The Autumn Chronology

Tomorrow as of 7:58 AM, my Autumn Bottom will be 3 years old!! I just can't believe it. That's how old Hannah was when Autumn was born!

In utero-26ish weeks

A couple days old...don't know why the
picture did that :(

7 months...my chubby little fuzzy!!! I miss her fuzzy head! :)

1 year

18 months

2 years old, with her daddy (who will never be able to
deny that's his child! ;D)

3 years old...well, almost :)

Autumn, Autumn. She is such a hot mess, but I think that's what makes me a perfect fit for our family. :) And if you have not heard her bark like a puppy or all about her new "by-yet" (Violet), then you are seriously missing out!

Happy birthday Autumn! We love you!

A Tropical Dora Birthday

Despite their appearance, I assure you they
were quite thrilled with the  festivities

Meagan and I were talking about both wanting to give a Dora themed party for our girls (who are 15 days apart) and my mom had leftover tropical/Hawaiian decorations from an office party. We decided to combine the two, and an adorable shin dig was born! 

My mom had this great idea for "birthday trees".  Autumn and Emma each had one with their presents under it.

And the cake! YES! So proud of it! I made it and did the frosting while Meagan bought the Dora and Boots and put all that together. Way better than anything Wal-Mart or Publix could have done!

I dyed half the frosting blue for the water, obviously, and spread on the rest of the frosting and covered it with graham cracker crumbs for sand.  At first I was going to use brown sugar for sand.  Meagan bought the Dora and Boots figures and the trees were from my mom's leftover decorations.

I am very excited by how everything turned out, and that it was still hot enough to swim! Just a couple days later it was 65 degrees outside! Crazy! Although I am very pleased with the change in weather. Long overdue if you ask me.  

More Dora Party Fun: "Backpack" Goody Bags

Disclaimer: I got this idea from Pinterest, so I am not claiming it to be my own.

Rather than search all over town I simply went to ebay to find the purple paper bags. Yes, "Backpack" is not this dark but I can't complain. The paper bags themselves actually came from Oriental Trading, which I felt kind of silly for not thinking of that in the first place. Next time, I guess. The face is not hard to draw so I copied it in pencil and drew over it in marker.  I made color copies on my printer (I colored the mouths to save on printer ink), and--now the tedious part--cut out the pieces and glued them together on each bag.  It's something to do while I watch reruns of Frasier after the kids are in bed, so it's not too bad. :)

Week in Review #39: Dd is for Dinosaur and Daisy

Another week of Dd...at first primarily because I have really cute dino preschool pack I forgot about. Heh.  Since getting back from Clarksville we are finally getting into a good flow to where the kids know what to expect each morning. So nice!

At the commissary...pics of both girls smiling
are far and few between

 Autumn did some more practicing cutting with scissors.  I read about the idea of cutting play doh rather than paper which worked beautifully.  I rolled a bunch of little "snakes", and let her go to town.  I also introduced lacing.  I made some lacing cards using a shape stencil on cardstock and punched holes all around them.  One of the easiest things I've ever made. :) Autumn hasn't quite gotten a handle on it yet, but that will come. 

More "D" crafts:

We ended the week with a birthday party for a friend at church! As you can tell, the girls wore themselves out something fierce! 

Next week is Ee and the theme will be Earth!

This post is linked up with the Weekly Wrap-Up.

Explorer Star Craft

My sister and I are in the midst of planning a joint 3rd birthday party for Autumn and Emma (the niece).  We are doing a Dora theme (yes, very common but still should be fun and adorable!  At least supplies are easy to find!), and I had this great idea for a craft--decorating explorer stars! Parents of young children know exactly what I'm talking about. ;) I used 65-lb cardstock for the stars, googly eyes, and a fine tip Sharpie for the mouth and eyebrows.  I cut out the stars using my Fiskars shape cutter (surely I didn't pay the price they're showing here!) and my one stencil with a star.  Making 18 stars took maybe 20 minutes. Kids can decorate with glitter, markers, stickers or whatever embellishments can be held down with school glue! :)

A Great and Fun Visit!

