Let's Party Like We Are 3! 4/9/11

It's time to party!!! Samantha has been SO excited for her Strawberry Shortcake birthday party!We usually have my Mom & Grandma over to house for Samantha's birthday dinner. Since my father-in-law was here too, we decided, why not just have a big family party?! So we had 10 people in our house for her birthday. If you know our house, that's kinda crowded! So we just did a simple lunch and cake & ice cream. Think Samantha is excited about all the presents on the table?! ;-)
After lunch it was time to start opening all those presents! My sweet little boy had the idea to buy Samantha a present and card using his own money he has been saving up. Such a sweetheart! Samantha has really gotten into Littlest Pet Shop so he picked out a set for her all on his own! She loved it!! :-)
After a long time of opening LOTS of presents (yes, my daughter is spoiled! ;-) ), it was time for cake and ice cream. She was SO excited about her Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake. :-)
The big gift we gave her was my old doll house. It is a doll house that my Grandpa built and my Grandma decorated for me when I was younger. Samantha has started to enjoy playing with other people's doll house, so I decided it was a good time to fix it up and pass it down to her. After it got a fresh coat of paint and a few repairs, it was ready for me to to give to her. She has played with it almost every day since! :-) I hope it brings her as many good memories and it did me. :-)
My daughter was truly blessed with great family to celebrate with. Thank you to all of you that came to help us celebrate the little Princess' 3rd birthday! :-)

Disney World Here We Come!! 4/8/11

Several months ago Marc found out that he is going to Orlando in June for a 2 1/2 day conference. So, we thought, why not turn it into a vacation and do Disney World slowly and relaxingly? So, Marc and I have had the trip booked and planned for several months now. It has been killing us keeping it a secret from the kids. But we found out once....don't tell the kids too early otherwise you will be nagged forever!!! We decided to tell them around Samantha's birthday since that would be almost 2 months before we leave. We will leave the day after Marc gets out of school. We are doing 2 days at Universal so we can see the Harry Potter World, Marc has his conference for 2 1/2 days, and then we will have 9 days in Disney World. So excited!!!

If you know us at all, we have to tell the kids in a cute way. ;-) We put things in a box and gave them the box on Friday.The first thing on the top of the box was a paper count down chain. We did this before we went to Disney World when Marc was almost 3 and it was a nice visual for him to know how much longer until we left. Each link has the date written on it as well as the number of days left. Seeing that made Marc guess that we were taking a trip of some kind.......
Next thing were custom-wrapped Hershey bars.........
They had to unwrap (carefully) the wrapper to find a boarding pass (kinda like the golden ticket)........
That's when Marc finally figured out that we were going to Disney World!! My Mom had just been there a few weeks earlier so she brought back maps for each park. We figured we would let Marc read a book about all the rides/sows/attractions and mark on the map the things e wants to do.
We are SO excited for this vacation! We have had several things happen in our families/lives in the last few months. We are SO ready to go on vacation to rest, relax, forget the bad stuff, and spend some quality time as a family! :-)

Oh Me, Oh My, She's 3!!! 4/7/11

Three years ago we were blessed with our precious little Princess! She certainly has brought a lot of joy into our lives! I have had fun turning her into a girlie-girl! :-)

We took Samantha to Logan's for dinner on her birthday. Any time we are there and it is some one's birthday, she loves giving them the birthday yee-haw! So we figured, what better place to take her, so she could be the one getting all the yee-haws.
Of course she had to have her favorite food, mac & cheese!!! Anytime we are home and I give her the option to pick what it for lunch, she always chooses mac & cheese.I think she could eat it every day! ;-)
The table we were at was kind of off in the corner (smart waitress! ;-) ), so when it was time to do the birthday yee-haws, she took us into the main dining area and had Samantha stand on the fireplace in front of everyone. While she was up there, she didn't look like she was too excited about the idea, but when I was putting her to bed that night, she said "Mama,I stand on fireplace and they say yee-haw to me!"
When we got home after dinner we gave her a few presents to open. She made short work of unwrapping them. :-)
I think she had a good birthday and is looking forward to her Strawberry Shortcake arty on Saturday. :-)

