Ellany's Tangled Birthday Party

We just celebrated Ellany's 11th birthday with a Tangled theme party. This may sound odd, but it was her first "friend party". I loved watching Ellany interact with her classmates from school and church. They are all so sweet to her...they don't treat her like she is different.

We held the party at a park, in a pavilion right next to the lake. It was a lovely spot! The night before, the weather forecast was 70% chance of rain during our party... But prayers were answered!!  When I checked again before the party, it had changed to 10% chance of rain. We had perfect weather. :0)

Here are some of Ellany's sweet girlfriends.

The decorations...

The girls drew a mural on a giant roll of paper...

 

Played relay games with balloons...

Whacked a Flynn Rider pinata with a frying pan...

Ate the Rapunzel tower cupcakes that I made...

Check out the tutorial on my cake blog!

Played sand volleyball with a beach ball...

At one point it was Adam playing against 8 girls!

After the party, Adam and I took Ellany to Disney World.

The very first thing we did was meet Rapunzel.

As we walked away, Ellany had a huge smile on her face and said,

"Best. Day. EVER!!"

I'm so glad that our sweet girl had an awesome birthday! :0)

Blue Spring Musings

Since yesterday was a school holiday (President's Day),
the kids and I took a little trip to Blue Spring State Park.

We got to hang out in my parents' motor home,
and the weather was perfect.

This is the time of year when the manatees come to the springs.

See those gray blobs in the water? They are manatees.

Here are a few of the things the kids did today.

None of them were out of the ordinary,
which is exactly why I am documenting them.

This is our normal...

Ryker sang a song about mushrooms.

While touring a historic home, we saw a steamboat model.

Ellany informed me that Robert Fulton invented the steamboat.

Hmm...I didn't know that.

Ryker saw a squirrel and our computer-loving boy said,
"Click the squirrel!".

Brynn caught a lizard.

Because he didn't have any sticks to throw in the water,
Ryker threw his shoe instead!

Luckily, it landed just short of the water
and Brynn hiked down to save it.

This is the last pic I got before my camera batteries died.
It was a lovely day!

Ryker Makes Friends

Ryker's teacher, Ms. O'Shea, sends notes home about his day in a notebook. Some of the things she wrote about Ryker recently made me happy, so I decided to share.

(Ryker's Pre-K class consists of seven little boys with autism. They play on the playground at the same time as a typical Kindergarten class.)

"Ryker had a very good day! A little girl from Kindergarten has befriended Ryker. She led him all over the playground and even had Ryker play ring-around-the-rosies with her and some friends. It was very sweet to watch!"

"Today Ryker was playing with that same little Kindergarten girl and her friend on the playground. They were climbing and going down the slide together. I asked Ryker, "Are you having fun?" He responded, "Yes". Later they went on the swings. One of the little girls pushed him on the swing while the other little girl swung next to him."

It makes me SO happy that he is being social and making friends. Hooray!! :0)

Ellany Fashion Show

Ellany's school recently had Red Ribbon Week, a drug prevention campaign. Each day the kids got to dress up in a different way. Ellany had so much fun!

Rock Star Day

Adam made this seriously awesome guitar, and Ellany decorated it. Rock on!

 

Pajama Day

Wearing her PB&J jammies with "Bearsy"

Boot Day

Ellany loves these boots because they make great noise when she clomps around...she pretends they are tap shoes.

Dress-Up Day

Ellany's class had a field trip to the orchestra this day.

Black & Orange Day

Which also happened to be Halloween!

Hope you enjoyed the fashion show! :0)

Alice in Wonderland Costumes

Our family theme costumes this year are from the original animated Alice in Wonderland. As usual, I need to give LOTS of credit to my mom and her fabulous sewing skills!

Ellany makes such a perfect Alice!
She loved taking a sip out of her bottle and pretending to shrink.

 Looking down the hole after the White Rabbit...

Ryker was our cute White Rabbit.
Mom made his vest and bow tie.
He was not too pleased with the rabbit ears, and they didn't stay on very long.

 Brynn sewed her own Cheshire Cat costume!!
I am so impressed.
She used a pajama pattern and created the tail and ears herself.

My parents joined the fun as Playing Cards this year.
How cool are they? My Dad made their costumes.

I found Adam's jacket at Goodwill...score!!
My mom made the vest, we threw together the tie and bought the hat.
I love how it all looks together.

And I love my Queen of Hearts dress!!
We found an 80's era dress pattern at Goodwill -
it had the "V" waist and puffy sleeves.
My mom started with that and did her magic.

 Happy Halloween!

SWEET!

Today is my big brother's birthday!

Here we are posing in all our 70's finery.

I especially love his red, white & blue striped pants...and it's not the Fourth of July.

And a more recent pic...

Happy Birthday, Brent!

I hope you have a groovy day!

Not Broken

I have been thinking about this for the past week. I saw a video someone posted on facebook, made by a dad with an autistic daughter. He held up index cards, one at a time, that told the story of their struggle with autism. I admired him for his efforts to increase autism awareness and get more autism research funding. But the very last card he held up just felt wrong to me. It said that he would do everything in his power to "fix" his daughter.

I left a comment on that video, and I am going to share it with you.

I said something like this...

I have two children with autism and can relate to everything in this video. But I personally don't feel the need to "fix" my children. Autism doesn't make them broken, it just makes them different. They are just the way God intended them to be, and a blessing in my life.

My feelings have progressed along our journey through autism. Having an eternal perspective makes a big difference. Of course I want to help my children reach their potential, and be the best they can be. Most importantly, I want them to be happy. And they already are. :0)