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

11 years as Mrs. B

Hubs and I took advantage of a promotional offer from the Wynn and headed to Vegas for our anniversary. 11 years. Being his wife. It's the good stuff.

Word to the wise. ALWAYS be nice to the front desk. ALWAYS tell them if you're celebrating something special. We scored an upgraded suite on the 58th floor. Out of 59 floors. Seriously, my ears popped in the elevator.   When we reached State Line, I made a reservation at the Chart House (one of our favorite special occasion restaurants) in the Golden Nugget. We'd only been to the ones in So Cal so we were excited. Again, I made a little note in the reservation that it was our anniversary and here were our special menus. AND they put us in a little booth in a corner. You know for all the making out we do in restaurants.

So we checked into this fabulous strip hotel but we rarely EVER gamble on the strip and since we don't drink anymore, the $1 beers at Casino Royale aren't enough to keep us on this side of town. lol. We left our swanky spot and headed right downtown. To the Cal. Hotel California. It's comfortable, it's fun, it's got low table minimums and lots of Hawaiian people and food and everything. I like it so much I disregard how much my hair smells like yucky smoke when we leave. Roulette is my game. It's easy and with a $5 table minimum, I stay occupied for at least 45 minutes on $50. I occasionally venture over to a black jack table but I get anxiety and all of a sudden, can't add. haha. We had a lot of fun. Fremont street is a trip. People watching is so much better when you're with someone, not worried about impressing anyone and you're wearing significantly more that everyone else lol.Part of Wynn offer included tickets to Le Rêve. We love seeing Cirque shows and we've seen Le Rêve before but free is free and I'm not complaining about that! The show was amazing. Nuff said. 

Saturday morning, we ventured to the new buffet at the Caesars called Bacchanal. We lazily made our way over around noon, making sure we were super hungry (I'm not one to go in to a buffet only iffy kinda hungry). Stood in line for 45 minutes! I spent the whole time questioning if it was worth it but with not a dang thing to do, we enjoyed being commitment free and lazied in line. Mr. B's assurances were right on the money. The buffet was amazing. The freshness and quality of the food... the amazing variety. Holy yum. Though I had high expectations of myself, I only managed two food plates and dessert (which ended up  being a tasting of each thing since we were bursting at the seams!).

We rolled ourselves outta there and took a walk through the forum shops. At work, we regularly change out the store windows for West Coast Burberry stores so we wanted to swing by and take a look at the Vegas location. The walk was good.

 
We headed back downtown as we had an afternoon free of plans. That was the best. Thank you anniversary date, JT's bday, Hea Bug's bday for the winning, winning, winning!

We had dinner reservations at the Steakhouse Botero, in the Wynn at 7 but by 6 we knew for a fact we were still not hungry in the slightest. We decided to skip them. The other part of the Wynn offer included a $75 dining credit to that restaurant. So while we were bummed to miss out on it, I couldn't even think of eating anything.

The show plans for the night were to see Penn and Teller which was mind boggling in the coolest way. It was such an entertaining show! I love seeing stuff like that and I NEVER try to figure things out. I just like to enjoy the magic.

Sunday morning meant heading home. We took off early enough in hopes of avoiding traffic and trying to catch a movie in LB before going home. While the drive out and most of the weekend had been cloudy and rainy, the wind the night before cleared the sky so before we left, we were treated to this amazing view.

We ate a breakfast in the hotel before leaving. This is just a shout out that it was the first meal since the Bacchanal Buffet. 22 hours later. And we only ate because we knew we should. That's a no joke buffet.

It was a happy anniversary indeed. Time out with my BFF, my main squeeze, my fella, my baby daddy, my guy, my hubs, my eternal partner and companion. Love this man.

For extra mushiness, read a little about our love story here. 

The little blue box.

I was thinking how terrible a journal keeper I've been my whole life. I'm making a more serious effort to remedy that. I also feel like I should write down things that I remember about important moments. Like when I married Mr. B. That's almost 11 years ago. It all still feels very clear but I'm sure I don't remember everything... Gotta get on that.

