Creative Days and Lazy Kitties

You guys, this is so funny. I thought so, at least! Autumn has been drawing on this dry erase board off and on all day. While I was making dinner, she and Mike came downstairs and Autumn was all, "I have a surprise for you so you have to close your eyes!" And when I opened my eyes, they showed me this.


They drew all their favorite things together. :) Mike made tacos and trees. I don't know why but the tacos seriously crack me up. Autumn wrote a "note" and drew fireworks.


The other thing on the board is her name written in dot letters. That's the one that's craziest to me. Yesterday I wrote the word "family chores" on the board with dots at the ends of each letter. I ended up doing something else for the chore board--I'm not done yet but it'll go on the pinwheel blog soon. But Autumn loved the writing and copied the words about a dozen times on paper, on the blackboard of her easel, and on this dry erase board. And then she started writing other stuff in dot letters! Like her name and Molly and cat. I don't know why I'm amazed. It's just so neat to see her learning things! I envy her soon to be kindergarten teacher. :)

It's been a pretty uneventful week, really. It's been raining off and on which makes us all sleepy. Especially this kitty. That's Autumn's pretend computer. She has a kid laptop my mom got her but she likes this setup better for some reason. I find it all quite amusing. That's an old keyboard we gave her long ago when she was, like, a year old. The monitor is the stationery storage Stephan got her for her birthday and the mouse is the star stamp. I love creativity!


One thing I need to get photos of this week is Autumn in ballet! She started classes a couple weeks ago at the new place I am teaching aikido. She loooooves it. I've been trying to stay away and watch from a distance. Partly it's because I don't like parents to watch my classes--kids don't really behave as well when mom and dad are there plus mom and dad are likely to sweep in and baby the kids if one falls or gets rolled on. And Autumn just does better when I'm not in sight. She doesn't get a chance to cling. But here she is at community group in her Belle pajamas and with her braided ballet buns. SO CUTE. And she and Micah are adorable playing with their tablets like a couple of mini technophiles.


That's it for now! Be sure to drop in over at Passing Pinwheels. I have an update on our home study. And there's just another week left in the FF2A supplementary fundraiser so if you wanted to order something, be sure to do it soon!

So...apparently vacation addled my brain

I don't know what I was thinking. I completely forgot that Sunday is my family blog day! In my defense, we had a great little stay at home vacation. I didn't have to teach last week so it really was like a little vacation. We made ice cream, went to a party (click here to see the printables I made!), fun stuff like that! Sunday, Donnie and Liz stopped by. They were in town for a few days and Autumn was soooo happy to see them both!


We have been drinking smoothies for breakfast lately. It's been a great way to get more protein and greens into Autumn! The only downside (kind of--as hot as it's been it's not really a downside) is that we get a little cold right after. I usually tough it out. One morning last week, Autumn broke out her winter clothes.


Oooh, speaking of breakfast, we made a blueberry buckle. SO GOOD. I usually do at least one every summer since it has to have fresh blueberries. I didn't do one last year because it's a pretty demanding recipe and I just wasn't up to it. So it's been two years since we had a blueberry buckle! I'm going to make another on Wednesday to take to community group. Yay, Farmer's Market!


One of the best things about last week? Rain! It was a celebration when we first heard raindrops against the window.


Molly was unimpressed, sleeping on the laundry we were folding.


Stephan gave Autumn a stationery set for her birthday and she seriously loves it. She spent all day Friday making cards for everyone. Isn't it crazy that she's all writing and stuff? I still have to help her spell most of our names but it's still kind of weird. I'm not ready for her to grow up!


Mike and I have been looking at old photos because we're archiving a bunch of files. Plus our friend Matt and I are working on a project and using some old pictures of Autumn as a model for it. It was so funny because Mike was looking at a photo of me from 2009. He says, AND I QUOTE, "your face looks really lean there. It's different." >.> I just stared at him until he started laughing. SIGH. Anyway, here's Autumn when she was 2--so funny. Apparently she's always been a cat.

