Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles!

We bought a "Gazillion Bubbles" machine a few weekends ago. Samantha loves telling the bubbles to "hom on". Marc doesn't want to blow them for her because he likes to chase them too. So, who ends up blowing all the bubbles you ask? You guesses it...ME! :) Well, I like this machine because it has a motor in it and it blows the bubbles on its own! :-)
It's also a good way to wear the kiddos out at night. ;-)

A couple of weeks later Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Keith came for a weekend visit. Of course, the kiddos took them outside. The bubble machine made another appearance and all 4 of the "kids" had fun chasing and popping the bubbles.

Singing at Assembly 5/3/10

All of the classes at Marc's school rotate "leading" assembly. The kindergartners usually sing a song about the moral of the month. Below is the video of them singing. (It is very quiet so you will need to turn your volume up loud to hear it)

Happy Mother's Day 2010 - 5/9/10

We celebrated Mother's day very differently this year. We normally have my Mom and Grandma come to church with us and then come to our house and Marc cooks us all lunch. Well, this year Saturday night Samantha came down with a fever. My Mom was leaving that next day for a week traveling for work and Grandma had just had a tooth pulled so we all decided that it would be a better idea to postpone our celebration to make sure no one else got sick. We think all it turned out to be was her working on her 2-year molars. But, better safe than sorry.
I was scheduled to work in the 2-3 year old Sunday school room that day, so Peanut and I went to church while Daddy stayed home with Samantha.
I wanted to make sure Samantha had food in her tummy and since she wasn't feeling fantastic, I made mac & cheese for her. Real exciting Mother's Day lunch, huh?! ;-)
Since we were staying home, just us, we played and spent quality time together as a family.
Marc got creative and made an obstacle course for him to shoot his Nerf gun in.A few days before we had gone to the Meijer Outlet (for those of you who are not familiar with this place, it is Meijer's "discount" store). We found lots of fun toys/activities for a low price. Since we were home, we took advantage of most of them on Mother's Day.
One of the things we bought was a Twister game. He told us that he was getting tired of having to stand in the same position for so long. We played 1 round and then quit. Not sure it is his favorite game. ;-)
My other little boy found (at the Meijer Outlet) these magnetic, battling, top thingys. You started your top spinning and you controlled it with a magnet thing on your fingers and you want your top to spin longer then the other person's top. I don't totally understand how they work, but the boys had fun.
Most of you know that we are heading out to Disneyland this summer. While at the Meijer Outlet I found kits with those beads that fuse together when you iron them. The kits were of various Disney character. Each kit made the patter 2 times. I think we bought 5 different characters. Marc is making a Lightening McQueen in the picture below. We are turning them into necklaces for them to wear in Disneyland.
While Marc was making Lightening McQueen, Samantha "played" Go Fish. She loves pretending to play like a "big kid".
My present from Peanut was a beautiful flower pot that he painted at school. He even planted a flower in it for me. Must be his teacher doesn't know me very well, otherwise she would know that I have a black thumb and can't keep flowers alive. ;)
We were taking Sam's temperature off and on all day to see how she was doing. After her nap she decided that she needed to take it for herself.
As the day wound down, Marc climbed into the chair and read his book. :-)
For dinner Marc cooked me a yummy meal (the one that we were supposed to have with Mom & Grandma). We had grilled chicken sauteed in a teryaki sauce, cheesy potatoes, bread, and strawberries. YUM!
It was not the way I expected to spend Mother's Day but it was a nice, relaxing day with my wonderful family. :)

Some Fun in the Park 5/6/10

My friend Tracey and try to get together every month or so for lunch and some "girl talk" while our kiddos play together. This time we decided to meet at the park since it was a nice day.
Samantha loved the slide. She went up the steps, went down the slide, and then immediately went back to the steps to do it all again.......and again, and again, and again. You get the picture. ;)
Marc and Zach had almost as much fun sliding as Samantha did. ;-)
After several rounds of sliding they decided to go over to the swings for a while.
Samantha tried to ride the alligator.....
and then played music.
While the kiddos played, Tracey and I were able to chat and catch up. It had been awhile and a lot had happened so we enjoyed catching up. Tracey was Marc's 3-year-old preschool way back when. She left the preschool because her baby Zach was born 3 months early. Well, he has thrived enough that she can go back to work. Lucky for our preschool, we have an opening for a 3-year-old class teacher next year. So, she got the job. So we talked about that too. I am so excited to have her rejoin our staff.
All the playing at the park wore poor little Sam out.
Thanks for the fun afternoon Tracey!!

