At the Children's Ball!

I know this is so late so, Monday morning readers, I am so sorry! I've been sick and today is the first day I've really felt human again so here I am with my late post! But this one is a fun one. We went to the children's ball!


We started out the night with a carriage ride! This is what Autumn thought about it.


Actually, she really loved the carriage ride, but almost all the photos I have of her after the horses started moving look like this:


Mike's dad was going to go with us but he had something come up so my mom got to come along! And, after the carriage ride, Princess Autumn was announced by a herald and she met Cinderella. She was pretty not thrilled about that! Too much attention, I think.


Next we got to see the Peabody Duckmaster.


And, of course, the ducks! They were super cute.


Here we are at our table.


And here's the other version of that picture, just because it made me laugh!


I teach at Collierville Arts Academy where they do a lot of other classes. The ballet program did a Snow White ballet and the fencers did a demo. The kids loved the fencing!


Autumn enjoyed it so much she moved to the floor so she could get a better look. Later she whispered, "I want to do that."


After the show, Autumn got in line to get her face painted. She was sooooo excited about it.


Too fun!


Click here for more Children's Ball photos at Passing Pinwheels!

In Which Autumn Discovers Her Latent Gymnastics Gene

Yesterday we got to go to Olivia's birthday party! I think we've talked about Frank and Emily here before. Frank is one of Mike's best friends from childhood and he was in our wedding. It's crazy that we're all grown up with kids and everything, haha. Anyway, Olivia just turned 3 and they celebrated at the Little Gym. Autumn had a good time. A seriously good time. She hung upside down some.


Bounced a little.


Got smushed in a kid and bouncer taco.


But every single time she had a chance, Autumn headed back to her true love: the balance beam.


At first she went across with Mike holding her hand but after that she was all over that balance beam.


It was so funny, on one pass, Autumn totally fell off, bounced off the mat, and hit the wall. I know I shouldn't have but I laughed. She popped up and looked a little disgruntled but then she patted her head and yelled, "I AM OKAY!" Most of the time, though, she trucked on down, leaped off, and then did a front roll down the wedge crash pad at the end! Seriously, I'm going to have to get one for my kids' aikido class.


When she got tired, it was back to the beam for a rest. :)


Somewhere in between the balance beam and the party games, Autumn and Mike played some ball. I got this fun shot of Mike.


:) And the party ended with a hug for the birthday girl!


Don't forget to check out Passing Pinwheels to see what else we've been up to! I'm also hosting a self defense workshop in October. If you or anyone else you know might be interested, check it out!

Costumes, Surprises, and Birthdays, oh, my!

One of the fun things about Autumn being in kindergarten is that I get to be one of the room moms! The other room mom has been taking pictures of the class for a photo project since the beginning of the year so I told her that I'd love to help out because, well, I like taking pictures. Seriously, I have taken almost a thousand this month AND IT'S ONLY THE 16TH.  Holy cow. I can't even imagine how much disk space professional photographer must need. It's really just that there have been a lot of events this month. The seminar, the Japanese Festival, and this!


For 9/11, kindergarten did Community Helpers day. So sweet. All the kids dressed up as some kind of person who does good things for our community. I saw firefighters, police officers, chefs, even a princess! Autumn wore the scrubs and stethoscope Penny gave her for her birthday. But she said she wasn't a nurse because she didn't have the right hat, haha.


The firemen were very nice. Even when I asked them to pose for a photo. :) I also took one of the class. Both photos turned out well so I asked Autumn's teacher if she wanted me to make a thank you card for the firemen (firepeople?) using them and she said yes. Autumn and I had fun doing it! All the kids are going to sign it and then we'll send it to the fire station.


The other big event? We had a surprise party for Nanny's 80th birthday and Nanny and Boppa's 60th wedding anniversary! We had been scheming about this for a couple of weeks--including trying to get Nanny to give us photos! I was sure she knew what was up but she and Boppa were very surprised!




