Lazy Days of Summer

This is how many summer mornings began at our house. The girls and I all snug in the bed watching cartoons. I know all about Handy Mandy, Tigger and Pooh and Mickey!! The girls are slow starters like me, so we needed our down time before reving up for the day. No wonder NONE of us wanted to get up for school :-)

Chloe on the 2 (OK 4) wheeler

Camryn Rocks

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Camryn has had SOOO much fun with her peer play friend Jayla this summer. Yesterday was their last playdate before heading back to school. I bought them matching 'friends make the world a happy place' shirts :-)

They made a friendship book about things they did this summer and wrote 'best friends forever' on the last page.... HOW SWEET!!

Camryn has really found a great friend. This little gal sat by Camryn all through last year in class and really knows her in and out. When they were writing their names on the page of the friendship book, Camryn had some trouble and Jayla told the therapist "when Camryn had trouble writing at school the teacher would make dots so Camryn could trace the letter." The therapist said that was a great idea so they did that to help Camryn write her name. When it was Jayla's turn to write her name she made dots and connected them just like Camryn had done..... isn't that the sweetest thing ever?????

Autism Support Group Family Picnic

Yesterday was the first annual Autism Parents of SE WI family picnic. We held it at a county park that is rented out to special needs groups. There is a big building (in case of bad weather, but we didn't need it YAY!) and a HUGE play area and open grass for the kids to run and play. It is completely fenced in so none of the little munchkins could get away :-)
It was SOOO much fun, the kids ran and played so nice. We also had some free entertainment by a grant given to the facility so the kids (and adults) were treated to a little magic show!! It was a great afternoon.
Have I mentioned how great it is to know other families dealing with autism?? They are the BEST!!

A few more Irish Fest Pictures

Irish Fest 2008

Here is an Irish Fest 2008 slideshow I put together. Thanks to all who came to watch me dance and take photos and video. This was really a highlight to my summer.

Irish Fest Performance Video

Thanks to my sister-in-law Kellie for video taping my performance on Friday!! It is hard to find who I am so that is why I am posting it LOL :-)
You can clearly see me at the end, I am right next to the girl who bows too early....

Irish Fest-Sneak Preview

The 5 hand that was eventualy broken up by Yoko

Dani and Teri the best 2 hand ever!!

Elizabeth and Maggie-those girls stole my move- when in doubt, jazz it out- JAZZ HANDS!


Last night was the Irish Fest pre-party down at Pier Wisconsin. The weather was not great so we were on stand-by for a majority of the evening. The skies cleared and we danced on some slighty wet concrete for a crowd in the Irish spirit. Overall it was a good performance, we worked the bugs out so we are ready for tonight--- our Irish Fest Debut (well for 5 of us it is a debut)

Camryn's latest obsession

SHOES!!!!! Aunt Kellie will be so proud....
Today when Marisa was over for therapy Camryn wanted to wear her shoes. She was so excited about wearing them. At the end of each therapy session Camryn is writing in her 'journal' about something special she did that session. (This helps her recall a remote event and also helps her writing and it is kinda 'academic', preparing her for school) Today when asked what she wanted to write about she said "Marisa's shoes." This is totally amazing, it wasn't all that long ago we were teaching her the SIGN for shoes because she couldn't even say it!! She has come such a long way in such a short time!

Andrew started something.....

Andrew did rock-a-bye-baby one day and the girls got the giggles and loved every minute of it. Now they look forward to playing with Daddy at lunchtime!!!

Chloe is a biker chick!!

Chloe LOVES riding her bike and just recently doesn't need ANY help.... she is super fast too!

Monkey SEE Monkey DO

I don't really think I need words for this post LOL!! Here is a little video of the girls in their flip-flops, sorry about my horrible commentary, I was trying to get the girls to talk, they seem to clam up when the camera turns on...

Picnik

I read on a friend's blog about a free photo editing program called picnik. I have been playing around with it and thought I would share a few of my 'edited' pictures. You should check it out. LOTS of neat features.

Champions of the State Fair

We ventured out to The Wisconsin State Fair yesterday. It was opening day and the weather was gorgeous. When heading to an event such as this with a child on the autism spectrum you never know how it is going to go. You never want to invest too much into it that you can't abort at any time... LOL

The kids were AWESOME!! First we headed to get a burger and "Fridays" (what Chloe calls french fries). Then we strolled outside to look at things, this is usually the best so the kids kind of adapt to being there before we head into any barns or buildings. Chloe is not fond of the sky glider but this trip she really did a good job at ignoring it, despite the fact that Camryn LOVES it and always points to it and says "lets go fly!!" :-)

Next we headed into the packed, but cool, expo center to see the products. We pretty much stayed on the perimeter since we had a wagon, it isn't the most maneuverable device, but the kids love wagon rides!! After the expo--we bought nothing:-(---- we made our way to the animal barns. Animal barns are sensory OVERLOAD and used to cause Camryn some distress (especially the poultry barn) but not this time. The girls loved looking at the cows, horses, sheep, ducks, chickens and geese. They made the appropriate animal noises to go along with all animals we saw LOL They even managed to pet a horse and a baby cow!!!

We then got the girls some popcorn (two separate bags, good thinking on my part) and finished up just walking around and getting Andrew his cream puff. I didn't bring my camera but take it from me, the girls looked and acted sweet!!