Moon Cookies And Moon Gazing (On The Computer)

 We celebrated the Autumn Moon Festival yesterday and it was a full, great day.

First, we started out by going to see "Hotel Transylvania 2" ~ not really related to the moon festival, but it was a great rainy day activity...

 As luck would have it, we bumped into friends Laura, Rob and Ella at the theater! Bri and Ella got to sit together and enjoy the show...

When we got home, Bri and I made our annual moon cookie recipe. It's taken a few years to get all the kinks worked out so the cookies taste exactly how we want them too. This year, it was our best batch to date! 

They were so yummy and fun to make...

Doug and I also helped Briana make a video that afternoon for her cereal box book report commercial for school. It turned out so dang cute ~ but more on that in another post...

In the evening, Bri and I watched our favorite Autumn Moon Festival cartoon ~ Sawga, By The Light Of The Moon...

In my last post, I mentioned that Doug, Bri and I would be moon gazing if weather permitted. We've been lucky every single year since we started observing the moon festival. Except for this year. Clouds were everywhere and there was no way we were going to be able to see the moon in the sky this year.

We were so bummed.

What to do, what to do.

This year's harvest moon was special though. There was a rare lunar eclipse that was going to happen with the harvest moon - a type of eclipse that hadn't happened in 33 years. Now we would have been moon gazing anyway (if the weather had participated/eclipse or no eclipse) because of the moon festival (the holiday is not greatly celebrated in the U.S.). But this year, so many people were eager to see the harvest moon because of the upcoming lunar eclipse.

And thank goodness for the eclipse. There were live feeds of the moon online to watch the eclipse from the comforts of home. So, we were able to moon gaze after all via the computer! 

We totally lucked out...

This is as much action of the moon that Miss B got. She needed to go to bed - she had school the next morning. It was going to be the first day back from fall break...

I stayed up and watched the live feed on my computer until 11PM EST...

What a beautiful site. It would have been cool to see the eclipse in the night sky, but I'll take what I can get!

Right before going to sleep, I peeked one more time at the feed and this is what I saw...

Another great Autumn Moon Festival is in the books. Hoping for clear skies next year. :)

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival 2015

Happy Mid-Autumn Moon Festival!!

Today, Bri and I plan on reading mid-autumn moon festival books, making mooncake cookies and gazing at tonight's moon (if weather permits).

It would be wonderful to get a moon as bright as the one last year...

To see how we have celebrated past Mid-Autumn Festivals, see below...

Moon Gazing 2014 ~

http://waitingforbriana.blogspot.com/2014/09/moon-gazing.html

Moon Festival 2014 ~

http://waitingforbriana.blogspot.com/2014/09/happy-mid-autumn-moon-festival.html 

Moon Festival and Moon Gazing 2013 ~

http://waitingforbriana.blogspot.com/2013/09/our-autumn-moon-festival-2013.html

Moon Festival Over The Years (2008-2012)

http://waitingforbriana.blogspot.com/2013/09/mid-autumn-moon-festival-over-years.html

All About Last Week (And An Update To My Last Post)

 

In my last post, I wrote about things being a bit stressful. Things did improve last week, except for the loss of a special extended family member.

Early Monday morning (Sept 14), Doug's Uncle Gary passed away after a short battle with very aggressive cancer. We are so sad about his passing. Luckily, Doug managed to see him several days before he passed, (he lived in FL) and I am grateful Doug, Bri and I spent time some with him several years ago. He will be greatly missed...

 Tuesday, it was Superhero Day at school to support Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. I found Bri this super cute Superman t-shirt...

But, she had to go in to school late that day due to her 9 year old checkup. This is the first year she has ever gotten a hospital type gown - I guess she is growing up...

She is a very healthy and happy girl. She had to get a flu shot because the mist (which we usually get) was not available yet (and she was super brave about it). 

After I dropped of B at school, I came home to a broken garbage can (hrmph) that the garbage men broke...

Fortunately, it has now been replaced.

I did get a bit cheered up when I found this adorable selfie from my friends' daughter Kira on my iPad. She secretly took it on the way to the fair a couple of weeks ago...

Speaking of selfies, Bri has hopped on the selfie boat. Ugh. And she is doing them quite often with the "v" sign...

She thinks it is super cool. I think it's pretty annoying. I told her not to make the sign when I take regular pictures of her.