Fun Day at Craig's Crusiers - 4/30/10

We were having sporadic warm days of and on. During one of the warm days we decided to head to Craig's Cruisers for a round of mini golf, among other things. Samantha was fun to watch while she "explored" the golf club.
After she inspected the club she "helped" each of us putt our ball.
Marc did pretty good at trying to aim for the hole.
He did well until we ran into an additional obstacle on each hole. That obstacles name was.........
SAMANTHA!
She had so much fun chasing the ball, picking it up and dropping it in the hole. Other times she would grab the ball out of the hole as SOON as it went in.
She was so proud of all the balls she "found". ;-)
Marc enjoyed climbing on the real obstacles.
While we were waiting for a group in front of us, we took advantage of the pretty little water fall and took a picture.....imagine that! ;-)
After a round of mini golf we went inside for some more fun. Marc rode in the 2 person go-kart with Daddy while Sam and I watched. He really wanted to drive one himself, but he wasn't quite tall enough.
After the go-karts Marc decided he wanted to try the ropes course. So Marc and I headed up to where it was. We got all harnessed up and I help him get started. He gets about 2 steps in and tells me he doesn't want to do it. He was scared. So, of course, I told him that that was fine and that he didn't have to do it. He told me he still wanted me to do it so he could watch. Daddy was down on the floor and took pictures, but they were too dark to see what they were. I got across and back. I have to admit......it's harder than it looks!
It was a super-fun afternoon!

Family Pictures

About 2 months ago I heard about a local photographer that for $50, met you in a location you choose for about an hour and she gives you the disc! This is UNHEARD of!! So, I sent her an e-mail to set up a time to get pictures taken. We met her in downtown Rockford. We spent about 1 1/2 hours with her. She took about 170 pictures!! Three days later we got 3 discs full of pictures in the mail. Now all we have top do figure out which ones we want! They turned out FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!
Here is just a sneak peek, the rest of them can be viewed on our pictures website at pictures.stoufer.com.
We liked the pictures, and price, so much that we are meeting her next month for a photo shoot with us and Mom, Grandma, and Jeff. I am excited to see how those turn out too! :)

Oh My......She's 2!!!!

Well, it finally happened......my little girl turned 2! Sometimes it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating her birth,other times it seems like she has been around forever. :) For her birthday, we had my Mom, my Grandma, and my brother Jeff over for lunch after church. It was a nice, small, intimate celebration. :)We had a yummy lunch and then an even yummier cake. ;)

When it came time for Samantha to blow out her birthday candles, her brother helped her. :)

After blowing out the candles it was time to dig in! We were wondering what she would do this year with a piece of cake sitting in from of her. She normally just grabs at her food and eats like there is no tomorrow. ;) This time she was very delicate about it. We think she didn't like the feeling of the frosting on her hands. Every time she got some on her she put the cake down. She probably, in the end, ate about 1/4 of her piece.


Marc encouraged her to take the cars of the cake and lick the frosting off....silly Daddy! ;)

As soon as she was done with the cars, she stuck her finger directly into the cake before we even cut into it.
She was very delicate and dainty about eating her cake.
Every time she picked up her cake and got some frosting on her fingers, she put the cake down and tried to clean her hands.
She got frosting and cake all over her face and the front of her dress. So, gee darn, we had to take her out of her cute new dress to change her into her new Birthday Girl shirt. ;)
When Samantha started opening her first present (delivered by the cutest delivery boy ever) she was having some trouble getting the paper started. Her big brother came to her rescue and helped her. He didn't have to help her for long, she quickly got the hang of unwrapping presents.
When I was growing up I received figurines for each year on my birthday and I wanted to continue this tradition with Samantha. She got her 2-year-old Precious Moments figurine for her birthday from us.
Marc got her a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse pizza learning set. She doesn't care much about the "learning" part as much as the "peetee" part. :)
While Samantha is at Michelle's house (the babysitter), she loves putting on the dress up clothes so I put dress up clothes on her list. Uncle Jeff bought her this chef's apron and oven mitt set.
My Grandma, who thought she was pretty funny (insert sarcasm) bought Samantha a percussion instruments set. Surprisingly enough, they are still up here in the living room. They will eventually make it down stairs where they won't sound as loud. ;)
Every little girls needs some cute summer dress to wear. She got some clothes...and like most kids, she didn't really care all that much about them. ;) She wanted to get to more toys.
We got Samantha an Elmo that sings the alphabet song. When Marc showed her where to press him and Elmo started to sing, Samantha started to dance. She LOVES making Elmo sing, even if he hasn't finished the song yet. ;)
I wanted some good lacing beads for Samantha. the beads we have already are wooden beads that aren't sanded very well inside so the string always get caught and she has a hard time getting the string though. While out shopping with my Mom, we found these alphabet shaped beads that had a big plastic "needle" to put through the beads.
My Mom got Samantha these cupcakes that the color frosting is interchangeable and there are decorating markers to use to decorate the frosting. (In this picture you can see a few of the other things she got)
We got Samantha her first pair of dress-up shoes. She has a little trouble walking in the. She has mastered walking in the one at a time, but not both at the same time yet. ;)
Samantha got some fun stickers for her birthday. She LOVES pulling the stickers of the sheet and putting them on paper. Sometimes she pulls them off the papers and does various things with them for double the fun. ;)
Samantha thought that Great Grandma needed more cake. ;)
It was a very fun afternoon celebrating my Princess' 2nd birthday with my family. :) Thank you to all that came. :)

**I am trying to upload a couple of videos but I am having trouble with them. When i get it figured out, I will post them.**