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!

Vacation Pics!

I'm just going to lead off with this because it's hilarious!

We were at the beach last week. By ourselves Friday night through Wednesday afternoon but Wednesday night, Tyler, Hudson, PD, Lainey, and part of the Denny family joined us! We had a great time. At least a couple of blog posts worth! Back to the photo, Autumn wasn't angry or crazy (craziER than usual, at least)...I caught her mid-yawn. When I was scrolling through the photos, I laughed so hard that everyone wanted to see the photo, including Hudson who then had to reenact the yawn.

I figure this post I'll go with mostly non-beachy photos, although I do have a couple of super short but funny videos for the end. I need to get pictures from Mike because he got some great ones. I might even see if he'll do a post! Speaking of Mike, here he is helping Autumn with her summer math. I got this math skills book for students between first and second grade. Mike and I are terrible at math so we're trying to help Autumn not become us!

Lainey and PD got a sofa this trip! It was a resounding success with Autumn. She found niches for her friends...

And got in a few acrobatics. She taught Tyler how to do an aikido front roll to an upside down position last week so...sorry, Leah and Ryan.

We don't have cable so Autumn only gets to watch Octonauts (which is great--Mike and I decided it's steampunk for kids) and Doc McStuffins at the beach or at someone's house. Access to Doc McStuffins has set Autumn on a major doctoring of animals run. On the way to dinner, Kiri got a full checkup, including her blood pressure. Ah, I just remembered that Mike has a fantastic picture of Tyler and Autumn doctoring the animals together!

She and Tyler also did a ton of Booboos Be Gone pictures. This is one of Autumn's. We need to have an apostrophe conversation, it seems.

We finally went to the snow cone stand which was very much like a beach-side Jerry's. Someone liked hers quite a bit. She also made a bunch of little friends! They all hung out and played horse shoes together. Autumn was quite the socialite last week. She made a friend at the ice cream shop, too.

Oh, haha, this one should have been at the top. I tried to get a picture of these monkeys smiling. Not a single on with all of them looking at me or with all of them making a picture face. But the silly photo? Perfect.

Hey, look at us! It's actually a great photo of all three of us!! This was at the fireworks which I'm going to post about at Passing Pinwheels. Mainly because I went on a ferris wheel AND IT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE. Roller coaster? Yes. Ferris Wheels? NOPE.

Teehee. This is how Lainey and Mrs. Donna rode to the fireworks.

Ok, two seriously short videos and we're done. The first couple of days, the waves were too fun! Not the biggest but still nice to play in. And it was so warm that I got in with no drama. I do not like cold water.


Later, after Tyler got in town, he and Autumn had the best time doing all kinds of crazy stuff together. The one that made me laugh so hard was what I'm calling sand surfing. They'd get on the little boards and let the waves take them to and fro while they giggled like maniacs. At the beginning of the video, you'll hear Mike talking about the chillest crab in the world. It washed up by Hudson and just froze. It let us pet it and everything. Mike finally helped it back into the water. Another one came up later and tried to take us out so I'm guessing it was the same crab out for revenge. He was thwarted when PD put some sand on him and Mr. Crab decided just to sit in the sand a while. ANYWAY, Tyler and Autumn get going pretty well at the end of this one.


All that fun ended in great naps! We'll wrap it up with some hard sleepin'!

March Mobile Moments!

Why do I keep forgetting to do this on Sunday?? I might have to change my update day to Monday!!

Some of you may have heard: I HAVE A GRILL! I am soooo excited about it even though it means I get no birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day, Anniversary or miscellaneous gifts for the rest of the year! Mike surprised me with it and I have grilled something at least once a week since it arrived.

I don't even remember what Autumn did but at some point this month, she got in trouble. That resulted in these awesome notes. "I'm staing in my room furever!" "I'm rilly rilly sorry that I did somthing rong!" I shouldn't laugh but, seriously, how cute is that?

When Autumn wasn't punishing herself, she was helping out. We don't get to go to the store together much anymore so this little trip was fun. She's a good helper. 

Magic shows are still happening! I need to come up with some new tricks for her because she's getting pretty good with the ones she got for Christmas. Autumn's presentation is getting better, too.

The grill box has gotten some fun play time. She was in there this day with a flashlight, a blanket and some pillows, reading to her stuffed friends. 

 Last Saturday, Autumn had a playdate with Aunt Penny while I was in aikido. After I got out of class we met up for lunch and I got to hear about all their super fun adventures.

For example, Autumn tired out Ace and Conan that morning so they all took a break to watch some cartoons! Too fun! Autumn is still talking about how fun her Penny time was.

Last one for today! Sunday we got together with the neighbor kids to watch Frozen. They only got about 15 minutes in and decided they'd rather play. Everyone had a good time playing with the leftover lips and mustaches from the shower I gave for Tamara and Landon which I still need to blog about. 

Not Preppy Autumn and More Valentine's Day!

I finally uploaded my Valentine's photos. I loved that Mike got to go to Autumn's class party. Look at how cute they are!

