Memorial Day and Autumn's Photography Debut!

I took a bit of a blogging vacation last week!! I think everyone else did, too, because I didn't get half a dozen emails and text asking where the post was, hahaha. Thank you for your patience! And once you're done here, check out these things at Passing Pinwheels:

Today: Autumn has the joy
Flip Flop to Adopt Fundraiser: If you haven't seen the final tally of our FF2A fundraiser, you must click here and then share what God has done for us THROUGH YOU with everyone you can!!
Last: More Sunshine and Lemonade!

To the beach pics!


We got to go back to Lainey and P'd's condo in Florida! It was just the 5 of us and then Lauren and Brad joined us for a couple of days. Kyle, Lindsay, Ryan, Leah & co. stayed with Kyle and Leah's parents down the street. It's really cool that everyone tends to vacation near each other! We even got to have a Colley Reunion with Mike's dad's family last Sunday in the condo's common area. Aside from visiting with friends and family, we got a LOT of beach and water time. The ocean was beautiful and warm. I'm not really into water but I actually spent quite a bit of time in it this trip!


Autumn was a little fish. She gets more brave every time we come to the beach! We had her swimming between us and P'd taught her how to swim parallel to the beach to get back to it easily. Safety first!


I giggled when I saw this picture of Lainey and Lauren. :D


Autumn spent very little time on the sand. Rafts, floating, boogies boards, people's shoulders...she totally didn't care. She just wanted to be in the water!


This face tickled me.


Lauren is in nursing school and things are pretty crazy for her so I'm glad we got to spend some time with her this trip! She was still studious--even on the beach!


One of the best times of the trip was getting to see our old friends Robyn and Zachariah. We also got to meet their kids for the first time! This is John Benjamin and LOOK AT THOSE EYELASHES! He and Autumn had a great time together and I cannot believe how grown up he is--he's only 2.5 and held his own with Autumn no problem! His little brother Jason was a sweetheart the entire time.


This is a photo of fun being had. We haven't see Robyn and Zachariah since like 2009 so I'm glad they made the hour and a half drive to hang out with us and then have lunch with us, Mike's family, and Kyle and Leah's family. It was a condo-full for sure!


Mike and I decided to be complete and total nerds and we took our computers to the beach. hahaha! We had a lot of fun playing Diablo together (our mother's day and father's day gifts to each other!) but I am SO GLAD I had the computer with me to do all the flip flop fundraiser work. I could have done it on my phone or Mike's work ipad but I am glad I didn't have to (yes, yes, first world problems but really, what of my problems aren't?? very few).


Ok, last set of pics! This year, our birthday gift to Autumn was a kid's camera. She was always running around pretending to take photos and wanting to use my camera so I thought it'd be a good first hobby! She's so fun to watch and I love downloading the pictures so I can see the world through her eyes. She took this picture of the beach from the condo's balcony.


I LOVE this. Lainey got a step stool so she could wash her hands and brush her teeth on her own. She was so excited she had to snap a picture of herself in the mirror.


I almost wonder if a grownup took this one since it's so not blurry but isn't it pretty? Not too bad for a $30 kiddie camera!!

I'm sure there will be more Autumn pictures to come but how fun is it that this is her first set of blog pictures??

By the way, keep an eye on Passing Pinwheels this week. We'll be commemorating Garrett's would-have-been first birthday with guest posts.

Guess who's five!

This girl!


We had SUCH a fun, crazy weekend. The lemonade party that Autumn has spent a year planning and asking for and waiting for finally arrived and it was everything we all hoped it would be: fun, friends, food, sunshine...just a great day, if a touch hotter than we might have liked.


Looking around at everyone and all the activity, it hit me again...


More than the great gifts,


And more than the fun games,


these parties show me how much we are loved


And how much we love all of you.


Thanks to all of you here and everywhere...you're part of the reason we can smile so freely. :)

To read more about the party, click here to head over the passing pinwheels.

And don't forget to check out Flip Flop 2 Adopt! Sale ends Thursday AND we have no purchase necessary giveaways!

Why, yes, my child *is* the one who stripped onstage

If you haven't been over to Passing Pinwheels in a while, be sure to visit! We're doing an adoption fundraiser called Flip Flop 2 Adopt. Click here for the fundraiser information plus the instructions on how to enter a giveaway to win a pair of flip flops! Tomorrow I'll be posting a new giveaway, too, so be sure to visit again. I'll link it here once it's live.

So, tomorrow, Miss Autumn turns five. Can you believe it?? Not only that, but she graduated from preschool on Friday. T_T I wanted to post video but it was going to take forever to load so it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. For now:


When the singing started, the kids were pretty loud so she took cover until her ears adjusted. Her class did a few songs alone and then the next class down joined them. Autumn's friend Becca ended up right in front of her so Autumn tried to shove herself next to Becca in such a way that she was behind and next to Becca at the same time.


It was pretty funny...after the singing part was over, Autumn was done. Still on stage. But done. So she took off her cap and gown right there in the middle of things. Her teacher finally noticed and helped her back into the outfit. I turned to Mike and said, "that's your daughter."


But everything was all straightened out in time for diplomas to be handed out. I hate that I didn't get any pictures of this but apparently at some point, someone's tassel attached itself to the bottom of Autumn's shoes so she dragged it down the aisle like a piece of toilet paper.


At the reception, we had to have our usual round of pictures. First, Papa.


The Nanny and Penny assault.


Boppa.


Even the mama. But by the time Uncle Stephan came around, she was done with pictures.


Autumn took a break and showed off her little graduation poster we made (I'll post pictures when we get it back) and then she made the rounds again.


