Samantha's first blog

pamelamyers | April 29, 2018

For the last few years, Mark has wanted to have his birthday celebration outside instead of at a restaurant. Every year, the weather is awful. It always rains. This year, we were determined to try again. We had thought it the past about going to Ridley Park, but this year we thought we would try Smedley Park. It is right near our house and we seemed to recall it having some picnic tables. We knew there was a playground and a creek or stream with a trail. It had been a few years since we had gone there, so we figured we should check it out first before deciding just to make sure it was still as nice as we remembered.

The park was still as nice as we remembered so we were good to go. Before leaving, we did a bit of exploring. Mark and Sam found this huge tree that appears to have been either hit by lightning or set on fire or something. It was completely hollowed out inside. We are always finding trees with little hollows on our nature walks and we always say that it would be a nice home for some critter to live in. Sam decided this would be a house big enough for a bear! You can’t see it in the pictures, but there is a small hole at the bottom behind Sam that she called the back door. The tree next to this one had a hollow too, a small one, but big enough for a next door neighbor. 🙂

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pamelamyers | April 22, 2018

Since Sam was so excited about seeing Mary Poppins Junior, she has been on a real musical theater kick. She heard about a production of Annie at a church around the corner (her music teacher’s daughter had a role), and she insisted we go. Annie is not one of my favorite musicals, but I was ok with going. I love musicals and if Sam likes them, that works for me! I actually still remember my grandparents taking me to the Annie movie when I was a kid. It sticks out in my mind for some reason.

The production was actually good. The cast was pretty talented and we had a great time!

Sam’s favorite cast member was this little guy…

I am really going to try paying attention to the local productions that the high schools put on now. The shows are usually pretty good, not too long, tickets are cheap, and anything musical that Sam likes, I am happy to encourage!

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pamelamyers | April 22, 2018

Mark came home with some fresh pizza dough from Bertucci’s because he had a hankering for some sfinges, which are also known as Italian Zeppoli. They are essentially fried dough that is coated in sugar, like a donut. He has been eating them his whole life because his Italian grandmother used to make them all the time, then his mom made them too. Sam has only had them maybe once in her life because we never seem to make them ourselves, which is surprising, because we make so many of his other family recipes.

We were looking for them on the Internet and realized that what he had always called “spinGEES” is actually sfinges. No matter how you pronounce them, they are yummy! Sam was excited to help cook. Anything donut related is ok in her book!

Rolling them in sugar was her favorite part, for obvious reasons. Sugar. Duh.

Yum! Success! They turned out great!

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pamelamyers | April 21, 2018

I had heard about this Lego event called Brickfest that was being held at the Expo Center and had no clue what it would be like, but knew Sam would love it so we ordered tickets right away. Sam was so excited. You say Lego, and she’s there! From what we read, we knew there would be some events and exhibitions, but also a lot of vendors. A LOT of vendors. We went in telling Sam that if she wanted some minifigures or small things that was fine, but we were not buying any big sets. She loves mini figs so she was ok with that.

When we got there, we tried to check out some of the things to do first. There was a set up with about 5 inch square plates where you were supposed to build a design and then place it on the wall so that by the end of the event there would be a huge display wall. Mark and Sam made theirs first, then I made one too.

Here are our designs!

As you can see, we were very early to the game. There are a lot of spots to be filled over the weekend!

Some of the displays were really cool. Sam loved it!

One of my favorite exhibits was the Lego reproductions of art. It was amazing! Sam liked this one of Super Mario, which isn’t exactly a reproduction, but, hey, it’s art!

This was my absolute favorite. Can you believe this?

I wasn’t expecting the people dressed up but Sam thought it was great! She has never really seen Star Wars but she does know who some of the characters are and she knows her dad loves it.

R2D2 was zooming all around the place, but he did stop long enough for a photo. I am not actually sure how that worked….He looked so real!

Ghostbusters! All of Mark and Sam’s favorites. 🙂

These glow Legos were pretty cool. I am shocked Sam didn’t want us to buy some.

No glow Lego, but lots and lots of minifigures and this cool hat (which is holding some of her many minifigures!) We had a great time!

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pamelamyers | April 20, 2018

My friend Alisha and I went out for dinner last night (Alisha is Sam’s friend, Lina’s, mom). Mark knew he was going to have to find something to do to amuse Sam for the night, and as usual, he came up with the coolest idea! How Mark finds these things on the Internet, I will never know. He found this video that showed you how to make a ball from a roll of tin foil. Well, clearly, anyone can make a ball, I mean, you just roll it up. But this is an actual, hard ball. Not a clump of foil. Essentially, you have to roll up at least a half a roll of foil and then bang the heck out of it with a hammer until it is dense. Then, you can sand it until it gleams. Sam loved this idea! She had such a blast. She even took it to school for her share day. She said the kids could not believe it was tin foil!

Sam wanted Penny to help, but I don’t think Penny was having it.

The ball starts out pretty big because there is so much air in it. Wait until you see how small it gets!

Getting smaller!

Here it is, before buffing to a shine.

Ta da! Mark has the best ideas for things to keep Sam busy. As long as she is in the mood to be cooperative and pay attention, she is a lot of fun to do things with. This project was right up her alley!

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