A Hayride, a Haircut, and a Happy Birthday!

Today was Tyler's birthday! We did the usual caravan down to Tuscaloosa to celebrate. Autumn was, as always, thrilled to see everyone.


I have pictures of her not drinking but she looks rabid in them. :) We're still working on this crazy face thing, hahaha. Despite the crazy face pictures, the party was a lot of fun. Autumn got to decorate a pumpkin.


It actually has like 3 faces which is a little bizarre looking from certain angles.


They also played themselves silly in the bouncer but I managed to not take any photos of that. Leah also had a friend do face painting but for some reason, Autumn is completely uninterested in face painting, which is too bad because I think it'd be so cute. Now, she was over the top excited about the hay ride. Although you can't tell it from this picture!


I think I was asleep half the party because not only did I not get any photos of the bouncer, that is the only photo I have of Autumn and Tyler together!! Partly it's because they had completely different interests at the park but we'll get to that in a minute. See? Happy about the hayride.


On my other blog, I am going to tell the story about my hair this week. Draaaaama. But, even with the hair drama, I'm starting to look like myself again, aren't I? :D


The kids had a really good time at the park...


Oh, wait. These kids did, too.


Tyler was cracking me up because he was all riding like that swing was a throne. Appropriate for a birthday boy. This is where interests diverged. Tyler is a swinger. Autumn is a slider.


She did it with everyone who would go with her.




And by herself.


She also liked this thing. It was that scared/excited kind of likes.


Papa liked it, too. He was actually catching and throwing a football while hanging which was pretty entertaining.


A little help here from the little miss.


After we got back, the kids sang happy birthday to Mr. Tyler who was just soaking it up.


Some presents, a little more bouncing, and a car ride later, we are all home and tiiiiiiiiired! Happy Birthday, Tyler!

A Ball, A Carriage Ride, and Autumn's Archnemesis: The Zig Zag

I spent yesterday looking at curtains and fabric for curtains. I settled on a type of fabric, although I can't decide on a color. I really like the look of these curtains. And these are some of the colors I can't decide between:


When Mike saw them, he reminded me that I might need to show the print to Autumn before I made curtains only to have her have a panic attack becauuuuuuuse...she's apparently afraid of...zig zags.

It all started when we were getting our clothes ready for the Ball at the Children's Museum. Penny had a dress that she thought might fit me (it didn't--too small) so I tried it on for my mom and Autumn. The print looked like this.


I was standing there in the dress and noticed that Autumn had gone completely still and big eyed. If anyone reads Yotsuba, it was like the time Yotsuba saw the bird-scarer:


I asked her what was wrong and she, still dead still, said, "I DO NOT LIKE THAT DRESS TAKE IT OFF." So, I took it off and put it in the basket of things to take downstairs. Before we left for community group, I went back upstairs and my mom told me that Autumn took the dress, ran down the hall and threw it into the darkness of my room.

I asked her what was wrong with the dress and she got very still again and said, baldly, "I am afraid of it."

"But...why?"

"Because it has stripes like this..." And then she waggled her finger back and forth. Ha!

And that's why I need to show the print to Autumn before I buy the fabric. :D Later when I told Nanny the story, Autumn went still and big-eyed again and moved her hand in a zigzag again when I got to that part, almost like she was in a trance. Poor kid.

Despite the traumatizing dress experience, we did get everything we needed for the Ball, no mice or fairy godmothers (well, other than Lainey!) required.


It's funny, going through the pictures from the ball, Autumn is making these funny Calvin and Hobbes faces in almost every single one. This is the best of her pictures with Cinderella. Cinderella did a great job. She was super sweet and mingled with all the girls. Prince Charming was not so charming...he obviously didn't want to be there and we had the misfortune of sitting at the table with him where he spent the whole time groping his wife. Awwwwwkward! Fortunately, Autumn didn't seem to notice or care.


When we got there, the magic show was going on and most of the kids were sitting on the floor by the stage. When we asked Autumn if she wanted to go and sit there, she did this.


So that was a no. She also didn't want to join the rest of the kids and parents for the ballroom dancing lesson they had but agreed to dance with me in the corner. :)


The carriage ride, though? From the time we arrived until the time we got on the carriage that was alllllll she could talk about! She had so much fun. She loved the ride, the scenery, the dog in the driver seat, the lights, everything about it.


This is Mike HAVING THE BEST TIME EVER.


Actually, I think he had a pretty good time. It's amazing what a good looking suit can do for ya! Plus Autumn was just so cute. And excited.

Back inside, Autumn ALSO didn't want to do face painting. That would require allowing a stranger in her face. :) She did, however, enjoy the two crafts. At the corsage making table, Autumn totally saw a friend of hers from school and started chatting like a teenager at the mall. Craziness.


On the way out, of course we had to stop to play in the bubble machine. HOW RIDICULOUSLY GROWN UP DOES SHE LOOK HERE?


And that was the Ball! To wrap up, have a montage of FACES.

bouncing and bible verses

Today we had a tornado warning. Our particular part of town wasn't part of the warning but the alarms were going off over the entire county. Autumn and I were outside playing in the sand table when they started blaring so she was understandably freaked out. Once we got her inside and calmed down, we turned on the weather (which reassures her--and me! I don't like storms either!) and Autumn and I worked on a little rainy day project.


