5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Blast off to 2011

Yes, I know I said I'd be right back each day to finish 2010 but life happens. Sammie got sick, and I was tired and here I am, back, but it is 11:27 pm and soon it will be 2011. So, my plan is to type as much as I can about 2010 until it gets to be 2011 and start fresh bloggin' my new year! Happy Healthy 2011 to you and here's the rest of 2010.

During our Florida trip, we also spent several days at EPCOT. We really enjoy EPCOT because it is so different from anything we have here and there are so many wonderful things to see and do. Brad and I were there back in 2000, as well as all 3 of us in 2008. I also went to EPCOT as a teenager, so I have been lucky to see it change over the years.

Sammie's favorite things to do are the Mission Space launch and Test Track ride. I wasn't a huge fan of Mission Space because it is an astronaut motion simulator and it is very close quarters inside a rocket flight simulator. It feels like zero gravity and made me a little dizzy with spinning and rumbling. She LOVED it.

There are two "worlds" to see there, the Future World and the World Showcase which represents countries such as Canada, Norway, Mexico, Germany, Morocco, USA, France, Japan, China, England. She got to meet the princesses but we had to go to the country they are from to find them. (Mulan-China, Jasmine-Morocco, Belle-France, etc.)

She loved talking with them and telling them all about the princesses at Disneyland.

The castle is so amazing at Disney World, especially at night. I love how it changed colors from pink, to purple to blue.

Here are a few pics of Disney World. Gotta have a Mickey and Minnie pic!

On our last day, we stopped at Gatorland. It is a really fun place and you can see the alligators up close. Last time, Sammie hand fed them and this time she SAT on a REAL alligator. ( His mouth was taped shut, but still, it was a little nerve-wracking) ... She could have been a tasty lunch!

This is what we saw outside our hotel on the last night... Not exactly what you want to see.. We have no idea why it was there but just a little random! We didn't stay on the Disney property and were about 45 minutes away from Orlando in a city called Sanford.

Okay.. I cheated.. I published this post right before the clock struck midnight and now I am editing it to add the rest of what I wanted to recap for 2010!

This is all random stuff I wanted to mention so I can remember some of the highlights of the year.

Sammie loves 1st grade. We met with her teacher at conference time and were pleased with her progress and her love of science and math. She is a very good girl in class and had a wonderful report card to prove it. This is something she made this on her first day of school.

She was chosen to be the very first "Star of the Week". It is really cute. We made a poster at home to share with the class and everyone wrote letters to Sammie telling her nice things. She got to do whatever she wanted while they wrote to her so she made these pictures and played on the computer in her classroom.

October was busy! Besides our Florida trip, we did a few activities with Pony Club.

The annual fund-raiser is a pumpkin patch. We worked the event despite the rain. Our first job was to "tip" all these pumpkins so they would be standing upright. That lasted about 2 minutes!! You can see all the progress we made!! LOL!

Sammie's favorite job was to visit the llamas. She made good friends with this little critter.

Oh, and I can't forget this little critter, our Naomi, who is sweet and very tolerant of costumes!

Well, she didn't really like the leaves on her feet but the rest of the pumpkin she put up with.

We also went with Pony Club to see Secretariat. It was a wonderful movie and the special part was that we went to the "El Capitan" theatre in Hollywood. We saw some of the actual movie props on display, and took a little walk on the Walk of Fame to the famous Mann's Chinese Theatre. This is Sammie's friend and they sure liked putting their hands on the footprints. This one was Roy Rogers and Trigger. Guess who wanted to be Trigger???

This is a sweet shot of my Nana and Sammie when we went out for breakfast one Sunday morning. My Nana is 96 years old, exactly 90 years older than Sammie! What an incredible age difference and so glad they can know each other. I am very close to my Nana and so glad that Sammie is too!

My cousin Max had his Bar Mitzvah on September 11. He chose that day on purpose to have a happy memory of such a historically sad day. He explained how he was to start preschool that day back in 2001 at a Jewish preschool and how after the terrorist attacks they closed the school and he didn't get to go that day. He wanted to "turn things around" and make this day special and so after celebrating in Israel first, and getting rocks thrown at him while at the Wailing Wall, he celebrated here with family and friends. It was a wonderful ceremony and the party was a lot of fun too. Here's my crazy family. I am the one with the purple boa and white glasses. Nana is sitting in the middle. Sammie had a blast dancing on a riser with the help of one of the DJ's special dancers. Turn off the music on my "playlist" in the sidebar so you can hear the dance music in the video here. :)

Sammie finished her third season playing soccer. Her team was called the Firecrackers. She had a fun time and really enjoys being the goalie but played the field most of the time. They ended the season with a pizza party and she received a trophy.

Just a few fun pictures I found capturing how fast time goes!! Here's my girl at age 15 months, fascinated by horses, and at age 6, on Flicka the pony. I am really proud of her determination. She knows what she wants and is persistent. She is a confident, caring little girl and I love being her mommy!!

This was a little bit of luck that I had this year. I was playing a 50 cent poker machine in Las Vegas and I was dealt the ace of hearts. I held that one ace and got 3 more aces plus the "kicker" to make a $1000 win. ( the $20.00 was my inital investment. It happened within the first few hands I played! ) I was soooo excited!! It was totally unexpected (which is what made it so much fun!) and the most I have ever won!! Here's to good luck, good health and good things in 2011!

Wrapping up 2010

Well here it is a few days before the new year and I am still in September/October with my blog so i am going to catch up these next few days just so i have things documented and can begin 2011 with a fresh start. :) Be prepared to sit and stay a while because this is going to be long!!!

