Trip to IL Day 2: 9/4/10

This morning the kid woke up on Michigan time. They are used to waking up about 7:00 MI time, so that means they were awake at 6:00am this morning. ugh! :-( Our plans for the day had us leaving the hotel about 9:30, so we had some time to kill in the hotel room.
Marc spent some of his time playing on his DS some more (he has really gotten attached to it this weekend).When I was curling my hair this morning Samantha came over and said, "Mama, Sam too?" and mimicked curling her hair. I thought since we had time, and she was interested, I curled her hair for the first time. It turns out that her hair is so fine that the curl doesn't hold. It probably held, a little, for about 2 hours and then it went back to normal. Very fun and "girly" though! ;-)
Well, 9:30 finally came and it was time for us to head north to WI. Of course, since we were in WI, the land of cheese, we had to stop at the Mars Cheese Castle. Yum.....cheese! :-)
We then headed off to the free Jelly Belly factory tour. How can someone who loves sweets as much as I do pass up the chance to drive 15 minutes from the hotel go through on a cute little train and learn how they make the yummy little pieces of heaven?! ;-) To top it all off, they gave us each a small sample variety pack...for free!! ;-) Outside of the building there were 2 Jelly Belly VW Bugs painted all over with Jelly Bellys. Too cute of an opportunity to pass up and not get pictures of the kids.
One half of the building was the tour entrance and the other half was the store. While we waited for my cousin Susanne and her 2-year-old daughter Kate to get there we went into the shop to look around. To our happy surprise, they have what they called the "Sample Bar". This is where they have containers of everything the sell that you can request a taste of. I can only assume that it is there for 2 reasons. 1) To let you try something you are thinking about buying (we did that), and 2) To give you a taste of something yummy to try and convince you to buy something else that wasn't in your plan (we were going to do this and then forgot to buy them. ;-) )
After Susanne and Kate arrived we walked over to the tour side of the building to get in line for the next tour. We dressed the girls (whose birthdays are 11 days apart) as twins. All 3 kids loved the giant stuffed Jelly Belly.
Since the tour takes place in a building where food is manufactured, everyone had to wear a cute little paper hat. The kids looked the cutest in them so I took a picture.
or 2.
or 3. ;-)
After the tour, and LOTS of shopping, we headed to lunch and then to the hotel for a nap, the kids, not us. ;) Well, maybe me too. ;-)
After nap we headed over to my Aunt Sari & Uncle Gary's (Susanne's parents) house for some family time. Of course, when we hardly ever see each other, gift are usually exchanged when we do see each other. ;-)
Marc got a new shirt and 2 new DS games from Grandma Terri and a cool volcano set from Great Aunt Sari, Great Uncle Gary and Susanne.
Samantha got a cute outfit and a neat snap-on dress up doll from Grandma Terri and 2 new dressed from Great Aunt Sari, Great Uncle Gary, and Susanne.
After some chit chat, some gifts, and a little inside play time, all the kids, big & small headed outside to play.
and pose for pictures of course! ;-) My Aunt has a beautiful garden and my Uncle built a nice gazebo (more commonly called the gazebo for h*ll) which made for nice pictures.
and there was a cool 3 trunked tree that made for cool pictures too.
My Aunt has this grape arbor that had tons of grapes growing on it. She said they were too sour to eat this summer anyway, so the girls enjoyed picking them, squishing them, and then throwing them on the ground for critters to eat later.
Then they found the bird bath. And boy, did they have a blast splashing around in the water!
Then it was time to get cleaned up for dinner. They made yummy hot dogs/hamburgers, fruit salad, and corn on the cob. All the kids wanted to eat outside in the gazebo. After us parents got the kids'; food ready, we went back in t get our own. When we looked out, my Uncle was the only "adult" sitting at the table with the kids.
Apparently the dinner food (and desserts) gave all 3 kids more energy. They spent time running over energy in the back yard. We managed to snag a few cute pictures of them by the tree.
The girls definitely had fun playing together. They look at each others pictures/videos on the computer all the time so it was fun to see them actually playing together. They gave each other a very sweet good-bye hug.....
and then of course they had to give each other knuckles too.
And to top off the evening, there was a fun, big group hug!
I think the day of food, family, and fun wore my little kiddos out!
It was great to see Susanne and Kate! We haven't seen them since the girls were 9 months old...and they will be 2 1/2 years old in October!
Thanks for letting us crash your weekend Oostas! :-)

Trip to IL Day 1: 9/3/10

My cousin, Susanne and her daughter Kate live in NM. they flew up to visit her parents in IL for a couple of weeks. We decided we wanted to see them so we invited ourselves over. ;-)

The kids did a good job of keeping themselves occupied (for the most part) on the 4 1/2 hour trip over there.We headed to the outlet mall after we checked into the hotel. We were hoping to find a few good deals on just a few more school "essentials" at a good price. We did!! and maybe then some! ;-)

On our way to one of the store we were heading to we ran across a slot car race place. It cost $4 for a 5 minute race. All 3 boys raced while Samantha watched on, wanting to do it herself (but you had to be 3 years old or older to do it).
After some racing and some shopping we went and had dinner. We decided to splurge and have dinner at Rain Forrest Cafe. Samantha loved the fact that her chicken nuggets were shaped like dinosaurs.
Marc was really hungry, so he ate his grilled cheese very quickly!
Both kids loved all of the noise and movements of the animals. We were sitting somewhat close to an elephant. Every time the "storm" came through we could hear it trumpeting. Every time Samantha heard it, she copied the noise. I decided to video her doing it. As soon as I decided to video her she decided to eat. This video is not the best one she did, but it is still cute.

We bought Samantha a portable toddler cot a few weeks ago and were excited to test it out this weekend. As you can see in the picture below, she slept great!