Miss me? Yeah, I figured. ;) For four days I was in Clarksville visiting family. I went there for a friend's birthday party, the 4th, and my dad's birthday--just me and the kids.  Yep yep. But praise the Lord both trips to and from went very smooth. :)

After two years my parents were finally able to get a new liner on the pool and fill it up again! Both Autumn and Emma were in utero last time the pool was up and running. Nice they were able to actually see it in person this time. :)

We also had a birthday party to go to for my mom's friend's daughter.  Parker is only 10 months older than Hannah.  The party was at Chuck E Cheese, and I wasn't sure what to think about that. LOL But it was really fun and the kids of course loved it. Things were so crazy there we didn't even get a chance to get a pic with the birthday girl! :-/

We actually celebrated the 4th on the 3rd since there was a chance of storms, so we grilled out and shot off fireworks. The kids weren't too keen on the noise (or even the sparklers really), so after they were off at Grammie's spending the night we were able to enjoy it without anyone freaking out.

No, she did not set her foot on fire.

Emma the Brave

Looks like my mom's hair is on fire...or maybe it was!

Oooooooo.....aaaaaaah

Richard was also brave for holding a sparkler :)

The 5th was my dad's birthday and we just had cake and ice cream.  The girls made their papaw cards and I got him a Clint Eastwood movie.  There is no telling what movies my parents have and don't have since they raid the $5 bin at Wal-Mart somewhat often. :)

A proud papaw and his "grandbeauties" :)

Like I said before, the trip to and from went very smooth and uneventful.  It wasn't until I was actually in Clarksville, at my parents' house before I turned totally stupid.  I broke the driver side mirror of my truck. It was originally dangling from the wire and my dad put it back on with black tape (definitely better than duct tape you usually see on cars :-p).  It was dark at the time so I couldn't find the mirror itself but my dad found it the next day. Yeeeeaaaaah. Good going, B.J.  What is so pathetic about the whole thing is I have been up and down that driveway at least 8 million times and never did such a stupid thing. Fortunately, Ryan found a used mirror on Ebay for $50 and it should be here any day now.  Ugh.  Guess it could be a lot worse.

Our next big trip is next month. The girl and I are going back to Clarksville and then a bunch of us are going to the Atlanta Zoo to meet our friend, Po the Panda! :) Should be great fun!

Belated Birthday in Clarksville

 

L-R: Grammie, Hannah, me, Autumn, my mom
(Grendy), my sister Meagan, Emma

 We went to Clarksville last weekend and celebrated Hannah's birthday with family. A great time was had by all.  Hannah's "big" gift was a Power Wheels jeep from my dad, and she went 4-wheeling all over the yard. :) It has a passenger seat so Emma, Autumn, and Marianne had to restrain themselves and remember the art of sharing. Hannah wanted a polar bear cake, but I still had the pan from last year!  Hannah is already talking about having a black bear birthday next year. Oy.

All the pics were taken by Hannah's Nonna (my mom's BFF).



My mom made a mini version of Hannah's favorite bear
to go with her new American Girl doll (which you can
see behind her).



Hannah and Marianne are giddy about something :)



pondering what she will do with her life now that she
has passed the half-decade mark.



The cake!



"I wish...a polar bear will be our next president and
focus on conservation!"



"Slow down, Hannah!"



Hannah is 6!!

As of yesterday morning at 3:34 AM, Hannah Jo Caulfield is 6 years old! Hard to believe since I myself remember being six. At my own birthday party we did make up, which I remember very well. :) Ryan and I took the girls to the zoo on Saturday and had presents and cake at home. A very simple celebration, but we are also celebrating with family this weekend in Clarksville. Hannah is requesting a polar bear cake this time.  She already had a panda cake last year, so at least I can use the same cake pan. :)

Some pics from Saturday:

Weekend Visit



Air mattress bouncing first thing
in the morning

 This past weeked my mom, grandma, sister, and niece came to visit us for the weekend. They all stayed at our house...going from 4 to 8 people made things very busy and had to make sleeping arrangements just so to make sure we all got a few hours sleep. :-p We intended to go out and about shopping or what have you, but we all felt pretty lazy and mostly stayed at the house.  It was perfectly fine with me! :) Everything seemed so quiet after they left on Sunday. Hopefully within a month or so we ourselves will venture out to visit in Clarksville again.

Saturday was also my mom's birthday, and Hannah decided she needed a bear cake. I was glad to make use of the bear pan I had from Hannah's last birthday. :) We spent the rest of the weekend grazing on pizza and birthday cake. Yum!


A few more pics from the weekend:



Autumn pulling Emma in the wagon





Getting a story from Grendy





Meagan and Mom getting in their pics



All jammied up after their splash party in the tub



Grammie and Autumn bonding over
"Llama Llama Red Pajama"

Enjoying a late breakfast at
McDonald's before everyone left