Samantha's first blog

pamelamyers | September 7, 2016

The day has finally arrived – Samantha’s first day of first grade. She’s hit the big time. Being in school ALL DAY. It is going to be a big adjustment for her (and for me). Mark and I decided that I would continue to stay at home two days a week. It will give me time to get the never ending list of things we want done around the house done, and also allow me to be here for Sam and to be present in her school as much as possible.

When we met her teacher last week, Mrs. Hall had given the kids a bag. It contained “Ready Confetti” for the kids to sprinkle under their pillows to get rid of the first day jitters.

That night, Sam was very happy to sprinkle it under her pillow, but she assured me she had no jitters. “Not one jitter!” Hmmm…I think she has more jitters than she realizes, but I am glad she was happy about starting school.

Here she is! Ready for day one! I love her backpack and lunch box combo. The cat faces are adorable and it is a switch from the character driven packs most of the kids carry these days. I mean, I liked her Elsa backpack, but we don’t need to advertise for Disney (or Barbie, or Shopkins, or, well, a million other things) every day of the week.

On the way to the bus! Thankfully, it’s not a long walk, only about a block and a half.

She wanted lots of hugs and kisses before the bus came and we were happy to oblige.

Best of luck, Samantha! You are going to do great!

When Sam got home, Mark and my mom met her at the bus. She looked a bit tired, but she was very happy. It was a short day for the first day, but she had lunch, got to meet all her new friends, and ride the bus!

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pamelamyers | September 3, 2016

We just recently decided to move Sam into a backless booster seat from the high back ones she had been using. The old ones were in the house. I guess Penny decided she needed a boost? Sam was more than happy to give up her old booster for the new ones, even without Penny’s approval. 🙂

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pamelamyers | September 3, 2016

It took forever, but we finally found out who Sam’s first grade teacher will be! Her name is Mrs. Hall. We were down the shore and I knew that the mailing with this info would come while we were away. My mom was taking care of Zach and Penelope so thankfully she was there to check our mail every day. All day I was getting text messages and emails from other moms asking who Sam has. It was so frustrating! While we were golfing, my mom called. After wading through what seems like a hundred pages, she found the name. Ok, so that is taken care of. Now to figure out who the heck she is. I had the yearbook from last year on my laptop so I went through each page with the intention of showing Sam her picture. No Mrs. Hall. What the heck! I went to her teacher page on the school district’s website and discovered she is Miss Cohen from last year who had a summer wedding to Mr. Hall. Mystery solved! I showed Sam her picture and her first reaction was, “She’s so pretty!” Let’s hope that her teaching skills are right up there with her attractiveness.

We were happy to discover that Ella, one of her kindergarten friends is in her same class! Yay! An instant buddy! Also, Ella’s mom and I got to be friendly, so now I have someone I can count on to be my go to person if I ever can’t figure out something about school. Sam was super excited to get to go to school to meet her teacher and to see her actual  classroom. Not just some random first grade class. Her Actual Classroom. You would have thought it was the first day of school. When we got there, Ella was already there and happily informed Sam that once again — they are sharing a locker!

We had a scavenger hunt to do to familiarize Sam with her room. The first task was to write her name on the Smart Board. Not sure what’s up with the grumpy face.

Mark discovered some of the craft making supplies and toys and a lot of them were things Sam likes, so we went to check them out.

This is Sam’s seat. She had a name tag to decorate. You can see Ella happily skipping along in the background and also Mrs. Hall (although, not skipping). 😉

Here is Sam’s locker – #4!

And her classroom – M10. I am glad she is on the main level but on a side hallway and not right across the aisle from the library. I would think it would get distracting with all the kids always coming and going and God knows Sam does not need any distractions. She is going to have a lot to learn this year and I need her to focus. Her classroom windows overlook the kindergarten playground, just like last year.

Before we left, Sam got a small bag from her teacher. It is was some “magical confetti” for her to sprinkle under her pillow the night before she starts first grade. Along with it was a poem explaining that the magic helps to take away the jitters. It was a rather long poem, and super sweet. Sam wanted to sprinkle it right away! We can’t wait for first grade! I don’t know who is more excited – Sam or me!

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pamelamyers | September 2, 2016

We always make lots of good memories down the shore, and not just at the beach. We eat tons of ice cream, visit the boardwalk, shop, eat more ice cream…

On Sunday, we made sure we went to the boardwalk in Ocean City so that we could do all the things we normally do. We didn’t want to try to jam everything in, so we didn’t let Sam do any rides this time other than our family favorite – the Ferris Wheel!

I love this face – she was being tickled uncontrollably!

Family selfie! Sam looks so little in this picture. Her smile reminds me of the one she used to have when she was a tiny little girl, only a few years old.

Our girl, always ready to strike a pose.

Sammy selfie time!

Although we didn’t do rides, Mark did take Sam on one sort of ride – Go Karts! It’s something he has been wanting to do for a while because he used to ride them as a kid. Sam loved it! Zooming around the track with her Daddy at the wheel. She came off all smiles.

