Hello November

Well, November is quickly turning into December. Where have I been?? Just busy with life and lots going on keeping me on my toes. I will recap these past several weeks for posterity since I do enjoy looking back over the years and see what I did the previous year. I know Halloween was so long ago but I want it in my blog for memory's sake. :)

Sammie was Ariel, the Little Mermaid. She LOVED that red wig! I tried to tell her that people pay a lot of money to have blonde hair like she has but she loves that red hair. ( She's gonna be that teenager that dies her hair jet black!!!) LOL!

Anyway, I dressed up with my Kindergarten team as Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. I was Papa Bear. We had a fun Halloween. I was able to watch Sammie's Kindergarten parade, and visit her class party too. We went trick or treating in the neighborhood and after each house she said.. "That went well!" I was cracking up!

She loves Kindergarten so much and had anxiously awaited her turn to be "Special Helper". They choose a name from a basket every day and she was 2nd to the last one to be chosen so she was thrilled when she finally got her turn to bring home the purple share bag. She already knew what she wanted to bring to show her friends. A pink pony!

Special helper gets to sit in the front with the teacher and lead the class on the calendar. She loved doing that of course. I am really proud of her hard work in school. She is just beginning to read and it is so exciting!! She is sounding out everything she can!

Her artwork is very cute too. Here is the art piece she made for the PTA Reflections contest. The theme is "Beauty Is" and she did this entire project by herself. The title is "Beauty Is a Horse and Carriage".

And another "masterpiece" painted at Pretend City. Which is a great place for kids! I really recommend it! We went there a few weeks ago and she loved it. :)

We had our last soccer game today and have had a lot of fun this season. The Fireballs was a great team. We won every game except one. Sammie scored 5 goals this season. She really enjoys playing and cheering on the team. Her favorite position is goalie! ( I am not too thrilled because I am afraid of a ball hitting her in the head but some of our players are so good that they really keep that ball away from the goal. )

Well, this is getting pretty long so I will wrap it up with a scrapbook page that Sammie and I did together to give to our Pony Club leader as a thank you.

Tomorrow we are filming a small video for Pony Club. Sammie is going to be in it with a bunch of other girls. Some will be riding, some grooming and brushing, etc. Sammie is going to be interviewed on camera to share about her experiences with the club. She loves it as long as she can be with the horses. That picture at the top is Patches. She is a pony that will also star in the movie. At the last meeting we had, an Equine vet came to talk to the kids about horse health and they got to listen to the horse's heartbeat. That was very cool!


Well, I will try to be back sooner next time. Thanks for stopping by to catch up on my life. :) Happy Thanksgiving in case I am not back soon!

A Good Week!

We had a good week. Sammie LOVES kindergarten and is doing well. She got to visit the Principal on Tuesday for good behavior. Although, Wednesday morning, she woke up crying and said to me, "Mom, I don't want to go to college, I just want to be a horse rider." (we had a previous conversation about what college is) I chuckled and said to her, "Let's get through Kindergarten first and then worry about college!" Anyway, we are very proud of her for going to see Mrs. Howland, the Principal.
She ran in the jog-a-thon on Friday and had a blast. She raised a lot of money for the school. She loves her teacher and told me that kindergarten is the BEST!

Today was a busy day. We went to volunteer for the Pony Club at the pumpkin patch fundraiser. Most of the club members were working in the food booth, bounce house, and petting zoo. What a perfect surprise that we got to work at the pony ride booth! It was a very hot day but it was great because "someone" got to have a few pony rides as a bonus for helping collect tickets. Oh, and a horse ride too.

After our shift at the pumpkin patch we headed home for a quick lunch, rest, and then got ready for Sammie's soccer game. She started out playing goalie which she really enjoys and then the next quarter she played and scored a goal. She was so excited and so was I because I missed the last two she scored so this was goal number 3 for Sammie and I finally got to see it! Of course, the batteries died in the camera right as Brad was capturing the goal shot, but we quickly changed them and we got this picture of her so proud of herself!!

Just wanted to share what Sammie made in Kindergarten this week. She named it Sally which I thought was a very cute name for a witch.

Hello October!

