Super Zoo Fun Day!

Friday Autumn didn't have school so we went to the zoo! Josh and Aurora and their mom Mimi met us there.We had a great time even if there were a couple of hiccups!

For example, THE TRAIN RIDE OF DOOOOOM. The little kid train was interesting. I love fast rides but I dooon't think this train was meant to go like 40 miles an hour. The kids were screaming of fear and joy and I told Mimi that we were about to be on the 5:00 news! "In other news, train derailment at the Memphis Zoo..."

We almost lost Miss Aurora. Mimi and I were on the row behind the kids because, again, kiddie train, so I had one arm on Aurora keeping her from tumbling out and Mimi was holding on to Aurora's inside arm! We survived, though, and did let the zoo know that their operator was a teeensy bit excited about her job.

In the same area as the train, there's a petting zoo. No one was in the mood to be petted, sadly. I did get a photo of this hilarious goat. It just stood there like this, stock still and in denial that anyone else was around. I named him the Mike Goat. Teehee.

Autumn did manage to sneak up on a chicken that had flown her coop. She was all SHHHHH I AM HUNTING and got to brush the chicken's feathers. Exciting. Apparently.

At lunch, these guys romped around in this cute bridge area. Of course, all of my pictures from this spot except this one are blurry. OH, by the way, all of these have aikidomemphis.com watermarks. Please ignore them. I had previously set the auto-watermark and I was too lazy to delete and re-upload the photos!

The pandas were pretty cute. Those ears! I want to pet them!

Autumn loved this panda's nest. She was all, "he's so cozy and comfy with his food!"

And NOW. For the HIGHLIGHT of the TRIP. GIRAFFE FEEDING. One of the best $5 I've ever spent!! This even made up for the fact that they sent the kiwis to New England before we could see them. We tried 3 times but they were shy, which is why they moved. Anyway, Autumn got a handful of lettuce to feed the giraffes.

They had baby giraffes but we went over to Kenya who looked really excited to get some lettuce. LOOK AT THAT FACE. Did you know giraffe heads weigh over 100 pounds? Kind of amazing. 

This is basically the same photo but, again, LOOK AT THAT FACE. Giraffes kind of weird me out so I'm a little surprised at how adorable they are when I'm not thinking about their really long necks and knobbly legs. Although giraffes weird me out less than ostriches.

As Autumn finished, one of the zookeepers stopped us and got some extra lettuce. He said that Kenya is really great at photo ops and then if Autumn would turn and face the camera and hand Kenya lettuce over the shoulder, she'd get a cool photo. Well. Autumn was a little nervous so I handed her the camera, told her I'd go first, and asked her to take a picture. I never thought she'd really get a good one but this could be the best picture anyone has taken of me in a long time! AND, it's now on the zoo's Facebook page! Autumn was having some trouble with a boy at school today so this went a long way to make her feel better.

None of mine were remotely as awesome but Autumn and Kenya are too cute not to photograph well. Kenya has a crazy long tongue! Going...

Going...

AND GONE! Both of them have great faces here. Kenya's all "more lettuce? We're totally friends now, right? BECAUSE LETTUCE!"

Bye, giraffes!

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August Mobile Moments!

It's been a while! I forgot one week and then the next was a holiday and I'm sure you know how that goes...anyway, here we are! Since we last met here, Autumn has started violin lessons! She's way excited about it although after 3 weeks I think her homework/daily practice is wearing thin. She thinks she's bored but I'm not sure Autumn really gets that the foundation is super important. I'm guessing that's pretty common with kids. I know a few of my aikido students (of all ages!) think they are ready to be Steven Seagal TOMORROW but they have to do a few other things before they can start tossing people into walls and have movies called something like [student name here IS] DEATH to NINJAS.

Something funny, Autumn had to make up a word rhythm to play on her E string. The teacher had her play "Mississippi Hot Dog" as an example. Autumn's rhythm is "Momotaro-san." The grandfather of one of my students gave me a copy of a beautifully illustrated book he bought in Hawaii many years ago. It's a Japanese fairy tale called Momotaro which means Peach Boy...elderly parents find a baby in a giant peach and he grows up to become a warrior who defeats an island of demons. Autumn is absolutely obsessed with the story and while singing a song written in the back of the book (that we attempt to sing in Japanese sometimes) she decided on that for her spoken rhythm. Too fun.

