Art and MORE

Bad News: I can't sleep. Good news: I remembered that I didn't do my Sunday blog post, haha.

We're plugging along with school and work and getting caught up on everything I've laid by the wayside...like my files. I have finally cleared off my work table. Glory! I also realized that it's time to get a new art folder for Autumn. I have one with her preschool art and projects in it and another for kindergarten. I already have some fun things to put in the first grade folder after they come off the art wall here in the playroom. Autumn drew this one for Mike. Once, they were in the ocean with snorkels and they found a yellow and orange fish and they followed it for a while. I think this was back in May so I thought it was pretty fun that she just decided to commemorate the event. AREN'T THE SNORKELS ADORABLE??


I think Autumn drew this one before school started...I was doing something and had the bathroom cabinet open. There's an opening inside the cabinet that leads underneath the tub which is encased in tile. I have no idea why and, quite frankly, it's kind of creepy. Molly was curious and got most of the way into the hole before I rescued her. Oh, man. Can you imagine if we lost her in the tub abyss? Autumn thought it was hysterical so she drew a picture for Mike so he'd get to experience it, too. Text: Molly was sticen her hed in the cavin.


Oh, we were to curriculum night. I got to sit in Autumn's desk. None of the parents of the kids who sit in Autumn's group made it. I told the teacher no one wanted to sit with us, heh. Anyway, I took this because I thought Pd would like it: "I hope we learn about subtract and math."


We've been doing non-art things, of course. We made fried apple pies! I counted it as one of those things that if I wanted it bad enough to make it, then I can eat it! Autumn is getting enough dexterity that I've had her actually helping rather than just playing with dough while I make the real food. With the pies and with samosas (the Indian food, not samoas as in the Girl Scout Cookie, sorry if you know that but we've had people really confused about why we'd eat chutney with cookies), I had her start rolling out the circles and then I'd finish them out to the right thickness and diameter. Soon she'll be able to do all of it on her own! She really was a big help this week.


Um, ignore the dusty floor but I love this picture so much. I saw Autumn stop on her way to feed Molly to play in a sunbeam. So cute. She was batting at dust particles but then realized her cat ears (what every kids needs in their before-school wardrobe!) made a cool shadow and was all "MAMA COME TAKE A PICTURE!" So, I did. I loved this one so much that when I went to the grocery store, I got a frame, converted the photo to black and white, and put it in the living room! I cut out the storage container. :P


Oh, one fun thing. Autumn read this book about starting kindergarten and last year she put one of her old loveys in her backpack "to remind me of home in case I miss you." She asked if she could do it again and I told her I'd think of something else. Well, we LOVE Pete the Cat. We have 4 of the books and the doll. His recurring theme is "did Pete cry? Goodness no! He kept on singing his song..." Well, I got the backpack pull for her! Autumn was soooo excited. And we talked about how if she got worried or homesick, she'd see Pete and think about singing her song! Too fun. She's loving going to and from school but she still likes to walk with Pete draped over her shoulder.


Last one! Check it out...first home work at Autumn's desk! Craziness! And this used to be Aunt Lauren's desk. Even crazier! Time sure does fly, wah!


If you haven't been to Passing Pinwheels lately, stop in! We have had a lot going on and tomorrow (ahem, this afternoon) I should be posting our Day of Hope prayer flag.

Summer of Fun, the Recap!

Can you believe that school starts tomorrow for Autumn? FIRST GRADE. Wah! I'm not ready! But, she's super, super excited and I have heard nothing but good things about her teacher. She was a sub last year and when I asked Autumn about the new teacher, Autumn said, "I like her leopard purse." Pause. "And her black boots and her pretty makeup." Hahaha. Cute.

We had a great summer, though. A little busy so maybe next year I won't plan quite as many activities! Autumn had three levels of swim lessons to get ready for Junior Swim Team:


A traveling kitty visited us in the garden and later hung out with us while we watched the supermoon come up with the neighbors.


We spent time with soft and fuzzy friends,


animal friends,


and human friends!


