Holiday Review!

Oh, my goodness, what a holiday! Mine was a little short because of the trip and being sick but we got a lot of celebrating in during the two weeks I was in commission! Lainey came out to help me with the Winter Party at Autumn's class. I forgot to edit these AND I forgot to turn off the auto watermark so not only are the "photobooth" photos not very photoboothy, they are marked with the wrong blog name! Ah, well!

I had to take a turn, too! I got these props from Target for such a great price it was worth not having to make them, print them, and then put them on sticks. Yay for the popularity of photobooths!

I even used the props for these little monkeys. I'd say I got my money's worth.

After Autumn's class party, we had our dojo party the next day. This was our largest gathering of current and past members ever and we had a BLAST. Look at how many kids we had! Christy helped me out with this part; we did a white elephant party with new or used $5 or less gifts. Christy led the kids in the breakfast room and I guided the adults in the living room at the same time so it was fun and loud and silly. I'd love to do this again next year! This was definitely a year to celebrate--I got my black belt and Stephan graduated from college. Yes. I threw my own party. Don't tell Miss Manners! I justify it by calling it a "thank you for putting up with us while things were crazy" party.

Afterward, I found Autumn in her bucket of stuffed animals. Too funny. I think she was kind of done.

We had a late visit to see Santa. Autumn asked for two things. The first was a bell. I had no idea what she was talking about until she mentioned the Polar Express. One trip to hobby lobby and that was taken care of. The other took some serious googling. She asked for this Elf Talker. I tried all kinds of Google searches based on her description. I never had any luck and then FINALLY I plugged in North Pole Phone and LIKE MAGIC the thing was right there, exactly as she described it. I have no idea why no other search terms brought it up. It only "works" in December so Jerry the Elf brought the Northpole Communicator, although he usually just brings acts of kindness. Incidentally, Jerry found it at Walgreens on sale and he had a coupon.

Christmas morning was pretty great. Molly even joined us for the unwrapping. She had a present under the tree, too. Catnip toys! Seriously this company makes the best cat toys.

We didn't want too crazy of a Christmas this year so Santa only brought Autumn stocking stuffers and this outfit to match her late birthday/early Christmas gift of an American Girl doll. When Mike's mom first mentioned American Girl stuff, I had Autumn read as many of the books as were on her reading level so she could pick an historical doll that she liked. I was a little surprised that she chose Kit until she explained that it's because Kit is a writer. Santa brought Autumn this outfit that matches Kit's! Autumn even has red shoes because I got her some to go with the Christmas dress I made her! That wasn't planned but it's a happy coincidence.

My mom spent the night with us Christmas Eve and had Christmas morning with us like she has done for a few years now. It was extra fun because we watched Elf and ate pizza and then we had french toast for breakfast.

Autumn insisted on wearing her Kit outfit all day which was cute but it was a little cold for it. I made her put on leggings but Autumn took them off as soon as we got to Lainey and Pd's house. She and Ellie made an accessorized pair.

Something fun and silly, later that night after naps, Mike, Brad and I sampled one of Brad's gifts: blini, caviar, and creme fraiche! This is what Brad thought. I ate two. The first was fishier than I expected but the second was pretty good. Mike chose not to partake a second time which is hilarious considering he like sushi (nigiri!) so much.

Fun times! Not too crazy once the parties and tests and decorating was over. I'll post pictures of the house on my other blog soon. I'm very proud of myself for getting it done, haha. I know it's silly but I guess it's my thing. Anyway, I hope your Christmas went smoothly and that there was joy in your time with family and friends!

Back in action!

Hey! Sorry was I out of blogging commission for the few of you who visit this blog. :) I went to California for my test and then came home to find out I had strep AND the flu! No fun! But, I have two posts from the weekend you can check out. The first is on my shodan exam. The second has photos of Autumn, which is what I KNOW everyone comes here for, haha!

Happy Grandparents, Grumpy Cousins, and Autumn the Instructor!

Boppa turned 89 this month!!

One of their friend's from church hosted a massive get together to celebrate. As you can see, Autumn broke out the fancy jewelry for the occasion.

Here's the problem with being a few weeks behind. See my hair? It's already different! I cut it short back in October and I really liked it. I was scared to go full pixie cut but on Friday I took the plunge. And...it's also blackish now. I still have long bangs but my hair is pretty short in the back and on the sides. So far most folks are of the opinion that it looks nice. Autumn feels like Ellie looks here. I told her not to despair because when in her short life can she remember me having the same hair for more than a few months??

Here's Kiri being cozy in Autumn's coat pocket. I love that coat. I fell in love with it at Target but just couldn't pay however much it was. So when I found it on clearance...well, you know.

