A Kiwi Tale: Introducing Kiri Kiwi

Once upon a time, there was a happy and imaginative little girl who loved the kiwi from her Kiwi Crate boxes very, very much.


So, not long after school started, the little girl wrote a letter. She wrote the letter to the kiwi!


At the bottom, she drew her very best family picture. The little girl drew her kitty cat Molly, but far away because Molly doesn't like people. She also drew her papa and her mama, but she mixed up the names so her mama was a little too tiny but it's okay. The little girl also added the one she wanted to join her family: Kiwi.

"From Autumn. Will you come over to haos we will have a pladat to gever. We will have a grat tie plaey to gedr. You will haf to come tomorow aftr soole."

She did her best to write a good, polite note. The little girl wrote it all by herself, hoping that Kiwi would see how hard she worked. She really wanted Kiwi to come for a play date. And, maybe, if Kiwi liked it at her house, they could play together for longer than one day!


The little girl gave her letter to her mama to mail to Kiwi. Her mama warned her that Kiwi might not be able to come or that her letter might take a very long time to get to New Zealand where kiwis are from. They even looked for New Zealand on the globe! And it was very, very far away. But every day, she kept hoping and hoping and one day...


The little girl's mama sent her on a scavenger hunt to find a surprise that came in the mail. When the little girl saw the holes in the box...she started to get so excited. There was a note. Kiwi (which must be a last name because she now knows he is really named Steve) sent his friend Kiri! Kiri came all the way to stay with the little girl!


And, ever since then, they have had so many wonderful adventures. They played hide and seek with the little girl's grandfather.


Kiri and the little girl basked in the sun, reading books on the balcony at the beach.


They practiced their sentences and spelling together.


And Kiri even gets to ride in the baby carrier on trips around the house sometimes!


The little girl is so happy to have Kiri. To make sure she really, really never wants to leave, the little girl made Kiri and super comfy bed in a hat with very soft clothes.

Kiri is a fun friend to have. °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

Visitors!

Well, today was supposed to be Kiri's debut but I completely forgot to take pictures of the things that Autumn doesn't know I have so it'll have to wait until next week when I can get the photos under the radar. She wrote a letter to the Kiwi Crate people asking if Kiwi would stay with her--I didn't send it but she did get a kiwi to keep. Stay tuned for the story. :) (btw, I applied to become a Kiwi Crate affiliate, in the meantime, if you end up trying kiwi crate, let me know because I have a coupon you can use!)

So, until next week, check out some Autumn teaching Ellie aikido. She had Ellie by the arms and was doing the rowing exercise with her, hahaha.

We've had some visitors over the last couple of weeks. First up were Tara and the almost brand new William, who was born in May! Autumn loves her some babies so, of course, she was all over Will. I don't know what this face was about though, hahaha.


He has awesome hair that doesn't look too unlike what Autumn's hair looked like when she was his age. Actually, looking at old photos of Autumn, they really looked like they could be cousins or something.


And, last week, we had a visit from Donnie and Liz!! We hadn't seen them in forever but we still play Warcraft together and talk to them in game a lot so it was like they had never left. I made mini chicken pot pies for lunch and then Autumn roped them into a game of CandyLand. Donnie should have gone out to buy a lottery ticket because he won every game except the last one!


Donnie and Liz also got the Autumn's Room Magical Mystery Tour. You can see Autumn's bed full of treasures and pillows. You can also see her bucket which was still there just in case because on Friday she had a "cough so much I'm throwing up" night. She's better now! But we do have an appointment with the allergist next week.


Isn't this funny? Autumn and Liz have really similar hair! I was sitting behind the two of them laughing at how the back of their heads look so much alike. We really enjoyed getting to hang out with them again; it was like old times! After they left, Autumn sighed and said, "I wish they could stay forever." Awwwww.


In case you're interested, I'm posting almost every day at Passing Pinwheels. It's the Capture Your Grief project. My friend Tamara wrote today's post. The last few days have been interesting and at least one of the posts was a lot of fun...I wrote about how we chose Garrett's name via instant messenger, hahaha.

