Halloween fun

Today was Halloween, and this year instead of trying to avoid it and whining about the commercialisation and having the 'what's the point' debates - we embraced it!

A conversation with a friend recently changed my view, and then participating in our community tonight cemented it for me.
A friend pointed out to me that the reason why he didn't mind Halloween and thought it was embraced so enthusiastically (particularly here in Dubai) was because it is one of the few celebrations that is not directly connected to one religion or race. It is fun the whole community can participate in no matter who you are or what your background.

This struck a chord with us - especially living here where everything from your salary to your ability to purchase alcohol (including how much per month) is determined by your religion and race.

So today Piper dressed up and went to school and enjoyed Halloween activities all day, then we all attended the school annual Halloween fair in the afternoon. Although she was already exhausted and sugar loaded we then had friends over and went trick or treating in the streets of our community.
It was so much fun - the kids had an absolute ball, we ran into familiar faces, met new neighbours and laughed with complete strangers.

Who knows next year we may even go so far as to carve our own jack-o-lantern!

Piper and her best friend ready for trick or treating

Some of our neighbours went to an amazing effort to decorate their homes

Piper Tales #1

So I haven't blogged for over a week. In the first instance I have broken something on this blog and it breaks every single time I try to upload new photo's. In the second instance it has been one hell of a busy  two weeks at work.

To all of my friends and family I am sorry for all the emails unreturned, skype dates missed and just generally ignoring you all for 2 weeks.
Piper is growing up before our eyes at the moment. Can you believe in just over 6 weeks she will be 3 years old (she has requested a princess and pirate party).

I wish I had remembered to write down more Piper quotes and her little stories recently but here a few to entertain you as much as she does us.

Her judgement for when she is grown-up is not "when I am a big girl" or "when I am x age". No out of the mouth of Piper on numerous occasions lately has been "when I am taller than mummy" hmmmm does that mean 10?

To the waiter who informed her they don't have banana pancakes only blueberry "well actually you just take the blueberries out and chop up a banana and put it in see" - she got her banana pancakes after all

On arriving home from work last week Piper informed me "Auntie Leanne broke her foot". As I had only just spoken to my sister that day I was a little shocked. I asked Piper if she had spoken to Auntie Leanne and she told me her and Daddy had been on skype. "She broked it bad mummy" at which point I thought I should probably call my sister and check how she was. I then asked Piper how Auntie Leanne broke her foot and got this response "she picked her toe nails too much". There was no broken foot or even a conversation that day, it was just her imagination.

Her response when running out to the lounge room when she should of been in bed asleep made me cry "I did a really stinky pardy in my bed and can't go in there" Note: Pardy is code for fart in our house.

She reconfirmed this current development stage of fascination with her pardy abilities on the weekend. A male colleague and good friend of ours was at our house when Piper who was sitting at the other end of the couch yelled "Kieran, Kieran, come here" and when the poor guy came over "smell this". Yup, she really did tit, she wasn't joking or repeating anything she had seen before - she really was a little proud of herself and wanted to share.