We had fun on Day 1 in IL. We are looking forward to days 2, 3, and 4!

Playtime with Uncle Jeff 9/2/10

My brother, Jeff, absolutely adores my children. Whenever he comes over to this side of the state he comes up and spends an afternoon/evening with us, more the kids then Marc and I. ;-)

Marc has never really understood how to build with Legos using his imagination. Jeff grew up building with Legos. So, while Sam was asleep the boys built with Legos.The Legos had to get put away when hurricane Samantha got up. They pulled out the Mr Potato Heads when she got up.
While I was in the kitchen making dinner, Jeff kept the kids busy and out of my hair by playing Candyland with them both.
They also had a little silliness going on too. ;-)
Samantha wanted to show Uncle Jeff her new Princess dress she got for using the big girl potty so we out it on her. She then proceeded to dubb Uncle Jeff a Princess. ;-)
I thought Uncle Jeff needed a new profile picture for his Facebook page, so I took a new one. Gotta love the fact that both kids are wearing costumes. :-)
The kids always love it when Uncle Jeff comes up to play. They both adore him!! :-)

Yea!! She Did It!! 9/1/10

Back in February Samantha started showing interest in using the "big girl" potty. I thought, "Well, she's a little young, but if she is interested, I'm gonna go for it!". She did pretty good for being so young. She made lots of progress with going on the potty at first, but then her progress kinda stalled out. She would always go when I put her on the potty, she would sometimes ask to go to the potty and would go, but there were many times when she would just continue to go in her diaper. I wasn't quite sure what to do to make her ALWAYS go on the potty and not just sometimes.

After asking for some advice from other Mommies, we decided to try a treat bucket. I went to the Dollar Tree and bought about $5 worth of little trinkets. Every time she would go on the potty she got to pick out a treat. That seemed to make a difference!
Since Samantha started making a lot of good progress we decided we need a "big" reward for staying dry for a week. We were at Costco one day and we saw a Cinderella dress with wand and crown for $24, which is an awesome deal!! So we decided that it was meant to be to have that be Samantha's "big" reward.Well, we anxiously spent a week making sure Samantha stayed dry. In the beginning of the week I took her to the potty about every hour. I gradually spread the trips to the potty further apart. By the end of the week I was not asking/reminding her to go. I waited until she told me she needed to go. Still no accidents!! She made it! She went a whole week with only going potty i the big girl potty! So, she got her dress! This is the look on her face when she realized that she earned her Princess dress.....priceless!
Note to anyone else doing this.....take all the tags and stuff off before you try to reward your child with it. ;-) Samantha very patiently waited for me to get all the tags etc. off.
She got tired of waiting for me to get the wand and crown off so she started taking the dress off the hanger herself.
Then she tried to put it on by herself. This dress has like 3 layers of dress so she got herself all tangled up.....
So I helped her get her new dress on.
Samantha makes the most cute, beautiful, precious Princess ever!!
Still, Samantha is doing a GREAT job! Even through trips to the zoo, grocery store, and rides in the car to Chicago, she still has not had an accident. Now to figure out when i start having her wear underwear all the time. ;-) How brave am I? ;-)

We are SUPER proud of her and that she showed the interest and is potty trained before she is even 2 1/2 years old! :-)

First Day of 1st Grade!! 9/7/10

Well, after waiting most of the summer for school to start, it is finally here! My little man cried last night after admitting that he was scared and nervous about starting 1st grade. We talked to him about it and I think made him feel better. :-)

We woke him up this morning about an hour before we had to leave (which is what we did last year and I was always nagging hi to hurry up and get ready). I think he was excited about his first day of 1st grade because he was speeding through his routine. He was completely ready to go to school about 25 minutes early!! That is a record for him!! ;-)
Since he was ready early, that gave me lots of time to take pictures. ;-) He choose to wear a new outfit that Grandma Terri gave him. He looked super handsome!Of course, his sister had to give him a bye-bye hug. She LOVES her big brother!!
When it was time to leave we took a few pictures outside before climbing into the car. (Sorry for the bluriness, with the flash it was too dark and without the flash they are a little blurry.) My little man looks So grown up!!Marc with his his biggest little fan!! :-)
Since the parent drive and drop off their kids at Chandler Woods. for the first month the kids meet their teacher and other classmates outside in an assigned spot. Marc waited patiently, trying not to blow away, for everyone to get there so they could go inside. When we asked Marc what he was most excited about doing in 1st grade his answer was 2 recesses and lunch. Silly boy! ;-)
Off he goes, into the school for his first day of 1st grade!!
The whole school gathers in the gym first thing on the first day of school to go over rules and such. Here is Marc walking into his 1st assembly of 1st grade!
We were a little worried about how he would do this morning after the tears last night, but he seemed to do great!! Samantha pouted all the way home about not having Marc next to her. Samantha has, all morning, asked every 20 minutes or so where Marc-y is. She is playing SO sweetly by herself!! Very cute! It seems a little eerily odd to have the house be so quiet.

When I picked him up from school, we were stuck in our parking spot (lots of traffic) for about 20 minutes. He talked to me for the full 20 minutes!! I got to hear all about how excited he was to be in 1st grade and what he did today! :-)

When Daddy got home, we decided to let Marc choose where we went for dinner. He choose to go to Dam Dogs in downtown Rockford.After we ate our Dam Dogs we went next door to Custard by the Dam for some ice cream for Dessert.When we got home he was so excited (still!) about school that he called Grandma Terri to tell her all about his day.I am SO glad he enjoyed his first day of school!! Since then he has been excited to go back to school each day this week. I am thrilled that we have a child that truly enjoys learning new things! :-)