No...energy...must post...pictures /collapse

So, in case anyone is wondering, it is chilly and rainy and so I am cold and unmotivated, haha. Donnie and Liz came over (pics later!) because they were in town for a short visit. I made mini chicken pot pies and an ice cream sandwich dessert. I ATE TOO MUCH. Then we had too much fun and cake at our friend Aurora's third birthday party. Mike was laughing at me and said I was "so pretty" in my Halloween socks, pink sweats, black shirt, and blue robe. I WILL GET MY REVENGE. But, later, after the naproxen kicks in. In the meantime, I wish I could just do this.


I haven't been a bum all week. I made stuff. I'll post the moss garden, the update of Autumn's fairy garden, and the cart I redid on the Pinwheel blog later but here's the Minnie Mouse tutu I made Aurora. Lindsay gave me the idea and I am happy with how it turned out!


And here's the birthday girl with her brother Josh and Autumn. Yay for Minnie Mouse!


I also made Autumn's cape for Halloween. She's going to be Ming Ming from Wonder Pets! I also have a yellow outfit and orange leggings to complete the look. I think we'll sew a boa to a shirt for the wings. TOO FUN. If you've never seen Wonder Pets they are so adorable. Mike and I even sing the Teamwork song even when Autumn isn't around, hahaha. The hat, by the way, is from when Autumn was Amelia Earhart!


I got to have lunch with Autumn. I tried to surprise her but Autumn caught me out. I filled her lunch bag with just stuff and let her teacher know what I had done. Unfortunately, Autumn decided her lunch felt or sounded weird so she looked in it. Her teacher tried to cover and say that she'd buy Autumn's lunch but Autumn was all, "mama is going to come todaaaaayyyyy!"


Happy girl with chocolate soy milk on her chin.


Oh, and here's that other tooth fairy drawing! It's pretty awesome. And I did get some pixie dust BUT Autumn is in here so a picture will have to wait. I have no idea when the tooth is going to finally go. It got loose and then decided it was loose enough for now.


This is my favorite part. Autumn is dreaming about the tooth fairy while the tooth fairy is flying in! Love it!


Next week, I think I'll introduce you to someone new! Kiri the Kiwi! Some of you have seen/met her but it's a fun story. :)

A couple of weeks of miscellany

Autumn has a loose tooth. Mike and I are freaking out because teeth are gross. To both of us. WHAT WILL WE DO. One thing we did do is order some rainbow tooth fairy dust. She's been writing letters to the tooth fairy letting her know that instead of money, she wants pixie dust. Autumn actually drew a better one but it's on her desk in her room and I don't want to go in there and potentially wake her up. Although she usually sleeps like a stone so it's really that I'm lazy.


Oh! Autumn started swim team! I didn't post last week because it was my birthday and I decided to take the night off, haha. But, she has been amazing!! Seriously, even Mike is impressed and he's pretty much never impressed. I take her one night and Mike takes her the other night. I got this one this past week. They had to swim with a weight forward, kicking their legs, with one hand straight up. SO CUTE.


I wasn't sure she was going to make it to the first day. Autumn came down with a fever two Sundays ago. I should have known something was wrong when she woke up and started crying because she couldn't sleep. Poor thing was like fire in the morning when I woke up. She missed two days of school with the fever but only looked **really** pitiful like this for one day. Usually even when she's sick she's all bouncing and silly but, no.


In other news, a friend of mine from kali back in the day took Autumn and me on a tour of Brussel's Bonsai in Olive Branch. He had an easy to care for bonsai that someone had given to him and gave it to Autumn! We had a great time. The bonsai were amazing and, frankly, I had no idea there were things like BONSAI FORESTS. Autumn fell for a couple of bonsai and I told her that if this bonsai stays alive until her birthday, I'd buy her one that flowered.


And, to wrap up, have a happy day picture. :) Autumn is very happy about the first day of Autumn. Unfortunately, the lighting was really harsh so you get an Autumn in sepia.


NEXT WEEK: Kiri the Kiwi!!

Honey the Not a Real Puppy joins in the adventure

Meet Honey! Honey joined the family two weeks ago, just in time to catch the end of the book Beauty which Autumn and I have been reading together for months now.


Honey goes everywhere with Autumn, including into the booster seat while Autumn is in school. Just to make sure she stays safe.


Honey watched while Autumn worked on her rain stick and is there for whatever adventures Autumn goes on.


Honey even had a birthday on Labor Day, complete with an indoor picnic and gifts!