I've been trying to get Mike to try a new hairstyle but it ain't happenin'! He had fun hanging out with Ellie for a bit. Her tiny little "no" is adorable and she says it all the time. Mike asks her questions she's going to say no to just to hear her. Whenever we're home and we say no, we do it in Ellie Voice!

She's so thrilled to be hugged my her overzealous cousin. SO THRILLED.

Autumn is happy to see Pd, OF COURSE. I never did find Lainey to get a photo of her with Autumn.

Over to the other side of the family, my mom and Autumn had some fun a couple Wednesdays ago. I enjoyed this picture of the two of them coloring. I think they were making cards for our Operation Christmas Child boxes. We went shopping together and had a great time.

Autumn's about to be too big for Lula pony rides. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?

My mom is kind of interested in learning to play the violin so Autumn decided to do some teaching. For some reason I was thinking this was the same night as the pony riding but while reading the preview, I realized Autumn is in a different outfit. Anyway, she was ready to teach my mom how to play, like, Jingle Bells but I suggested starting with a scale.

Fun times all around!

I usually don't advertise when I'm going to be out of town but everyone keep me in your prayers! I am heading to California to train for and then take my black belt test in Aikido. Some of you remember that I did get a black belt earlier this year in combatives. This one is for my foundational art and I've been training 10 years for this! It's a more formal and traditional test and situation in general so I'm nervous but excited. I might not get a chance to post next Monday but I'm going to try to keep Passing Pinwheels and the Aikido Facebook page up to date with my adventures.

If we don't meet in person or online between now and then, have a fantastic Thanksgiving!!

Autumns first fan letter gets a response!

Autumn had a super awesome night tonight. She is obsessed with dogs right now and she is absolutely tearing through the Puppy Place Series by Ellen Miles. Autumn is so obsessed that she wrote her very first fan letter!! I am kicking myself because I cannot find the photo of the letter she wrote. I have the first draft somewhere around here but it's also someplace weird. So, for now, here's a letter she sent Donnie and Liz.

She drew herself at her desk and make hearts and circles labeled with their initials.

Dogs and giraffes...or is that one at the top a camel? "Thank you for my cloths so much! I love it! I don't no wher it is rite now. See you in December! Love's Autumn. To Dunny and Lize.

So that the kind of letter she tends to write. We did edit her fan letter a bit for spelling and to make it more coherent. Autumn also asked some questions that were answered on the website so we took those out. We sent the letter about a month ago and I didn't expect a response, much less a quick one. Autumn almost exploded from happy when she checked the mail box. "IT SAYS ELLEN MILES!!!!"

She asked how Ellen Miles got her sticker. I thought I told Autumn I put a self addressed stamped envelope in with her letter and explained what that was but I don't think she really got it until the letter came in.

SO EXCITED.

"I GOT A PICTURE!! IT'S ELLEN MILES AND ZIPPER!"

On the back the author had a little letter about how she wishes she could write detailed letters to everyone but then she'd have no time to write books. Pretty cute and definitely a good idea since I'm sure all the kids who write her wait with as much anticipation as Autumn did. Ellen Miles even wrote a little note on the bottom:

This is the cat who gets a hug:

ALL THE FUR.

Fun times, happy Autumn!

Zoo Boo, Dojo Celebrations, and Halloween!

I almost forgot to do a post this week! Ha! I was so sleepy last night I went to bed crazy early. Anyway, we had a great time with Halloween this year. We went to Zoo Boo for the first time. It was fun but I'm not sure I'm dying to go back again next year. It was just really crowded. I think these guys had a great time even if we didn't get to see everything!

I didn't take many pictures of Halloween night so I am super happy we took some at Zoo Boo! Here's my new, short hair for anyone who hasn't seen it! Autumn dressed up as Doc McStuffins!

Originally, she was going to be Elsa in the costume I made her for her birthday. But Autumn has been able to wear that a lot since her birthday and I had a feeling that there would be a ton of Elsas. I asked her if she'd like to do something different and she said she wanted to be Doc. I'll be honest, because I LOVE HALLOWEEN I tried to talk her into something more complicated but she wasn't having any of it. :) I like that she knows what she wants. 

 Look at how cute this face is! I brought ears for Lindsay and me to wear. Ellie thoroughly enjoyed the swaying ears.

These two. They loved these bees! Before we left, we got to watch a magic show and some performers doing songs from Peter Pan. The kids all enjoyed it--Autumn was especially entranced by the magic show. I have to say, it was pretty good. He did one long drawn out gag that ended in an older teen leaping across the stage into the magician's arms out of fright! 

