Happy 16th birthday Zari!!

What a day! I sent Zari off to school in her mage costume. We didn't have time to do anything fancy with her hair. Having her almost knee-length hair down would have made a stunning addition to the outfit...but hey, we do what we can, right?

I baked her birthday cake while she was away and started decorating it when the kids came home from school.

Trick-or-treating started at 5 pm, and we had a lovely time. It's the one day per year that people are actually out en masse walking around our town (in contrast, that's normal life every day for us in Nice). I very much miss wandering around outside amidst crowds of people, running into people I know every few minutes. Americans don't know what they're missing!

We had a quick healthy dinner of peas, carrots, & bacon; zucchini fritters, and scrambled eggs. Dio exclaimed, "The best time to eat healthy food is after eating too much candy!" He had had so many sweets that he couldn't even eat a bite of birthday cake.

I have a splitting headache, so instead of hunting down old pictures of Zari, I will refer you to my blog archives. You can read her birth story and see pictures and videos of her just a few minutes old.

I had a moment this evening when the four kids were walking around in their costumes and enjoying themselves, just being amazed at these beautiful human beings we have created. I feel so lucky and grateful to have them in my life and to have become a mother 16 years ago today.