I fall for Autumn

MJ is convinced that it will snow if she wears her snowsuit.

Wow, our summer certainly went by quickly. Here in the Pacific Northwest we had a cool and damp summer. Only a few days of true summer. As of July, Seattle had a combined total of 83 minutes of summer weather. Now it is Autumn and a truly lovely one here in the coast. MJ and I had so much fun this summer and early fall. Rather than try to write about everything we did, I decided to jump in where we are now and then fill in the rest of the summer little by little.

Preschool Portrait
(sorry for the poor quality-this is a mobile phone pic of the original)

In September, Moosie Joon started toddler(and parent preschool) one day a week. It is a welcome two hours every Thursday. The preschool occupies the same space where my preschool did back in the day and it is the same school my sister, Auntie SeSe, attended. Our preschool job is "pet coordinator." Which is a fancy way of saying we are in charge of cleaning the goldfish tank.

MJ was all set to be Boo from Monsters Inc. in the monster costume. My mom and I spent the last few months designing the costume and the month before Halloween sewing the costume. The night before her preschool costume party, she announced, "Snow White Halloween!" Translation: I want to be Snow White for Halloween. As luck would have it, she already owned a Snow White costume c/o Nana and PopPop. It was an easy switch-a-roo and the Boo costume can be worn next year.

In my dream parent fantasy, Halloween is all about costumes, decorations, and traditions. By which I mean, Halloween is not all about candy! But, that was in my dream fantasy. MJ must have learned Halloween=Candy by osmosis. Because I did not mention candy one time and she figured it out. She ran around the weekend before and on Halloween screaming, "Snow White Halloween CANDY! Scary Ghost. CANDY!" She went trick or treating twice - at a shopping center on Saturday and around the neighborhood on Halloween. And got a lot of candy. So I did what every parent with good intentions would do. I let her choose a few treats and then swapped out the rest of candy for slightly better sweets. Reese's Peanut Butter cups, snickers, blow pops, tootsie pops, and smarties replaced with organic raisins, Annie's bunny fruit snacks, and all natural organic fruit juice flavored lollipops.

Maizie Jane was pretty happy to find the new treats when she woke up.

Yours til the kitchen sinks,

Darci