A Halloween Fairy Tale

It was a dark and stormy night.

Well. Not really. It was a bright and sunny day. The first bright and sunny day in some time. But the sunniness of this afternoon belied the darkness that is inherently Halloween.

Well. Not really that either.

The truth was...this was a halloween of light and smiles and joy. It started with a little girl who, through the magic of eyeshadow and glitter and wings and a pretty dress, was transformed into a little fairy.


The little fairy was a patient fairy. She knew fun things were to come but the big people had lots of things to say before she could get started. And so she waited.


And waited.


And waited.


And then finally, the little fairy got to embark on her Super Awesome Halloween Travels.


She played games.


And showed off her spoils.


And played more games!


And showed off her spoils.


And then the little fairy visited the Very Big Hospital. She walked across a big walkway and went up a really fast elevator! It was so exciting! While she was at the Very Big Hospital, the little fairy shared her m&m's and a candy bar with two new friends she met in the hall. And, she got to visit with her Very Favorite Nurse!


After visiting her Very Favorite Nurse, the little fairy walked back up the big walkway and then rode all the way to see her Honorary Fairy Family.


And she showed off her spoils.


The little fairy and her Honorary Aunt sat together while the little fairy learned the names of all her yummy candies!


The played for a very long time and it was fun.


The little fairy took off again, this time to snuggle with a Very Silly Mama.


Who was dressed like an aikido instructor--which wasn't really much of a costume at all since she wore it to class that morning! Silly Mama!


And her Very Silly Lula who was dressed as a hair stylist. That wasn't much of a costume either! Silly Lula!


So the little fairy went on a search for something a little less silly. She knocked on a door and said, "trick or treat!" Well. Not exactly. She patted a door and said, "tweet!"


And she got one!


And guess whose door it was! The little fairy decided to show off her spoils...to a very appreciative and perhaps envious audience.


The little fairy had one more stop before dinner and night-night time.


She rang a doorbell...and was greeted by the melodious sounds of lots of little doggies greeting her. The little fairy was surprised by their enthusiasm. And so was the Official Costumer of the Fairy Family.


Now, at this house, there was dancing.


And friends


And doggies


And best of all...babies!


The little fairy loved babies and took her chance to give the baby lots of kisses.


One more good-bye, a yummy fairy dinner, and a ride home later, the little fairy shed her wings for the night. She washed off her glitter and said, "night-night, Wings! See you tomorrow. Muah!"



A very special thank you to everyone who had us over: Penny, Stephan and Maddie and DeeDee, The Yopps. Also thank you to Lula and Mama Lainey and Papa D for a super fun night. And, a special hello to all the Ridgeway ladies for all your kind words about our little blog!! To all our readers: you have no idea how much it means to us that you take time out of your busy schedules to read about our silly adventures. :)

Little Colleys on the Farm!

We went to Tyler's birthday party two weeks ago and it was so much fun!! It was at this little petting farm place in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, Nanny was just joking that we were going to run out of asphalt WHEN WE DID. We were sooo cracking up. Now, I have approximately 800 photos from this event. I have narrowed it down to...64. Ha! Way too many to put here on the blog. So, I made a picasa slide show. If you want, you can just click through these photos ordered and captioned for your viewing pleasure. Seriously, you won't regret it. I mean, you'll see my favorite Autumn expression:


BUNNIES


Little Colleys on a PONY!


And so much more!



By the way, family who forgot cameras, I uploaded these in sharing size. So, feel free to download!

One more by the way--if you want to stop the auto scrolling of the pics in the slideshow, hit pause and then you can go forward at your own pace.

Misc. Adventures

Autumn and Mike are very, very expressive. Hahaha. I think it might be the Italian in them. I love watching them talk together...it's so cute!! I think here they might have been talking about planes. Autumn looooves planes.


I'm in the process of reorganizing the attic (yay...blah) and Autumn entertained herself by stripping and settling into a box of clothes with her blanket. She stayed in there quite a while.


We've been working on Autumn's phone skills. It's usually on her whim but she does manage a few little conversations now and then. But when it's on her play phones? She's a busy little business lady.


One of my favorite things to watch Autumn do is take care of her "beebees." I especially like it when she does something I know I do for her, like pat her and say, "it's okay." One day, Autumn was feeding her kitty in the high chair and saying, "ok, Miss! Eat Eat!" Or, "ok, Miss, let's wipe!" And she wiped the tray and the kitty's mouth with her hanky (I've been trying to teach her to use a handkerchief).