So fun! Autumn has been doing her best to keep quiet about the party and I am so proud of her! We had sooo many conversations about what kidpower calls Good Secrets, so we made it a teaching moment, too, lol. She's seen Nanny and Boppa two or three times since I made the invitations and didn't breathe a word.


I haven't the slightest idea where she got this but Autumn came down carrying this some time before we got word that Nanny and Boppa were on the way.


That is, by the way, a knee high attached! And, for someone who hates noise, Autumn sure had fun honking the horn in her own ear.


Much to Autumn's delight, Tyler &company came in town for the party! I got there early to help set things up and Tyler asked me about every 5 minutes when Autumn was going to arrive! I finally called Mike and told him to bring Autumn on because Tyler was going to implode if he didn't see Autumn!


They were so busy that I never got them to stand still long enough to take a picture together! At the end of the night when Autumn was about to pass out from tired, I asked her to give Tyler a hug or smile next to him for the camera and she was completely uninterested! She barely mustered the energy to drag herself to the stairs next to him and look blank.


So silly. I'm going to post photos of all the things we made! I had so much fun doing my part. For now, take a look at my new birthday hair: click here!

Ok, I can't end with a picture of Autumn looking pitiful...have a picture of her in her ballet outfit holding the really pitiful yet adorable tomato and sugar baby watermelon we picked from our small garden!

An Afternoon at the Bon Festival!

This weekend we went to the Japanese Bon Festival at the Botanic Garden! I didn't even realize it was going on until Friday. I spent the weekend at an aikido seminar here in town and they said we were going to the festival during the Saturday lunch break. I am so glad that they did it because we had so much fun! Autumn liked the calligraphy table so much that she went back twice. At first she wasn't happy about going to a festival because there would be too many people. Mike was the same way but he decided he'd rather brave the festival than the Saturday night dinner. But when Autumn saw the signs with Japanese writing, she got excited. She got even more excited when I told her they said things like onegaishimasu (please) and domo arigatou gozaimashita (thank you), which are words she knows!


Mike was so tickled by all the cosplayers and the appearance in the wild of the famed Three Wolf Moon shirt that he took his own photos and posted a few times to Facebook. :) A sure sign of a good time.


We passed the Yukata dressing booth and I, of course, had to make sure Autumn tried one on. The idea charmed her enough that she let a stranger help her get it on! Mike and I were surprised because she's usually pretty "don't look at me" most of the time. SO GLAD she did...


Because look at how cute this is. I am so going to make her one for the next festival. While we were trying on the clothes, she saw a boy and said, "That's my friend Kasey from school." And then Kasey passed and popped his head around the guy dressing Autumn and said, "Hey, Autumn!" Turns out his mom was part of the Sekisui team working the food booth. I'm going to give her a copy of the photos Mike and I took. Kasey is on the left.


Happy girl! I had to run on to class after eating a bite and watching the kendo demonstration but Mike and Autumn stayed a bit and enjoyed the gardens. It was a beautiful day and I am so glad it turned out so well! Next time I think I want to get a group of my aikido kids together and go! It would be so fun.


Hopefully it won't be the same weekend as the seminar I was at this weekend because it would be soooo hard to choose! Stop by Passing Pinwheels to check out some photos of me taking bokkens, throwing people, and also getting defeated in battle!

Mary Had a Little Lamb...and a fever!

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day!!

Last week was interesting. We had so much fun on Thursday because it was Nursery Rhyme Day at school!


Before breakfast Autumn put Strawberry Lamb (because it has a strawberry bandaid over an accidental marker spot) into a small mailbox. Not sure why. But it made for a fun picture.


Can you guess who Autumn is yet?


