Happy Birthday Raif!!

Though you are a year older may you always be young at heart. I love you.

The Princess and The................Elephant???

Months ago I had the brilliant idea that my kids were going to coordinate for Halloween. They were going to be so cute in their matching costumes. But each idea I had either one or both of the little ones shot down. I had pretty much given up until we went to Marshall's last month and Greyson fell in love with a knight costume. At last!!! I rushed out and bought a princess costume for Quinn and we were all set.

So you can imagine my sheer delight last night when Greyson announced that he was going to be an elephant for his Lil' Punkin Parade at school. You remember that costume I bought him a month ago that he put on for 10 seconds and wanted nothing more to do with. The costume that has been gathering dust in the closet - completely forgotten about until now. I tried to bribe him "If you are a knight you get to have a sword." No good. "If you are a knight I will let you take your horse to school to ride on." Still no good. So may I present to you The Princess and The Elephant. (sigh)

The Making of Jack & Jackie O'Lantern....

El Dia Del Quinn

I love having two children. I love how they are becoming best friends (most of the time). I love how they are starting to really interact and how I can finally send them to their rooms to play with each other while I make dinner.

But while there are a zillion and one things that are good about having two (or more) children, there is one big drawback - the limited one on one time I get with them. So yesterday when Greyson went off to spend the night at his BFF Yohannes' house I jumped at the chance to get some one on one time with Quinn. Raif had to work on some boat project for Nini and Dede so Quinn and I were really on our own. It was a gorgeous fall day and so we headed out to Cheekwood's El Dia De Los Muertos festival (The Day of the Dead for all you gringos). We listened to the mariachi band and watched the Aztec dancers dance. We sampled some insanely good tacos and quesadillas. We made skeleton masks and marigold flowers. But most of all I just listened. I listened to my little girl talk about whatever she wanted - with no interruptions from her brother. She got to control the afternoon and we did whatever she wanted. She definitely has a different personality when she isn't battling her brother for attention.

After the festival we met Daddy for dinner (Mexican of course) and finally home to bed. This was one of my favorite days in a long while and makes me realize we need to do some more one on one things with the kids.

Hide and Seek

It was time to go outside - Greyson rushed out the door and as usual Quinn didn't have her shoes on so I told her to go fetch them while I went outside and checked on Greyson. After 5 minutes, when Quinn hadn't emerged from the house I went back inside and found her sitting where I left her. "Quinn why haven't you gotten your shoes? Have you even looked for them?"

"I just assumed that I can't find them."

Queen for a Day....

Quinn chose the zoo for her special event and of course had to ride the pink flamingo.

Enjoying her new dollhouse.

She got to choose what she wore to school (though I did make her wear the jeans under her see through tu-tu).

Empty calories at school.

Blowing out her candle and the end to a very wonderful birthday.

Dancing Queen

For her birthday Quinn got lots of wonderful things but by far her two favorites were her belly dancing and ballet outfits (or as she calls them her belly and her ballet). I have spent the last two days feeling like I was backstage at Cats. She spends 10 minutes dancing in her belly and then has to change to her ballet and back again and again and again. She definitely has the dancing fever...