And so, Honey joins the Ménagerie de Autumn. :)

Labor Day Fun

Autumn stops doing it every time I try to take a picture, but right now she's going around the playroom pretending to be a warcraft paladin. She and I made a character today and we did 2 quests. It was so fun! We've actually had a fun holiday weekend even though we didn't go out of town. Friday, we got to go to a Mexican restaurant I like and Saturday we went swimming!


We had a great time and before we left, Mike and I threw one of those fuzzy balls that you catch with a velcro frisbee looking thing. While we did that. Autumn took a raft, stacked some stuff on top and crept around the pool pretending to be a silent sea monster. When anyone would see her, she'd put a finger on her lips and go "shhh."


It was this kind of raft in case anyone is wondering how she managed this sea creature business.


Mike joined Autumn for a while. It was funny and weird with Autumn creeping around but with Mike it was kind of scary, hahaha.


After swimming, we made waffles! HELLO KITTY WAFFLES! I forgot how many tiny waffles one batch of batter makes so we had about a zillion. I don't know if it was the afternoon outdoors or not but they were AMAZING.


AND, this week, Miss Autumn starts her pre-competition swim team! She's both excited and worried but she's going to be great! Her first time is during my aikido classes so I won't get to go. I'm so sad! But hopefully Mike will get a lot of pictures. When the swim cap and goggles came in, Autumn was pretty excited.


The above picture is funny but this one is cute, too:


Oh, and in case anyone is interested in trying it out, one gym has hired me to teach a class! I'll be at the Germantown United Methodist Owning's Life Enrichment Center on Tuesdays, 9:30-10:30 starting September 10. We're going to try a new class called PowerKick which is a combination of fitness kickboxing and strength exercises. It should be fun! We'll see how it goes for 6 weeks and then evaluate. The first two classes are free so I'd love it if people would come check it out. After that, the classes are really reasonable. I have some other interviews lined up, too, so hopefully I'll have more classes to tell you about!

Haha, right now Autumn is gathering items to be like her paladin--she has a sword, a fan for a shield, and the warcraft plush gryphon our community group gives us. Why did I just now get her to make a character??

Autumn the Explorer, Innovator, and FIXER OF TOILETS

Autumn gets on these exploring kicks and her exploring outfits are the best. Check it out...I can't remember what she was looking for but she needed binoculars AND a magnifying glass.


Another day when my mom came over they went on a snail hunt. I haven't the slightest idea how this came about but it involved this fabulous concoction.


They did, in fact, find some snails. They were pretty adorable. I wish I had taken better pictures. They were really mobile and brave in the box so I was like, "yeah, these guys are going to have to go back out." Mike came in a was all "whoaaaa, take 'em outside." Hahaha. We are not bug/slimey things fans but these little guys were so cute! Poor Mike has accidentally stepped on a slug under his desk so he isn't inclined to like slimey creatures.


In less hobo-looking news, we had dinner with Mike's family this week and I got the BEST photo of Boppa and Autumn.


School is still going well. You guys, guess what her art teacher's name is. MS. ORANGE. Best art teacher name ever! And her music teacher is name Ms. Williams and we had a cute discussion about how Williams used to be my last name and that Uncle Donnie, Aunt Liz, and Lula are all Williamses. AND...Autumn got a hundred on her first spelling text! Yay!! Her handwriting is a huge deal. She had sooo much trouble with writing that it was one of the things we worked on with the occupational therapist last year. And look at her now!


Last Sunday we went to the 140th anniversary of Mike's parents' church. It was a pretty cool event and it's amazing to think that they've been around that long. The church, not Mike's parents. One of the things they had was a throwback to the old Southern churches--fan! They put old photos of the staff on it and Autumn got to take one home. I found her Monday morning using the fan to make reflections on the floor for Molly to play with. I love the way she occupies herself when she's done getting ready and doing her morning chores and I'm still getting myself together--she's definitely the morning person around here!


And, I am going to wrap this one up with THE BEST THING EVER. Mike taught Autumn how to fix a gasket in the toilet. In her Sunday dress. I hung out in the closet listening to him show her the parts and explain why the part was bad and had to be replaced just in case she ever needs to do it herself. Autumn, PLUMBER EXTRAORDINAIRE.