Not too long ago, I had a facebook status that read something like, "Mike thinks the living room looks like there was a fairy war...so much glitter!" Yeah. We live in the land of dress up. Mostly Autumn plays on her own, decking herself out in hats, sunglasses, necklaces, and headbands. And Tink dresses. But she also like to bring others in on the act sometimes.


One morning at about 2 am, Autumn came into our room very pitifully. Her shirt was soaked with sweat and she was sad so I couldn't bring myself to take her back to her room. I let her sleep with us and about an hour later, she sat up saying what I thought was peepee. :) Oh no. She was saying beebee. Autumn marched to her room and came back carrying the three little loveys that kind of live in her bed. It was funny enough that I got the camera to commemorate the moment.


Last Friday we went over to my friend Penny's house. It was her husband Mike's birthday and Penny wanted to make a rainbow cake for him like the one we had at Autumn's birthday party. I made Penny an apron for her birthday earlier this year so Autumn and I brought ours over, too, and we had a matching apron cooking party!


Here they are with the dyed cake batter. The cake itself is pretty easy but getting the colors right and all that is really time consuming! (By the way, Penny, when Autumn saw this picture, she said, "there Penny!")


This is the finished product! Pretty cool, huh?


Oh, and here's Autumn on the day she had her first school pictures! She accessorize herself. :P


Ok, is this crazy or what? I mean, really...I'm not ready for her to be this grown up! Sigh. Autumn doesn't quite have pedaling down but she's working on it!


And, last, this is one of my mom's favorite pictures of Autumn:


And that's the Miscellaneous Adventures of Autumn!

So much awesome stuff to come!!!

Zoo Day! Zoo Day!

I loooove the zoo! As part of our anniversary weekend, I asked Mike if we could go to the new Teton Trek exhibit since it was too wet to drive out to Shiloh like we initially planned. To my surpise...he agreed! :D We ended up leaving early to try to beat the crowds. The day was a little cooler than I expected but it warmed up a bit later.


Donnie and Liz came along. While we got hot cocoa, Donnie made a friend.


Later, Autumn made a friend, too. Well, she tried really hard to make a friend, at least. "Cheeckin! See? Cheekin!"


The petting zoo area is pretty cute. They had this little play area and Autumn was totally enchanted by the big, fake cow that had a carving of its innards on the side. Someone else was on the cow and she kept saying, "Moo? Wan' ride mooooo?"


:) I got lots of snuggles partly because it was chilly and partly just because Autumn needed a snuggle fix.


I love this photo. Not sure why. Maybe it's because their eyes are the same color as the trees.


Monkey Tongue!


This is what she was so excited about:


Autumn maneuvered us into holding both of her hand so she could swing. :) Now that's a funny face!


Anyway, a couple hours, a zen seal...


A lazy panda...


And some grizzly cubs later...


It got noticeably colder.


Even Autumn the perpetually hot and sweaty baby was cold.


So, we went home...Mike went very happily and rapidly although he does admit it was fun. I don't blame him too much--there was chili and kettle corn waiting for us at home! :D

By the way, this stuff is so awesome, I'll end with the recipe!


Kettle Corn
1/2 cup popcorn
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 T sugar
1 t salt
(the salt and sugar can be adjusted to taste)
1. Heat oil in a large, heavy saucepan that has handles and a lid over medium heat.

2. Once the oil is hot, pour in the popcorn, sprinkle salt and sugar on top and cover. You can toss in 2 or 3 kernels while the oil is heating. When the oil is hot enough, the kernels will pop. It's really important that the oil be at the right temp.

3. When the popcorn starts popping, shake continuously until the popcorn is popped. I like to grab the handles and lid with pot holders, lift and shake, rest, and repeat until the popping slows down. The shaking keeps it from burning. And I take the pot off the burner before the popping completely stops to be extra safe against burns.

4. Pour into a a serving bowl and lightly toss with a large spoon. The popcorn will dry as it cools.

This recipe makes 8-10 cups. I usually half it when it's just me, Mike, and Autumn. The corn is salty, sweet and crunchy! Yum yum!

Weird!

Mike and I met in a bookstore in 2000. This is, I think, our very first picture together, taken new years' eve at the church I was attending at the time:


Fast forward almost 9 years and here we are, married for 7 years today and with a little monkey!


Over the years we've traveled to the other side of the world


and hiked lots of mountains.


Seen the kitty cat grow from this


to this.


And the baby monkey grow from this


to this.


My family is a little smaller


and Mike's is a little bigger.


The world has changed a lot in the 9 years since we met and the 7 since we got married but this is still the same: it's always fun


and always interesting. :)


:) It's a good life. Thanks for being awesome, Mike!