Other than violin, we're chugging along with school, work, and all of our regular life things. I try to make sure Autumn gets time outside with her friends because she's struggling with the long school day and I told her we'd be sure to have active, fun time every afternoon. This week she's been sword fighting in a yard with the neighbor kids. A couple weeks ago, she and her other friends were raking which was fun? I put a question mark there because it's not MY idea of fun but they enjoyed it.

I've been doing a hanging challenge and encouraging Mike and Autumn to do the same. Mike because it'll be as good for his back and shoulders as it has been for mine. Autumn because kids have so many natural skills that we have to relearn as adults so I'm hoping to help her keep them as she gets older! Hanging, squatting, breathing from the stomach and not the upper chest, those are all things I have to reteach! It's kind of amazing how long she can hang and all the wiggling around she can do.

Kiri is still around! Our friend Amy gave us a cat bed that her cat rejected, thinking Molly might like it. NOPE. Molly prefers shoes or socks to sit on. As a matter of fact, Molly has discovered my mismatched sock basket. She has learned to pull it out and now I am finding single socks all over the house. We caught her carrying one around and it was way amusing. Anyway, Kiri uses the bed as a nest so it isn't a complete waste of a nice cat bed!

For any parents who have kids who hate the dentist: there is hope!! Autumn used to think the dentist was going to take her out with the dental tools but now she loves getting her teeth cleaned. It was a gradual, 5-year change from terror to chatting with the assistant through the tools but here we are. I think having the same person every time was a big help.

Last picture! Autumn was so sad because we had a girls night one Friday. She was all, "so, you're going to have fun? With girls? Without me?" Ha! Heaven forbid I have fun with girls without Miss Autumn, right? Well, fortunately, she had her own girl's day the next day! Aunt Penny came over for snacks and Frozen. Autumn, of course, had to wear her costumes. First Anna, then Elsa complete with wig. As the movie progressed more and more of her Frozen friends joined us on the sofa and we had to hold them all properly.

Well, that's it for August! It wasn't a bad month. I hope September continues on smoothly and that everyone had a great Labor Day!

In which the tooth fairy FINALLY visits the Colleys

You guys! Autumn lost her first tooth! And her second tooth! It's so gross! The dojo folks were making fun of me because, seriously, I have a thing about teeth and I do not like them at all! I have recurring tooth nightmares, for real. Autumn has had these loose teeth forever and, with a little assistance from Pd, they made their way out. I started to try helping the tooth out on Thursday but, thank goodness, it wasn't quiiiite ready. One more day did the trick and it came out on Friday. This photo is from today: Autumn's first day of toothless school.

She asked me to have lunch with her so I brought some Chick Fil A to school because, for one, who can say no to a sweet request like that and, for another, it's kind of a big deal! Autumn has been not-so-patiently waiting for this day because she's one of the last kids in her class to lose her first tooth. I would have let it come out on its own but she has teeth growing behind and the one tooth was flapping around and generally being grosser than a tooth normally is. Autumn still has some sensory issues so it was driving her crazy.

When the one super loose tooth came out, the other one lost its support and came on out, too. I'm totally that parent who loooooves anything magical about childhood. Plus I think I've mentioned before that my best memories of my dad were around holidays and I like remembering how tickled he'd be over Santa or Halloween costumes. So, get ready for silliness. First, Autumn wrote a note. By the way, Autumn is wonderful at many things. Spelling is not always one of those things! I have to say, though, some of her guesses are pretty good and make sense.

Dear tooth fary Thank you for coming to my hose. Plese bring pink picedust. I will cepe 1 tooth and you cepe one tooth. I hope you have safe trivils! from Autumn to the tooth fary

Note that Autumn KEPT ONE TOOTH. I was fully prepared to tell her that the tooth fairy needed both but I consulted Mike, who hates teeth more than I do, and he was okay with it. So one of her teeth is in a random box in her room. LURKING. WAITING FOR ME TO OPEN THE BOX. This is Autumn's second tooth fairy note. The first one was a little bit gimme pixie dust so I had her write one a little more thankful for the exchange.

Then we marked her calendar. She remembered that there was a lost a tooth magnet and nearly flew out of bed in excitement. Hm. Looking at the photo, I noticed she has one date wrong and we aren't  going on vacation Labor Day weekend. We'll have to fix that.

Last, we set up her tooth fairy pillow. Someone gave that to us when Autumn was super tiny. It's been hanging on a hat rack all this time!

