"Fursis Wheel"

Sammie calls it a "Fursis Wheel" but you know what she means. We had a great time at the Spectrum today. My parents were in town for the weekend and we met Jill and the kids. ( First we met my aunt and uncle for breakfast at Rockwell's cafe/bakery) Nana came along too and we all had fun.
The middle pic is all the "cousins". Stephanie (6) Jack ( 1) Matthew (3) and Sammie (3.5)
They rode the "Polar Express" train a few times, and the carousel a few more times than the train! After, the kids all ate churros and Matthew and Stephanie ate cheetos. It was hard to get them all to go home. We had a busy weekend but it was fun! On Saturday, we were going to go Oak Glen apple orchard but the weather wouldn't cooperate so we went to lunch instead and then my mom and I went shopping. I really want to go to the apple orchard soon. Echo and I tried to go last Fall but we were too late and the apples were "done". September and October is the best time to go. I am hoping to go in the next few weeks. If you don 't know about Oak Glen, it is a scenic drive toward the mountains and then it is a small "village" with shops and lots of different apple orchards where you can pick them yourself, and/or buy apples, pies, goodies, etc. They have pony rides, a petting zoo, etc. Being the scrapbooker I am, I just HAVE to get some Fall pics and apple picking would be just perfect!
Anyway... I'll be back again soon with some more pics! I want to wish my friend Christine's son, Nicholas, a Happy Birthday. The poor kid turned 8 yesterday and was home all weekend sick. What a bummer!

Back to school

Well, I'm finally back to the blogging world again. Once "Back to school" hits I have to jump in with both feet and then catch up with my life again afterwards. Sorry it has been so long. I thought I'd start with a few pics of my classroom and then catch you up on what we've been up to. I started back to school on Aug. 27th to attend meetings, inservices, etc. ( setting up the classroom is all done on my own time without pay!) It was tough to go back after being off all summer. My first day with the kids was Sept. 4th. I have a nice group of kids this year. So far, only 16 which is FANTASTIC!! Yes, that is their REAL art. (Self Portraits)

Well, enough about school because I am off until Thursday so no thinking about it for me right now!

Labor Day weekend was fun. Brad and I took Sammie to the beach. She had a blast picking up every shell on the sand. She was afraid to go into the water at first but after lots and lots of coaxing from daddy, she finally tried it and then loved it so much! We went to the Balboa Fun Zone afterwards and rode the carousel and had a yummy ice cream cone. ( I made scrapbook pages of all this so I'll post them soon) I did get to scrapbook a little bit so I'll share some of those pages soon.

The horse picture was taken at the Equestrian Center which just happens to be practically next to my school. Sammie and I stopped there Wedneday to visit some horses on our way home from school. That big horse is Phantom. He was HUGE! When we got there, he was in the exercise pen and was running and kicking up lots of sand. When Sammie walked up, he stopped and put his head over the fence to nuzzle her. TOO CUTE! We pet many of the horses there and talked to lots of nice horsey owners. ( one who snapped that pic of us and Phantom)

Since Sammie can't have her own horse, we went to visit the one she thinks is hers that lives in front of the 99 cent store. She rides this horse all the time. Much cheaper for me than a real one!