My birthday is this week. I enjoy making big deals out of birthdays. I get weird about making that same deal about my own birthday. Mr. B makes me feel special just about every single day so to make me feel even MORE special he gets all secretive and "planny". haha. I'm enjoying lunches out and savoring Birthday Week. Mr. B has been very busy on job sites lately so we aren't hanging out in the office together. Chessy but I sure do miss him when we're apart. go ahead, gag. s'true.

Last night, kids are finally asleep and we sit down to watch something and he tells me that he's a terrible gift buyer/giver because he wants to give me my present right now even though my actual birthday is 3 days away. I'm down with whatever and would prefer not to open gifts in front of large crowds anyway. I say, "Sure, if you want to give it to me now, I'll open in and be happy". He asks me to sit at the table and wait.

I waited. Long enough that I updated my facebook status about waiting. I was excited and nervous and had no idea what to expect. Maybe it was a new pair of TOMS! But he hates my TOMS so nvm. Then I thought it might be the lens that I just rented. Then I revisited the TOMS idea. Aren't these rad?

He finally came out and asked me to close my eyes. I did. I'm not a cheater. I don't peek. When I opened my eyes and saw this...

My heart pretty much jumped up into my throat.

This had not even crossed my mind.

I opened this card and as I read it I was reminded just how much he is the man for me. My eternal partner and friend. We are forever.

So here it is. 

It fits perfectly below my wedding band. And it sparkles. And it's pretty. So Pretty.

For the record. I am not a jewelry gal. I wear fun and silly necklaces and chunky plastic bracelets if I even bother to think about putting it on. I wear my wedding band, always, like never ever take it off for anything. I also wear a necklace just about every day of my life. It's a necklace that Mr. B got for me when he took me to the Prom. It was the first piece of jewelry I'd ever been given. It's small and simple and I was wearing it when we got married, when I had each of our children, on every anniversary and just about every day in between. It's so special to me.

We were recently talking about how neither side of our family was the type to pass down jewelry heirlooms. I wanted to be able to give something to my daughter or my granddaughter. Now there's something. And a great love story to go with it.

Pa's Pumpkin Patch

 We took the kids to Pa's Pumpkin Patch. It was our first year there. Held on the same grounds and hosted by the same group that does Snowy Pines Christmas Trees which is where we
 used to go hunting for our Christmas tree. Pa's is down on PCH by the Marina Shopping Center.

Our friends, Cakestina and her fellas met us down there for some pumpkin patch fun and Ruby's for dinner afterwards. We bought some tickets and it was so much fun watching JT and HeaBug roam/run through the pumpkins of all sizes and play games. They each road ponies (then HeaBug asked Mr. B for one of her own), jumped in the big pumpkin jumper, shot cork guns and threw darts. They slid down the giant inflatable slide and navigated their way through the house of mirrors.

JT is my Jr backup photog... It's how I snag pics of me with Mr. B. He's great at focusing and learning about shooting in aperture priority mode.

There is music playing throughout the patch and sometimes... when you hear the music... you must dance.

 My kiddos happily obliged for pictures. They're used to it by now and rarely fuss. HeaBug enjoys smiling for the camera and often asks me to take pictures of her doing something funny so she can see, or to take pictures of a toy that she's going to put away so that she won't miss it later... Silly girl.

 Man this guy is the best dad. Sure does help that he's so handsome too... He too has learned that it's better to just smile and patiently await the inevitable click. I caught him across the Pony Pen... looking all manly.

 JT rode so that his sister wouldn't have to ride alone. He's such a good sport. I think he really liked it but said he'd rather ride a horse that goes "really fast". HeaBug was over the moon to ride her pony. She decided when we left that she was going to have a Cowgirl Birthday... Her birthday is still 4 months away. Love my little planner.

Since he patiently rode the pony... he got to shoot something. Ah being a mom to a boy...

Mr. B... taking down some ducks

 He won me a teeny prize ;) HeaBug asked for it and Mr. B told her it was for his "Lady". She sighed, "That's so cute". My little romantic.

don'mess at Pa's Pumpkin Patch.

We found our winner. Such a fun night with these B's