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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Day 13; 6/4/09

We slept in this morning, finished packing, and hit the road about 12:30. We drove to St. Loius, MO for the night and the next day. By the time we got there it was late, we were tired and hungry so we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe since it was right next to our hotel. The food was good, but expensive.

Day 12; 6/3/09

We didn't do a whole lot today. We did laundry and went to say good-bye to a few people. My father-in-law is suggested we go to McDonald's for some ice cream and to let Marc burn off some energy in the play area....so we did. We have a picture of Marc when he is 10 months old sitting in Ronald's lap, so we had to get the same picture of Samantha. Bumpa is kind of the king of Mickey D's in Fort Smith. He takes his local grand kids to MCD every Saturday. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Day 11; 6/2/09

We spent today exploring downtown Fort Smith. Back "in the old days" the mode of transportation was trolleys. The city of Fort Smith found and refurbished some of the old trolleys and people can now ride them and get a short tour of part of downtown.
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.We were the only ones on the trolley so Marc got to go up and ring the trolley bell. On this trolley, the bell was rung by stepping on a button on the floor.After our trolley ride we went over to the National Historic site to finish looking at the stuff outside. Marc thought the old cannon looked cool.There were parts of the original fort still on the grounds of the site. Marc thought it was cool that he was standing in part of the old fort.After walking around (and in Marc's case, running around) in the high 80's for an hour we decided it was time for a cool drink. We went across the street to an old fashion soda fountain. Marc watched the soda jerk make his root beer "from scratch".After a nap and dinner, we went over to Melisa & Paul's house for some fun. Marc and Parker had an all-out pillow fight. It was a blast to watch!We enjoyed spending the evening with Melisa & Paul and Marc had fun playing with his cousins. :)