We have been super busy in a good way. I went to Inspiration Unlimited in Las Vegas in September. I had a lot of fun and made great projects. I saw some of my favorite scrapbook celebs, Layle, Janna, Teresa and met Liz Kartchner this year. The classes were amazing and Jenn and I worked nonstop for the two days.

October was a lot of fun. We were lucky enough to tag along on a business trip to Florida with Brad. Sammie and I spent a few days at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT and then he was able to join us after he finished working. This was her 2nd trip to Florida and I have been there many times as a kid and an adult.

I have to say, there really is something magical about Disney World. Maybe it is that you can't even get to the park unless you take a ferry boat or monorail but I remember feeling that as a kid and I felt it as an adult when we got close to the castle from the ferry boat. It really is an amazing place and Sammie is so fortunate to have been there twice now in her 6 years of life!! We were there 2 years ago almost EXACTLY to the week. Although I was expecting the weather to be cold like it was then, it was quite warm ( humid and high 90's in fact) We were sweating constantly! It was fun being there during Halloween, seeing the decorations and enjoying the Fall.

We spent our first day at Magic Kingdom. Sammie was very excited that she was finally tall enough for Space Mountain in Florida. The seats are different in Florida and you have to be 44" tall unlike Disneyland which is 42". She wasn't able to ride it in 2008 so she sure jumped for joy this time!! She LOVED the ride even more than Disneyland.

The parks closed early so we left and went to Arabian Nights for a dinner show. It is like Medieval Times but ALL HORSES!!! She loved it and the food wasn't too bad either. She got to meet the horses before the show started and sit on one of them. That was a great experience to be so close. She told the cast members how much she loves horses and that she takes lessons. They were cracking up.

Here is Walter Farley's famous Black Stallion. It was so beautifully done with music, lights and mist. There were trick riders and fancy stunts. We loved the show because in the end, they let all the horses run out free without saddles and they just played around with each other and rolled in the dirt, just being horses. It was really cool.

Well that's all for tonight because in reality, it is December, not October so Sammie wants me to play one of her games she got yesterday for Christmas. Be back tomorrow with part 2.

:) Yes really, I promise!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, 21 again.. No really, every year I turn 21 and this year is really special because I get to turn 21 twice!!! For you non math wizards out there, I am double 21's!! :)

Having a good birthday. Sammie made sure I had breakfast in bed. So cute!!! I shopped, got my nails done, pedicure, lunch and dinner out, Starbucks drink and presents.

I know I owe all you faithful readers a blog post for a while now, it has just been crazy so i will really try to come back soon with an update. Say hello if you were here! :)

Hit the ground running! (part 1)

Wow...

Where has time gone and where have I been?? Once summer ends ( which is the the last time I posted) I jump right into work and hit the ground running.. I have been super duper busy and have had this blog post on my to do list for like 3 weeks... Oh well... life happens right??

This post will be a long one, all about what's been happening since I was last here. I think i will break it into a few parts.

I now have a first grader!!! This is the first day of school. She absolutely LOVES it and adores her teacher too. ( So do I!) She adjusted beautifully and is happy to go to school every day. I love that!! Here is a snap of the two of us on the first day. I'm so glad Daddy thought to take that picture because I didn't. (I do give him a list of all the photos to take since I can't walk her in on the first day because it is my first day with my class too.) He did a good job getting all the pics that a silly scrapbook mom requests!!!

We have been busy with soccer. This year, her team is called the Firecrackers. She has her nickname on her jersey. Which leads me to my next thought... Horses!!!

Yes, she is still riding and LOVING it. We started lessons on another horse as well and his name is Pokey. She still rides Joey and his "sister" Flicka too. Pokey lives a little far away but we drive out to have lessons on him. He is a great "autopia" horse. Sammie does all the work with only a little help from me. She gets him out of the stall, puts his rope on, ( i help put on his halter) and she leads him up the hill and ties him up. She carries the saddle and bridle and does all the grooming. I help her by holding his feet so she can clean his hooves and put on the saddle and bridle because she can't reach!! She is so determined and Pokey is so amazing, he lowers his head for her. Anyway... she has an enormous grin on her face the entire time she rides and she can trot and turn by herself!!!

Well, I have more to share but it is getting late and I am ready for bed.. I will be back soon with part 2. :)

Happy Trails!

It's fun to be a tourist!

We got to stay here for a few days while hubby had a conference. It was so much fun to wake up and go to the parks, pool, etc and to stay out late at night and then go to the hotel instead of driving home. Such a nice luxury that we never get to do, normally. In fact, it was funny because Sammie wanted to spend time at the pool, rather than go to the parks since she does that more often.

So, we were tourists and went to the pool, walked around Downtown Disney, went to "build a PONY", ( also known as build a bear) and ate at Goofy's kitchen. That was a lot of fun and the characters came and spent some time with us.

Here is some of the food, it was all good but some things didn't sound too good.... like this one..

Eeeewwwwww!!!!

They also had peanut butter and jelly pizza! G-R-O-S-S!!!

The Mickey Mouse waffle was good.

The pool was gorgeous!! It was called the Never Land Pool and was Peter Pan themed. It is hard to tell in the pics but there is a pirate ship, skull rock and a cool water slide under the bridge. There was even a little cave-like structure with Ariel, the little mermaid.

I only got these two pics because SOMEONE was trying to "help" me get my camera and took it in the pool, to give to me and held it high above her head, but she is 43" inches tall and the water level was 48" so it only got a LITTLE bit wet... ummmm yah, I have it wrapped up with some moisture absorbing silica gel and am afraid to turn it on.... it wasn't looking so good the day it happened, but maybe, just maybe it will work?? I love my camera.. boo hooo.

We saw the new show, World of Color ( awesome) and the Aladdin show at California Adventure. That was incredible!! Hilariously funny too!

Anyway... it was an awesome "staycation" and we would love to do it again.