A Day at the Beach

I got a call from one of my neighbor friends (Amy) last night. She asked if the kids and I wanted to go to the beach with her and a couple of the other neighborhood Mom and their kids today. We were thrilled with the invitation! We got there are 11:00. The kids played in the water for awhile, then ate lunch, played on the playground, and then in the water some more. Between us 4 Mom we had 10 kids ranging in age from 14 months-11years old. We had fun.
Marc was so excited to go. He had fun playing in the little bit of sand there was there.Samantha looked so cute in her swim suit sitting on the towel....I just had to take a picture.I held her in my arms for awhile then my neighbor girl (Kenley 11 years old) took her and sat her in the water. She has SO much fun splashing in the water. She had fun, until she splashed herself in the face, and then she flinched.Another neighbor Mom (Heather) has a little boy that is a few months older than Samantha came with us. She brought a cool little floaty thing that the toddler sits in and is able to walk around or kick, but still be floating. She let Samantha borrow it for a few minutes. She had a blast!Marc's favorite thing to do was fill his bucket with water.......and then dump it on his head. He really is a strange bird. ;)I was a little nervous taking the 2 kids to the lake without Daddy going along. Amy reassured me that there were be 3 other Moms there to help keep an eye on the kids. Kenley is 11 and taking baby-sitting classes, so she took the opportunity to "practice" with Samantha today. I think Samantha enjoyed the attention...surprise, surprise. ;)
All in all, things went great and we had an awesome time. :)

First Day of the Library's Summer Reading Program

During the summer our local library has a summer reading program. This year's theme is "Get Creative". Everything that goes on during the program is associated with that theme. Once a week there is a more traditional story time geared more towards the "preschool age" children. The librarian reads a couple of books about a topic and then follows it up with a craft.In the afternoon there is a program geared towards the "school age" children. This session is more of an entertainment time. This week there was a lady that played the harp, a few other instruments, and sang. During one of the songs she invited all the kids that wanted to to come up front a play an instrument and sing with her.After the performance she let the kids come up and play her harp for a second.We had a fun afternoon. We can't wait to see what they will do next week. :)

Happy Daddy's Day!

We didn't do anything spectacular for Father's Day...we just spent time with our favorite Daddy. We went to church, and then had my Mom & Grandma came to our house for lunch. We sent the rest of the afternoon hanging out together as a family.
Marc has been complaining that he didn't have any good, recent picture of the kids for his desk at work so the kids gave him a dual sided 5x7 frame with pictures of them in it.Thanks for being a great husband to me and an awesome daddy to our kids. We love you!

Visitor from Nature

For those of you that don't know my house, I have a bunch of woods behind my house. I think it is labeled as wetlands so they can never be developed. When we first moved into the house, everyone told us that we would probably see a ton a deer back there. We had not seen a single deer out there....until this morning. I was standing in the kitchen looking out the window when I saw a deer walking around back there. I went in the house to get the camera and it was gone by the time I got back out there. :( So, I stood on the deck watching for him to come back. An, yeah, he did. I had to zoom the camera in to get a good picture which means that the picture came out a little blurry, but you can see him. It was sooooo cool!

WhiteCaps Baseball

We got a flyer in the mail last week stating that National Heritage Academies (which Chandler Woods, his school for next year, is part of) was sponsoring the game. So, we decided to go. This was Samantha's first baseball game.I think she had fun. She was a little antsy in the beginning. So we got food. She had her first ballpark hotdog. Of course I had to cut it up into a bowl for her. Marc enjoyed his hotdog at the game as well.National Heritage Academies had stuff for the kids to decorate visors to wear during the game.The game started about 7:00 and ended about 9:30-10:00. After the game there were fireworks. The kids enjoyed that. :) After the fireworks, we could go walk the warning track on the field. Marc asked if he could do it, so Daddy took him out. (Samantha was so tired she cold hardly keep her eyes open).By the time we got home, the kids didn't get into bed until 11:30pm. So, needless to say, the kids are a little extra tired and cranky today. Wish me luck. ;)

Big Boy Bike

We got Marc a bike for Christmas 2 Christmas' ago. We had gotten him a full size kids bike thinking since he was so tall for his age he would be able to reach the pedals. We were wrong. For the last 2 summers we have been checking to see if his legs were long enough. Finally this summer they are! :)A couple of weeks before we went on vacation, Daddy Marc took Marc out with his bike and was planning on helping him (with a push here and there) ride it to the end of the street (like 3 houses). He did it by himself! He did so well that we decided to let him ride it around the block while we took our walk. He did really well. The only times he needed help was to get up a hill and slowing down when going down a hill. At one time he got going so fast (he kept pedaling as he went down the hill) that he fell off his bike. Luckily Daddy was there to catch him. So now, whenever we all go for a walk around the block, Marc rides his bike. :)

Outside Play Time

When we got back from AR, the weather was cold and ucky! Marc has been asking to go outsdie and play. Well, Monday the weather was finally warm enough so we went out to play. The sun was so hot that we only stayed outside for about 30-45 minutes then came inside. Both kids had pink cheeks from being so warm.

