Glamour Girl

Claire had another "first" recently - her first time to wear makeup.  One of her friends from school had a birthday party at a local kids' salon that included dressing up, a hair style, makeup, a visit from a "princess", a fashion show, and a dance party.  I was planning on having her pass on the makeup, but she was so excited that I couldn't say no.  She had such fun picking out colors and loved dancing around with her friends.

For the fashion show, one of the hosts asked each girl her name, age, and what she wanted to be when she grows up.  They shared this info during the little show, and Claire said she wanted to be a mommy.  :)  A couple of flashes went off when I took her picture with my phone, so it is way overexposed, but I still love how you can see her huge smile.  It was fun to watch my shy girl enjoy the spotlight.

Dance party!

The salon has a few special car chairs for little kids to sit in during haircuts (Will likes the Lightning McQueen chair, and Claire usually chooses the jeep).  Before we left, C and one of her friends climbed in a car and pretended to go for a ride.  I wasn't so sure how I felt about this little flash forward!

Halloween 2012

Halloween just gets more fun every year.

This year both kids had some input into their costumes.  For Will, I narrowed it down to a monkey or a lion, and he picked monkey - "I be monkey for Hal-ween!  Oooh oooh ahhh ahhh!!!"  Claire and I looked at costumes in a few different stores, and we agreed on a butterfly costume for Gymboree - except that she didn't want the wings.  We decided that she would be a "butterfly fairy", complete with wand and antenna headband.

The kids' school held their annual Halloween parade the morning of the 31st.  Although it wasn't on a day the kids normally attend school, we were able to bring them just for the parade so they could participate.  They started with the older kids first.  Claire was smiling her trademark big smile as she came out - she was so excited!


C with 3 of her buddies from her class.


Will wasn't as sure about all of these strange people watching him.


Will spotted me after his first circle around the parking lot and wasn't sure if he wanted to continue.  I asked him if he wanted to walk with Claire, and he decided that was okay.  Claire was so proud to lead him around - such a good big sister!




That afternoon Claire was too excited to take a nap, which was disappointing since I wanted her to be able to stay up a little later than usual.  We had an errand to run, and she promptly fell asleep in the car.  I put on a movie for Will and drove around for awhile so she could sleep - it was just what she needed to be ready for her big night!





After a few pictures, we took off in the wagon.  Our neighborhood does a pizza party in one of the cul de sac's before trick or treating starts, and we ran into our next door neighbors who have kids about a year older than ours.  We were able to trick or treat with them which made it even more fun - Claire loved running around with Ellie, and we enjoyed catching up with our neighbors.



We went to several houses, and they did such a good job politely accepting their candy.  We went back to our house when it started getting dark and let the kids enjoy a little of their haul.



Claire had just as much fun passing out candy as she did getting her own.  When the first group came, she showed us that she does listen to us sometimes when she told the kids "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"  Robert and I nearly lost it - so funny!  We told her that she didn't have to share that advice with any other kids.  At one point, she thought our bowl was getting a little low and dumped some of the candy from her bag into the bowl.  We loved that she was so happy to give candy away.



Happy kids and happy parents - it was a successful night!

Guts and Glory

Anthony Bourdain is a chef/author/tv personality that I enjoy, and his tour "Guts & Glory" stopped in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago.  Even though I knew we would be busy getting ready for our vacation, I didn't want to miss a chance to see him live.  My favorite part was the Q&A - he definitely has an opinion about everything, and I felt like he was more "real" when his remarks weren't as prepared.  He is entertaining, but we could've done with less cursing - it was a lot, y'all!  We did have a good time and enjoyed a night out together among the San Antonio hipster crowd.  :)

An article from our local newspaper's blog about the show is here.