They did ice cream sundaes. We have to watch Autumn's dairy intake so I let her pick out some ice cream and I brought it along. She wanted coconut milk ice cream instead of her usual soy or almond milk which surprised me because she despises the coconut milk that comes in a carton. I'm glad she was open minded because it tasted great!

They set up a little "photobooth" and of course Autumn was a princess. I am so relieved that the photos on my camera look pretty good. The ones on the room mom's camera were awful. I thought I looked kind of nice that day but the other photos? I looked ROUGH. I mean, I'm not winning any beauty contests but man. Hahaha.

I'll have some photos from the weekend next week--we went to Birmingham for Hudson's birthday party. We had a good time. After driving from Orlando to Memphis in December, that Birmingham to Memphis drive is a piece of cake! For now, here's something kind of funny. Autumn's been super attached to this blue sweater. She wears it **everywhere.**

Thursday, she walked into aikido with her sweater wrapped around her shoulders like a prep school kid!! She was, of course, adorable but I'd never seen her do that so I asked her if she was feeling preppy today. I don't think she has any idea what preppy means but she adamantly said NO. She's WEARING A CAPE LIKE ELSA. I love it!

Even on Friday, she spent the whole day with her sweater like that! Autumn's teacher told me that she and some of her friends play Frozen at recess so I'm just picturing her and her friends sweeping around building imaginary snow castles and singing Let it Go. I used to think I'd be sad when Autumn wasn't a baby/infant/toddler anymore but the nice thing is that every stage seems to have it's Really Cool Thing and suddenly growing up isn't so hard. :) I'm super thankful we get to experience it with her.

Of Cats, Zebras, Seahorses and, of course, Kiwis

It was a low key week. Today we got to go outside and ride bikes and feed the geese at the park!! But on either side of getting out of the house on a warm day, it's been so cold that I'm generally unmotivated. Not Autumn. She pretty much stays in "motivated" mode. This includes cooking. Nothing like cooking in rain boots, footie pajamas, an apron and a hat. She also made a delivery to Kyle and Lindsay in this outfit. Fun times. 

This wasn't last week, but soon after we got back from Disney, Autumn did her first scrapbook page. Not too bad!

Oh, this one *is* from last week. At the zoo, we picked up a new friend. This is Twinkle the Seahorse. She has joined the sea creature menagerie and got to take a trip to Lainey and Pd's house. She traveled in style with Kiri!

A few days ago, Autumn accidentally cartwheeled over the sofa when she was doing hand stands. I laughed so, so hard. She kept doing it and cracking up at herself.

I really don't think that all of these photos took place on the same day so I'm just going to not think about how many times Autumn wore this outfit. Lainey got Autumn a Doc McStuffins kit. Some of you guys marveled at this on Facebook already but Molly actually let Autumn listen to her purring through the working stethoscope Penny gave her one birthday.

Winter makes Molly chill. Chill-ish. She barely submitted to this indignity.

Okay, so this is chill. She's actually laying on my lap like this.

Miracles. They happen.

Fall Mobile Moments!

OH MY GOSH IT IS SO COLD. Seriously it's in the TWENTIES. I don't think that the earth got the memo that Memphis isn't supposed to be this cold pre-Thanksgiving. Fortunately, Autumn and Kiri are prepared:


We have also had a TON of soup to combat the chill. I tried something new--I made homemade ramen! I know it's terrible but I looooove the 25 cents a package ramen so when I saw real ramen noodles at the store, I thought I'd give it a try. It was super easy to make and way delicious. Plus, Autumn was excited to get to use her training chopsticks. Eventually, her hands got tired and we made her take a fork but she gave it a solid try.


In preparation for the book fair, the school had a book cover contest. Autumn ended up doing a different book but she started about trying to draw a cover for her Fancy Nancy book treasury. It didn't go well and there was a LOT of grumbling and muttering. When she showed me her first attempt, I said, "Look, it's great! Wasn't that fun?"


Then she turned her paper around. APPARENTLY it was so NOT FUN that she wrote NOT FUN on the back of her paper! I laughed hysterically and made her take a picture with both sides. She didn't quite get that what made it funny was the timing (I said "wasn't that fun" and she turned her paper around at that moment) and started writing "not fun" on everything and laughing like a hyena.


Anyway, in slightly normal news, we went to the Shanghai Ballet at GPAC! My mom took us which was really nice of her. The ballet was lovely but also baffling. Here's how I described it to Autumn: "The girl is dressed like a boy at a school for some reason. She falls in love with a boy but he doesn't know she's a girl. There's a bully who is mean. The boy finds out that she's a girl and they fall in love. Then, the girl has to marry someone rich. Turns out it's the mean bully. She doesn't want to. Her dad will make her. She meets the boy. The mean bully has him killed. And then...she...goes to the grave and dies...either in a snowstorm or from sad? And then...they, well, come back to life as butterflies. The end." Autumn assures me that she died in a snowstorm so I guess she knew what was happening and didn't need my help!


On the other end of the spectrum, we did this:



Fun!! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! If you want to see what we'll be doing this December, visit passing pinwheels! There's also a free advent calendar printable if you're interested. We're still looking for ideas for the 25 Days of Kindness so definitely chime in if you have any suggestions!