SAP Picnic – Fun at the County Fair

| August 14, 2016

Yesterday was Mark’s annual company picnic. SAP did a great job, as they do every year. The theme this year was County Fair. There were way more games than usual, which was fun for Sam, but it just meant more time out in the sun and away from the nice shady tents. It has been so hot — in the 90s with high humidity every day. We are lucky we didn’t melt! The games were a lot of fun for Sam. It was very easy to win a prize, so she had a blast.

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We did go inside for a while so we could eat and everyone played Bingo. We didn’t win, but it was still fun.

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Sam got her face painted and had fun making sand art with Ryder.

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We went back out and played games again and again and again, and tried to ride the small Ferris Wheel but the line was crazy long. Instead, Mark and Sam tried their hands at archery. Sam does want to be Merida from Brave for Halloween, so she needs to practice!

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Sam didn’t do so well, but Daddy won her a prize!

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Here is Sam with the multitude of prizes she won!

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This has absolutely nothing to do with the picnic, but it was too cute not to post. Poor Penny. This is the torture she was subjected to in the morning. She looks like, “Can someone help me please!”

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Busy Bees Camp

| August 12, 2016

Sam  finished her second week of camp, this time at one of her favorite places, Busy Bees! When we enrolled her, it was still winter and we had no idea if she was even going to like the idea of camp, so we picked half-day. At Tyler, full day was the only option but since Busy Bees gave us a choice, we erred on the side of caution and picked half day. Luckily, she loved Tyler and didn’t mind the full day at all. It turned out she loved Busy Bees camp too and was so mad that she had to leave at lunchtime while some of the other kids got to stay! I kept hearing, “In the afternoon they were doing “x”. I missed that! The next day in the afternoon they did “y”. I missed that!” I tried to explain to her that I didn’t know if she’d even like camp when we signed her up so we only picked half day, but she wasn’t having it. On one of the last days she asked me why I didn’t try to ask them if she could stay longer and, honestly, I felt kind of bad. The classes were not packed and if I had even thought about it after the first day or so, I probably could have asked them if she could change to full day and they would have let her. Oh well.

I assured her that next year she can do full day at Busy Bees, full day at Tyler and even one other week somewhere if she wanted to. She would have gone for multiple weeks at Tyler if we had let her. There is also camp at the place where she is going to do gymnastics this fall, so that is an option too. Anyway, that’s for next year.

At Busy Bees, just like at Tyler, each week has a theme. The week I picked was a Hawaiian theme. Since she is obsessed with Hawaii, I knew she would love it. She came home every day telling me all about the things she made, the movies they watched while they were crafting (Zootopia. If I hear one more word about Zootopia, I am going to scream! She is now obsessed with my watching it.) She also made a friend her first day, which is always nice. I am so glad she always seems to make an instant friend.

We didn’t get to bring home any of her crafts until the last day, and even then, the clay pieces she made the first day were not painted. They just didn’t have time. (According to Sam, if she had stayed all day they would have been painted….bad Mommy!) They told us we could come in any time and paint and they would be fired for free. We made sure to do that right away so she got to enjoy them while she was still in the spirit of the thing.

In the course of the week, she made things out of clay and painted them, painted a canvas, painted bisque, made a mosaic and did some glass fusing. I am so proud of her! Here is all her beautiful art!

Here is her clay. They all made a tiki mask and a pineapple. I am not clear on whether or not the swimming pool was Sam’s own idea, but I am pretty sure it was. Sam told me that everyone else made different noses and teeth than she did. She didn’t follow the instructions but did her own thing. I think it looks great! The little tiny face on the cheek is supposed to be another tiki, according to Sam. I think the pineapple is her favorite.

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The bisque mermaid was some sort of tracing that was put onto the surfboard and then they painted. According to the instructor, all the girls painted their mermaid with their own color hair.

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I love the fused glass! I have been wanting to do that myself. I love Sam’s hula girl’s coconut bra!

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The kids made their own mosaic. Sam told me she was the only one who made a flower. She was very upset with me when I was holding it upside down. This is the way it goes though. I thought the green was the stem, but alas, no, it is the stamen and the yellow is the pollen. The flower is pink. Sorry, Sam!

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On the last day, they painted a canvas. I think this is my favorite. She did an amazing job and added a lot of her own touches, from what she tells me. The white rays coming from behind the mountain, the white swells in the water. Great job, Samantha! Maybe one day you will be a famous artist.

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Teenagers

| August 2, 2016

Sam and I were going to my mom’s so I could go to work and Sam was  saying goodbye to Penny. She really wanted to stay and play with her little kitten and asked me if she can bring Penny to Grandmom’s sometime. I told her maybe, but I didn’t know if Bella would appreciate another cat coming over because she is an older cat and sometimes they don’t like change. She asked me how old Bella was and I told her that Bella is 10. Sam then told me “I wish Penny was 10.” I commented to Sam sort of offhand that when Penny is 10, Sam will be a teenager! (What a weird concept). Sam then told me she wishes that Penny was a teenager. She then started rambling on and on about how Penny would have a tie dye shirt and ripped jeans.

Um…what?

I asked Sam why exactly would Penny have a tie dye shirt and ripped jeans and in a very matter of fact way, she replied, “That is what teenagers wear.”

Okay then. Duly noted.

Poor broken Sam

| August 1, 2016

Ugh. Last night after dinner, Mark took Sam out for a ride on her bike. They were gone maybe an hour and I was relaxing upstairs and enjoying the quiet. I heard the door open and was just about to go downstairs when I heard Mark yell that he needed help. That is not a good sign. Well, Sam fell on her bike and got scraped up pretty badly. I went downstairs and expected the worst – screaming, crying, whining… I was pleasantly surprised! Sam was sitting at the kitchen table with her leg propped up and she was totally fine. She looked a mess though! Apparently, down the street from us, there is a house (I know the one) that has humongous bushes that extend over the sidewalk. Sam’s handlebars hit a bush, she tried to turn away but over-corrected and down she went. She fell hard on her left side and her left knee, elbow and arm were really cut up. She even had a few abrasions on her pretty little face between her nose and mouth and on her chin. We tried to clean out her cuts as best as we could but they hurt a lot, so we used lots of antibiotic cream and covered her in various band-aids (which made her day – that kid loves band-aids).

Mark and I were very proud of her. He told me she cried a little bit, she held her and then asked her if she could ride home or he needed to get the car and she got right back on her bike and rode home.

That night in bed, she was more worried about the fact that she wasn’t yet in school and so she had no friends to show off her multitude of band-aids to. Crazy me, I thought she’d be upset about getting hurt. I assured her that she could show Grandmom all her injuries in the morning. As I was reading books, she starting complaining that her elbow hurt with no band aid on it (the band-aid kept coming off). She said, “It hurts when I bend it.” so I told her “Don’t bend it”. She looked at me like I was a lunatic and said, “It’s my elbow… bending it is part of life, Mom!” She’s such a nut.

Mark has been trying all summer to get her off the training wheels but it’s not going so well. He has been working on taking the pedals off, as well as the trainers, so that she can use her bike like a balance bike. It sometimes goes well, sometimes not. I just think she’s not quite ready yet. Just like everything else in her life, she will do it when she’s ready and not before. But in the meantime, I don’t think falling with the training wheels on did much to instill any confidence in her that she will be ok with them off. So…I think the training wheels are staying on for a while. Let’s just hope she isn’t too freaked out to ride at all!