October hasn't started out so well but it is getting better. When we got home from Las Vegas, Sammie got sick with a fever and ear infection and missed the rest of the week of school. That was a big bummer. She stayed in her jammies for a few days. ( We got these at the Gymboree outlet on the way home from LV) They glow in the dark too. :)

I wanted to share a few of the projects from IU. We made some fantastic mini books and layouts as I mentioned in my previous post. I am very excited because I really admire Layle Koncar. She is a sweet person, a very talented scrapbooker and has been a teacher at IU for the past two years. If you saw my previous post, I have pics with all of the instructors from this year. When I asked Layle to take a picture with me, she also handed her camera over and said, "take one with my camera" too. Well, I was reading her blog and there is our photo on there. I am so honored to be on her blog. She is so cool!
Here is the project we made in her class. I haven't finished it yet but you can see the beginning of it.



This is a Friendship album we made in Teresa's class. It is very elegant, Teresa style, with lots of bling and fun pages. We learned how to make tissue paper flowers to hang on the binding of the book.
Look at these fun layouts we made with Janna. I am going to put some pics on them soon, and journal some of the "Sammie-isms" that I hear regularly!

Also, there is a new challenge on the Scrap it forward blog. This month we are focusing on Breast Cancer Awareness. Hop over to the blog and participate in the simple challenges and you might be the winner of some fun pink prizes!!!

After 2 trips to the doctor, lots of tylenol and motrin, and antibiotics, Sammie is feeling better. Well, she isn't loving the "do all the work you missed while you were gone at "mommy school". Yes, that is handy that I am teaching Kindergarten right next door to her class and know exactly the work she missed, however, it doesn't really matter in Sammie's world, I just don't do it the way her teacher does. Nope, not even after teaching kindergarten for 12 years. (LOL!)

On Saturday she played a soccer game and then we went to LA for my cousin's Bar Mitzvah.
The cute little boy is Cole, another cousin who Sammie had so much fun with. He is adorable and 3 years old.

On Sunday we went to see the Toy Story 1 & 2 double feature. We really enjoyed both movies. I saw them long ago and even though we have both on DVD, I haven't seen them in a while. I realized how clever they really are and found myself laughing at several "adult intended" jokes. The movies were in 3D so that was cool. We are excited to see Toy Story 3 when it comes out in June.

Today was just "one of those days" where things didn't go so well. I started to take Sammie to school and my A/C wasn't working in my car. ( Although I am thankful that the weather is cooler and it didn't happen when I was in warmer temperatures in Las Vegas.) It just made for a trip to the car dealership to get it fixed.

Then the phone headset I use for my cordless telephone was shorting out so I conveniently took out the file folder with the extended warranty I purchased, and realized it was now expired (of course) so I went to the store to buy a new one. When I got home, I realized I never got my receipt showing the new headset and that I paid for the new product protection plan. I called the store and they told me to come down and get a new one, which I did. Later on tonight, I found the original receipt in my wallet, which was there all along. Grrrr...

Yep, just one of those days. The rest of the month will be better!! :)

Inspired!

We had such a great time at Inspiration Unlimited! What an amazing event with so much detail and hard work by the teachers and Ginger who is an incredible hostess!! The classes were awesome and I learned some new techniques too. We had workshops taught by Teresa Collins, Layle Koncar, Janna Wilson, Stephanie Ackerman, and Tammy Mitchell.



Christine, Jennifer and I all won some fabulous prizes. Christine won a Teresa Collins bag filled with goodies, a pack with Hambly, a tin, some trim, rubons and a scor-pal board. Jennifer won a Scarlet Lime Kit, a Quickutz squeeze tool and other fun goodies. I won a mini clip it up, an album kit, Maya road felt buttons, chipboard and also a monthly kit from Piggy Tales.
The "prize patrol" walks around a few times each day and gives out little goodies bundled together like Thickers, buttons, rubons, bling, flowers, chipboard shapes, etc..

I even "got lucky" on my favorite Deuce machine!

Sammie had a great time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. They took her swimming, and to a magic show. She got to go up on stage with the magician and help him do tricks. She got her own magic wand and has been practicing her tricks. On Sunday we all went to an ice cream social at a Discovery Park. She had a blast. It was very hot so I let her run through the splash park with her clothes on and she got soaked! ( we brought extra clothes to change)

This is the Meadow Gold dairy cow mascot. They were giving away free ice cream treats all day. ( as many as the kids wanted /or parents permitted! ) LOL!

