Birthday Weekend

Friday was my birthday. Back in September, I’d purchased tickets to see Carol Burnett at the Dolby Theatre on my big day, then talked Rachel into coming out from Colorado to go with us. That one event blossomed into an entire weekend of fun and family.

Rachel and Addy arrived in LA at 7:30 am, and by 11 we were sitting down to a formal tea, complete with a fancy hat fashion show.

This was Addy's #1 request for the weekend and it did not disappoint. 

Neither she nor Leia liked the food or the tea, but they looooved trying on every.single.hat in the shop's extensive collection, adding in gloves, jewelry and fans as they went along. Major success!

Friday afternoon we headed for LA and Ms. B. Traffic wasn’t as bad as we expected, and the Subway sandwiches we’d brought along (in case traffic was bad) saved us from a long restaurant wait, so we had time to show Addy some of Hollywood Blvd before the show.

This guy pulled a statuette out of his case, put the girls in position and posed for a photo, all for a $2 tip. They loved it.

The show was great, of course, as was the company of good friends. Bonus: Addy and Leia are now big Carol Burnett fans. 

Saturday we took to the freeways again - happiness is headphones and iPads! - enroute to Disney On Ice at the Staples Center. 

The show this year was soooo much better than last year’s. The girls got bored several times last year but Saturday they were enthralled the entire time. They especially loved the aerial acts, even after poor Rapunzel fell about 10 feet when her grip slipped on the fabric, bouncing into a stunned heap on the ice; but she jumped up and finished the show, looking uninjured, thank goodness.

The Disney show was at 3 and we were home by 7, with a whole evening stretched out before us. Can’t let time go to waste on a party weekend, right?? So we bundled the girls into pajamas, armed them with quilts and headed for the 9:45 showing of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. 

The adults were dragging by the time the show ended at midnight-thirty, but the little girls were wide awake and thrilled they’d gotten to stay up so late. (The movie is great, by the way.)

Our grand finale was lunch with the (almost) entire family. 

As you’d expect, Jac was the hit of the party, especially after she got her hands on first green, then red, cupcake frosting (aided and abetted by Grandma.)



  

She wasn’t the only one enjoying her cupcake, though. 

Fun times. 

Rachel and Addy have headed home 

  She loves him and named him Fillmore. 

and we’re in ‘finish all the Christmas presents’ mode. Only one week to go!