We said goodbye to Ella who is moving to Fort Knox. :(


But Lexie (the girl looking at posters with Autumn above) and Autumn will both be at school all summer so they'll get to see one another again which is fun. I don't think any of the kids in her class will be going to her kindergarten. So sad. But I know one person she'll see even after Mullins!


Cathy, for those who don't know, is one of my closest and longest friends and she also worked as Autumn's teacher on occasion. How fun is that?

Ahhhh, stop growing up Autumn. :) One fun thing, though, here is one of the three Mother's Day cards Autumn made me. It's all of us at the beach! The big building is the condo we stay in. So funny.

The Not so Calm before the Storm!

Can you all believe that Autumn is going to be FIVE YEARS OLD a week from tomorrow?? I can't. Not only that, but she's graduating from preschool on Friday. Where did the time go?? I know the next two weeks are going to be action packed so I just uploaded about two weeks of photos! First up! Face painting!


This was at a block party the aikido schools did a demo for. The mats were so hot that our feet burned and the sun was so bright that we looked like we were glowing in all the photos! All I really have are pictures of Autumn and her face painting. Which is a funny thing, really. As recently as last October, Autumn disliked strangers looking at her so much, she wouldn't let anyone paint her face. So this is a testament of how much she's grown even in the last six months. Such a big girl!


Autumn's friend from church and school Ella-Maria is in town for a little while after several months in England. They had a princess play date. So cute. I have pictures of them doing this, in likely the same dresses, from almost exactly one year ago!


This week I tested my elementary students at one school and had a demonstration for the parents of the preschoolers at Autumn's school. They did such a great job that I told them they make me look like I know what I am doing! :D I haven't no idea what Autumn was doing here. As far as I know, we don't have any moves that looks like FEED ME.


Donnie got to stay with us this week, too! It was like old times getting to see him around and talk video games and life and eat chicken pot pie. All we needed was Liz! But, he was only here for a meeting so she didn't get to come along.


Autumn was totally into Donnie this trip. She thought he was absolutely hysterical and wants him to live with us now, awwwww.


Whew! And the last thing of our big week(ish) was going to the park with Josh and his mom and sister! We always have such a good time with them. Autumn loves these playhouses.


She's also been trying to climb trees wherever she goes. Josh's mom Mimi found this neat little area where they could do some climbing without it being too tough.


I was pretty impressed, to be honest. Autumn has gotten brave lately. She only had a minor panic when her shoe got stuck between a couple of branches. At first I felt a little eye-rolly but I had a tough time getting her shoe unwedged!


Such a monkey!


We played in the miniature creek at the park. They had this rain area where there was a storm every half hour. The run off went into a "lake" which ran into a "river."


Exploring together...are they Dora and Boots? :D


There were stone snakes, scorpions and frogs. Josh told Autumn to be very gentle with his pet snake.


Autumn treated the water hole the "river" drained into like a hot tub. She didn't want to leave.


Fun times! And now that I am all caught up...May Madness can begin.

Oh, don't forget to visit Passing Pinwheels! Adoption Updates and International Bereaved Mother's Day.

The Filipino-Italian-American Heidi :P

A couple weeks ago, Lainey and P'd went to Austria! They weren't able to bring back much because it was a short work-related trip, pretty much everything was made in China and Lainey thought Ryan might not enjoy seeing Tyler dressed like Hansel so Miss Autumn was the lucky recipient of one Austrian-made outfit! She loved it. I could barely get a good shot of her in it because she spent the whole time twirling!
 

I braided her hair and put on her little brown boots and oh, man, she was a little Heidi. I told Lainey I could send Autumn to church in that dress every week until she outgrows it! I do think I might add some buttons to the shirt because it only had the one button at the top and no others. If the dress's corset part was a little higher, it would have been fine but the shirt kept ballooning out. Does anyone know if there's any reason I shouldn't add at least one more button?


I just liked this picture.
 

This one, too. I don't know if it was the day or the dress or what, but Autumn was a dancing and twirling machine. At one point she absolutely hurled herself into a hug at Mike after a series of pirouettes and leaps.


Autumn was supremely happy to get Lainey and P'd back from Europe. She doesn't necessarily see them during the week but apparently just the idea that she couldn't, and that she couldn't just call, caused some consternation in Autumn-world.


:) That's a happy little Heidi.


Before I sign off for the night, I thought I'd share a couple of photos from late last month that didn't make it on the blog. Have I mentioned that Autumn's big thing lately is "bein' a mama?" I feel like I have but I don't see anything about it on the front page so I'll tell you again. :D She'll get her purse or her messenger bag and fill it with stuff like a play phone, a camera, a list, and a pen and do the shopping with me (oh, I think this was on the mobile moments post a month or so ago! I remember now.). She also carries one or more of her "babies" with her to take care of them. Autumn puts the baby in the play carseat next to her carseat and then she'll buckle the baby into the cart while she pushes (I steer). Or they travel like this!


That bag is pretty flat looking in this one but it's kind of amazing the things she can fit into that little bag. At Lainey and P'd's for dinner last night, she pulled out, like, a phone, a package of paper, markers, pens, assorted tissues, a camera, two magnifying glasses, a SWEATER, and SO MUCH MORE. Seriously, it's like a magician's hat. The child is such a hoarder!


That's it for this week! Next week we'll have THE BIG GIRL ROOM OF HAPPINESS AND PINK. And don't forget to visit Passing Pinwheels! I've written a few posts since the last time I linked plus next week I'll be writing about more adoption news as well as putting up some fun stuff as we get ready for Autumn's birthday party. Can you believe she's about to be five??