Spring Break 4/4-4/6/11

Well, it's spring break time! We are already to have some time to rest, relax, and have some fun. My father-in-law is going to be here most of the spring break time. The kids are very anxious for him to be here, so I decided Monday was a day to keep them busy so they don't nag me. ;-)

The first thing on the agenda was making monkey bread. I LOVE monkey bread, but don't usually make it (it has been forever since I have made it!). I will be making it for my class when we talk about the zoo, so I figured this was a good refresher, and tasty, for me. The kids rolled the pieces in the cinnamon and sugar and put it in the pan. I poured the hot, melted butter on top and baked it. The kids were pretty proud of their tasty creation! :-)Next came arts and crafts time. A few weeks before, I was at Hobby Lobby and saw that their Easter foam craft kits were 50% off so I grabbed a couple of them. First they made crosses. The crosses are hanging on most of our kitchen cabinets and taped to many of our windows as well.
The other kit I got was Easter eggs. There were various shapes and decorations for the kids to stick on the eggs. Think they had fun???? The eggs wrapped all the way around my kitchen counter! :-)
Tuesday we went to the airport and picked up my father-in-law.
Wednesday we headed over to the Chicago area. Marc wanted to go to IKEA, so we added a trip to Legoland since it was only a few minutes for IKEA. Our hotel package included 4 passes to Legoland. There were 5 people in our group. We were going to go to Legoland on Thursday (Samantha's 3rd birthday), but under 3 is free, so we went on Wednesday instead. ;-) Some of the things they built out of Legos are amazing!! To see more pictures, head over to our pictures website to see them. But here are a few of the kids.
There is a 4-D Bob the Builder show. It was Samantha's first 4-D show (at least since she has been old enough to care). We were sure how she would react to things coming out of the screen at her and being squirted with water. She loved it!! She was say "oh, no!' when Lego towers fell over and "into" the audience and grabbing for things. (Great sign for our trip to Disney World this summer!) Marc, as always, loves the 4-D shows. Even though this show was a lot basic for him, he still enjoyed it. :-)
There is also a replica of a Lego factory that we can "tour". We are in a room with replicas of all the machines for each process. For each process, a child volunteer got to come up and push the button to show how that part of the process works. Marc pushed the button for the second step.
On the last step, the tour guide told all the kids who had not already helped push a button to come up and push the last button all together.
Another section of Legoland is a room for building your own creations. Unfortunately, you have to leave them there. :-( But,on the bright side, there was even a small Princess room!!!! Samantha and I got to build a Princess castle! :-)
Marc built a car. There are 3 different ramps in the room for the kids to race their car creations down. He had fun racing some of the other kids and their cars. His car held u pretty well through several crashes. :-)
We had lunch, ran to Costco to buy me a new book, went to IKEA, and had dinner. After that long day, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep. Thursday morning we woke up, sang Happy Birthday to Samantha and started our drive back home. My geeky husband had to stop at a store called Fry's on the way home. It is a HUGE electronics store, so big it even has a cafe in the middle! I told him we could go on one condition......he buy me lots of new sticky notes. ;-) If you know me, you know I love my sticky notes. ;-) So, we made it home in time to take Samantha out for her birthday dinner to "the peanut place", otherwise known as Logan's. (See next post for more on that)

Misc. March Cuteness

Time for my monthly cuteness recap! :-)

One of my students also lives in our neighborhood. Her Mom had a new baby. When she had her we were all sick in our house. It was killing me to not be able to hold the new baby. So, when I was healthy again, we walked over to their house and let Samantha and Brie play while I held baby Emma. After I had been holding Emma for a little while, Samantha looks at me and says, "Mama, I hold baby now". So, she sat on the couch and held baby Emma while I supported her head. She wanted to sit there all day an hold her! :-)
Every Thursday I take Samantha to a play group called Little Tykes at the elementary school. Well, one of those Thursdays happened to be my Mom's birthday, so she came up and played with us and then we took her out to lunch. Samantha asked Grandma to help her paint her kite. Every time Grandma painted a part of it, Samantha came and painted over it. silly!
After several crafts, a snack, and some play time, it was time for circle time. Samantha got to pick one of the songs to sing. She chose "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".


