My good friends took me out last week for my belated birthday- Chie and Trudy, and Chie’s daughter Claire came along as she often does. After our delicious pancakes and crepes, we hung out for a while outside. I’ve always been bummed about the fact that I haven’t really taken photos yet of sweet Claire, and I freak out about her getting older too fast before I’d gotten the chance to capture her cute “todays”…that adorable face and cutest outfits from Japan she’d sport around. So when I saw the autumn leaves plus her adorable red boots, I was glad I lugged my real camera to breakfast this time. Thanks to my new Epiphanie bag, which looks like a purse and makes it possible for female photographers to bring an SLR along without big black ugly bag. I love this photo of my little friend Claire! Tell me, am I just biased? No right?

By the way, if you ever want a fantastic breakfast, Cici’s Cafe in Tarzana, has everything you could want and more. This place had an amazing menu! 2 whole pages full of 50 or so different pancake flavors, (including red velvet and green tea), a page full of crepes, and a mouthful of different types of Egg Benedicts… I could have had a whole cup of coffee or tea just reading the entire menu with my reading glasses fully on. I will be going back for sure, since Timon LOVES pancakes and I love me some crépes If you’re wondering about that head of hair she’s holding onto, it was a sweet gift from our friend Trudy who went to brunch with us, and Claire loved it as you can tell. Too bad you can’t see the face of the doll in the photo…it was a TY doll with a really sweet-looking face that kind of matched Claire’s. I didn’t even know TY made dolls, i thought they only made little stuffed animals. It was really sweet..it also seemed to be the perfect size for hugging. :)