Wow, this post didn't end like I planned...

I have something great for you guys! Here's my first animated gif:


Hahahahaha. I love it. Autumn's been trying to hula hoop for a long time and she finally kind of got the hang of it. She can't do it for a long time but when she gets going a little it is SO FUNNY. Plus that little under armour shirt Stephan got her for Christmas is crazy cute!

Last month I think I mentioned that I started teaching aikido at a new location. I like the kids there a lot and Autumn's had a good time getting to know them all. She's been in the big kids class! Penny came out a couple of weeks ago to take some pictures of the class.


She's fun to have in class. Autumn enjoys aikido a lot and I am really glad. I was hoping that by keeping class attendance casual and fun, that she might actually want to do martial arts. I've watched different parents use different approaches to allowing their kids to train. Some wait until the kids are interested but then they never seem to get interested. And of course there are the dojo equivalent of stage parents but those kids usually end up good but miserable. So this in the middle path is the one I want to take. We'll see how it goes!


How funny is this? She looks really into it!


***breaking news***

Oh, my gosh, you guys would laugh so hard. If only I had a gif of this. I was sitting here, typing and minding my own business when the BIGGEST BUG IN THE WORLD showed up on the wall on front of me. I didn't scream but I went calmly for the vacuum because there was NO WAY I was going to smash it. But just as I got the vacuum hose up to it, it skittered to the top of the wall.

So of course I went and woke Mike up.

For real, you guys. It was that bad. I went in and urgently stage whispered, so he wouldn't be afraid we were under attack or something, that THERE IS A HUGE BUG AND I DON'T WANT TO SMASH IT BECAUSE IT'S HUGE BUT I CAN'T REACH IT WITH THE VACUUM AND IT'S TOO HIGH SO I NEED YOU TO BE TALL AND GET IT FOR ME AND I AM SORRY TO WAKE YOU UP BUT IT'S A REALLY BIG DEAL. Mike was kind of bleary but he saw the bug and was like WHAT IS THAT THAT BUG IS HUGE WE NEED BUG SPRAY.

So he got the bug spray. He sprayed the heck out of the bug and then it started flying. When it landed and we stopped screaming and ducking, Mike went at it with the spray until it fell down and started running on the floor so Mike is all GET IT GET IT BEFORE IT GETS AWAY THIS IS SO GROSS. And I'm squealing and going I'M TRYING THE HOSE IS STUCK.

And then I sucked it up. Mike sighed. I said, "I told you it was huge." And then he shook his head and went back to bed.

Autumn?

Asleep the whole time.


/shudder

More Mobile Moments

It's another mobile moments post! I didn't get to take many photos this week so we're dipping into my cell phone camera files once again. Don't forget to stop in at Passing Pinwheels, too! I posted the details about an ongoing Flip Flop 2 Adopt program AND our potential adoption profile video. I'd love to know if you have any suggestions on it! Actually, why don't I just post it here:


In other news, we went to the dentist. Autumn did a great job! She's not usually too into being looked at but Mrs. Stephanie is super nice and the promise of a new toothbrush and some YoLo did a lot. :)


She had "one of those days" a couple Thursdays ago. This is what she looked like on the way to school. I was like, "baby girl it is way to early to be looking that rough!"


But all is not lost...here she is looking crazy perky at our new aikido location. Autumn has really hit it off with a couple of kids in that class and it's so fun to see her showing everyone what she knows.


Another big thing...the flip flops arrived and we distributed them! I was really amazed at how cute the flip flops were. And the people I picked them up from were super nice.


I horrified Mike when I bought a pair of Vibram FiveFingers. :) I'm going to do a review of the shoes on my other blog sometime soon so I won't go into too many details but I got them because I am developing a bunion and these are supposed to be good prevention. I've wanted some for a while so I'm pretty pumped! By the way, my feet are wrinkly because of the socks I had on with my old shoes that day.


