Lions and Gorillas and Slides!

Last weekend we made the trek out to Birmingham for Mr. Hudson's 4th birthday! We had a good time, especially since the weather had a brief warm up that day. Autumn had a bit of a "read too long in the car" tummy ache so to get caught up to the birthday boy (the Memphis crew was slightly delayed by heavy rain on the way), Autumn got a ride.

We arrived in the time catch the train which tours the Birmingham Zoo. The tour guide was cool and I told Mike I thought I could totally be a tour guide, haha!

Autumn got another ride just because.

And then we all got to ride this super fun slide! I seriously need to build one in the backyard because HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE??

I thought this one was funny because of my backback and stuff all scrunched in the tube.

Mike decided to live wildly and only hold on with one hand. Living on the edge!

Lindsay got a couple of really nice shots while Mike and I were in line including this one of Autumn and Lainey being cute. It's funny, I feel like I can see a resemblance between Autumn and just about every member of our families. I guess that's not too weird since half the gym thinks Lindsay is my biological sister and not Mike's!

The zoo's gorilla was only going to be at that location for a few more days before moving to a new zoo so they had this good-bye banner set up. Autumn signed it.

And then she decided it needed a little more work.

Gorilla by Autumn. I LOVE IT.

We got to hear the lion roar. I don't think I've ever heard one in person. We had moved on to the tiger exhibit when we heard this huge rumble. Autumn, Mike and I booked it back to the lion and just watched him roar a few times and then, his point made, the lion wandered off again. I really wish I got it on video!

This one is not a lion. BUT SHE THINKS SHE IS. Sometimes, at least!

We have another round of winter weather rolling in tomorrow afternoon or evening. If you're iced or snowed in or will be, stay warm and stay safe!

ALL THE PICTURES: The Lion King, Valentine's Day AND Snow Days!

Earlier this month, my mom, Autumn and I went to see the Lion King at the Orpheum! Autumn isn't a huge fan of the movie because she thinks it's kind of scary but the show is so popular and she liked Phantom so I thought we should give it a try! The show started at 8 and, despite a nap, Miss Autumn was wilting a bit. But from the very first, she perked right up. By the intermission, she was all THIS IS AMAZING.

I asked Autumn what her favorite part was and she said, "ALL OF IT." My mom didn't get to have dinner with us like we did last time but Autumn and I had some Panera and dressed up anyway. Since the show, Autumn keeps asking when we are going again. I don't think she quite understands that it's only here for a little while and costs a little too much to see twice. She wants Mike to come so I told her we'd all go again next time it comes.

In other news, Autumn is getting her dog book fix in! Some of our friends gave Autumn a stack of books from when they were into animal books, too! Autumn has these on her bookshelf all arranged by topic and series and order she plans to read them.

Last week, I'm sure everyone knows we had SNOW DAYS. Except there wasn't really any snow. It was ice. Most of the main thoroughfares were fine after the first couple of the days but side streets and sidewalks were iced over so we only had one day of school last week. One of the ice days, Autumn and I went out and slid on the ice, made the Tiniest Snowman, and looked for animal tracks.

Molly did this during the cold.

We stayed busy by keeping up with online homework, reading, straightening, shivering, and Autumn learned to sew! We started on paper plates with a big needle and embroidery floss. She wanted to make a nine patch quilt like Laura in Little House. Autumn did a pretty good job when she remembered to not wrap stitches. She has a whole 9 patch quilt block (I don't have a photo yet!) and I think I'm going to get a charm pack of precut patches to let to her make a few more.

Oh, we also played some Warcraft! Autumn was able to drive her character on her own! I stayed nearby to make sure she was headed the right way but Autumn completed an entire quest by herself! I have it set so that she can't see anything written by anyone except our guild (which consists of Mike, Donnie, Liz, and me!) and no one can duel her or invite her to anything which is great.

And, FINALLY, I hope everyone had a fun Valentine's Day. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I enjoy it because I like holidays and excuses to celebrate. Mike did great. He got Autumn the coolest chocolate ever! He also got me chocolate and flowers AND ordered the new Laura Ingalls Wilder book, Pioneer Girl, however, it is out of stock. T_T

Autumn made a really cute Valentine mailbox featuring Peso from Octonauts. We printed a coloring page and she colored and cut it out. Then we put sparkle modge podge on it. Too fun!

On the other side, she drew her own Peso! SO CUTE I LOVE IT. After she made her box, Autumn made her own Peso costume with a black track suit, a white circle, a paper medical bag, and a paper hat. No, we don't really get bored here. :)

I'm teaching Monday nights in a late time slot and having a bit of a hard time updating the blog after class. I'm going to give Tuesday mornings a try! Until next time!

Honors Day and January Mobile Moments

Autumn had a couple of big weeks with her violin recital and then her very first honors program! They don't start doing this until second grade at her school so Autumn was super excited. And trying very hard not to talk. Here she is doing some finger exercises I gave her to help when she feels like moving around but can't!

Autumn held out just fine and afterward we had to take pictures. I just realized she looks super tired here. I wonder if she was nervous?

