ;) 

Plastic pool + dry ice + board for crossing = fun way for kiddos to test their bravery!

Super B, Super T, Super J in their Super CUTE t-shirt capes. Thank you scissors, velcro and fabric markers!

They fly!

and leap over buildings!

Super B's mom made a super cool cake!

Great table set up. Art by Carlton Christy

Hungry Heroes

Birthday Boy!!   Pre-Scooped ice cream! smart!!

 We LOVE the M's and Super B!