check

6) throw killer halloween party. check.

that is right people. we had a killer halloween party. the food was fantastic. i love going to a party ancipating the food and then it exceeding my expectations. the vision was soups and sides for a nice "blustery autumn day" feel. and luckily a cool front came in and delivered a perfect soup-day-feel for us.

( a hearty beef stew, creamy broccoli cheese, and spicy chicken tortilla soup)

debi went absolutely crazy and sent us a halloween package. and we loved it. every little detail made it feel so much more of a celebration.

she also sent three of the costumes. which we are forever in-debted to her for. the kids were amazing looking. it was like having real-live stuffed animals.

she even sent the very costume that she hand-made for whitney 23 years ago. and man, yasmin looked so so perfect as a little rabbit..

i am not joking. i felt the urge to kiss and cuddle claire more than was neccessary. how could i not? she was a little duck tottleing after me.

the photo shoot felt a little out of control. all 4 parents had cameras, flips...videoing it and giggling and trying to get kids to smile and laughing as their hoods fell into their faces and totally swept into the moment of being moms and dads and how adorable are kids are.

so many different faces...

i love how yasmin seems to be comforting claire in this picture..

and after adjusting to her cutie little bubble costume, claire finally got into the festive mood...and of course started searching for food....

(she found some dutch cheese!)

we had Mark, Wendy, Isaiah (the elephant) and Miriam (the lamb) come celebrate with us too!

after some mingling time, i had prepared a few games. one was a contest between rem and drew to read a kids book that was printed in English, they had to translate it into Arabic as quick as they were able, but also try and get reactions out of the kids...rem won! his strategy was to make animal noises..

and then there was the final activity...the vision...to break into two groups and have sort of a song-poem-battle if you will against the other side...an arab tradition..an ancient art...composing wit and music together...and it was glorious.

and as things wound down. we had to take a shot of all the littles with the dads. drew and i love claire's expression here.

and the worker bees...the ones who made this party possible...thank you ladies for all your hard work!

and i have to admit, i was so excited for this party and so ready to make a unforgettable memory that i was nervous. nervous that people would be too tired, nervous people would be sick, but mostly nervous about the song-battle. but the crew pulled through. i laughed so hard that i had tears in my eyes at one point and that is all that matters, i live for those moments. i love resting in the fact that these friends are up for a good time. they will dive in. thank you all

and to all a good night...