I was playing a game called "Suma" (a facebook game). The object of the game is to shoot colored balls at more of the same color moving balls to make them disappear. Marc asked me if he could play it. He actually did a really good job of keeping up with the game.


We went over to my Grandma's house to celebrate my Mom's birthday. The kids love helping to blow out birthday candles.
I love how cute this picture of my and my Mom turned out. :-)

After we got done celebrating my Mom's birthday, my Aunt Sari, Uncle Gary, cousin Susanne, and her daughter Kate arrived. The kids had fun playing together while us adults enjoyed catching up.
Great Grandma and her 3 great grand children. :-)


As you know, I have an obsession with hair things for Samantha. I started out making bows. I have also started making headbands too. Samantha has enough of them that I was having trouble keeping them organized. A friend of mine gave me an idea for a holder. So, Samantha and I made a headband holder together.


Marc had a "wear a new word to school" day. Daddy decided that "Gregarious" would be a good word for him to learn. It means, 'fond of being in the company of others, or sociable'. Think if fits my son? ;-)


We went over to my Mom's house to celebrate my Grandma's birthday. Once again, the kids got to help blow out some birthday candles.
Each of the kids made Great Grandma a gift.


Samantha got a bath time baby for Christmas last year. She didn't really get into for it awhile. I decided to get it back out the other day. She LOVED giving the baby a bath. I ha to give her some of the soap so she could wash the baby.
Shampoo head!!!


My Mom went to Disney World about a month ago. She brought back t-shirts for the kids. She also brought back a bundle of Mickey Mouse suckers for them. Think they couldn't wait to eat them?! ;-)
I have heard from a lot of people that a game called "Angry Birds" was a really fun game. It is only available for iPads and iPhones. We do not have either of those. My Mom has an iPad so we tried the game on it. I think I might be glad that we don't have one, we would be playing it all the time!


The week before spring break, Marc had spirit week at school. He had to wear certain clothes each day of the week.

On Monday: black or white day

On Tuesday: twin day but he didn't have a twin. :-(
On Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday

On Thursday: Nerd Day

On Friday: School Spirit Day

Samantha is turning into quite the little book worm, just like her brother! :-)
One night Samantha was building with her Potato Heads. She built this one, came over to us and said, "Look, it Bumpa!" (Bumpa is my father-in-law). Little does she know, it actually does bear a resemblance to him! ;-)

Well, I hope you have enjoyed looking at my pictures of March cuteness as much as I did living them. :-)

Church Family Game Night 3/19/11

Every year our church does a family sledding day. We have never done that because we don't like to be cold. ;-) The date the sledding party was scheduled for ended up being a day not long after a warm weather spell, so there wasn't enough snow to sled on. So, instead, they had a family game night. Now that is something we could get into!! ;-) It was held at the Suite (a multi-purpose room we have). As soon as we walked in (first time we had been there), Marc saw the pool table and asked Daddy to help him play pool.And of course, Samantha had to get in on the action too.
The highlight of the night for the kids was the ice cream sundae bar. Everyone had to bring their favorite ice cream topping. The kids (and us too) made some yummy looking sundaes!
We played some games, met some new people, chatted with some people we already knew. Pastor Ron had to leave early due to a child not feeling well. Before he left, Samantha insisted on giving him a hug good-bye. :-)
We have found our new family game night favorite!! Someone brought a game called Flippin' Frogs. Talk about an addicting game. It is one of the simplest games I have seen, easy enough that even Samantha can play, yet you can play with strategy which makes it fun for the "older" crowd too. It has been put on Marc's Christmas list already. ;-)
Our church sponsors a child through Compassion International. Every week Marc puts $1 of his allowance into an offering can to go to Alessandro. As we left game night, each child/family wrote Alessandro a letter. What a great outreach!
It was another family, fun filled night! :-)