The Harvest Moon...

...was the perfect gift to celebrate all the time I spent having meetings, writing emails, organizing materials, making paper plate jack o'lanterns, setting up a (second place) booth and manning a thirty minute time-slot with my amazing 5 year old, who completely came out of her shell to lend a helping hand my way.

When it first peeped out from behind a villa--I was amazed at it's marigold hue.  As it moved further up in the sky, the colour lightened to a pale lemon, but it was still a marvel.  How can it be I have never noticed this before?  I raced home, in the hopes that A might still be awake to see it, but she was fast asleep in her bed.  Oh well...I pray she will have many harvest moons in her future to see.

At the Harvest Festival

Suffice it to say, next week I am hoping for minimal school involvement, and to take it easy being just a 'regular mom' again (til the next event anyway!).

Our jack o'lanterns...better every year!

Halloween was a good time.  We had the cutest skunk in the world!!  Peter scoffed at the outfit which he deemed  'not very manly'--but it was a big hit and Pickle had strangers taking his picture.

Hurry up papa!

Magoo was a pumpkin (with a gravity defying stem), and little A was a beautiful witch-princess.

Pumpkin purse

Sisters

We went with my friend Samar and her troops, which included their golden lab puppy Ice.  It was a bit challenging keeping together a group where so many people had different speeds of travel.  I think next year we will just take our trio together (and maybe we will go thru Sas Al Nakhl, as it sounds like that community has more ex-pats than ours).

New friends

Pickle absolutely LOVED it, and I will always have a memory of him running, pumpkin bag at his side, looking for the next villa to hit.  Magoo didn't quite get it, but liked to dress up.  Of course--Malou was very happy once again with the candy she collected!

In a hurry

 
Today was a quiet day at home.  I woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning, to the sound of Magoo vomiting.  I managed to get up and clean everything without Peter even noticing (he slept through it all).  We went for our usual breakfast (though I was wary of it being the second week in a row that we brought vomit to the Shangri-la). Luckily for us, Magoo was fine...at least until we came home.

She was awakened from yet another peaceful slumber, by loads of vomit.  Mercifully, when I had remade the bed from the mornings events, I thought of adding a towel to the mix (just in case).  NOW, I plan to just make sure the towel goes OVER the sheets (instead of underneath). No food for Smile-ah tonight...just mommy's milk...until the morning.  Hopefully that will stay down, and she will be improved in the morning.

Praying Pickle doesn't get this bug.  He sleeps alone, and nobody will know until tomorrow morning if he has been sick...think I'll get Peter to sleep downstairs with Pickle's monitor (but if a baby throwing up beside him in the bed doesn't wake him...what are the chances a the sounds of a baby throwing up over the monitor will?).

Something smells SWEET!!