Bonfire at the Bray's house

Our neighbors across the street from us have a bonfire pit. During the nice weather they usually will do a bonfire once a weekend. Since the snow has melted Marc has been asking "When is Miss Amy going to have another camp-out again?!"
Saturday night, they had a bonfire. Marc was so excited! They usually have stuff for s'mores and dough-boys. Dough-boys are the refrigerator biscuits (the kind in the tubes). They wrap those around a stick and "cook" them over the fire. Once they are cooked, they roll them in melted butter and then in cinnamon & sugar. Yummy! I much prefer those over s'mores. Of course, I had one of those too. ;)Samantha was just glad to be out of the stroller. She had been in it all morning and afternoon at the Summer Celebration. She had fun crawling around their back yard.

Rockford Start of Summer Celebration

Every year we go to a "festival" in downtown Rockford. There is a parade, a carnival, food booths, crafters booths (selling stuff), and a kids' crafts table (for free!). Of course, I forgot my camera, so you will have to forgive the quality, all the picture were taken with my camera phone. (Thank goodness for that phone!)
We started out by going to the parade. Samantha really seemed to enjoy it! We was waving with her whole hand turning instead of her hand folding, it was cute. We decided she was practicing for Miss America. ;)The local fire department lets the kids dress up in their equipment......and shoot the water hose and do a "tug of war" type game with a ball hanging from a rope over their heads. Marc won his game!After we got done with the fire hose we went over to the carnival. We quickly discovered that it cost a young fortune to do anything. Each ticket was $1. Each ride was 3-4 tickets a person. We told Marc he could do 1 ride. He chose the fun house. So, of course Daddy had to go with him, so we paid $6 for Marc to go in the fun house. That is ridiculous! They also had midway games. We let him choose 1 game to play, because, again, he chose something that 1 of had to do with him. he wanted to do the game where you spray water in the hippos mouth and see who get to the top first. He would a really cool tie to wear. :)
After he "rode" his "ride" and played his game, we went to get something to eat. Again, we paid a lot of money, but it was ok, we were having fun.
We went over to the kids crafts table. It is sponsered each year by the local toy store. Last year they some really cool crafts (that we later went to the store to by some of the kits). This year they had t-shirts they could decorate (for free!). There were Do-A-Dot stampers (washable bingo daubers) and fabric markers. So Marc made one for himself and I made one for Samantha. They both turned out really cute. I brought them home and washed them, after all they had been sitting around in boxes and passed around by a bunch of different hands). I took them out of the wash and all the washable Do-A-Dot stampers designs had washed off. :( Luckiliy I have regular bingo daubers in the house. We will just get to have fun decorating then a second time. :)
After some crafting we were headed back to the car when we ran into Dee Jay the Clown. We was making balloon figures for kids. Samantha was memorized by him. She just stared at his as he made the things for them.Marc wanted him to make aballoon snocone. He said he didn't know how to make that but he did know how to make his a snowman instead. He said he was "the only kid today to get a snowman. So not to go telling everyone." ;) He made Samantha flower bracelet. She wasn't sure what to think of it at first. She eventually let us put it on her arm. But then we were too worried she was going to pop it she was playing with it so much.It was a very fun day!

"More" Somersault

When Marc was a baby, Daddy Marc would do somersaults with him. When he does he is more flipping them while holding onto their necks so they don't get hurt. Friday night Marc decided it was time for Samantha to have her first somersault experience. If you listen carefully after I ask her in the video, and will say "more". It sounds a little bit more like "moo", but we knew what she was trying to say. Since now we know she can say more (and all done), we make her tell us one or the other with food. She has to tell us if she want "moo" or if she is "aa daa". :) Enjoy!

