Finding Balance in San Francisco

Batman and the Sunrise

Much to the boys' delight, it recently rained here in San Francisco. This gave our boys and excellent opportunity to don their new Batman raincoats (complete with capes). Here they are, posing, on our back deck:

At the end of that day, Quinn said "the trick with these boots is that you have to walk on your toes."  Upon further questioning and examination, turns out the boots are 2 sizes too small. Quinn's take: "wherever I go, wherever my heels hurt."  Santa may need to bring some new rain boots for the Mighty Quinn.

On another note (but also on our back deck), since the time change we've been waking up with the sun most mornings.  Walking out onto the back deck to see the sunrise has developed into a lovely morning ritual- a refreshing and inspiring way to start the day. 

And lastly, welcome home to my cousin Adam, who is a medic in the military and who has been over in Afghanistan. It's been a brutal past couple of months, with his unit losing several men. We are all so very proud of him and relieved to have him back home, if only for a few weeks. Adam's on the left in the photo below:

We think and pray for you often, Adam.  Thank you for your service to our country.

Snippets

Quinn was awarded "Star of the Week" at school yesterday, and we're all so proud.

When asked what he was going to do to help keep the planet clean, Quinn told his class that he was going to stop screaming.

Jordan's favorite new move is to wrap his arms and legs around my neck and waist and pretend to be my baby Koala.  Jordan has also taken to calling me "Sweetie," as in "Don't worry, Sweetie, I will clean my room," or this morning, after putting on his Batman rain coat, "Don't worry, Sweetie, Batman's here."

As of yesterday, we have 2 new fish: Alligator and Crocodile. Alligator is all black with bulgy eyes, Crocodile is all white with an orange head. Welcome to the family, fishies.

Happy Haunting in San Francisco

Halloween roared into our lives this year

and it's been almost a week of celebrations.

Photo above is a chocolate-drunk Quinn with his line partner, Eduardo, at the school Halloween fair.

As has been our tradition for the past 5 years or so, we met up with the Taylor brothers for trick or treating on Halloween night, kicking off the evening with a playdate/dinner in the Presidio at the Taylor's home.

Ry and I got into the dress-up action this year, too.

we love to trick or treat through the mansions of Presidio Heights- many houses decorated to the nines and great candy

the boys were pleased with their haul at the end of the night, and a great time was had by all.

That bowl there with the spider is for the "Switch Witch, " who gets almost all of the candy and replaces it with a present for each trick-or-treater, to be found the next morning.  I'm a big fan of the Switch Witch.

Oh, and I should say R.I.P. to our fish Dino, who didn't live through Halloween night.  I guess he gave up the ghost.

Quinn's birthday week is over!

Quinn is officially 5.

Quite the week of celebrations. We had a birthday party for him Sunday-

Complete with bouncy house

Quinn's 5th birthday- bouncy house shenanigans from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

Quinn's 5th birthday- more bouncy house fun from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

and light saber duels

It's a great thing to have a birthday party, and also exhausting. The Mighty Quinn seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself, as did Jordan and friends and family we had over, and that definitely put a smile on our faces.

Quinn's birthday party- Moeller brothers from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

Now we're in good standing for another 6 months, when Jordan will expect a partay for his 4th. At the end of the party, I felt a bit like one of our small guests:

May the Force Be With You

We just got back from Sacramento, where we saw Star Wars in Concert. The kids were delighted with their first symphony. They were very impressed with the dazzling laser light show, pyrotechnics and video clips from the original movies (all of which the boys have seen at least some part of). It was a great way to expose our young kids to a full symphony orchestra.

We took Quinn for his upcoming 5th birthday, and he's been looking forward to the concert for about 6 weeks. He went in full Darth Vader regalia- Jordan changed a bunch of times- here at our house just before we left he thought of going as a devil, and earlier in the day it was Peter Pan. I explained about those not technically being Star Wars characters, but he wasn't dissuaded.

Here they are, showing off their moves (a cross between Michael Jackson and kung fu)

Shasta joined in the pre-Star Wars concert fun

but Shasta wound up staying in San Francisco with our neighbor Dave and Jordan wound up settling on his Superman pajamas as an outfit. Quinn got a kick out of all of the Star Wars memorabelia

and we enjoyed it. Here's couple low-quality clips from my camera:

Star Wars for Quinn's Birthday from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

Star Wars - with symphony from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

The show was a couple hours long, and 3 year old Jordan was getting a little restless toward the end, but overall it was a great experience and I'd recommend it to kids who are 4 or 5 years old and older.

May the Force Be With You!