Sam also wanting to go skeleton golfing again, but honestly, it was a pretty lame golf course, so we told her we’d go to the pirate golf in Sea Isle. Sam didn’t do so well, but Mark got two holes in one, and I got one. Sam thought it was hysterical that one of Mark’s balls went into the water and she got to fish it out. Hmmm…maybe it got there on purpose….

Sam is doing the limbo. I didn’t realize it was a necessary skill for mini golfing…

When we were on the last hole, we stopped to be pirates and take some pictures. I asked Sam why she kept covering her eye. She told me, “It’s my eye patch, Silly!” Of course.

On our last real night, we went to the Promenade in Sea Isle so Sam could play arcade games. She loves this big wheel where you just spin and hopefully win a bunch of tickets. This spin was a particularly big one, based on how she’s hanging off the handle!

Her Daddy, Champion of Claw Games, won her a doggie!

After the games, we went to visit turtle…

…and to sail away in the boat. Ah, traditions, traditions.

On a final note, one morning, Sam was just drawing and she did this great picture of her giraffe. I just had to share. I think it’s pretty good! When she takes her time, she draws very well.

Well, vacation is over and we are back in school mode. I finally found out who Sam’s first grade teacher will be and now it’s back to Springfield to meet her teacher!

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pamelamyers | September 2, 2016

Oh, but alas, it is. We finished our last beach vacation for the year. We went down the shore again while Krista and Adam had their house, on Saturday, so that we had as much time as possible since we needed to leave by mid-week so that we could be home for Sam’s meet the teacher day. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful, and the water was as warm as could be – about 76-78 degrees! Gorgeous and no rain at all.

Sam spent time doing what she normally does. Like this. Getting as sandy as humanly possible.

Strangely, the first day, there were a ton of washed up jellyfish on the beach. Only that one day though. They are kind of gross, but Sam liked exploring them. I’m just glad they were gone by the next day!

Ryder loves the beach and he and Sam played the whole time. Right now though, he was more interested in his cookie. 🙂

And his Grandmom, Loretta!

Mark spent most of his time doing exactly this. Hmmm….what is wrong with this picture?

Although, while Ryder and Sam played, Krista and I weren’t exactly working hard.

We did get Sam into the water a lot to do her “wave jumping”, but boy was it rough! Hurricane Hermine was coming and the waves were crazy. Higher than normal and they could knock you down so easily.

We only had one day where we really saw the jetty so Sam and Mark went exploring. There wasn’t a heck of a lot to see, honestly, not like some years. And the beach has been sadly lacking in sea shells. I guess it’s good that the beach is getting cleaned up, but it is sad for the kiddos who like to collect shells.

Time for a family portrait!

Maddox had seen a lot of kids using body boards since there were actually some waves. Adam bought him one and he did pretty well for his first time out. I think he caught a few waves!

On our next to last day, it was very odd. I was sleeping (shockingly, Sam actually let us sleep a lot on this trip) and Mark came in and told me there was almost no beach. The incoming storm was making the sea crazy. High tide came up really high and a lot of the water hadn’t washed out. We usually wind up with a shallow pool of water somewhere on the beach every trip, but this was insane. There literally was almost no beach. You can see how big this pool of water was that Mark and Sam are standing in. Then there is some beach, then the ocean.

It was crazy deep too! Usually, it pools around your ankles or low calves at most.

Pretty early in the day, they came and dug a trench to let the water run back to the ocean. It worked pretty well. The lake stayed, but by the time we were done our beach day, it was much narrower and not nearly as deep.

Something we hadn’t done in a while! Sam’s shadow is catching up to us…She’s growing so fast.

While the lake was there, Rich took Sam and Ryder to play. They liked sailing Sam’s boat.

Two best buddies. 🙂 Sam had so much fun playing with Ryder. She will be a good babysitter one day. In the afternoon while Ryder was napping, Sam was so lost.

Maddox took some time out from the water to hang out with his Grandmom.

Since Maddox wasn’t using his body board for the moment, Adam took Ryder and then Sam on a ride. Sam liked it, Ryder not so much.

Sam did keep busy, but Mark and I both noticed that she doesn’t play like she used to. I brought many less toys down to the beach then normal, and even less of them actually made it to the sand. Most days, she wanted her Barbies, a bucket, a shovel and not much else. It is yet one more sign she is growing up. We don’t even make many sand castles. I think next year, we probably won’t be bringing much. Mark and I are going to try to bring more “family” activities. She likes playing with this water bouncing ball Mark bought on our last trip down, we sometimes play paddle ball, and we saw some people playing bocce. I would rather do those types of things on the beach anyway. Heck, some day not too far off, Sam will be more interested in sitting by herself reading a book or a magazine than doing anything with us!

One toy we did bring a few days was her sand buggy. Since cars need somewhere to go, I made a system of roads. Sam liked it and so did her car.

I can’t believe our beach time is over! Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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