And I explained in my last post that we were having some issues with the academy soccer team that Bri joined back in July.

After lots of discussion and thought, Bri, Doug and I all decided it would be best for Bri to return to Y rec soccer. Luckily, one of the dad's from last year's team (the team Doug coached) offered to coach U10 rec soccer this year. This allowed the girls who were staying in rec to stay together. Doug talked to the new coach and told him Bri wanted to come back to rec. He welcomed Bri back with open arms ~ as well as her teammates.

Bri practiced with her rec team that Wednesday evening...

Bri got big hugs when her friends saw her. Everyone seemed happy to see us ~ kids and parents alike. And we were so happy to see them too. It felt like we were home ~ it just felt right. Bri really likes soccer, but I don't think she wants to give the kind of commitment that academy soccer entails. And after some promises that were made to us were broken and lack of play time, academy didn't feel right for us anymore. It was time for a change.

I found this drawing on my phone after Bri's first U10 rec practice ~ so I think she is happy...

After getting that whole situation fixed, it was time to focus on something happy ~ fall break!!

We checked Briana out of school early last Friday so we could hop on a plane to visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law in Colorado for several days.

It was a wonderful, fun-filled and amazingly beautiful trip...

We got back home this past Wednesday from CO, and Bri and I have been having a very low key rest of the week (Colorado recuperation - lol!).

I have so much to blog about regarding our vacation. The aspen trees were at their peak and it was absolutely gorgeous there. We had a wonderful time and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

More to come soon...

Life's Been A Bit Stressful

Luckily, this cute kid helps me get through it.

As I write this post, I have a pretty bad headache. Not sure why. I have lower back issues that I try to keep in check (I've had them for years and see a chiropractor), but they really seem to be rearing their ugly head again lately. That may be why I am having headaches. Or it could be the weather. Or it could very well be stress related too. 

I wish that I could just sniff smelly shoes to make myself feel better like my cat does (heh)... 

I swear I think she is smiling at the camera.

Instead, I think I will just stick with my lovely food addiction to make myself feel better. Ahem.

 The good news about last week is that Bri actually had a pretty good week at school. I did have a slight issue with her teacher on Friday (kind of stressful), but after an e-mail exchange over the weekend, we got the situation worked out quickly. 

Bri looked super cute on spirit day on Friday. She gave me her "angry cat" pose first because she was protesting picture taking...

It was stressful week/weekend in other areas though. Doug has been crazy busy at work and traveling quite a bit. We had a terminally ill extended family member that wasn't doing well (and sadly passed away today). We've found out that some things that were promised to us to get us to sign up for academy soccer for Bri are not going to happen. There are too many children signed up for running club at school this year, so Bri's two days a week practice after school has now to changed to one day (split between 3rd and 4th/5th graders). I could go on, but I won't.

Bri had her very first academy soccer game on Saturday. She decided to do some Pink Baby/Mei Mei selfies before we headed out...

Is this thing on???

 Here is Miss B on Saturday ready for her first game. She was excited and nervous. It was at a field about 50 minutes from our house...

Bri looked pretty good that day. She was kind of unsure about the new U10 formation and a little confused. She wasn't as aggressive as she could be because she was a bit unsure of where she was supposed to be on the field. She did have one beautiful shot on goal that day that was unfortunately caught by the goalie. But the girls won their game 6-1.

On Sunday, we trekked to another field once again 50 minutes away from home (in the other direction). Sadly the girls lost 0-1.

Bri was much more aggressive this game and when she did get a chance to play, she looked great...

 But that was the issue. Between two days and lots of driving, Bri did very little playing. Some girls on the team played in two games in one day. Bri played one game per day - and in those games she wasn't put in very much. I don't know if it is because Bri is the newbie, but it was a bit discouraging. Bri is used to playing a lot - not sitting on a bench. She maybe played 15 minutes of a 50 minute game on Sunday. And the same sort of thing happened Saturday. And she was playing well for being the new kid (all the other girls played academy U9 last year), so I don't get it. We walked away from the field on Sunday not feeling so great. *groan*

The highlight of the weekend though was having a wonderful dinner with awesome friends. It was a beautiful Saturday evening with amazing food and lots of laughs...

I'm so grateful for good friends.

So we've got some things on our plate to work out and get through. We have fall break next week and we are really, really looking forward to it. It is much needed.

Here's hoping for a better week. Fingers crossed.