In between swim sessions, Autumn got to go to two weeks of camp at Mullins, where I teach aikido. She also had ballet camp at Collierville Arts (my other location) which was, apparently, exhausting. :) She took regular aikido and ballet all summer, too!


We also did a lot of swinging and sliding


and spinning!


AND someone had her VERY FIRST ICEE!! How could this have happened??? Six years and no icees! I have been remiss.


We experimented with lunch ideas--behold octopus hot dogs (I found some all natural, no nitrate hot dogs that are actually good!) and my first attempt at tamagoyaki or egg sushi. Autumn ate them both! The egg sushi needs a little work but it wasn't too bad for a beginner.


We also did lots of experiments and crafts and art and ALL THE DRAWING. Hahaha.


Not a bad summer!! Definitely a fun first summer break! Sigh. I can't believe it's over already.

So...apparently vacation addled my brain

I don't know what I was thinking. I completely forgot that Sunday is my family blog day! In my defense, we had a great little stay at home vacation. I didn't have to teach last week so it really was like a little vacation. We made ice cream, went to a party (click here to see the printables I made!), fun stuff like that! Sunday, Donnie and Liz stopped by. They were in town for a few days and Autumn was soooo happy to see them both!


We have been drinking smoothies for breakfast lately. It's been a great way to get more protein and greens into Autumn! The only downside (kind of--as hot as it's been it's not really a downside) is that we get a little cold right after. I usually tough it out. One morning last week, Autumn broke out her winter clothes.


Oooh, speaking of breakfast, we made a blueberry buckle. SO GOOD. I usually do at least one every summer since it has to have fresh blueberries. I didn't do one last year because it's a pretty demanding recipe and I just wasn't up to it. So it's been two years since we had a blueberry buckle! I'm going to make another on Wednesday to take to community group. Yay, Farmer's Market!


One of the best things about last week? Rain! It was a celebration when we first heard raindrops against the window.


Molly was unimpressed, sleeping on the laundry we were folding.


Stephan gave Autumn a stationery set for her birthday and she seriously loves it. She spent all day Friday making cards for everyone. Isn't it crazy that she's all writing and stuff? I still have to help her spell most of our names but it's still kind of weird. I'm not ready for her to grow up!


Mike and I have been looking at old photos because we're archiving a bunch of files. Plus our friend Matt and I are working on a project and using some old pictures of Autumn as a model for it. It was so funny because Mike was looking at a photo of me from 2009. He says, AND I QUOTE, "your face looks really lean there. It's different." >.> I just stared at him until he started laughing. SIGH. Anyway, here's Autumn when she was 2--so funny. Apparently she's always been a cat.

In Which Autumn is a Muppet, a Porcelancer, and a Chef.

Ok, remember this picture of Autumn? It's from April 2008 so she was about 11 months old. So, yes, she's always been...unique.

You know how my friend Matt has done a few drawings of Autumn? Well, check this out:

I laughed so hard when I saw this. Autumn did, too. She giggled and told Mike he had to see the silly picture of her when she was a baby. Matt did some other pictures but I want to save those for their own post. The Porcelancer rides again! Oh, man. I can't wait. I have to at least post this one.

I love it!

Ahem. /stops squeeing at the cute.

So, to continue my post from last week, Mike and Autumn have a new papa/monkey pastime.


They have been making protein bars together! They actually taste pretty good for something that looks like, well, you saw the picture. It's a fun opportunity for them to do something messy yet healthy together. Autumn is bad about getting everything she touches in her hair so when I realized how messy it was going to be, I halted preparations and tied back her hair. I also put her apron on her.


Sigh. I think it's time to make her a new apron because she's about to outgrow this one. I already have to make her some new headbands because they don't tie around her head easily anymore. Back to the cooking:


They have made the bars two or three times, I think, and Autumn gets excited every time. It's a huge pain to clean off her hands, though. I suggested that Mike use some gloves. He got me some boxes of gloves from Costco to use for certain cooking jobs. I have raging eczema so it's been a huge help (especially when juicing lemons, oh, boy, does that hurt) plus it makes cleanup from messy, messy jobs so much easier (we won't talk about how I've only used 1/4 of a box!).