I got a much more palatable pair of barefoot style shoes (yay, sales!) by Merrell and Vibram but a button fell off. :( I'm going to email them.


It was kind of fun getting these shoes...I usually wait until my birthday and Christmas to get clothes from people because I am terrible at dressing myself! But, I have to get my own shoes because my feet are so small and hard to fit. I had a pretty good time researching good shoes for foot problems and finding the best prices! Now I kinda know why Mike does so much price comparison on his Costco trips. This is one of MANY price photos he had on this phone (I inherited his old phone when he work got him a new one, haha).


For Father's Day and Mother's Day, Mike and I got each other a game called Diablo that Donnie, Liz, and Ryan all got, too, so we can play together! Which means we talk to each other over these mic headsets. Autumn likes to pretend she's playing and talking, too.


Speaking of pretending, here's her "train" which has also been a rocket, a boat, and a car! The small box is mermaid's train.


This is what happens when you let you 5 year old get herself ready for bed at night and you haven't done her laundry yet. Just fyi.


We've been going to the Botanic Gardens a lot lately. I LOVE My Big Backyard out there and we have some sweet friends who go with us so we can use their membership! The place is pretty amazing but for whatever reason, last trip, out of EVERYTHING in the kids' area, they were totally into the pretend chicken coop.


Oh, man. While I at the seminar in Atlanta back in April, my mom came and spent the night with Autumn. At the time, Autumn's room wasn't quite ready to be slept in but she prepared the room for my mom anyway. HOW SWEET IS THIS?? My favorite is the bath mat and house shoes.


The room is all done now which means Autumn is sleeping in there. Lainey brought over an old comforter and some purple sheets before the social worker came for our home visit, much to Autumn's delight.


On that note, I think I'm going to call it a night and actually get in bed before 11pm! Good night, all!

In Which Autumn Makes Friends with Butterflies!

And now we return to our regularly scheduled program! If you didn't get a chance to read the rest of the Celebration Week posts, definitely take some time to read and also see what Autumn and I made for Mike and P'd for Father's Day! I'll post a link at the end of this.

After we got back from the beach, the caterpillars I ordered for Autumn's birthday finally arrived! I didn't photograph this nearly as much as I should have but it was a really cool project. Autumn got to watch the caterpillars eat and crawl and grow. Then, one day they climbed to the top of the container they arrived in and hung upside down a while before building their coccoons. We moved the disk they built their cocoons on into the butterfly net and waited. I had kind of told God it'd be really cool if one became a butterfly on Garrett's birthday and sure enough:

That's one of Autumn's videos from her camera but it's a pretty funny one. Plus I think you can kind of see that the one butterfly is just kind of hanging out letting its wings become functional and the other 4 cocoons are in the background. They all emerged by the next day after turning really black. And "strapped" as Autumn says instead of "striped." Molly was particularly interested in this phenomenon. All that stuff is, by the way, the tea party Autumn set up for her new friend Butterfly!


I convinced Autumn to let the butterflies go partly because I was worried Molly was going to find a way to eat them. But they also seemed to really want out to have room to fly. Penny was able to come over to help me package the flip flops last Sunday and afterward we let the butterflies go in the backyard. Autumn seemed appropriately dressed.


The butterflies seemed pretty excited by seeing the outdoors. They were fluttering around like crazy.


They got a little shy though after we unzipped the net. Penny helped urge them out. Autumn wasn't overly interested in having one on her hand, much to my disappointment, but she enjoyed seeing this one hang out on Penny's hand for a while.


Isn't this the best face??


I definitely think we'll do this again. Although I'm kind of eyeballing this ladybug house. Autumn looooooves ladybugs so this might be what we do with some of her birthday money. Learning is fun!

Don't forget to drop in at Passing Pinwheels!

A Different Kind of Celebration...

