Labor Day 2010

We had a good Labor Day today.  It started off by Autumn wanting to put on her pastel green church dress and pink butterfly belt and purple princess hat.  She wanted to have a fashion show and show me all her awesome hats.

Next up was this little sun hat for when we go swimming, which is funny b/c she refuses to wear a hat when we swim.  But she was more than happy to show it off in her fashion show.  And look at that little facial expression she’s sporting along w/ her sun hat.

After her fashion show, I got up and decided that since it was Labor Day I should probably do some labor.  I had the day off of work, so I cleaned the house.  I dusted the blinds in my bedroom and bathroom, scrubbed my shower, did some laundry, and vacuumed the WHOLE house.  I even moved the couch cushions and vacuumed under those and then turned over every piece of furniture in my living room including the couch and loveseat to vacuum under those b/c I have seen a lot of cobwebs.  It’s a good (and freaky) thing I did b/c some spider took up residence under my recliner and laid a bunch of spider egg nests which were promptly vacuumed up.  It felt good to be a spider slayer except for the fact that I had sweat dripping down my face.  So, as soon as I was done w/ that I packed Autumn up in the car and we headed over to Papa & Mimi’s to swim.

We had the whole pool to ourselves b/c Dad & Nick were at work and Mom was out to lunch w/ Maggie.  The water was cold at first but then felt so good after a minute.  After swimming for a while, we got out to suntan for a little bit (since it might be our last chance for the summer).  Autumn can’t hold still for very long and after about 30 seconds was doing all sorts of crazy yoga type moves.

My Precious Ponca Princess

After getting dried off a little bit (and me getting a little bit of a tan), we went inside to make some lunch.  Since it was such gorgeous weather outside, we went out under the covered patio to eat our sandwich and chips while jamming out to music on the laptop.  A relaxing afternoon isn’t complete without songs like the following.  I dare you to listen to those songs and not want to shake your bummy (b/c we were shaking ours).
Say Hey (Michael Franti)
September (Earth, Wind & Fire)
Hey Soul Sister (Train)
Put Your Records On (Corrine Bailey Rae)
Misery (Maroon 5)

After a fun packed morning, Autumn wanted Mimi to brush her hair, so she crawled up in Mimi’s lap and before Mom knew it Autumn was asleep.  I love her insanely long eyelashes against her little blushed cheeks and red cupid lips.  She’s so precious when she’s asleep.  I love to just kiss her cheek and soak up all her cuteness and sweetness when she’s asleep.

When she finally woke up, she was ready for fun and excitement.  We were watching Swamp People, which is an AWESOME show.  If you’ve seen the Princess & The Frog, the best thing for me to relate that show to is the three guys in the bayou that try to catch the frogs, except they catch alligators in Swamp People.  We love watching it and trying to decipher what they’re saying b/c of their thick Cajun accents.  Autumn kept asking me to put on some music.  So, we blasted some of our pool side tunes and she and Papa danced around the living room.

Papa got worn out from dancing, but Autumn kept wanting to dance so we went in Mom & Dad’s room so she could burn off some energy without interrupting the TV show Mom & Dad were watching in the living room.  She kept wanting to climb up on the cedar chest at the end of the bed and have me hold her hand while she jumped down.  She LOVED looking at herself in the mirror while she jumped.

She kept wanting to jump over and over and over.  After about the 39th time, I told her only 5 more and counted them down b/c my arm was getting tired.  I’m pretty sure she could have done that for a few hours if I let her.  It makes me so happy that she finds such joy in such simple things.

Since I wouldn’t help her jump off the cedar chest anymore, she still wanted to do something with  me and I was more than happy to spend time with her.  So, I laid down on the bed and held her up in the air on my feet so she could pretend like she was flying.  This picture just makes me smile b/c of the expression on her face and how wild and free her hair is and that she has her arms out like she’s really flying.  I would flip her over my head and she loved that.  She was laughing and giggling non-stop and we did flips over and over and over.

After all the jumping and flipping and dancing, Mom said she was going to the store and asked if we wanted to go.  We jumped at the chance to get out and walk around.  Autumn loved having us push her around in the cart and wanted us to hand her the groceries and she would put the food in the cart the way she wanted it.  She was beyond THRILLED that she got to pick out her own carton of Blue Bell ice cream (she picked berry cobbler) and even more thrilled (if that’s possible) when Mom let her get her very own drink out of the fridge thing at the check out line.

When we were leaving, they had a guy near the entrance to the store and he was grilling racks of ribs and they smelled SO GOOD so we got one for dinner.  While we were waiting for the cashier out there to get Mom her change, the griller guy asked if we wanted a sample.  He gave us 3 ribs each and they were falling off the bone!  We got to the car and I put my ribs (which were wrapped in a paper towel) on top of the car on top of our printed off recipes so I could help Mom put the groceries in the trunk.  Well, a big wind came along and knocked my ribs right onto the cement and sent our recipes scattering all over the parking lot.  I had to go 3 rows over to gather them all back up!  Even though my ribs fell on the ground (the paper towel blew away) I figured I could use the 10 second 2.5 minute rule and just pick off the dirt and still eat them.  What’s a little more dirt minerals, anyways?

We got home and had dinner and then just watched TV.  When Dad got home from work, guess what Autumn wanted to do…yep, DANCE!  She likes it when Papa steps lightly on the tops of her feet with his and swings her from one side of his legs around to the other.  She puts her head back so her long hair can swing from side to side.  It was a lovely Labor Day and I’m grateful for people like this that helped to build America and make it the great nation that it is and those who continue to work hard to make it great.
Image from HERE, Mike Evans, Chicago, Illinois, April 1943