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!

Autumns first fan letter gets a response!

Autumn had a super awesome night tonight. She is obsessed with dogs right now and she is absolutely tearing through the Puppy Place Series by Ellen Miles. Autumn is so obsessed that she wrote her very first fan letter!! I am kicking myself because I cannot find the photo of the letter she wrote. I have the first draft somewhere around here but it's also someplace weird. So, for now, here's a letter she sent Donnie and Liz.

She drew herself at her desk and make hearts and circles labeled with their initials.

Dogs and giraffes...or is that one at the top a camel? "Thank you for my cloths so much! I love it! I don't no wher it is rite now. See you in December! Love's Autumn. To Dunny and Lize.

So that the kind of letter she tends to write. We did edit her fan letter a bit for spelling and to make it more coherent. Autumn also asked some questions that were answered on the website so we took those out. We sent the letter about a month ago and I didn't expect a response, much less a quick one. Autumn almost exploded from happy when she checked the mail box. "IT SAYS ELLEN MILES!!!!"

She asked how Ellen Miles got her sticker. I thought I told Autumn I put a self addressed stamped envelope in with her letter and explained what that was but I don't think she really got it until the letter came in.

SO EXCITED.

"I GOT A PICTURE!! IT'S ELLEN MILES AND ZIPPER!"

On the back the author had a little letter about how she wishes she could write detailed letters to everyone but then she'd have no time to write books. Pretty cute and definitely a good idea since I'm sure all the kids who write her wait with as much anticipation as Autumn did. Ellen Miles even wrote a little note on the bottom:

This is the cat who gets a hug:

ALL THE FUR.

Fun times, happy Autumn!

December Adventures

This is what we've been up to:


Ha! It's Elf on the Shelf time. If you don't usually read Passing Pinwheels, this is a great time to glance through. We're in week 2 of our 25 Days of Kindness Project. We also have some adoption news! Nothing really concrete yet but we're tentatively moving forward with a birth mom due later this month.

In slightly less momentous news, Autumn got her first haircut in a non-family salon. AND YES MY MOM KNOWS. She was out of town so we had to take alternate measures. :) Autumn was not a fan of the camera.


Last Thursday was the book fair! We didn't get to go last time so this was pretty fun! It was also open house and we got to see her class, go on a school scavenger hunt, and see a bunch of her friends. That day at school, they had book character day. Autumn chose Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. We were going to do Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes BUT we couldn't find her ukelele. I decided to take an old stained dress shirt and I put the bright buttons on there. Pipe cleaner shaped into a corkscrew served as the button popping off. She had the blue leggings, shirt and ears aaaaaand voila! Pete the Cat!


We didn't have blue ears BUT we did make some droppy whiskers.


Anyway, we had the snow day that wasn't on Friday. A few people got ice but we didn't except on the trees. Autumn got to watch PBS kids and eat Golden Grahams. She said that Kiri was sick and kept her up alllll night coughing. I think Kiri is feeling better because Autumn took her to see Santa. That's for next week!


So, she made Kiri a healthy breakfast and some warm apple juice. And then Kiri slept on a pillow under a blanket all morning. So sweet.


I hope everyone has had a great weekend!! If you have any 25 Days of Kindness suggestions, let me know!

Honey the Not a Real Puppy joins in the adventure

Meet Honey! Honey joined the family two weeks ago, just in time to catch the end of the book Beauty which Autumn and I have been reading together for months now.


Honey goes everywhere with Autumn, including into the booster seat while Autumn is in school. Just to make sure she stays safe.


Honey watched while Autumn worked on her rain stick and is there for whatever adventures Autumn goes on.


Honey even had a birthday on Labor Day, complete with an indoor picnic and gifts!


And so, Honey joins the Ménagerie de Autumn. :)

FIRST GRADE, WHAT?

Oh, my gosh, check it out! It's our first grader having her first first grader breakfast!! Mini wheats and chocolate soy milk. Breakfast of champions!


