Happy Birthday, Logan!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Logan's 4th birthday this weekend. I was honored to be the one to bake him a GFCFSF birthday cake, as well as cupcakes for his school party today. He is such a cute little guy! Mia just adores Logan's older sister, Shelby and was so excited to get to play and hang out with her. Corey joined the fun playing outside in the bounce house, and meeting a friend's bulldog, Hugo. All in all, a fun time was had by all.

Take me out to the ball game...

We headed out to the Miracle Field yesterday for some "spring training" fun. It was a fun time to see some of our Miracle League baseball friends, run around and just enjoy the perfect weather. Corey impressed me by taking to a "stand in buddy" right away - he generally needs time to warm up to new people, but he took to Cindy right away and had a ball playing tickle tag, etc. Hmmm - think it was cause she is a pretty girl? Of course, Miss Mia was sure to be in the thick of things at all times. Corey's first game of the season is Saturday, yay!

So she finally did it...

Miss Mia gave herself a haircut today. Since it was a chunk out of the back, she lost a lot of her length to match the part she cut. So many pretty blond curls hit the deck.... :(
Still - she is a cutie, and she tells us she has learned her lesson. Only time will tell. I am also posting her recent school picture to illustrate how much length she lost today...

Fun at Grandma and Papa's

The kids love to visit with their Grandma and Papa. Why wouldn't they? They get spoiled, have 5 acres to run and play to their hearts content, a playscape, tractor rides, trees to climb....

Spring is in the air...

You've gotta love spring in Central Texas. We get a mix of beautiful sunny days and some nice rains to green everything up. The kids get to spend so much time outdoors - be it area parks or playing around home.

We go to Old Settler's Park, where we can play on playscapes and feed the ducks. Another favorite is Champion Park - digging for dinosaur bones, climbing rocks and hitting the swings.

More bday party fun...

We attended a party for our neighbors' kids, Jake and Skyler, and both Corey and Mia had such a great time! Mia always loves to go to Chuck E Cheese - she danced for the animatronic DJ booth Chuck E, and had a blast playing games. Corey really enjoyed meeting Chuck E, even gave him high fives and took Chuck E's picture. I am so impressed with how well Corey is doing amongst the chaos of these events these days. In the past, he would have been so overwhelmed, but now - he is a party boy! Love it!

Mmmmmm... Bugs!

We had a blast at our friend's Crawfish Boil party last weekend. The crawfish were really yummy, and we had crawfish experts on hand to help us learn the finer points of peeling and eating these tasty "bugs" - LOL. What a fun afternoon of food, beer and companionship. We are looking forward to attending another Boil in April.

Autism Advocacy

I am getting more active in the autism community at large these days. I am going to be a busy girl in the coming months, but I feel really good about what I am doing. I have joined the 2009 Walk Now for Autism planning committee and am also working on fundraising, of course. Tomorrow I am participating in a Mother Warriors photo shoot - we are going to be emulating the cover photo from the Autism File magazine to use for publicity and raising awareness of our fight. It should be a fun afternoon of sisterhood for all involved. Below is the photo that serves as our inspiration:

















This campaign is all about us moms and our powerful network, all pulling together to help our children. Powerful stuff, huh?

Happy Birthday, Corey!

As hard as it is to believe, my "baby boy" is 8 years old. How did that happen? He has taught me so much in the past eight years - patience, fierce "mama bear love", so much insight into a world I never knew much about - the world of autism. I am so proud to be Corey's mom and to have the honor of empowering him to navigate this sometimes strange and not always "autism friendly" world we live in. He works so hard to adapt and learn, and he is doing such a great job! Corey loves school, is making friends (non-autistic friends, too) and is learning so much more each and every day. We had such a fun day celebrating his birthday yesterday. We did some presents in the morning, and then went to Jungle Java to play for a while. In the afternoon, Grandma and Papa came over with some presents and we enjoyed Corey's yummy gluten free/casein free birthday cake. This afternoon, Mia and I went to Corey's school with cupcakes so he could celebrate with his classmates, too. We made yummy gluten free/casein free/soy free cupcakes for the school party, so Corey and his friends that also follow a gluten free/casein free diet can all endulge. Yay!