Misc. Fun-ness and Cute-ness

I have taken some misc. cute pictures but they have no common theme for a post so I am making a "My Kids Are Cute!" post with them all. :-)

Since we are headed to Disneyland this summer, we are trying to go for a walk every night, weather permitting, to help us get ready for all the walking we will do in the parks. One night we were getting ready to go for our walk around the block when Daddy said he was wanting a Hostess cherry pie. So we walked down to the gas station to buy him a pie. Samantha "walked" there in style. ;-)We noticed a few weeks ago that our flag was getting all worn out and torn up from all the weather elements so we bought a new one and Marc helped Daddy put the new one up. In the process he got a lesson about proper flag "etiquette".
Samantha got lots of really cute dresses for her birthday. The problem was that they were all sleeveless summer dresses and the weather was too cold for her to wear them around her birthday. Well, when the weather warmed up we started having her wear them. She looked so stinkin' cute in this dress tat I had to take her picture.
One afternoon Marc asked if Samantha could come down and play with him in his bedroom. I thought that was very sweet that he wanted to be down there with him. I told him that if she went down there he would have to keep an eye on her and report to me periodically to let me know how she was doing. He agreed and they played nicely down there together for 30-45 minutes! When she came upstairs she decided to bring a big stuff Pooh with her. I got the Pooh before Marc was even born and it was almost as big as she was. She didn't care, she had fun lovin' on Pooh!
I was playing with Samantha' s hair one afternoon. I decided that with summer looming in the future I wanted to see if her hair could be pulled back into a pony tail. I am hoping that by pulling her hair back it will keep her cooler during the hot weather. Daddy Marc thinks she looks older with her hair back in pony tail. The only problem with her hair being back in a pony tail is that I don't have any bows big enough! Gee, darn, I will just have to make some new bows! ;-)
As I stated in a previous post, we participate in the local P.A.T. program. One of the play groups they offer is "Read, Rhythm, and Rhyme". Part of the play group is listening to a book on CD using head phones. The teacher (the same one that does our home visits) told us that most kids her age don't like having the head phones on. Samantha LOVED it! She sat there and listened to the whole story. I think she might have been the only one that did! :-)
A couple of weeks ago my dad & Peg came to visit and celebrate Sam's birthday. One of the presents they got for her was her very own piggy bank. I have had a piggy bank on her birthday/Christmas list since she was born. I know from experience that when Grandmas and Grandpas come to visit, they give the kiddos money to put in their piggy bank. Poor Samantha has had a Ziploc piggy bag instead. :-( I was so excited when Samantha started opening the present and it turned out to be the cutest piggy bank ever! It is a pink pig wearing a princess crown and a tutu. It was even more perfect since I call Samantha my little Princess. G & G even brought a baggie with money for her to put in the piggy bank. :-)
Samantha has really gotten into playing dress-up and pretend. She got a lot of dress-up clothes for her birthday. She kinda ignored all of it for a few weeks. The last couple of weeks she has played with as least 3 times a day! The glasses she is wearing in the picture below are actually a pair of Marc's Nerf glasses but they have more fun using them as dress-up. the shoes she is wearing are a pair we got her for her birthday. The first week or so she could only walk with one shoe on at a time. The last 2 weeks it almost seems like she wears them all the time we are home. She cruisers around the house with her dress-up heels on like she isn't wearing shoes at all. :-) She LOVES putting shoes one (and taking them off). She takes her shoes off almost every time we are in the car. She also loves to wear other peoples shoes around the house. :-)
One nice evening we decided to head to the back yard and test to see is Samantha could swing on the regular swing of if we needed to look for a toddler swing to attach to our swing set. She did awesome!! She didn't even seem the least little bit nervous or scared. I guess I was enough for both of us. ;-)
We went to open swim and had family swim time one evening after dinner. I think both of my kids are part fish! Marc has always loved swimming and playing with water. It seems that Samantha is following in her big brother's foot steps. The day we went swimming I had her hair in pig tails. She normally doesn't get her head that wet so i left them in. She chose that time to decided she wanted to "jump in" the pool and go underwater. I figured she would freak out when we helped her go under water for a second. She wasn't! As soon as I wiped the water off her face she was asking for more! :-) She looked so cute with her wet pig tails!!
I hope you have enjoyed reading my "My Kids are Cute" post. I sure did! :-)

Toddler Creed

I saw this on my cousin's blog and I thought it was cute so I had to share it.