The tooth fairy did visit. She took the note, to Autumn's disappointment. I guess Autumn thought the tooth fairy would leave it? I didn't take any pictures of Autumn when she found her stash because I was still half asleep but, man, she was pumped. The tooth fairy left a few gold dollars--more than papa thought was appropriate but 2 teeth in one go seemed like a big deal--a tiny, glittery note, and some rainbow pixie dust. The note just said, "Thank you for your sweet note. Don't forget to brush!"  There was even a little glitter on the monkey pillow where the tooth fairy sat.

All in all, it was everything I'd hoped for. I seriously think I had more fun than Autumn. Maybe. I don't know, she was so excited. And, guess what else? She has a lisp and IT IS SO CUTE. There's another loose tooth on the bottom so I suspect this is going to be the reverse of when she got her teeth. Nothing for, like, ever and then suddenly she had allll the teeth. Autumn will probably be gumming her meals by winter. Anyway, that's it for this week! I'll leave you with our growing up girl doing some homework on the computer. She looks pretty intense, huh? The homework was to type each spelling word in a different font. There were different items to choose from but Autumn did this last week and loved it. I like fonts, too, Autumn.

Beach Fun Again!

Well, walking back in time a while, we had a short trip to the beach last month! Of course, here was the main event: Uncle Brad visiting from Doha!! It was great to see him and I am so sad that all my entrance photos are terrible. These two were pretty cute the whole weekend. :)

This was a secondary event. How crazy is the raft? It held all of us but I could only stay on for short bursts or my stomach would get a little unhappy. A couple people had to hang out and anchor the raft though. Without an anchoring chord or an oar we would have floated into what Autumn called "the deep blue."

The kids had a great time with the slide. Autumn eventually figured out that she could do rolls into the ocean and awesomeness ensued. This...this actually doesn't have anything to do with rolls. I just think Autumn's head while she's swimming is funny.

Going...

Going...

GONE. Autumn laughed SO HARD at her face in this picture. She cackled until she was rolling on the sofa. I mean, it's pretty funny but I'm not sure it's quite rolling in the aisles funny!

We were only able to go down to the beach for 2 days but we got a lot done. Saturday morning EVERYONE, all the Colleys, got up before dawn to get dressed and prepared for family photos. We each did photos with our little branches of the family and then everyone together. We don't have any previews or finished photos yet but here we are some time after we started sweating completely through our clothing.

 All the grandkids had individual photos except for Miss Ellie who wasn't have ANY of it. So, at the end of the day, we took her down to the beach and I tried to get a few photos. With Autumn's help, we got some cute ones! Ellie was loving this hairbrush so we sat her down and let her play while I worked on my settings and de-fogged my lens. Then Autumn very gently took the hairbrush.

Here's my photographer assistant! After the hairbrush removal seemed to go smoothly, Autumn slooooowly took the pacifier.

Ellie wasn't sure how she felt about that. We did get some fun photos. I'm waiting to see what ours look like from the photographer and then I'll edit the ones I got of Ellie to try to match the brightness he goes with.

Autumn had other fun with Miss Ellie. Seriously, she's a little Mike with the kids! And can you believe how stinking long her legs are these days? Autumn is not, by a long shot, the shortest kid in her class which is pretty unexpected.

She also had fun with Hudson and Tyler! They giggled and yelled and had all kinds of fun sitting in the hallway playing HedBanz. I need to get a copy of that game...even though the spelling of the name makes me stabby!

Sigh. And now it's off to bed. Tomorrow is week 2, day 2 of second grade!

Back to School

I know I said we'd do beach photos today but today was the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. Crazy! Can you believe Autumn is in SECOND GRADE?? Mike didn't get to go with us this time, so sad! Most of his team is newly in the US so he went to work so they could have first days of school with their kids for the first time here in Memphis. Autumn didn't like the break in the routine but I still got a smile.

At school, I was in and out quickly. I did get a hug and a kiss, though! Autumn doesn't have any friends from first grade in her class but there are 2 from kindergarten. One of them is Kasey.

You might remember Kasey from this photo two years ago at the Bon festival.

When we left for school, Autumn asked me if we could take pictures when Mike got home. So we did! But not in our nice stuff. We changed for the gym before we remembered to get our pictures.

We failed at taking a selfie this morning so I totally had to have my own. I look like I'm about to joint lock her or something.

With the new routine and the emotions of Autumn starting second grade (seriously, how can she be this old?), I am beyond tired. Plus we added a step in kickboxing today which kicked my butt and I am BEAT! But, one beach preview photo before I head to bed: