Happy Halloween!

Sophie as Rapunzel from Tangled

Grace as a spider

Pumpkin Carving

Sophie with her dad's handiwork, Halloween Eve 2011

Anthropologie Winter Kids Collection

I am loving these new pieces from the Anthropologie Kids Collection. I only wish they weren't so expensive. At these prices, I'm going to have to wait until they go on super-sale and see what's left!

Love Letter Dress, $228

Tussie Mussie Skirt, $168

Switcheroo Beanie, $58

Ladies' Brunch

I had a small brunch for a couple of my good friends from the office today, which I think went really well.  I tried out a bunch of new recipes and luckily, none of them failed horribly.

Menu
Oven Scrambled Eggs
Bacon
Butter Croissants
Chocolate Croissants
Yogurt Parfait
Spiced Cider (it's autumn, after all!)

I'll put up the recipes in the next few days!

More Peas, Please

Grace's favorite food right now is peas (yippee!!). Here she is enjoying a rare peaceful moment on Friday, eating her favorite food.

Girlfriend

One of the great things about having a 4 year old is that she's like a girlfriend who comes along to all my personal grooming appointments and can wait patiently.  I shouldn't even be admitting this, except that she looked so cute in the picture that I had to share.

Sophie waiting for me to get some hair lasered off, October 2011

Etsy Goody: Wild Things

I am dying to buy this dress for Grace!

Little Fox Girl's Dress, $55

Happy 4th Birthday Sophie!

Sophie stopped being a baby long ago. She's now my kitchen helper, travel buddy, drama queen, superhero and princess, all rolled into one. She amazes and exasperates us on a daily basis. She turned 4 this year, but she's going on 16...

It was a low-key celebration this year for Sophie...cupcakes at her school and dinner with her cousins and grandparents at a local Mexican restaurant. Much fewer gifts than she usually gets...and she LOVED it. Life lesson learned...kids know how to appreciate the simpler things in life.

Cupcakes I rushed home from work to make for Sophie's class

Celebrating with Grace and Remy at Guapo's

Happy Birthday Señorita!

Hot Air Balloon and Wine Festival

Friday

Today was very chill as Fridays usually go....Sophie, Grace and I braved a torrential downpour to go to Sophie's ballet class, we went to lunch and an indoor playground together, we made a mess playing around in Sophie's room, gathered fall leaves for a bouquet, had our stove repaired, went to the pediatrician's office to pick up paperwork, went to Sophie's new preschool to buy uniforms, and finally, went grocery shopping.  Sounds horrible, right?  Still, it was relaxing compared to most of our hectic Fridays!

Santa Barbara Style

This past weekend's excursion to Santa Barbara was truly inspirational.  You know the feeling you get when you are drawn to something immediately?  You just know you love it without knowing the exact reasons.  That's how I feel when I'm strolling along the Santa Barbara streets in the midst of all the beautiful architecture.  It's a mix of Spanish Colonial Revival, Mediterranean and California styles, everything melding gorgeously together.

images via Traditional Home, Martha Stewart, and Canary Hotel

LA Baby!

What a great trip we had to LA!  We did soooo many things in the few days we had.  It could've been more relaxing, but we were a little too ambitious with our plans.  The absolute best parts of the trip were seeing my cousin Jenny and our drive to Malibu.  The only bad part (and it was bad) was the atrocious traffic.  30 miles in 3 hours?  Oh yeah...every day, every time of day.  Needless to say, we had a very L.A. experience while we were there.  Ate at cool places, drove along the coast, and hung out among the beautiful people.  Here are the highlights:

We celebrated Sophie's 4th Birthday at Disneyland.  This was the only really touristy part of our trip, but one that Sophie has been looking forward to for months now.  All she wanted to do was to meet the princesses.

Sophie actually had a party at the My Disneyland Birthday Party.  Two words: rip-off.  We could've had more fun just walking around the park.

Eating the birthday cake she designed herself.

No one had more fun at the My Disneyland Birthday Party than Grace!

We experienced the most perfect drive to Malibu...it epitomized what I love about California.

Look at the beautiful coastline!

The kids conked out after a while.

Eating among bikers and surfers at Neptune's Nest.  Great seafood dive joint!

...we decided to continue up the coast to Santa Barbara....

Sophie enjoying Yogurtland froyo.

Looking for treasures at the Melrose Trading Post flea market:

She really really really wanted some vintage-looking Batman posters.

Chilling at the hotel pool.  We always stay at the same hotel in Century City (for about 10 years now!), the Century Plaza Hyatt.  Best. hotel. ever.

A final breakfast at The Farm of Beverly Hills.  It was delicious!!  And some of us saw David Spade!

Local and organic.  I love the way Californians eat.