Mobile Moments: Winter Break Edition

It's been really cold lately. I thought we were having a heat wave with temps in the 40's this week but on the way into the gym tonight, the wind was SO COLD. The **only** good thing about it being this cold with no snow is Molly sits with me voluntarily sometimes. But I can't acknowledge that she's there or she'll go away. I'll take it.

One day over winter break, Autumn and I were running errands and I had a serious craving for Chinese food plus I just couldn't deal with the idea of making lunch that day. I don't know why. It doesn't happen often and I usually don't give in. But not that day. We went to the buffet. Autumn even got to use her level 2 practice chopsticks! She also got to wear her furry dress. Elyse gave it to us because it was too big for Liana but Autumn wears a uniform to school and we had a bunch of weekends too warm for something so fuzzy. Autumn was thrilled.

Check it out! Ellie let Mike hold her at his parents' Christmas party. It was, indeed, a Christmas miracle. Do you like her dress? I made it!

I made Autumn a matching dress AND they both have red, sparkly shoes. Super fun! Except Autumn isn't wearing hers in this photo, ah well. I need to get a good photo of the dresses and post them on the pinwheel blog. Incidentally, I posted our Christmas decorations there last week!

These two monkeys had a great time together. They were SO EXCITED that first day.

BUT, this day rivals Tyler's arrival for awesomeness in Autumn Land. My friend Tamara fostered puppies for about a week and was nice enough to bring them over to play in our back yard. Autumn and the puppies cavorted...

Rolled around...

Rolled around some more...

And generally had a fabulous time that resulted in puppies and 7 year old COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED. The puppy play date didn't cure Autumn of her puppy obsession. I think it fueled it even more. She still talks about how Sporty, one of the puppies, would be so happy here at our house. :) Too funny. While she dreams about puppies, she's reading fiction books like Puppy Place and Dog Diaries and checking out nonfiction books on rescue dogs, therapy dogs, and dog breeds. I told Mike that, like it or not, we probably should consider a dog sometime. He's all NOPE. Ha!

Holiday Review!

Oh, my goodness, what a holiday! Mine was a little short because of the trip and being sick but we got a lot of celebrating in during the two weeks I was in commission! Lainey came out to help me with the Winter Party at Autumn's class. I forgot to edit these AND I forgot to turn off the auto watermark so not only are the "photobooth" photos not very photoboothy, they are marked with the wrong blog name! Ah, well!

I had to take a turn, too! I got these props from Target for such a great price it was worth not having to make them, print them, and then put them on sticks. Yay for the popularity of photobooths!

I even used the props for these little monkeys. I'd say I got my money's worth.

After Autumn's class party, we had our dojo party the next day. This was our largest gathering of current and past members ever and we had a BLAST. Look at how many kids we had! Christy helped me out with this part; we did a white elephant party with new or used $5 or less gifts. Christy led the kids in the breakfast room and I guided the adults in the living room at the same time so it was fun and loud and silly. I'd love to do this again next year! This was definitely a year to celebrate--I got my black belt and Stephan graduated from college. Yes. I threw my own party. Don't tell Miss Manners! I justify it by calling it a "thank you for putting up with us while things were crazy" party.

Afterward, I found Autumn in her bucket of stuffed animals. Too funny. I think she was kind of done.

We had a late visit to see Santa. Autumn asked for two things. The first was a bell. I had no idea what she was talking about until she mentioned the Polar Express. One trip to hobby lobby and that was taken care of. The other took some serious googling. She asked for this Elf Talker. I tried all kinds of Google searches based on her description. I never had any luck and then FINALLY I plugged in North Pole Phone and LIKE MAGIC the thing was right there, exactly as she described it. I have no idea why no other search terms brought it up. It only "works" in December so Jerry the Elf brought the Northpole Communicator, although he usually just brings acts of kindness. Incidentally, Jerry found it at Walgreens on sale and he had a coupon.

Christmas morning was pretty great. Molly even joined us for the unwrapping. She had a present under the tree, too. Catnip toys! Seriously this company makes the best cat toys.