She's Mary Had a Little Lamb! How fun! I loved seeing all the kids in their costumes. Some of the kids were way, way elaborate. Most of them were like Autumn, in outfits cobbled together from closets. Autumn's friend Tristan was Little Jack Horner. I didn't see him but Autumn said he had a purple thumb and a pretend pie. How creative! And her friend Samantha was the Itsy Bitsy Spider. I saw some Bo-Peeps, Jacks, Mary Quite Contraries and Miss Muffetts. Too fun. There's one in the check box for regular school. :P


After school, Autumn was acting totally fine. But after her rest time, I gave her a hug and she was absolutely as hot as an oven! Took her temperature: 103!! She seemed fine despite the fever all night but then when she woke up Friday, she was in rough shape. I got her some chicken and stars, the comfort food of champions. Autumn was still pitiful.


I knew Autumn was sick when I offered to watch a movie with her and she said she just wanted to go to bed! She had taken a long nap so I was pretty surprised. Saturday was a rallying day although all was not well. I came home from Aikido to see this sad fairy:


Despite the morning's not amazing start, Autumn's fever broke early afternoon so Mike took us for a surprise trip. I thought he was taking us to Costco but, nope! It was Dunkin Donuts!


We jumped the gun, though, because her fever was back that night. Thank goodness, by Sunday afternoon all was well and by today, Autumn was in great shape. Very perky and sweet! We had lunch with Nanny and Boppa and Penny stopped in to bring Autumn two new fish--one of hers had 8 baby fish! Then Lainey and P'd got back in from the game in Dallas and we had dinner with the family. Autumn decided she wanted to serve the lemonade from one of her birthday lemonade stands.


I rustled up a quarter from Lainey's wallet and paid her for mine. So everyone else did, too. :P I think she might have earned enough to get the Pinkalicious sticker book she's been wanting! Look at Autumn and P'd's faces...too funny.


So, that was our week. oh! And Autumn and I also worked on this huge painting project--we fixed up a picture frame and turned it into a chalkboard. You can read about it on the other blog. We're starting our first 4 day week since school started so I hope it goes well!

Dawwwwww...

It's been a pretty normal week. For example:


:) This is what I happened upon after getting Autumn up from her midday "rest." Don't call it a nap! We're settling into our new routine. Autumn manages to find time for fun stuff in between her schedule of school, homework,


aikido, and dance! Seriously, Autumn doing tap is one of the most adorable things I have ever seen and you guys know I'm not "that mom." Poor thing, though, I think she might have inherited my "everything looks like a fight" gene. One of the other dance teachers and I giggled every time she shot her arms out and kicked like a teeny Chuck Norris.


It's not all hard work, though! We had a birthday party for Teddy.


Autumn frolicked as a butterfly princess while helping me fold towels and attempt to fix a broken picture frame.


We even made a ridiculously delicious dessert today. I'm probably going to post it on the pinwheel blog but it's sooooo goooooood. So good that I forgot to take a picture of it when we cut it up!


We invited Lainey and Pd and Kyle and Lindsay over for the dessert but also for fried rice which I made using a pork tenderloin I made earlier this week. I didn't like it very much so I'm using it in other things, like tonight's dinner and tacos. When P'd came in, he hid from Autumn.


Haha, grandparents! Speaking of...want to see something soooo funny and sweet?


It's Mike and Ryan when they were littles!! Autumn went up to the picture at Lainey and P'd's house on Friday and said, "who is this with Hudson?" So, so funny. It also reminded me how much Autumn resembles Hudson. I know sometimes she looks like Lindsay and, especially in the eyes and personality, she's little Mike but I didn't really didn't think about how that meant she resembles Ryan some until I saw this! Want to see something else, just to be fair?


That's me when I was a kid, along with my mom, dad, and sister Valerie! Craziness. It's kind of nice to have Autumn be such a blend of me and Mike because I can see myself and my family in her, too! So much fun. Here are some current photos.


One of the questionnaires I filled out for autumn's OT had some family info. It asked what her favorite family member was...of course we wrote P'd! The rest of us fall in at varying points behind! We're okay with that, though.


That's it for this week! Everyone in the path of Isaac, be safe!