Hello, friends! If you haven't been following along at Passing Pinwheels, stop in and read a little! We've have had a Week of Celebration with guest posts to commemorate Garrett's birthday:

Day one: Tamara shares powerful excerpts from her journal the week of June 5.
Day two: Mike writes a post of thanks and comfort celebrating Garrett's birthday.
Day three: Cathy tells us some of her story and how God gives us peace even in the midst of pain.
Day four: Penny looks to the future and shares a sweet poem.
Day five: Not a guest post because, well, we almost set the cemetery on fire trying to launch a sky lantern!
Day six: Eric brings a friend and father's perspective and shares an encouraging word.

I am so happy to say I have three more posts from friends to share this week. Our mourning may not exactly be dancing but this week has been more of a blessing from friends than a week of tears. Thank you all for your prayers, love and support over this last year!

Memorial Day and Autumn's Photography Debut!

I took a bit of a blogging vacation last week!! I think everyone else did, too, because I didn't get half a dozen emails and text asking where the post was, hahaha. Thank you for your patience! And once you're done here, check out these things at Passing Pinwheels:

Today: Autumn has the joy
Flip Flop to Adopt Fundraiser: If you haven't seen the final tally of our FF2A fundraiser, you must click here and then share what God has done for us THROUGH YOU with everyone you can!!
Last: More Sunshine and Lemonade!

To the beach pics!


We got to go back to Lainey and P'd's condo in Florida! It was just the 5 of us and then Lauren and Brad joined us for a couple of days. Kyle, Lindsay, Ryan, Leah & co. stayed with Kyle and Leah's parents down the street. It's really cool that everyone tends to vacation near each other! We even got to have a Colley Reunion with Mike's dad's family last Sunday in the condo's common area. Aside from visiting with friends and family, we got a LOT of beach and water time. The ocean was beautiful and warm. I'm not really into water but I actually spent quite a bit of time in it this trip!


Autumn was a little fish. She gets more brave every time we come to the beach! We had her swimming between us and P'd taught her how to swim parallel to the beach to get back to it easily. Safety first!


I giggled when I saw this picture of Lainey and Lauren. :D


Autumn spent very little time on the sand. Rafts, floating, boogies boards, people's shoulders...she totally didn't care. She just wanted to be in the water!


This face tickled me.


Lauren is in nursing school and things are pretty crazy for her so I'm glad we got to spend some time with her this trip! She was still studious--even on the beach!


One of the best times of the trip was getting to see our old friends Robyn and Zachariah. We also got to meet their kids for the first time! This is John Benjamin and LOOK AT THOSE EYELASHES! He and Autumn had a great time together and I cannot believe how grown up he is--he's only 2.5 and held his own with Autumn no problem! His little brother Jason was a sweetheart the entire time.


This is a photo of fun being had. We haven't see Robyn and Zachariah since like 2009 so I'm glad they made the hour and a half drive to hang out with us and then have lunch with us, Mike's family, and Kyle and Leah's family. It was a condo-full for sure!


Mike and I decided to be complete and total nerds and we took our computers to the beach. hahaha! We had a lot of fun playing Diablo together (our mother's day and father's day gifts to each other!) but I am SO GLAD I had the computer with me to do all the flip flop fundraiser work. I could have done it on my phone or Mike's work ipad but I am glad I didn't have to (yes, yes, first world problems but really, what of my problems aren't?? very few).


Ok, last set of pics! This year, our birthday gift to Autumn was a kid's camera. She was always running around pretending to take photos and wanting to use my camera so I thought it'd be a good first hobby! She's so fun to watch and I love downloading the pictures so I can see the world through her eyes. She took this picture of the beach from the condo's balcony.


I LOVE this. Lainey got a step stool so she could wash her hands and brush her teeth on her own. She was so excited she had to snap a picture of herself in the mirror.


I almost wonder if a grownup took this one since it's so not blurry but isn't it pretty? Not too bad for a $30 kiddie camera!!

I'm sure there will be more Autumn pictures to come but how fun is it that this is her first set of blog pictures??

By the way, keep an eye on Passing Pinwheels this week. We'll be commemorating Garrett's would-have-been first birthday with guest posts.