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!

Graduation, Pink Hair, and Tug O' War

I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO BLOG ABOUT. I'll start with: Autumn's Kindergarten Graduation!! She "graduated" at the end of May and yesterday we got her report card: she's officially a first grader! Yay, Autumn!


I love that picture so much. She did a great job singing and dancing with her class. All the kids did!I had a tip from Mrs. Carpenter, one of the teacher's aids who has become a friend through both school and the gym, that Autumn would be on the left side of the gym so I got a great picture of her shaking the principal's hand. The principal is taking a job with the new unified school district so I'm really hoping the next one is as awesome!


This is Autumn with Ms. Michaud, her teacher. I could not have asked for a better teacher. High energy, patient, and kind...just what Autumn needed. It's amazing how much Autumn has blossomed this year and Ms. Michaud is definitely part of the reason! This unified school district stuff can be so frustrating--last I talked to her, Ms. Michaud was still waiting to find out if she is going to be rehired.


Of course, we had to get some lainey time! I totally didn't get a picture of Autumn with my mom, though! Oooh, or Penny! How did that happen?


We did get a family shot! I love the flowers Lainey got for Autumn!


After graduation, I took a few photos. I love our scruffy miss.


Random photo. The school had this sign over a garbage can. Do you think they want us to move the can or leave it?


To wrap up the school year, here are a few field day shots. I'm not sure if you know, but Autumn is SUPER competitive. It seems like an odd thing for her to be considering her personality type but it appears that's one of the things she got from me!


Love the pony tail action here.


Speaking of ponytails, I posted a photo of Autumn with pink hair but a lot of people couldn't tell--you can tell here!


This is my favorite of the group! She had SO MUCH FUN doing the tug of war. At one point, Autumn's team wasn't doing well and she was in the back. She let go, marched to the front, grabbed hold of the rope, and started yelling for her team to pull. THEY WON. Yeah, Autumn!


And that's the end of the school year, can you believe it?? Coming up soon, we have the beach! And Autumn's first dance recital! I still haven't posted her birthday pics but I'm hoping to get to it this week on Passing Pinwheels!

A Very Summery Week

The Goal:


The Progress: Today I pushed the cart at Costco. Then I rested on the couch for half an hour to recover.

:P In all seriousness, though, that really is progress. It was kind of funny/weird, by the end of the cart pushing, my legs were so tired. But I guess I can't complain! This past week I seem to have improved quite a bit. No pain pills at all and I can walk farther and do more than one errand at a time. Not too shabby!

It worked out really well that I felt pretty decent this week. Autumn's Mother's Day Out was closed for the week so I planned some things to keep us occupied. We went back to the sprinkler park with a few friends. Autumn had fun playing in the sprinklers but she seemed to most enjoy filling and emptying her bucket. For like half an hour.


Oh, and Monday Nanny and Boppa came over to have dinner with us. While dinner was in the oven (an awesome lasagna that Lainey made us before she went to the beach--thank you!), we played Autumn's Super Why ABC game. Boppa won.


And then after dinner, we skyped with Tyler and the rest of the family who went to Florida. Nanny and Boppa had never skyped before so it was kind of fun to be there for their first time.


We got together with my mom on Saturday. She got Autumn a small pool. At first all Autumn wanted was her watering can so she could return to filling and emptying.


But then she got tired of that and requested some additional toys. I thought she was pretty funny chilling in her ring. After she was done swimming (or, splashing around, really), she carried buckets of water to different plants in the back yard. Yay for chores that seem like playing!


We've been slowly getting back into our old routines. To an extent, at least. Autumn and I went to the dojo Saturday to see whoever showed up for Aikido. It was so nice to see everyone and to be in the dojo, if a little (like everything tends to be lately) bittersweet since I'm not sure when I can train again.

We also went back to church today. Penny came with us and it was so nice to have her there. The sermon series that is starting is wildly appropriate for us: The God of Rest and it is about fear and anxiety. I think I'm going to pick up a copy of the book that they recommended reading as part of this series, Running Scared by Edward Welch.

Well, today before she went to bed, Autumn sat down next to me where I was reading on the couch and said she was going to read me a story. This was her story:

"Today, I am going to tell you a true story about God's love. God loves you. And God loves me. And it's a true story in the Bible. The End."

:) She went on to tell about 6 more stories but that one was the most coherent. I think her sunday school teacher and the storyteller at church would be very pleased that Autumn is paying at least some attention. Such a funny girl.


Hopefully next week I'll have a couple short videos to share with you guys!

Sick Week Special

Well, this week has been an interesting one. I've been sick all week which is always fun. But this time, I had classes to teach and no one to sub for me plus I was already behind from being gone all weekend and being sick made it worse sooooo, yeah. If you've called or emailed me and haven't responded, I promise I will! When I'm sick Mike and I switch roles and I get all grumpy and antisocial. :P He apparently told my brother tonight that it was like living with a wounded wolverine. Haha. Annnnyway. Despite everything, we did get a lot done this weekend. The biggest thing Mike did was clean out the garage! We can fit both cars in now! The biggest thing I did was get most of the playroom in order, including putting together Autumn's table and chairs that she got for her birthday. Back in May.


What's that horrifying thing on top of the table, you ask? Oh, that's just the coconut monkey bank that my mom brought Autumn back from Mexico. Yeah. It's going to go into hiding because it is truly creepy. I swear the thing is staring at me right this minute. >.> I mean, how much more Temple of Doom can this get?


Yes. That's how much more Temple of Doom that thing can get. /shudder. Onto happier things, I've been reveling in my nerddom all week. I ate a bunch of cold medicine and managed to sit up and join my weekly World of Warcraft raid. Donnie, Liz, and I plus 7 other people having been working on this one thing for months and months. I knew we were getting close but I had no idea that dragging myself upright would be so worth it! We totally beat the big, bad guy, cementing my place in super nerddom.


Even better? We beat him while I was wearing my super awesome Hello Kitty snuggie. :D Tamara gave it to me for my birthday. I am actually wearing it now AND drinking a cup of hot tea (with local honey!).


Anyway, I didn't take a lot of photos this week so I decided to grab some off my new android phone. Sometimes I don't have time to go grab my camera when opportunities like this come up:


Or when Autumn is looking extra pitiful because in the middle of a bath she goes "OH NO I HAVE TO POOPOO!" Nothing like being dragged soaking wet from a bubble bath!


Oh, and this is craziness. Autumn is drawing mostly recognizable stuff. Mostly. But still! Here's a picture complete with text to tell you exactly what you're looking at.


And, last but not least, this is a shot I sent to my friends Shang and Lisa. Autumn's wearing a shirt they got her and demonstrating what a dragon says (the shirt has a dragon on it). Which is, in case you were wondering, ROAR. I'd like to think that her awesome posture here is her, like, innate kung fu ability making an appearance. Probably not BUT A MOM CAN DREAM!


Hopefully we'll be back and better than ever sooner than later. :D