Lainey got to come! And, as you can see, the certificate didn't make it very long in mint condition. :)

Awwww, she's getting SO BIG. I am not ready. T_T I'm glad she got to do this. It was exciting for her. I'm not sure how this semester is going to go because she's having a bit of a tough time (harder math + dealing with boredom--we're working on it!) but I know she is a super hard worker and is going to do a great job whether or not it ends in "highest honors."

I thought I'd also wrap up some January mobile shots in addition to celebrating Autumn's honors program. January seems like it was such a long, busy month and even looking at the photos at ALL THE THINGS we did I think we were pretty packed. Hopefully this month will be a little less crazy. Autumn did some ambulance repair last month. I was cracking up when I saw her with the "lift" she set up to work on the bottom of the car.

She sent a letter to the kiwi crate people (if you ever order a kiwi crate, use my affiliate link at passing pinwheels!). The letter was really cute and I took this picture to send along to explain who Kiri is and how we got Kiri and gave her a backstory before they named the crate mascot. The company sent her a nice postcard with a handwritten note really quickly. I was impressed and Autumn was beside herself! She's been carrying it around.

Letters and pictures are really Autumn's thing now. I guess she's always been into that but now she's turning her talents to begging. For a dog.

Desperately begging. In details. And in color.

We'll see. For not she has to make due with this little furball. And Kiri.

I think Autumn is coping okay although I get wanting something a little more friendly than Molly usually is. There's just a difference between actively playing with a dog and having to go cat fishing with a stick and a catnip ball!

Anyway, in other news, Autumn made the swim team! I'm so excited for her. She was kind of wanting a break from ballet so I encouraged her to take the chance to try out for swim. Autumn wasn't so sure but I took her to the pool to practice for a couple of weeks and she had such a great time that I knew this was the right direction. She was evaluated and made it! Autumn was so nervous before the first practice but afterward she asked, "can I come again Wednesday?" Hahaha. I said, "see, mama is right sometimes!"

And I think that wraps up January! Have a great week and we'll be back here next time!

First Violin Recital!

Guess what! Autumn played in her very first violin recital on Saturday! I have a lot more pictures but I'm saving them for a Passing Pinwheels post. What I *do* have to post is very blurry video of Autumn's piece. I think she did super well! She's only been playing since August and was the newest of the students who played in this recital. There were 2 other recitals later in the afternoon which kept this blessedly short...although, I have to say, some of the kids who played Saturday were downright amazing! I also really feel like Autumn did well because it was an intimate location where all the people were just RIGHT THERE. Here she is, it's blurry and the youtube stabilizer cut her head off some but you can hear it fine. Mike has a better version but I know better than to wait on him, hahahaha.



During the awards portion Autumn...wasn't a fan of looking at all the people.

At all. She deadpanned for every. single. award. We were absolutely cracking up. Autumn racked up the awards Saturday which means we got to see plenty of scowls. She got a participation certificate, a ribbon for composing her own music, and a trophy for practicing 5 days a week all semester, and I feel like there is something I'm forgetting.

When she went up for her trophy, I stood up and made a huge, cheesy grin and pointed at my face. It worked!

Much better! Let's end on an even happier (and less purple-lit) note: pajama day at school! Autumn went ALL OUT.

Comfy!

Autumn the Level 11 Paladin

We're doing a ton of transitioning right now. A lot of it is around aikido but I'm also making some changes to my fitness schedule but that's a post for passing pinwheels! One of the bigger transitions is that Autumn taking a break from ballet to try the swim team! I figure this is a good time for her to experiment a bit so, even though ballet has been going well, when Autumn asked if she could try swimming, I said yes. I have taken her a few times to practice for her evaluation just to get used to swimming laps again. She has done a fantastic job and is already improving with regular laps. Plus she's just so happy in the water. Today alone she spent a full hour alternating laps and playing alone.

Friday, Emma came and swam with Autumn and these ladies played for two hours! Autumn was so tired she kept asking to go to bed, hahaha. Friday was the first time Autumn did laps in the deep end. It's SUCH a long way and she was scared but Autumn hopped in and did it with her kickboard and then without it. Today she did something like 6 full laps (in addition to the ones in the shallow end) and made it end to end freestyle and backstroke without having to rest or float.

Mike and I started playing warcraft again, much to Autumn's delight. She likes watching us play and she has a paladin that she plays, too. It's been cool to watch Autumn put together costumes of her character Leenda. There's a square of paper on her weapon because Leenda has a giant hammer right now!

Autumn also made hearthstones which characters use to go back to their home inn or base. How fun is this?

This is her map, too! She has a backpack and she carried all this around along with water and a dog because her character has a little dog.

In other news, it's been warmer lately. But for a while it was SUPER COLD. Molly decided to hole up in Mike's dresser thing. It has drawers on one side and shelves on the other. Once he left it open and found THIS:

I'd be in there, too, if I could fit. I spent my evenings like this, with the occasional visiting kitty:

Oh, I just ran into this...Molly needs some redemption with all these pictures of her looking like a friendly, fluffy cat.

That's more like it.