The Toddler Creed

(I saw this on my cousin's blog and had to share)

A Toddlers Creed

If it is on, I must turn it off.
If it is off, I must turn it on.
If it is folded, I must unfold it.
If it is a liquid, it must be shaken, then spilled.

If it a solid, it must be crumbled, chewed or smeared.
If it is high, it must be reached.
If it is shelved, it must be unshelved.
If it is pointed, it must be run with at top speed.

If it has leaves or flowers, they must be picked.
If it is plugged, it must be unplugged.
If it is not trash, it must be thrown away.
If it is in the trash, it must be removed, inspected, and thrown on the floor.

If it is closed, it must be opened.
If it does not open, it must be screamed at.
If it has drawers, they must be rifled.
If it is a pencil, it must write on the refrigerator, monitor, or table.

If it is full, it will be more interesting emptied.
If it is empty, it will be more interesting full.
If it is a pile of dirt, it must be laid upon.
If it is stroller, it must under no circumstances be ridden in without protest.

If it is a shopping cart, it also may not be ridden in, it must be pushed by me instead.
If it has a flat surface, it must be banged upon.
If Mommy’s hands are full, I must be carried.
If Mommy is in a hurry and wants to carry me, I must walk alone.

If it is paper, it must be torn.
If it has buttons, they must be pressed.
If the volume is low, it must go high.
If it is toilet paper, it must be unrolled on the floor.

If it is a drawer, it must be pulled upon.
If it is a toothbrush, it must be inserted into my mouth.
If it has a faucet, it must be turned on at full force.
If it is a phone, I must talk to it.

If it is a bug, it must be swallowed.
If it doesn’t stay on my spoon, it must be dropped on the floor.
If it is not food, it must be tasted.
If it IS food, it must not be tasted.

If it is dry, it must be made wet with drool, milk, or toilet water.
If it is Mommy, it must be hugged.
I am toddler . . . and I am proud.

Celebrating Jeff's Birthday 5/23/10

We closed our garage sale early to go down to my Mom's house to celebrate my brother, Jeff's 38th birthday! :-)
Almost as soon as we got there we had lunch. Yummy hot dogs and hamburgs on the grill. :-) Of course for dessert we had birthday cake and ice cream. Marc helped me put all the candles on Jeff's cake.Both kids waited patiently while I lit the candles.
I love the way, if you look carefully at Marc's glasses you can see the lit candles reflecting in them.
Samantha gave Uncle Jeff kisses on the forehead while I was lighting candles.......
Do you think they like each other???? ;-)
Then, of course, both kiddos helped Jeff blow out his candles.....
and wave all the smoke around, after all, there was a lot of it! ;-)
After lunch and cake it was time for Jeff to open his birthday presents.....or rather have my kids open them for him. ;-)
Samantha couldn't get enough of her Uncle!!
Marc decided he wanted to make a card for Uncle Jeff. He got his craft supplies out and made a card. He worked very hard!!
I think Uncle Jeff liked the card and Marc was very proud of it.
After presents, Jeff showed us his new "toy". He bought himself an iPad about a month ago. I had heard of them but didn't know exactly what they were so he gave us all a lesson.
Marc wanted to see more of it so Uncle Jeff showed him a little bit of every application. He sure is a good Uncle!!
After the iPad lesson was some play time. Samantha was super excited to ride on Rocky again.
and Grandma gave an impromptu story time.
The other new toy Jeff got was a new car. His lease was up on his old car so he got a new one. So, on the way out to our car, we all went to look at his new car.
Both kids thought it was cool to stand up and look through the sun roof.

It was a nice, relaxing family afternoon. After how busy I had been the previous 3 days it was nice to relax and spend some time with some of my favorite people. Thanks for having us over Mom!