This is the finished product, by the way. When it's rolled in flax seed and then flattened, it's not quite so horrifying looking!


So cute.

I hope everyone has a blessed Easter! Travel safely, for those who are traveling.

(Visit passing pinwheels! Click here to see the new stuff in the Etsy shop plus some other projects!)

So many tutus...

Today we've got a grab bag of pictures! Oh, by the way, be sure to stop by the other blog! I've got photos of my new hair cut and some other fun things I've been up to--including power tools! For now...first up: Autumn and her "spyglass," as she is calling it. It's actually a kaleidoscope but I'm concerned the neighbors might think she's really spying! She did tell me the other day she could see the "ay-bors" kitchen light on but no one was at the table...


Late last month, Laura Breeden took some photos of Autumn. She's getting her photography business off the ground and Tamara thought Autumn might make a good subject. I'm not so sure that ended up being the case but we did get some pretty pictures!


We really missed the beautiful blooming by about a week or two. Unfortunately, that was a soggy, brown weekend. Poor Autumn's blanket hasn't quite recovered, haha.


Such a sweet giggle.


But this is really how she was most of the time...not into it at all.


Funny enough, my favorite pictures are the ones of Autumn pouring out her "tea" and not actually posing or anything.


Laura asked me to let Autumn dress herself and, oh, boy, did she. That's three tutus and some boots. At one point there were wings.


I actually have some fun photos of Mike "cooking" with Autumn but I think I'm going to save those for their own post because they are pretty funny. Oh, man, I also just realized I've got some hilarious mobile photos. I might have to do a mid-week post. We'll see...either way, look forward to it! :D But just to pique your interest:


Bahahahaha.

Party Time!

Hey, everyone! If you didn't catch the announcement, hop over to Passing Pinwheels and read about our upcoming adoption! We got the next application in the process on Thursday so we're about to get that going.

I think this is the end of our holiday posts! We started out the year with our usual New Year's Brunch. I had such a good time because last year I was too morning sick to do any cooking so it was an all Costco event. This year went really well though. If you haven't and want to read more about the actual party, you can click here. :) And! All of the photos on this post are courtesy of my brother Donnie! Thanks--these are great! I never get enough photos at parties on my own.

Autumn usually takes a while to warm up to people so she spent about the first half hour looking like this:


My yearly Penny Pic!


When we moved to this neighborhood, I decided I didn't want it to be like our last neighborhood. We only knew a few people on our street...a couple we never even saw! These neighbors are definitely more social just anyway but last year, I went ahead and put an invitation on everyone's door. We had 2 sets of neighbors stop in (we were friends with two other houses but they couldn't come). This year, we had five houses worth of neighbors stop in! They all had super nice things to say about having us as neighbors and about the updates to the house. Even better, our new neighbors came by! They just moved into the cove and are originally from South Korea. They have an adorable 3 year old daughter and a son who wore traditional Korean clothing.


Oh, here's Autumn who warmed up to everyone. Probably mostly due to Aunt Penny. :D It was cute, she was sitting with Penny who was talking to my friend Christy. They told me that Autumn Very Seriously looked at Penny and pointed at Christy (who is home from Brazil!) and said, "I know her."


Remember Frank who doesn't look like Mike except he does? This is his daughter Olivia. She was chilling in Autumn's Tinkerbell chair, nomming on her pretzel rod.



Do you want to know what the popular toys of the day were? Dollhouses. For both genders. The littler girls liked the one downstairs. The boys liked the one upstairs. :) I know, we have two dollhouses but this is what happens when you have the only little girl on the Colley side of the family.


Autumn really warmed up to everyone. She tried to trap Donnie in her room. So he could play more? Take more photos of her? I dunno.


Do you want to know what is so funny about this picture? Mike just came in and asked, "why am I smiling?" Ha! Actually, this was near the end and I guess he was watching Mickey with Micah, Roxie, and Autumn?


And that's the end of our holiday! Thank you to everyone who made it so special. This was better than I ever thought a holiday season without Garrett would be and it's mostly because of you.