Happy Birthday, Pop Pop

| February 26, 2017

To celebrate Pop Pop’s 70th birthday, we had pizza at Krista and Adam’s house yesterday. The kids were right in there, ready to help with the cake! Sam still won’t eat more than the frosting, but, what can you do? I’d like to tell her no cake unless she actually eats the whole thing, but what kind of mean mom would I be if I refused to let her have cake?

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We had a moment to take some nice pictures of Pop Pop with Krista and Mark.

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While we were eating, a quick, hard thunderstorm blew through. It was crazy! One minute the weather was fine, and the next, it was pouring rain, thundering and lightning, and hail was coming down. The good thing was that it didn’t last long, and it left us a rainbow!

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Now that the kids all had a nice sugar high, they were all ramped up. Pillow fight! Poor Aunt Krista. She’s outnumbered.

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Happy Birthday, Pop Pop!

Frostival

| February 26, 2017

Yesterday was the Frostival at Scenic Hills Elementary, where Sam will be going to second grade. It is their big fundraising event held every February. I have known about it since she was in preschool at St. Matt’s and have always thought about taking her, but it never seemed to happen. This year, I thought we definitely should go since it would give us a chance to see the inside of the school. I have never been inside either elementary school in Springfield! Sam will be going to so many schools. First the SLC, then Scenic for 2-5, then another middle school, then high school! It seems so odd to me, a Catholic school girl, where there is only one school for grades 1-8 and then high school. Sam doesn’t seem phased by it at all though. She loves the SLC, but changing schools is just what she knows she will do. I was really curious to see inside. When Sam started at the SLC, the school was only five years old. It is beautiful and state of the art. The elementary schools, on the other hand, are older. Scenic was built in the 1950s, so I knew it would be nothing like the SLC.

When we got inside, it seemed pretty nice. A typical school that was built in the 1950s…lots of cinder block walls. Exactly what I was used to. But it seemed well maintained and all the classrooms had the latest whoozits and whatsits like the smart boards and computers. That is really the important thing. Sam didn’t comment at all about anything, so I am taking the lack of negative comments as a plus.

Our first stop was spin art. Sam loved the idea of swirling paint into the spinner and seeing how it turned out.

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Next stop, face painting! I was expecting small things like a flower or a rainbow on a cheek. Nope. They were doing full face art. I don’t think they planned ahead too much. That was going to take forever for each kid, and it was the middle school students doing the painting so they were not exactly speedy! Sam picked this butterfly. I am glad she didn’t pick one that literally covered her whole face – some kids did!

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After face painting, we moved into the music room in the basement to play some games. The kids won tickets that they could cash in for prizes, just like they do at the arcade. Sam was super excited to see the music room labelled, “Mrs. Matteo’s Music Room.” Mrs. Matteo is her music teacher at the SLC and she loves her! Sam doesn’t know that some of the specials teachers come from other schools, and she was really happy to know that she might have Mrs. Matteo again. We actually had fun roaming the halls looking for other teacher names she might know and we found her art teacher, Mrs. Kobylarz’s room too.

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When we went back upstairs to get her prizes, we looked out the door and saw a surprising sight – Shelly the turtle! They have an ecology center at the school complete with a pond and some ducks (which we saw earlier) and apparently they have a turtle!

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We moved on to mini golf, which wasn’t exactly difficult, but Sam liked it. It also gave us yet another hallway of classrooms to explore…

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Sam says, come on, everyone! I guess my stopping to take a quick picture was taking too long.

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We had a snack in the cafeteria, and a quick trip in the photo booth!

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It was finally time to go. One last picture in front of Sam’s soon-to-be school.

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We got home and about an hour later, Sam suddenly came bursting into the room telling me, “We forgot my art!!” I had no idea what she was talking about until she reminded me we didn’t take her spin art home. It was hanging to dry on a clothes line. We were supposed to go back to get it. Thankfully, the school is only minutes away and we went back to get it. Sam was so worried it wouldn’t be there. I told her it definitely would. We had quite a time looking at all the names on the back of the photos to find hers, but we did. She kept telling me, “It has a green dot in the middle!” It certainly does!

