Honors Day and January Mobile Moments

Autumn had a couple of big weeks with her violin recital and then her very first honors program! They don't start doing this until second grade at her school so Autumn was super excited. And trying very hard not to talk. Here she is doing some finger exercises I gave her to help when she feels like moving around but can't!

Autumn held out just fine and afterward we had to take pictures. I just realized she looks super tired here. I wonder if she was nervous?

Lainey got to come! And, as you can see, the certificate didn't make it very long in mint condition. :)

Awwww, she's getting SO BIG. I am not ready. T_T I'm glad she got to do this. It was exciting for her. I'm not sure how this semester is going to go because she's having a bit of a tough time (harder math + dealing with boredom--we're working on it!) but I know she is a super hard worker and is going to do a great job whether or not it ends in "highest honors."

I thought I'd also wrap up some January mobile shots in addition to celebrating Autumn's honors program. January seems like it was such a long, busy month and even looking at the photos at ALL THE THINGS we did I think we were pretty packed. Hopefully this month will be a little less crazy. Autumn did some ambulance repair last month. I was cracking up when I saw her with the "lift" she set up to work on the bottom of the car.

She sent a letter to the kiwi crate people (if you ever order a kiwi crate, use my affiliate link at passing pinwheels!). The letter was really cute and I took this picture to send along to explain who Kiri is and how we got Kiri and gave her a backstory before they named the crate mascot. The company sent her a nice postcard with a handwritten note really quickly. I was impressed and Autumn was beside herself! She's been carrying it around.

Letters and pictures are really Autumn's thing now. I guess she's always been into that but now she's turning her talents to begging. For a dog.

Desperately begging. In details. And in color.

We'll see. For not she has to make due with this little furball. And Kiri.

I think Autumn is coping okay although I get wanting something a little more friendly than Molly usually is. There's just a difference between actively playing with a dog and having to go cat fishing with a stick and a catnip ball!

Anyway, in other news, Autumn made the swim team! I'm so excited for her. She was kind of wanting a break from ballet so I encouraged her to take the chance to try out for swim. Autumn wasn't so sure but I took her to the pool to practice for a couple of weeks and she had such a great time that I knew this was the right direction. She was evaluated and made it! Autumn was so nervous before the first practice but afterward she asked, "can I come again Wednesday?" Hahaha. I said, "see, mama is right sometimes!"

And I think that wraps up January! Have a great week and we'll be back here next time!

First Violin Recital!

Guess what! Autumn played in her very first violin recital on Saturday! I have a lot more pictures but I'm saving them for a Passing Pinwheels post. What I *do* have to post is very blurry video of Autumn's piece. I think she did super well! She's only been playing since August and was the newest of the students who played in this recital. There were 2 other recitals later in the afternoon which kept this blessedly short...although, I have to say, some of the kids who played Saturday were downright amazing! I also really feel like Autumn did well because it was an intimate location where all the people were just RIGHT THERE. Here she is, it's blurry and the youtube stabilizer cut her head off some but you can hear it fine. Mike has a better version but I know better than to wait on him, hahahaha.



During the awards portion Autumn...wasn't a fan of looking at all the people.

At all. She deadpanned for every. single. award. We were absolutely cracking up. Autumn racked up the awards Saturday which means we got to see plenty of scowls. She got a participation certificate, a ribbon for composing her own music, and a trophy for practicing 5 days a week all semester, and I feel like there is something I'm forgetting.

When she went up for her trophy, I stood up and made a huge, cheesy grin and pointed at my face. It worked!

Much better! Let's end on an even happier (and less purple-lit) note: pajama day at school! Autumn went ALL OUT.

Comfy!

Autumn the Level 11 Paladin

We're doing a ton of transitioning right now. A lot of it is around aikido but I'm also making some changes to my fitness schedule but that's a post for passing pinwheels! One of the bigger transitions is that Autumn taking a break from ballet to try the swim team! I figure this is a good time for her to experiment a bit so, even though ballet has been going well, when Autumn asked if she could try swimming, I said yes. I have taken her a few times to practice for her evaluation just to get used to swimming laps again. She has done a fantastic job and is already improving with regular laps. Plus she's just so happy in the water. Today alone she spent a full hour alternating laps and playing alone.

Friday, Emma came and swam with Autumn and these ladies played for two hours! Autumn was so tired she kept asking to go to bed, hahaha. Friday was the first time Autumn did laps in the deep end. It's SUCH a long way and she was scared but Autumn hopped in and did it with her kickboard and then without it. Today she did something like 6 full laps (in addition to the ones in the shallow end) and made it end to end freestyle and backstroke without having to rest or float.

Mike and I started playing warcraft again, much to Autumn's delight. She likes watching us play and she has a paladin that she plays, too. It's been cool to watch Autumn put together costumes of her character Leenda. There's a square of paper on her weapon because Leenda has a giant hammer right now!

Autumn also made hearthstones which characters use to go back to their home inn or base. How fun is this?

This is her map, too! She has a backpack and she carried all this around along with water and a dog because her character has a little dog.

In other news, it's been warmer lately. But for a while it was SUPER COLD. Molly decided to hole up in Mike's dresser thing. It has drawers on one side and shelves on the other. Once he left it open and found THIS:

I'd be in there, too, if I could fit. I spent my evenings like this, with the occasional visiting kitty:

Oh, I just ran into this...Molly needs some redemption with all these pictures of her looking like a friendly, fluffy cat.

That's more like it.

Mobile Moments: Winter Break Edition

It's been really cold lately. I thought we were having a heat wave with temps in the 40's this week but on the way into the gym tonight, the wind was SO COLD. The **only** good thing about it being this cold with no snow is Molly sits with me voluntarily sometimes. But I can't acknowledge that she's there or she'll go away. I'll take it.

One day over winter break, Autumn and I were running errands and I had a serious craving for Chinese food plus I just couldn't deal with the idea of making lunch that day. I don't know why. It doesn't happen often and I usually don't give in. But not that day. We went to the buffet. Autumn even got to use her level 2 practice chopsticks! She also got to wear her furry dress. Elyse gave it to us because it was too big for Liana but Autumn wears a uniform to school and we had a bunch of weekends too warm for something so fuzzy. Autumn was thrilled.

Check it out! Ellie let Mike hold her at his parents' Christmas party. It was, indeed, a Christmas miracle. Do you like her dress? I made it!

I made Autumn a matching dress AND they both have red, sparkly shoes. Super fun! Except Autumn isn't wearing hers in this photo, ah well. I need to get a good photo of the dresses and post them on the pinwheel blog. Incidentally, I posted our Christmas decorations there last week!

These two monkeys had a great time together. They were SO EXCITED that first day.

BUT, this day rivals Tyler's arrival for awesomeness in Autumn Land. My friend Tamara fostered puppies for about a week and was nice enough to bring them over to play in our back yard. Autumn and the puppies cavorted...

Rolled around...

Rolled around some more...

And generally had a fabulous time that resulted in puppies and 7 year old COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED. The puppy play date didn't cure Autumn of her puppy obsession. I think it fueled it even more. She still talks about how Sporty, one of the puppies, would be so happy here at our house. :) Too funny. While she dreams about puppies, she's reading fiction books like Puppy Place and Dog Diaries and checking out nonfiction books on rescue dogs, therapy dogs, and dog breeds. I told Mike that, like it or not, we probably should consider a dog sometime. He's all NOPE. Ha!

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!!