I'll be blogging about what we were doing later. Also, please ignore that basket of laundry...I certainly am! :) Anyway, although Mike and I have had a little bit of a rough weekend (it's weird how it comes out of nowhere), I think Miss Autumn has had a very good one. Today, she learned her first memory verse: 1 Thessalonians 5:11. It was hilarious because she just randomly busted out with it this afternoon. I feel like a slacker now! I should have been doing this for some time. The video is dark but you'll get the idea...


And yesterday, she got to go to Olivia's birthday party! I didn't get to go but she and Mike had a very good time. There was bouncing.


And hugging.


And, of course, she brought a present. It was funny, I tried to take a picture of her before they headed out. It didn't start out well.


And then there was wild over-enthusiasm.


Aaaaand, there we go. Semi-normal.


Mike said Autumn did great at the party...she seriously likes Olivia so I am not surprised. We had a good time shopping for the present on Friday. I think it's fun to let Autumn pick out stuff for her friends even though it's usually an "I WANT ONE TOO" moment, ha! We got Olivia a baby Belle doll that was really cute. OH! Speaking of: we're going to the Children's Ball this weekend! Next Sunday's pictures should be good!

The other side of 31!

This was a big week for me! I turned 31 on Tuesday. I wrote a little about it on the other blog, plus there is a new post about a cake I made if you missed it, haha. I had a week of celebrations mostly involving food, which was awesome. Monday I made one of my favorite meals: Korean barbecue, complete with homemade kimchi. I got to go out with Mike, Tamara, and Penny (all separately) and then Cathy, Penny and Tamara came over Friday for dinner and a movie night. I didn't really get any photos from any of those events, much to my regret. I do have this...Autumn went to dinner with Penny and me. She borrowed a pair of Penny's sunglasses so she was pretty stylin.



I did take pictures last night. We went to Genghis Grill for dinner with my mom, Valerie, and Roxie. Roxie was pretty unimpressed with Autumn's attempts to entertain her by sticking a straw through the hole in the table. I, on the other hand, was highly amused.


We also went to Bubble Tea for, well, bubble tea. I had my favorite kona mocha but I might need to lay off that because I had really crazy dreams that I'm pretty sure were caffeine related. Autumn had strawberry but no bubbles because I didn't want to find out how good I am at the heimlich.


I don't remember what Roxie was so surprised about but it was pretty cute. And I am still having trouble getting non-yellow pictures with indoor low light. Anyone have any tips?


One of the random things that makes me sad is how good Autumn is with littler kids. Roxie would run away and Autumn would grab her and say, "no, no Roxie." :) So sweet. Here she is bringing Roxie to Mike, "watch her for me, Papa."


Cousins. :)


I just liked this picture.


Autumn was doing her usual DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE face...


And then she was all, ok, take my picture.


One more birthday to go! September is one of our big months for birthdays, along with November and the last week of January/first week of February. We had Ryan, Nanny, Mrs. Mary, me, and, coming up, Valerie! :D I will be posting details about what I got her for her birthday at the other blog just as soon as I give it to her.

Beach Pics of Unusualness

So, last week we went to the beach! It was a pretty good trip despite the whole, you know, tropical storm thing. When we got up the morning after arriving, the weather wasn't too beach going friendly so we just went outside to experience the wind.


The ocean in Perdido is usually pretty calm and clear so it was crazy to see it all wild and crashing and foaming.


We managed to find ways to entertain ourselves. Mike and I read. I played warcraft on a laptop. Autumn did this. Every time the wind blew her hair, we laughed because it was like looking at some kind of modeling photo shoot with the big fans.


In the past, Autumn wasn't a huge fan of the ocean. Too loud, too big, etc. This trip? She was alll about the waves. We would hold her hand in the shallow waves and she had a really great time.


There was a slightly safer place for Autumn and Tyler to play. The ocean had come so far up the beach that there was this big puddle. Tyler preferred that spot over the waves. Autumn tolerated it a bit. They were pretty cute jumping in together.


These are some great faces.


So is this, actually. If Autumn doesn't want to talk to you, this is the face she makes. Sometimes she shakes her head when her eyes and lips set that way. I think she's going through some kind of stage with the not wanting to talk to people.


The strange thing is that this was a slow moving storm. So it was bad weather Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday. Monday was actually the worst for us, though the storm was technically only a depression at that point. It had passed over going to Louisiana and then tracked back over us. The wind was sooo bad. You could see the hurricane proof windows flexing. At one point, we even took the kids to the middle of the condo where there were no windows. That's the morning that the garage doors of the condos were ripped off. Seriously, like 1/2 to 2/3 were gone or all dented and hanging.

Of course, that's the day that someone we won't name wanted to go to the restaurant on the bay. That had no windows. Just...plastic sheeting. I was more than a little nervous. Mike and Autumn coped with it by playing Super Autumn and Super Papa in the wind.


Oh, and the day we left?


Of course.

Before we headed out, I realized we hadn't taken any pictures of autumn with nanny and boppa so I snapped a couple. This is my favorite.


See you later, beach!