The Birds and The Bees

I'm a wee bit strage in case you havent figured that out by now. Initially for Halloween I wanted Berns and I to dress up as 2 birds. Then I wanted the 3 little munchkins to dress up as little bees. "The Birds and the Bees". However, my husband refused to dress up as a froofy bird (why?!) and the eldest munchkin (Rooster) refused to dress up as a bee. *sigh* So being that all my my glorious plan was RUINED my two tiny ones got to be my guiny pigs. (usually).

So I pulled out the trusty sewing machine and whipped out a colorful fantastic bird for zo--it suits her quite well. And fashioned a Bee costume for Beee-a. They were the birds and the bees. And quite fantastic if I must say so myself.

Riley was persistant on the fact that she wanted to be a cowgirl. She gathered up all she could and came up with a purty cute lil outfit.

My fabulous parrot-birdy-thing.

Fuzzy Bumble Beeee-a.



She had one thing on her mind the whole time.

Little Claire and her poodle pooch. She's scrumptious.

Ride em cowgirl.

Enjoying the Halloween Chili cook off at our church. Pretty sure Bia is just eating asfault.

Lil Claire and poppa Niels.

Kinnsi and her little strawberry Raija.

uh, I'm not too sure what's happening here...your guess is as good as mine.

Zo and her best bud Preston. 1 same person in 2 bodies. They are crazy and fantastic.


Trick or Treat!

Harvesting

Halloween wasn't THAT long ago... *insert shake-head-in-shear-disappointment here*...well, ok, However I'm still gonna write about it cuz that's what I do. Late Schmate.

Every year us Costa's start off the spooktacular festivities with a pumpkin carving party. Riley looks forward to the "Goblin Goo" (sprite with lime sherbet) the most. Zo just likes the fact that there is limitless amounts of goodies to devour. I love to throw get togethers and shindigs--so whatever the occasion is, I enjoy it.

Berns?! He just goes with the flow...He's a good one....

Bia? Who knows where she was all night. Most likely stealing peoples treats.

So proud of Ms Suz. She actually came with her game face on and carved a pumpkin this year...I lied...she carved one the first year we lived here too--but that's just cuz she wanted to impress us--huh Suz ;)

Never mind the fact that she conveniently "forgot" her pumpkin after working so hard to carve it....

Partners in crime.



Avery wins the prize. Apparently this pumpkin deserved what was coming for it. Poor fella.

Riley had the idea to "design" hers before she cut it out. I tried to explain to her that cutting out what she had drawn would be tedious, hard, and time consuming....she didn't seem to mind.

Claire. The little beauty of the evening. I love her. End of story.

Zo socializing with all her buds. I'm not sure she even knew there were Pumpkins there.

The besties.

Riley digging into brain surgery.

My girls are the best. Again, however, Bia was no where to be found. No fears, we did eventually locate her...just not in time for a picture.

Rooster Roo

I’ve always wanted to raise my kids to be better than myself. It never realized one of them would accomplish that by the time she was 9.

Riley is unbelievable. She is who she is and outwardly displays every aspect of who she is.

She is an incredible reader. A 4^th grader that is reading at an 8^th grade level. She reads any and everything she can get her hands on, so consequently is full of random facts and knowledge. Definitely knows more than I do.

She is a dancer. This girl gets her groove on. I keep waiting for the day that she tells me she is packing her bags to go audition to be America’s favorite dancer on “So You Think You Can Dance”. She’s got rhythm and some pretty sweet moves.

She is an amazing big sister. She loves to teach her sisters, play with them, and help their little minds explore. She is ready and willing to help out in any way she is asked. My two little peanuts are lucky to have such a fantastic older example.

She is such a spiritual little ball of goodness. She definitely keeps both Berns and I on track when we should be doing something that we aren’t. It makes my soul smile.

I’m so proud of the little lady she is becoming. I look back at all she has been through in her 9 short years and can only sigh a sigh of relief that I didn’t mess her up. She is a trouper and one strong cookie. I admire her and the person she is becoming. When I grow up, I want to be like Riley.

Black Gold

There is a little town about 2 hours away from Belo called Ouro Preto. It’s a World Heritage site and full of history and goodness. We don’t usually go every time we visit Brasil- usually only when we take people with us (Justin, Mom and Damon, etc etc.)—but we hadn’t gone since our wedding and decided it would be fun to take the girls on a day trip down there. Brasil, in general, is heavily Catholic. This little town has hoards of historical Catholic churches. However, because everything was built so much cooler and artistically back in the day (really—why don’t people build cool buildings anymore?) these churches resemble Princess Castles.

The first time we took Riley my mother came with us and narrated stories about different princesses that lived in each “castle”—she got pretty believable.

Anyways, we walked around the little town looking at the beautiful scenery and buildings, shopped in the little farmers market full of hand carved goodies, and ate at a yummy restaurant that happened to be in what use to be a basement of a house where the slaves were kept.

Its little trips like this that make me want to travel the world more. There is so much more that cultural experiences can teach you that school cant.

The girls looking through the gates of a cemetery where all the priests and others were buried--It's on the same lawn as the church. Pretty interesting.

Riley standing at the front entrance to one of the churches. The doors to these places are ridiculously huge. It's outta control. But the bright blue is fantastic--don't you think?

Little B learned how to walk in Brasil and took every chance she could to meander into the world unknown.

It's a beautiful little town snuggled in between some lovely rolling hills. I'd move there.

The cobblestone roads are my favorite. Because the town is a world heritage site they have to keep everything how it is. When renovations have to be made--like the street being repaired---they just have to put the cobblestones back. Rollerblading would be a problem though.

1st Day--Take Two

Riley originally started her 4th grade school year doing an online school called K12... Nevada isnt all that top notch when it comes to education...and Riley was out smarting the whole family, so we decided we would go this route. The curriculum was great and right up her alley. It was hard and challenging and she LOVED it.
It was super nice having so much flexibility, but after about 2 months of giving it a go I started to go crazy....no, not quite "let's lock up the looney" crazy....but enough so that I had to get her back in a brick and morter school.
My 2 smallest nuggets I found were being ignored. I spent so much of the day just doing Riley's schooling that I found the 3 year old and the 1 year old off venturing into who-knows-what. I decided this had to stop.
EXCEPT, she couldnt go back to her former school--it was WAAAAAY too boring and unchallenging for her. AND I'm too mean of a mom to let her skip a grade.
And then, just like that---as though my little chubby fairy godmother (I assume she's chubby, because I'm pretty sure all fairy godmother's are chubby.) waved her wand of fairy dust and a tuition free charter school presented itself.
woot woot! So, Riley decked herself out in a uniform (and oh buddy, she was STOKED for uniforms...I kid you not. I've never seen someone get so excited to wear navy and white.) and headed to her new school.
The girl loves it. She comes home happy and cheerful and willing to help and play with her little sisters everyday. Just watching her wake up every morning actually excited for school makes the whole thing worth it.
Now, if I can just figure out a way for her to stop growing all of my problems will be solved....

Little sis zozo sending her "sissy" off to school....yup, she cried for about 10 minutes after she left. Zo loves her sissy.