A Day at the Meijer Gardens with Grandma Terri

We were gone on vacation for 2 weeks, so my Mom had to go 3 weeks without seeing her grandkids. She was lonely. ;) So we met her at the Meijer Gardens this morning for a few hours of play and then out to lunch.
When I was getting Samantha ready this morning I decided to see if I could put her hair into 2 piggie tails.Just in case you haven't been there before.....there is a big tree house with a table and dishes for tea parties. Samantha didn't quite understand the concept of pretend. Everytime Grandma gave her a "drink" she really wanted a drink of something. Marc had a lot of fun playing restaurant.There is also a large sandbox (they call it a rock quarry) where they have shovels and pails and stuff but there are also "bones" burried in the sand box that the kids and use brushes to uncover. Samantha wasn't sure what to think. She liked wiggling her toes in it, but when we sat her down in it, she wasn't quite so sure.There is water in the shape of the Great Lakes. They have lots of different boats for the kids to push through the water. When it is hot, Marc likes to just get wet. It was cool this morning (low 60's) so he wasn't allowed to, he was not happy.The kids had fun...I think Grandma did too. We were poor little Samantha out.

First Pony!

It seems like Samantha's hair grew alot while we were on vacation. It must have been the extra heat & humidity. ;) I decided to try a pony tail after I gave her her bath this morning. It is super cute!
On board for tomorrow.....trying 2 pigtails on the sides. Wish me luck! ;)

New Fish

While we were on vacation, Nemo II died. When we got home we told Marc that fish only live a little time and then they die. We told him we would buy him a new fish. We decided that we would buy 3 of them so they had some friends to play with. (They only cost something like $.19 each at Meijer). We got the basic goldfish. They have white, orange, or orange & white colored fish to choose from. He decided to get one of each so he could tell them apart.
These are the names he thought of.
The orange & white: Nemo III
The white: Marshmellow
The Orange: Cheese Ball

Kids make me laugh. We used to give his suggestions for names of things. I decded he was old enough and creative enough that he could think of a name on his own. The names he came up with are much cuter than anything I could have thought of. :)

Day 15; Last Day 6/6/09

Well, it is finally the day for us to drive the rest of the way home. We got on the road about noon (after a big breakfast to keep our bellies full for most of the way home). We stopped at Burger King for dinner.After several potty, gas, diaper change, and gas stops, we finally made it home about 10:45pm. We had a snack to eat and went to bed. We made it home safely. :)

Day 14; 6/5/09

Once again we slept in a little. We got up about 9:00, had a good breakfast. We talked to the concierge about what to do. He suggested the Budweiser tour (even though we had kids and weren't big drinkers he said it was fun...and free). My Dad and Grandpa (he has passed away) are big beer fans, so I thought it might be fun to go on the tour. We got to see a few of the Budwesier Clydesdale horses.After looking at the horses we went into a room that had a couple of the old wagons that used to parades and stuff.The tour took us through how and where they make their beer. We went into several different buildings and several different floors. To see one part of the process we had to take 6 continuous flights of escalators. This, of course, was Marc's favorite part of the tour.At the end of the tour they took us to a room where we could have up to 2 free beers (Marc had 1 and I had none), free soda pop, and free pretzels. Even though we are not beer drinks, it was neat to see the process they take to make their beer.

After the tour we headed to the arch.Daddy had to take this cute picture of Marc "pushing" the arch up.We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes for our turn to go up in the arch. As we waited they came by and gave us cards to tell us what part of the tram we were to sit in. Marc was the keeper of our Red #5 cards.The ride was 4 minutes up and 3 minutes down. They say that if you are claustrophobic not to go in the tram (which is more like an elevator) becasue they cram 5 people into 1 pod. This is a sample they have next to the ticket counter so you can see if you will freak out.Once you get up there it is really cool. You can feel that the floor is slanted (since it is an arch). There are little windows for you to look out.We have been in the Sears Tower, which we think is taller, but it was really cool to think about the fact that you were standing in the top of an arch 630 feet off the ground!
After some dinner we decided to walk around and explore some. This is a fountain that was across the street from our hotel. The building in the background is our hotel. Our hotel was inside of Union Station.
While we were walking around we found another fountain.....but the water was pink. Someone told us that the weekend we left was the weekend for their local Relay for Life walk, so that is why we think the water was dyed pink.After wandering around outside the hotel, we decided to explore Union Station. Inside Union Station there is a mall, a Hard Rock Cafe, Landry's Seafood Restaurant, and a few other things. We found a train car in the mall, so we took a picture.We also found a spot where they had painted a part of the wall to look like the platform in Harry Potter.Inside of Union Station there were paddle boats you could rent and go around the small pond inside the building. Samantha sat between us and kept wanting to help Daddy steer the paddle boat. When Marc put his hand back on the steering handle, Samantha hit him untilk he moved his hand. I guess I better hide the car keys. ;)
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