Garage Sale Time!! 5/20-5/22

It's that time of year...garage sale time!! We have decided that we are done having kids so i went through all the rooms, closets, and piles and pulled everything out that we didn't need any more. We had so much kid/baby stuff that we didn't even have room for non-kid things!
Our first day was Thursday. My Mom came up to help me that day for 2 reasons: 1) that is usually the busiest day, and 2) to help with Samantha. I didn't now what she was going to be like. I am glad my Mom was there! Samantha didn't want to stay in one spot for more than 5 minutes!! Thursday was a gorgeous day!! We had stuff spread all the way down the driveway in addition to stuff in the garage. Samantha wanted to sit in an old kitchen table booster seat and put her cereal on a different booster seat. She was still sitting there when we got our first customers. :-)As I said earlier, Samantha hardly stayed in one place for more than 5 minutes. She enjoyed taking her "poonies" for a walk down the driveway.
She also liked re-testing out the merchandise. Do you think she has grown just a little???? ;-)
Thursday's temperature made it up to about 85* Since it was so hot, after Marc got home from school and ate lunch he opened up his lemonade stand. He sold it for $.25 a cup. Since it was SO hot, he made lots of sales. He made $9 in a span of 5 hours selling it for $.25 a cup. That's A LOT of lemonade!! He was SO excited!! :-)
During the "nap time lull" (2:00-3:00), Marc decided to tell Grandma some jokes from a book I bought him from a neighbor.
Our second day was Friday and the weather couldn't have been more different!! It was sunny and 85* on Thursday and Friday was rainy and 63*. :( Since it was raining I had to creatively cram all of our stuff into the garage. Samantha didn't like being confined to the garage so she too was creative about how she kept herself busy. She found a pair of gardening gloves that she had fun wearing.
The way I had the garage set up I had an "aisle" down the middle of the floor. Samantha occupied herself for awhile by running around and around and around and around, etc.

She also sat down and tried to put the baby boy shoes on. (I have trouble keeping her own shoes on her nowadays!)
Our last day was Saturday. The weather was a happy medium between the two days. It was clear and about 72*. Since the skies were clear we were able to spread out stuff outside. Samantha was the greeting committee.
It was pretty slow for the first hour so the kids kept themselves busy. Samantha rode on the scooter (that was for sale) while Marc drove her up the driveway and then pushed her back down.

Over all it was a half-way decent garage sale. We still have a TON of stuff left. We are thinking about having a second one since all the work is already done and just sit out there on Thursday, which is the most profitable day.

We All Scream for Ice Cream!! 5/19/10

Marc's school, Chandler Woods Charter Academy, put on an ice cream social for all current and incoming kindergartners. We got to go and make out own ice cream sundaes. They had lots of yummy toppings to choose from!! Marc chose to put every topping on his sundae.We happened to get there about the same time his friend Ainsley did (her Mom is the one that carts my kid to and from school most of the time...thanks again Sarah!). Of course when i asked the two of them for a picture, they both posed nicely. :)After Ainsley left to go play on the playground, Marc decided it was time to chill out with Daddy for awhile. Get it....chill out...since we were eating ice cream...hahaha ;)
All of our sundaes were super YUMMY!!!!
After we ate our ice cream we headed to the playground and Marc played with some of his fiends for awhile before we headed home. It was nice to go this year, we were out of town during the time of the ice cream social last year.

P.A.T. Play Group at the Meijer Gardens 5/19/10

We participate in a program called Parents as Teachers, which is through Bright Beginnings. They has various play groups through out the school year. as an end of the year celebration, they have a play group at the Meijer Gardens after closing time. the Gardens keeps the Children's Garden open in addition to the special things that are brought in. One of the things that is brought in is a bunch of percussion instruments and a couple of musicians to help the kids play. Samantha had SO much playing and banging.

While Samantha played, Marc and I listened. :-)

There is a huge exhibit at the Gardens right now by an artist by the name of Chihuly. He makes all of his sculptures out of glass. We thought this piece looked like rock candy.

Inside the building was a huge room with hands on movement activities provided by a company called Gym Co. Marc tried his hand, or rather feet, at hop scotch for the first time. He did pretty good for it being his first time.
There were a bunch of these stepping stone things that a lot of the toddlers were wearing as hats.
Another room had various arts and crafts stations. We only did 1 since most of them were things that we already do at home. At this one the kids were decorating paper strips to turn into head bands.
In another room there was the ever popular, ever fun parachute. The taller kids held on to the outside and raised and lowered it while the smaller kids ran through (or stood under).

Yet another room, provided by the local children's museum, was an obstacle course. As soon as we walked into the room Samantha spotted the tunnel and made a beeline for it. She didn't do much else except the tunnel.
We have gone to this play group in years past. We normally spend some of the time in the Children's garden. This year we did not because we had a tight time frame this year. We had to get to Marc's kindergarten ice cream social! We had fun here, but we wanted ice cream!! ;-) (Ice cream social pics to come in the next post)