I'm loving all these birthday girls lately; most recently, my cousin's daughter Alyssa (she just turned 1 year old) and my sister Lori. Happy birthday girls!Hayden wore her cupcake dress to Alyssa's party on Saturday (here's a pic I snapped of Hayden and I in the buffet line mirror. We ended up snacking on veggies, fruit and dark chocolate-dipped berries. Hayden also had pb&j), where we gave her an identical handmade garment (Alyssa was getting worn out by that point, so this is the best shot I could get of her receiving the dress).
Then, we kept the fun going the next day with another girls shopping trip (the girls included my sisters Lori and April, my mom, Hayden and yours truly) in honor of Lori's special day. This time, we had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, a restaurant I mentioned being veg-friendly in my last post.
Not knowing where and when we were going to eat, I had a huge portion of chocolate avocado pudding with a ton of greens blended in right before I left the house. As a result, I wasn't starving like the others when we got there (thank goodness for the coloring pages and crayons there; Lori enjoyed entertaining Hayden with them), so I kept my order fairly light.
I got the Asparagus & Arugula Salad off the small cravings menu, minus the cheese, please (always make sure to be polite when asking for subtractions, substitutions, etc.), along with the Chocolate Banana Smoothie sans the cream (I must have been on a real chocolate kick, because I kept the chocolate syrup in it, despite the fact that it contained corn syrup; at least I don't do that at home). The server quickly and accurately guessed that I was vegan. Very cool :-)
Hayden had a salad off the kids menu that all of us thought would easily satisfy an adult. I helped her finish some of the extra romaine leaves, so none of them would go to waste. However, she still did a good job of devouring most of it herself. Too cute.As usual, I made sure they brought out her fruit bowl first. I found it impossible to snap a pic of the grapes and pineapple without her tiny hand in it. Love it!
Anyway, once our bellies were full, we helped Lori pick out some new additions to her summer wardrobe (she got an amazing deal on a Vera Bradley wallet to go with the purses my mom and I gave to her for her birthday; it was already discounted as part of a sale, but then she was able to use a $20 gift card she received as a birthday gift from the company just for being on their mailing list. Can you believe she only paid $9.00 for it?).
She even got two new pairs of shoes, one pair being pink and gray cross trainers to support her feet in a couple of weeks at the annual Relay for Life event. I am so proud of all she does for the cause.Then, she was surprised when her hubby crashed our event for a bit (he was wasting time while waiting to pick up their son from yet another birthday party). He and Hayden had a good time in the shoe department, too.
I tried my best not to make any frivolous purchases on the trip, but I couldn't help myself when I saw "the dress." It's one of those items you see hanging there in the store and you just know you have to have it. That's what I thought the first time I saw it, although I didn't try it on then. I told myself that, if it went on sale and the store still had my size (and I liked how it fit when I finally tried it on), that the dress would be mine. If not, then it wasn't meant to be.Looks like it was, because here's a pic of me wearing it, utilizing my mom's bathroom mirror to get the shot. It was the only one left in my size and it was on sale for 40 percent off. So glad I didn't snatch it up impulsively when I first saw it. It was worth the wait. It'll be perfect for a date night next month, when my hubby and I will be celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary. He likes the dress, too ... on me, of course :-)
*****
Raw, vegan diets
get high rankings
On another note, did anyone see U.S. News & World Report's rankings of 20 popular diets? Check it out; the raw food diet ranks at #3 and the vegan diet is #5.
