When Daddy's Away...

...We Might As Well Play!!!  And play we have!

Brad left on Tuesday morning for Costa Rica to compete in his one epic race of the year.  La Ruta de los Conquistadores is a three-day mountain biking trek across Costa Rica starting on a beach on the Pacific Ocean side of the country, traverses the mountains and rain forest of the beautiful country, and finishes on the Atlantic Ocean side.  From what I've heard Brad is doing GREAT...finishing under his time requirements every day and being challenged to the max.   It sounds like there's been a lot of mud, plenty of carrying of the bikes up parts of the mountains that are impossible to ride up, and beautiful scenery that can only be enjoyed during the first few hours of the day because everyone is way too exhausted to focus on anything other than their bikes after that.

In the meantime, Quinn and I have been having a good time hanging out and doing some out of the ordinary things ourselves.  Tuesday night Quinn and I carved his first pumpkin.  Unusual for the little boy who likes to dig in the rocks and sand, Quinn was not too sure about digging out the pumpkin seeds and slimy gook from inside the pumpkin.  Once I gave him a spoon, he was a much happier camper.  I let him choose the shapes of his pumpkin's features and my absolute favorite moment of the night was when we popped out the first eye and he looked at me in amazement and said "Well Good Job Mom!"  It was all I had to not laugh at the cuteness of the moment.

Digging in...Spoon in Hand

So proud of his final creation!

Wednesday was Halloween and guess who woke up begging to put on his puppy costume?  We negotiated, dressed up in his glow in the dark skeleton shirt and headed off for a busy day before our evening festivities could begin.  I decided to take Quinn up to his Arkansas Grandparents' house (Celine and Vern, our old neighbors) and let them come trick or treat with us in their neighborhood at their friends' houses.  Everyone was tickled to have such a cute little puppy come to their house.  Being a retirement community, people told us he was the first trick or treater they had had in 6 years!  Funny enough, they all had their candy bowls ready, just in case.  I personally think I would have given up hope after 2 years and would have found a box of raisins in my pantry :)

Playing Before the Big Night

Arf Arf

Grandma Celine, Grandpa Vern, and the Little Puppy

Stop Mom...This Bag is Getting Heavy!

We got home that night at 8:30 and he slept until almost 8am the next day.  What an amazing night!  Should have known we'd make up for it soon!  I brought him into bed with me thinking maybe he'd fall back to sleep, but no, I had made the mistake of letting him sleep in his skeleton shirt.  I kept getting "Whoa Mommy look, it green!"  (because it was glowing in the dark) "Uh huh...night night!"  Followed by some tossing a turning and when I finally got warm again, the covers would be ripped off "Whoa Mommy look, it green!"  Finally, at 5am, I raised my white flag and surrendered to the TV Gods of The Disney Channel.  Here's a picture of us after our 3:45am wake up call.

Fake smiles...not fake tired eyes

We weren't going to let a sleepless night stop us from playing though.  Tonight was First Friday on the Bentonville Square.  We are so fortunate to live in a community that receives so much support.  Walmart, SamsClub, and the local vendors' offices are always doing something to make Bentonville stand out.  First Fridays do just that.  This month's theme was Toyland.  Radio Disney was performing and every single vendor who sells toys into Walmart had a booth with areas for the kids to explore and play and/or were giving away toys.  It was a mob scene, but we got their early enough that Quinn was able to enjoy himself for a short bit and was able to nab some pretty cool loot.

At the Fisher Price Booth

His Favorite Freebie - he liked it even more than the Matchbox Cars!

All Smiles and Ready for Dinner and Bed!!!

It's just after 9pm and Quinn's been asleep for an hour.  I'd be a fool to think he might possibly sleep in tomorrow so I'm signing off too!  I'll be sure to post any more fun we might have...we have until Monday so we'll have to make it count :)