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It is hard to believe that in a very short time, Sam will be a student here. She is growing so fast, I can’t even stand it!

My girls

| February 23, 2017

Sam and Mark had a good time playing outside yesterday. She needed some air and something to do to burn off energy. They played a crazy game involving a hopscotch and catching a ball. Sam tried to explain the rules to me, but I was sort of lost. It kept her moving though, which was the plan. You can tell she had fun.

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After all the play, it was bedtime. Generally now, Penny comes running in every night just as Sam and I tuck in the bed. She jumps up with a big “mrrrrppp!” and settles down on my stomach as I read books to Sam. It’s like she wants to join in on story time. Usually, if I get a chance to before Penny gets comfortable, Sam asks me to pick a book about cats or a book about a character named Penny (we have a few, actually) so that Penny is happy. Penny and Sam wind up fast asleep and I have to creep out without waking either of them up. Last night, though, I was so tired and I wound up on my side trying to get comfortable. Both Sam and I were falling asleep and Penny snuggled right in with us. Mark came up to get me, as usual (it wouldn’t be the first time I nodded off). It’s a girls slumber party! There are worse ways to fall asleep. 🙂

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Chester Creek Trail

| February 19, 2017

We decided since we are getting crazy warm weather this February that it was high time we got our butts outside. A new walking trail opened in our area called the Chester Creek Trail. It is a somewhat short trail, all paved, at about 2.8 miles. It was built where some unused railroad tracks used to be so it is kind of perfect as it’s almost completely flat. We figured it would be great for Sam since she gets whiney when the trail gets too hard for too long. It was a nice trail, a bit crowded, but that may be because it is new and everyone is out exploring it. Definitely a nice walk though.

There are a few bridges along the way, and at this one, Sam noticed our shadows way down below. I thought it would be cool to take our picture.

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We didn’t go all the way to the end of the trail, but almost. Before we turned around to go back, we stopped to let Sam rest for a minute and get some water. This rock did the trick!

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You would think we’d walked 10 miles in the blazing sun, instead of about a mile at this point, in gorgeous 70 degree weather. Look at this kid! Mark and I keep talking about possibly going to Disney. Boy, she’ll never make it!

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Reach for the Sky!

| February 18, 2017

For months now, Sam has been asking me when she can go play at the playground at school. I asked her why she wanted to early on and she explained to me that she can now reach the monkey bars (if you recall, the fact that she could not was a huge source of anxiety for her when school started). She wanted to surprise Mark by not telling him, but showing him, and in her words, she couldn’t keep it a secret much longer! We did wind up going, finally, today. She couldn’t wait to show off how very big she had become.

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She takes a big jump and – she does it! She hangs on! She can’t go from one bar to the next yet (that takes some arm strength she just doesn’t have), but she is so proud that she can at least reach.

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Mark goofed around with her by pretending to be stuck in one of the little entrance ways and Sam went right up to help him get out. She told us that is where she sometimes sits with her friends, Alyssa and Kate (her bus friends she also has recess with). I asked her what they play together and she looked at me like I had five heads and said (in a very annoyed 13 year old voice), “Mom…we have conversations. We CHAT.” Alrighty then.

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Mark tried to help her move from bar to bar, but she wasn’t really having it. I think she doesn’t have the confidence yet to move along, but she is happy just doing what she can.

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Right before we left, Sam wanted to go have a look off the deck of the outdoor classroom. I wasn’t going to walk over and I just decided to take this picture of them. I love how small they look in the big woods. It was clear they were looking at something, so I did eventually go over when they called me to see what the fuss was about. I only got  a fleeting glimpse of what they saw – 11 deer! All in a group together. How amazing! Right behind her school. I wish I had gone over earlier. It would have been quite the sight to see. We are really going to miss her school after this year. It’s a great place, both inside and out.

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