Even though Autumn was super pumped about first grade, I read her The Kissing Hand which is the sweetest book ever. We found stickers at the end of the book and I have no idea how we missed them the last time we read it but Autumn got excited and wanted a sticker when she left for school. And she wanted me to take a picture of the book and her hand. :)


We had to get a full length shot! They still have clothing guidelines--collared shirts and navy, khaki, or black bottoms. No rules on shoes though so Autumn picked out some really cool light up sneakers! I told her she could only wear them if she could tie them and that proved to be the incentive to get her working hard on shoe tying! Lindsay, Lainey, Mike, and I all tried to teach her our versions of shoe tying and while I think we all helped, Mike is the one who had the magical technique that clicked for her.


Here's the shoe tying magician now. Mike was going to pick her up from school but at the last minute decided to get to work late so he could do drop off with us! I'm really glad because it was fun to do it as a family like we did last year.


Mama picture time! Used to be, everyone talked about how much Autumn looked like Mike. Lately everyone has used the term mini-Sharaze to describe Autumn. I can kind of see it in this photo although I am happy that she's still a nice mix of the two of us--looks and personality.


Happy girl in line waiting to go in. It was **crazy** parking and walking to the campus! As the week went on, the drop off became less hectic, thank goodness. Although I wish the police would do something about the parents who park ON THE CORNERS. It's really tough for little people (like me, even!) to cross the street around the giant land yachts that like to park in illegal spots! If you're one of those parents, THINK OF THE SHORT PEOPLE. We don't want to get mowed down in the cross walk.


This is her desk! Autumn was fantastic--no crying, no sadness, just happy little miss. She was lucky and got assigned a seat next to the twin sister of her good friend from last year. She was all, "JULIA!" And her friend was all, "I'm Natalie." And Autumn said, "NATALIE!" Another boy named Izzat from her old class was also in her area. I think that really helped.


The next day, Autumn didn't even need me to walk her to class! I asked her if she needed me to take her in, she said she thought she could find it. We talked over the directions (go in the door, turn right, class is on the right) and talked about who to find if she got lost and she marched right in like a big kid!! Seriously, she has become so independent! I'm really proud of her because i know she's really worked on it. So very far from the preschooler I had to do a sticker chart with when I dropped her off in class back at Mullins.


Oh, and this is how Molly has coped with the schedule change:


Ha! Cats. Also, say a prayer for me if you think about it Monday morning! I have an interview at the Memphis Jewish Community Center to be a fitness teacher sub!

A Winter Wonderland! For A Few Hours, At Least

This is what we woke up to Wednesday!


It was our second snow of the season which is just crazy for Memphis. I'm not complaining. It's fun and pretty and Autumn just loves it.


I had to go to the gym which meant that we didn't have a ton of time but Autumn and I went out and made a snowman while oatmeal was on the stove. Mike was, by the way, seriously disappointed to have missed the oatmeal.


We got a pretty good snowman built, height-wise buuuuut I think I made the head too big and by the time we left for the gym, his head (her head?) was on the ground. Autumn wasn't too upset. She had fun eating oatmeal and giving me updates on how far the snowman was leaning.


We're still doing the weird smiling thing, as you can see. :) One fun thing about the cold weather is how friendly Molly is. She's basically a heat seeking kitty so she spends a lot of time with me since I usually have a blanket or fuzzy sweater on.


I bought this shirt for Autumn a really long time ago. For some reason, she would never wear it but she wore it twice this week! I am sooooo excited because I love this shirt so much I want one for myself.


We've been trying to get a good balance of the Jesus and not so Jesus parts of Christmas so I've been reading Autumn the Christmas stories from her little bible. By the way, if you're looking for a Bible for a kid, I highly recommend this one. The stories are well done and the illustrations are beautiful and have people of all colors and looks. Anyway, I love it when she sits down and is all, "I'm reading my Bible!"


How cute is this? Here she is ready for church in her cute coat, hat, and boots. All courtesy of Lainey, of course!


Tonight she and I worked really hard together dusting the house, getting it ready for some more decorations and our community group Christmas party. She really is a big help and she told Mike, "I love to dust!" I hope she keeps that up, for real. By the time she was waiting on her Sunday Night Grilled Cheese, she was done.


Poor thing! Such a hard life!