We didn't want too crazy of a Christmas this year so Santa only brought Autumn stocking stuffers and this outfit to match her late birthday/early Christmas gift of an American Girl doll. When Mike's mom first mentioned American Girl stuff, I had Autumn read as many of the books as were on her reading level so she could pick an historical doll that she liked. I was a little surprised that she chose Kit until she explained that it's because Kit is a writer. Santa brought Autumn this outfit that matches Kit's! Autumn even has red shoes because I got her some to go with the Christmas dress I made her! That wasn't planned but it's a happy coincidence.

My mom spent the night with us Christmas Eve and had Christmas morning with us like she has done for a few years now. It was extra fun because we watched Elf and ate pizza and then we had french toast for breakfast.

Autumn insisted on wearing her Kit outfit all day which was cute but it was a little cold for it. I made her put on leggings but Autumn took them off as soon as we got to Lainey and Pd's house. She and Ellie made an accessorized pair.

Something fun and silly, later that night after naps, Mike, Brad and I sampled one of Brad's gifts: blini, caviar, and creme fraiche! This is what Brad thought. I ate two. The first was fishier than I expected but the second was pretty good. Mike chose not to partake a second time which is hilarious considering he like sushi (nigiri!) so much.

Fun times! Not too crazy once the parties and tests and decorating was over. I'll post pictures of the house on my other blog soon. I'm very proud of myself for getting it done, haha. I know it's silly but I guess it's my thing. Anyway, I hope your Christmas went smoothly and that there was joy in your time with family and friends!

Zoo Boo, Dojo Celebrations, and Halloween!

I almost forgot to do a post this week! Ha! I was so sleepy last night I went to bed crazy early. Anyway, we had a great time with Halloween this year. We went to Zoo Boo for the first time. It was fun but I'm not sure I'm dying to go back again next year. It was just really crowded. I think these guys had a great time even if we didn't get to see everything!

I didn't take many pictures of Halloween night so I am super happy we took some at Zoo Boo! Here's my new, short hair for anyone who hasn't seen it! Autumn dressed up as Doc McStuffins!

Originally, she was going to be Elsa in the costume I made her for her birthday. But Autumn has been able to wear that a lot since her birthday and I had a feeling that there would be a ton of Elsas. I asked her if she'd like to do something different and she said she wanted to be Doc. I'll be honest, because I LOVE HALLOWEEN I tried to talk her into something more complicated but she wasn't having any of it. :) I like that she knows what she wants. 

 Look at how cute this face is! I brought ears for Lindsay and me to wear. Ellie thoroughly enjoyed the swaying ears.

These two. They loved these bees! Before we left, we got to watch a magic show and some performers doing songs from Peter Pan. The kids all enjoyed it--Autumn was especially entranced by the magic show. I have to say, it was pretty good. He did one long drawn out gag that ended in an older teen leaping across the stage into the magician's arms out of fright! 

I made my own costume! I was Toph from Avatar the Last Airbender. And not the Avatar that has blue creatures. The cartoon. Some people were super confused about why I didn't have blue skin when I told them who I was. If you want to, you can watch this starting at 4:12. I showed this to Autumn early because we're watching the series but hadn't gotten to Toph yet. Autumn was entranced and said, "I want to be Toph next year." We'll see if she sticks to it!


And here I am! I'm probably going to post something on my blog about making the costume and you can see my gauntlets. We wore costumes in Aikido the who week of Halloween and this is my Tuesday elementary age class. We also played games, did a Japanese craft, and read Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth. Thursday, Autumn wore her Elsa dress to ballet. She said she was glad she decided to be Doc McStuffins because out of five girls in her class there were THREE Elsas!

On Halloween day, I read Zen Ghosts to Autumn's class and brought them cookies and juice. So fun! After school, we went to the hospital to see Penny who had to work. We have seen her every year since Autumn was a baby!! This year Autumn made out like a bandit with candy, medical tape, and TWO pen lights. On the way out she marveled at how her lights and tape make her a like a real doctor.