This is Sammie's Halloween costume this year, her favorite princess, Ariel.
She made up her own princess show for me with costume changes and singing and dancing to the Disney princess songs such as "Under the sea", "Someday my Prince will come", "Be our Guest", etc. She loves Snow White, Belle, and Cinderella as well.
Well, that's all for today. I will post some pics soon of the projects we made at IU. I didn't get them all finished but got a good start! I hope to work on them soon and get them all completed.
Sammie has been sick so we are home resting and lounging around. Hope she is better soon, we have a busy weekend planned. Have a happy Wednesday!

And We're Off

On my way to Inspiration Unlimited!! I can't wait for this awesome event! Be back soon with all the details and hopefully some pics!!!
YIPPEEEEEE

Scrappy, Soccer, Princesses and Ponies!

I haven't posted any scrappy projects in a while so here are a few of my recent scrapbook pages.

Here are some pics from Saturday's soccer game. Sammie played really well and her team played well together. Their team is the Fireballs and they won again! YEA! (They don't keep score but all the parents do!) LOL!

After soccer we had a pony club meeting and learned about safety when riding. The girls played some games and Sammie went shopping in the pony store. She also enjoyed the "jumpoline".

We went to a princess pony birthday party at "Joey's house" on Sunday. Sammie's friend, Hayley, is Victoria's niece. Victoria is Sammie's horse trainer and the girls have been friends since preschool and are in Kindergarten together. Joey lives at Hayley's Grandma's house and we have been there several times to take Joey on a trail ride. They also have a Welsh pony named Flicka who was the Princess Pony of the day.

They have a beautiful backyard with some fun swings. The girls had a blast on the swing.

They played some games. This game was the "princess ball" and they had to dance. I loved this shot of the princesses twirling around on the grass.

Well, that's all for today. Sammie wants to do a "show" for me right now and has all of her "audience" waiting. ( That would be a bed full of stuffed animal horses propped up watching) I must go watch the Princess Show now. Be back soon. Only 4 days until Inspiration Unlimited! Woooo hooo!! I am so excited!

Dear Tooth Fairy

"I swallowed my tooth while I was eating my breakfast. It got stuck in my toast. I was sad when I swallowed it so Alyssa, can you give me a prize still? I promise next time Alyssa, I won't swallow my tooth. I love you. You are my favorite tooth fairy."

Love,

Sammie

Dear Sammie,
I am sorry you swallowed your tooth. Don't worry, it is okay. You are a very sweet girl. I love your notes to me. Thanks!
I love you too,
Alyssa the tooth fairy.

We wrote that letter to Alyssa in her "tooth fairy notebook" explaining why she didn't have her tooth to put in her pillow. Poor Sammie. That tooth was special. She named it "Joey" after her favorite horse that she rides. She wanted to show it to him. Well, the tooth fairy came and left the note above, another "golden dollar", and sprinkled the usual glitter in her window and on her nightstand. The tooth fairy is going to get her a little tooth fairy doll that will come in the mail. Wink. Wink. By the way, Sammie named the tooth fairy Alyssa which is funny because it is sort of close to her real name. Tee hee hee

Speaking of fairies, we went to Disneyland after kindergarten on Monday and visited Pixie Hollow. She had fun meeting Tinkerbell and posing like her.

In other news, Sammie had her first soccer game of the season on Saturday and scored 2 goals. She scored the first goal of the game. She was beyond thrilled and of course we didn't have batteries in the camera to record that moment. OOPS! There's always next time! What a big difference from last year to now. She is the oldest girl on her team and plays with a great group of kids. She finally "gets it" and goes right after the ball. It is fun to watch her play and see the excitement.

I have been super busy with work. We had back to school night the first week back on top of an already exhausting week of teaching Kindergarten!! It has been an adjustment for Sammie too.
I picked her up from daycare early on Friday and brought her to my classroom. She slept on the floor ( on a blanket) for 2.5 hours!

I came home one afternoon and received a special package from Kristin that totally made my day! Thank you Kristin! She sent me a wonderful box of scrappy goodies including the Fiskars stamp factory, a bunch of acrylic school stamps, Maya Road month tags, chipboard, and even some sweet surprises for Sammie. I met her online and she is a sweetheart! She has a craft blog with awesome challenges so check it out!

Speaking of awesome challenges and awesome craft blogs, check out scrap it forward for this month's fun challenge. It's angelic!