I made my own costume! I was Toph from Avatar the Last Airbender. And not the Avatar that has blue creatures. The cartoon. Some people were super confused about why I didn't have blue skin when I told them who I was. If you want to, you can watch this starting at 4:12. I showed this to Autumn early because we're watching the series but hadn't gotten to Toph yet. Autumn was entranced and said, "I want to be Toph next year." We'll see if she sticks to it!


And here I am! I'm probably going to post something on my blog about making the costume and you can see my gauntlets. We wore costumes in Aikido the who week of Halloween and this is my Tuesday elementary age class. We also played games, did a Japanese craft, and read Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth. Thursday, Autumn wore her Elsa dress to ballet. She said she was glad she decided to be Doc McStuffins because out of five girls in her class there were THREE Elsas!

On Halloween day, I read Zen Ghosts to Autumn's class and brought them cookies and juice. So fun! After school, we went to the hospital to see Penny who had to work. We have seen her every year since Autumn was a baby!! This year Autumn made out like a bandit with candy, medical tape, and TWO pen lights. On the way out she marveled at how her lights and tape make her a like a real doctor.

That night, we had friends over for chili, soup, and warm drinks. Several friends stopped in to eat and say hi and then went on to other trick or treating plans but this was our trick or treat group. We met up with another family from the cove and walked with them, too.

We have Kyle and Lindsay's fire pit while they are in between houses but I think we're going to have to get our own! We put the fire pit in the driveway and handed out candy. Kids who wanted to have a roasted marshmallow got one on a GIANT SKEWER. The ones I bought were too short but our neighbors came to the rescue! Mike said the marshmallows were a big hit. Definitely a do-again. Note that Mike is studiously avoiding being photographed. He said his costume was a "sleepy papa."

And so, Halloween is over and I am sad. But we had a blast and got to celebrate over several days so I suppose I can't complain. I haven't been able to bring myself to take down our wreath. IT'S JUST TOO CUTE.

Mansfield Trip, Part 1

Ok, I still don't have Mike's photos from our trip to Missouri so this will be a two parter! Next week I'll probably post Halloween pictures sooooo we'll see when part 2 goes up! Anyway, we went to Mansfield, MO, for a couple of days over Fall Break to go to the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum. I have a suggestion to everyone: go on a festival weekend or it's pretty dead. There are 3 restaurants near the Weaver Inn where we stayed. Two were pretty decent, one was downright awful. Mike and I took pictures of each other taking pictures at the Mexican restaurant.

We were there on a rainy weekend so we didn't get to do as much trail walking as we expected. To fill the time, we went out to Whispering Oaks Winery and tried a couple of wines. We bought both of them because they were great but I don't think they were expecting any visitors. There were tours and cheese advertised buuuut there were, in fact, no tours and no cheese. They did tell us we could go look at the grape vines, though. So we did. 

We also hit this little roadside park. I googled it to make sure it wasn't a known ax murderer hang out because, well, I do stuff like that. There was a murder there last year but it was premeditated and the perpetrators were caught so we took the chance and hung out. Mike and Autumn had fun going through the rock piles.

And we all posed at the cute waterfall. There is a picture of me somewhere buuuut guess who has it? Yup. It'll be in the next batch. The colors weren't quite changing yet. It was still too warm. I can imagine the area will be even more beautiful when it's fully fall which is why it's too bad not much more happens there during this season. Mike and I went to Asheville, NC, for our honeymoon 12 years ago this same weekend and they make a living off their color season. I assumed, incorrectly, that the museum town would do something similar.

Mike had to hang off rocks for a photo op!

I'll write more about the museum next time but for now I'll just tell you that we weren't allowed to take photos at the museum and it was raining while we were there so we couldn't get any outside. But during a break in the rain, we went over to the Mansfield Cemetery and found the Wilder and Lane graves. Autumn was really impressed that Laura's daughter Rose was also a writer. On the back of Rose's grave there is a quote from Thomas Paine: “An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot. Neither the channel nor the Rhine will arrest its progress. It will march on the horizon of the world and it will conquer.” We wandered around the graveyard and looked at the graves dating way back to when the area was first settled. Pretty crazy and sometimes very sad.

After the museum and the cemetery, we had lunch at the bad restaurant and then went over to a cute used book store that had three kitties living inside! This kitty did NOT want Autumn to read this book about dogs!

We stayed at the Weaver Inn which was probably the nicest place in town! The room was pretty cozy if a bit loud. If we ever go back, I want an upstairs room to get away from the traffic noise! Autumn was nice and snug during rest time on Saturday. Best thing about the stay? Freshly baked cookies every afternoon!

I have a few more photos to share but I'll hang on to them until I have some more photos from Mike's stash. Next week: Halloween! The week after? Probably more trip pics. :D