That night, we had friends over for chili, soup, and warm drinks. Several friends stopped in to eat and say hi and then went on to other trick or treating plans but this was our trick or treat group. We met up with another family from the cove and walked with them, too.

We have Kyle and Lindsay's fire pit while they are in between houses but I think we're going to have to get our own! We put the fire pit in the driveway and handed out candy. Kids who wanted to have a roasted marshmallow got one on a GIANT SKEWER. The ones I bought were too short but our neighbors came to the rescue! Mike said the marshmallows were a big hit. Definitely a do-again. Note that Mike is studiously avoiding being photographed. He said his costume was a "sleepy papa."

And so, Halloween is over and I am sad. But we had a blast and got to celebrate over several days so I suppose I can't complain. I haven't been able to bring myself to take down our wreath. IT'S JUST TOO CUTE.

Super Zoo Fun Day!

Friday Autumn didn't have school so we went to the zoo! Josh and Aurora and their mom Mimi met us there.We had a great time even if there were a couple of hiccups!

For example, THE TRAIN RIDE OF DOOOOOM. The little kid train was interesting. I love fast rides but I dooon't think this train was meant to go like 40 miles an hour. The kids were screaming of fear and joy and I told Mimi that we were about to be on the 5:00 news! "In other news, train derailment at the Memphis Zoo..."

We almost lost Miss Aurora. Mimi and I were on the row behind the kids because, again, kiddie train, so I had one arm on Aurora keeping her from tumbling out and Mimi was holding on to Aurora's inside arm! We survived, though, and did let the zoo know that their operator was a teeensy bit excited about her job.

In the same area as the train, there's a petting zoo. No one was in the mood to be petted, sadly. I did get a photo of this hilarious goat. It just stood there like this, stock still and in denial that anyone else was around. I named him the Mike Goat. Teehee.

Autumn did manage to sneak up on a chicken that had flown her coop. She was all SHHHHH I AM HUNTING and got to brush the chicken's feathers. Exciting. Apparently.

At lunch, these guys romped around in this cute bridge area. Of course, all of my pictures from this spot except this one are blurry. OH, by the way, all of these have aikidomemphis.com watermarks. Please ignore them. I had previously set the auto-watermark and I was too lazy to delete and re-upload the photos!

The pandas were pretty cute. Those ears! I want to pet them!

Autumn loved this panda's nest. She was all, "he's so cozy and comfy with his food!"

And NOW. For the HIGHLIGHT of the TRIP. GIRAFFE FEEDING. One of the best $5 I've ever spent!! This even made up for the fact that they sent the kiwis to New England before we could see them. We tried 3 times but they were shy, which is why they moved. Anyway, Autumn got a handful of lettuce to feed the giraffes.

They had baby giraffes but we went over to Kenya who looked really excited to get some lettuce. LOOK AT THAT FACE. Did you know giraffe heads weigh over 100 pounds? Kind of amazing. 

This is basically the same photo but, again, LOOK AT THAT FACE. Giraffes kind of weird me out so I'm a little surprised at how adorable they are when I'm not thinking about their really long necks and knobbly legs. Although giraffes weird me out less than ostriches.

As Autumn finished, one of the zookeepers stopped us and got some extra lettuce. He said that Kenya is really great at photo ops and then if Autumn would turn and face the camera and hand Kenya lettuce over the shoulder, she'd get a cool photo. Well. Autumn was a little nervous so I handed her the camera, told her I'd go first, and asked her to take a picture. I never thought she'd really get a good one but this could be the best picture anyone has taken of me in a long time! AND, it's now on the zoo's Facebook page! Autumn was having some trouble with a boy at school today so this went a long way to make her feel better.

None of mine were remotely as awesome but Autumn and Kenya are too cute not to photograph well. Kenya has a crazy long tongue! Going...

Going...

AND GONE! Both of them have great faces here. Kenya's all "more lettuce? We're totally friends now, right? BECAUSE LETTUCE!"

Bye, giraffes!