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!