Helping a friend

Sammie's preschool friend, Brooke, and 2 of her siblings have been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. This is a horrible genetic disease of the lungs and it is life-shortening. I just heard of this news and am saddened by it. Paulette, the mother, is particpating in a walk this weekend to help find a cure for CF. Here is the link if you would like to help support her in her efforts. They have 5 children ( 2 sets of twins) and 3 of the 5 kids have CF, 1 child in each set of births. We met in dance class 2 years ago and they were in preschool together last year. I can't even imagine how she can deal with this devastating situation.

http://www.cff.org/great_strides/dsp_donationPage.cfm?registeringwalkid=5833&idUser=318218

Happy Memorial Day!

Thank you to all of our brave soldiers who have fought for our country to protect our freedom! We honor you on this day.
Here is my favorite "Uncle Sam"!
Just checking in with a weekend recap. We went to Las Vegas for the weekend and had a fun time. The weather was great, we had fun hanging with my parents, and I came home $600 richer!!! YAHOO! I won playing poker on my favorite machines .05 deuces. They are a lot of fun but can also be evil!! The funniest part is that Sammie found a pony playset she wanted and begged me to get it. I told her if I won I would get it for her. When we were walking through the casino after dinner, I asked her which machine I should play from the bank of the deuce machines. She pointed to the "one" and I said okay. I went back to play that machine and sure enough, it hit within the first few minutes of me playing it. It was quite exciting. I took a few pics with my cell phone but I am not sure how to upload it to the computer yet so I guess you'll have to imagine it. :) She got her horsey toy and was just as happy as I was for winning!

We went to the pool everyday and the first day we were there Samantha taught herself how to swim. It was just the way she does everything. ON HER TERMS!! The first half hour in the pool was "mommy, don't let go of me" and the second half hour was "mommy don't touch me!".. LOL! She still has some work to do, but she gets the basic idea of how to paddle, kick and put her face in the water. I think after some swim lessons this summer she'll be great!!! It has been since last year that she was in the pool and so she needs a "refresher".. no pun intended!! Ha ha ha!

Teeth and Teacups!!

Sammie had a wiggly tooth until yesterday, no MORE! She woke up and put her hand under her mouth and pushed it with her tongue and poof, it fell out right into her hand. She was so excited. She had to tell everyone she encountered, including Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. ( we went there yesterday for fun, no, not because she lost her tooth. ) She put it under her pillow last night and got a golden dollar from the tooth fairy. We made a tooth fariy book and wrote her a letter. Sammie named the tooth fairy "Alyssa" and said that she is the special fairy that comes to her house. Everyone gets a different fairy but Alyssa will be the fairy who visits again. She sprinkled pixie dust on Sammie's pillow, her bed, nightstand and even the window ledge where she came into Sammie's room.

Here she is with her new smile. She looks so different!! Gosh, it seems like she just got those teeth, hard to believe she is losing them already!

She also finished her princess dance class and they celebrated with a tea party. It was adorable. The table was set with real china teapots and cups. The girls had apple juice and frosted cookies. It was really special. After we headed to Disneyland for the afternoon. It was a fun day.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mommies out there! I hope you enjoyed your special day! I had a nice weekend. :)

I am so happy to be a mommy! Thanks to Sammie for giving me the best job I have ever had!

NSD and other fun things!

For those of you who are not

scrapbookers, NSD, stands for National Scrapbook Day and it was Saturday, May 2nd. Christine and I took a trip to Ever After and had a lot of fun. It is a great store and everyone is so nice and friendly. Coincidentally, both of our kids went camping with their daddies and so it was a nice little get away from home for us.

Here are some of the pages I did. I am happy with all of them. My favorite company right now is My Little Shoe box. I love love love the bright happy colors and patterns.

We got Sammie a new bike so she can learn to ride with training wheels and then eventually without!! Our little girl is growing up! She has had a tricycle because we didn't want to keep buying bikes when she gets taller. We waited until now and although she preferred the little 12" bike, we convinced her to get the 16" kindergarten bike. It is so funny because the kid rides gigantic horses but is afraid of a "bigger bike"??? She is having fun with it though. It is cute, purple, pink, princess and super girly!!

I can't believe her preschool year is coming to a close. I had a conference with her teachers and she is doing well. She has a good academic foundation with letters, numbers, patterns, counting, etc. She needs to work a bit on her fine motor skills which is also developmental. She likes to draw but doesn't have a strong pencil grip yet. She has a little bit of work to do on her name as well. The "a" looks like a "q" and her final "e" is upside down and backwards. I am proud of her development! Here is some of her recent art work. The first pic is a house and butterfly and the second pic is the Easter Bunny riding on a unicorn. ( her next favorite thing besides horses) I just love her little drawings and the stories she tells to go with them. Too cute!

When it comes to Earth Day, I am not the classic "green" person but this year I did do a few things to take part. I worked that day so I made my class do something kind for the Earth, whether it was recycling from their lunch or picking up trash, then we shared about it. I came home and planted some seeds with Sammie and talked about Earth Day. She knew a lot from TV and school She said "Green is Clean" and also told me that we have to save the "EARF". (that's Sammie speak) I also recycled a container from her "lunchable" and brought it to school to use as a desk caddy. I put post it notes and paper clips in it. My students were very impressed. I do think it is important to try to reduce the amount of things we use, buy, etc. I am such a "consumer" and love to buy, but it makes me more aware and I do try to stop and think if I can use something again. Speaking of Earth, I was surprised by the earthquakes we had. During the first one I was driving and stopped at a light near my house. I felt the car shake and move forward a bit but I thought that I accidentally took my foot off the brake for a second. When I got home, my neighbor asked if I felt the earthquake and I said, "What earthquake?" and realized that the jumping car was the earthquake. The aftershocks I felt at work in my classroom. It was really shaking and rumbling. It was sort of scary because I was in my file cabinets thinking they were going to fall over on me. It was all okay and over quickly but it is such a weird feeling. I never realize it is an earthquake until it is almost done. I guess I am so used to shaking from the train nearby that I am just immune to it.

We have been celebrating lots of birthday parties. One was for Donna's son Jacob at Scooter's Jungle, one was for Sammie's preschool friend Tori at the Freckled Frog, and also one for my niece Emily who turned 6. Sammie takes her princess dance class at the Freckled Frog. All of the kids dressed up in High School Musical clothes an danced around. It was adorable. ( Sammie isn't really into High School Musical but she had fun with the microphone and getting eyeshadow on and of course, dressing up like a prom queen! )

Well, as you can see, I have been keeping pretty busy and having fun too. I hope you are having fun! Bye for now!