Guest Reader

| April 20, 2017

Today Mark and I were mystery readers in Sam’s class. Usually it is me that goes, but Sam really loved the idea of Mark coming too. When I signed up for the slot months ago, I told Mark about it, but didn’t tell Sam. She was so excited when we showed up at school! The first thing she said to Mark when she came out to get us in the hallway was, “What are you doing here?” She had that cute, sideways smile on her face that tells you she is tickled pink.

Mark did such a great job reading to the kids. They loved the book, one of Sam’s favorites, called, Goodnight Already!

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I warned Mark that reading isn’t as simple as reading, because the kids have a hundred comments and questions and you get interrupted a million times, but he rolled with it fine.

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There is always time for at least three books, so then it was my turn. I read School’s First Day of School, another of Sam’s favorites, and finished off with a Frog and Toad story. The kids seemed to love the books.

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I really love being in her classroom. I go as often as possible, and volunteer at lunch whenever I can. It makes Sam happy, and it gives me a little glimpse into her daily life without me. I’m glad Mark got that chance too. And I’m glad he got the chance to show off his skills with the kids. He has always been better in general with kids than I am, and today, it showed.

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The Bunny Came!

| April 17, 2017

The Easter Bunny didn’t forget Samantha this year! Once again, he hid her basket. We had a bit of a calamity in our kitchen recently from some water damage (don’t ask…that’s a story for another day), so we had to empty out a lot of our kitchen. The almost empty coat closet left a big space for a basket! How could a bunny resist? It was not the first place Sam looked, but it didn’t take her long to discover her loot.

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As you can see, it was a heavy basket – quite the haul!

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Sam couldn’t rip into it fast enough. That darn bunny always wraps up her basket!

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Her favorite chocolate, and lots of other goodies too. The bunny must have known what an excellent reader she has become because she got some new books.

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The night before Easter, Sam told me she wanted to leave the Easter Bunny a note. She wanted to know what color he is. She asked that he write back, and she also left her camera hoping he’d take a picture of himself. I told Sam that was a stretch because I don’t know if bunnies can write, but she seemed confident. She always wonders what color he is – brown, white, black. Ever since she noticed that the Easter Bunnies at the mall are various colors (she does not believe that they are the real Easter Bunny), she just has to know! After opening her basket, we spied her note and…the Bunny wrote back! She also found a mysterious photo on her camera.

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The Easter Bunny left her a nice note with a picture of a heart pierced by a carrot and signed it, “EB”. Hmmmm…..

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And we found this on her camera! Apparently, he tried to take a photo of her basket, but got his foot in the photo by mistake. Well, I guess she knows what color he is now!

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Sam had to show us her foot next. Goofball!

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Once we were all dressed in our holiday finest, we went out to take some more pictures. I just love that beautiful face!

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If her whole outfit were in this one, she’d look like a catalog model for the dress! It’s one of our favorite pics of the day.

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Grandmom has been asking Mark to take a nice picture of the three of us, but Sam made it hard. She kept goofing around and wanting to squish us in every picture. They turned out pretty well though, eventually.

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Family photos are the best part of the holidays. Everyone cleans up nicely, if I do say so myself.

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Before dinner, my mom gave Sam a special Easter gift – a locket with a picture of her Grandmom and Poppy. Sam just loves it. She has been really missing her Poppy lately, so it helps to have them close to her heart.

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The day was so gorgeous (over 80 degrees!) and my kitchen is such a wreck that we all ate outside. Sam and Ryder had a great time with their cake. Well…the frosting. Not the cake.

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Sam got her bug examination kit and the kids all had fun catching bugs and putting them in a jar to explore. They found so many slugs and insisted on showing them to us. Um…no, thank you.

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Here they are with a jar full of slugs. Blech! But they look happy!

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We managed to get them all to settle down enough to take some nice pictures. It’s been a while since the cousins got a new photo together. They are growing up way too fast. Happy Easter everyone!

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Happy Easter!

| April 16, 2017

Happy Easter everyone! There will be lots of fun Easter basket photos to come, but for now, here is our beautiful girl. Yup, she is wearing clip-on earrings. She is fascinated with earrings and that’s all she’s gonna get!

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Where does she get these things?

| April 15, 2017

Tonight is the night before Easter. I was pushing Sam on her swing and messing with her a bit since she is so incredibly excited about the Easter Bunny. You’d think it was Christmas Eve, I swear. So, I said to her, “What are you going to do if the Easter Bunny skips our house and doesn’t come and you don’t get a basket?” She says to me, very seriously, “Well, if he doesn’t leave me a basket, I am going to go to Lina’s and I’ll take her basket, and if Lina didn’t get a basket, I’m going to go to Julia’s house and take her basket, and if Julia didn’t get a basket, I’m going to take Ryder’s basket, and if Ryder didn’t get a basket, I’m going to take Emma’s basket, and if Emma didn’t get a basket….things are going to get messy!” Well. Ok. At least she has a plan!

Then, when it was bedtime she raced into her room and I quickly reminded her to head for the bathroom so she could brush. She suddenly says, very dramatically, “The teeth brushing!…Oh, the humanity!” Where did this kid come from? Seriously.

Riding the Trail

| April 14, 2017

Today since the weather was so nice, we took Sam somewhere that she could ride on her bike for a long time without having to stop. We thought the new Chester Creek Trail may be a good choice since it’s relatively flat and straight and hopefully, wouldn’t be crowded like last time since it was a weekday. Success! It wasn’t crowded and Sam had a great time. She rode almost the entire trail – 4 miles! And there were no complaints of “I’m tired!” or “When can we go home?” like we would have heard if we had been walking. She did so incredibly well considering it was her first real “road test” where she was riding with other people walking or biking near her instead of being alone in a parking lot. Her starts have gotten tremendously better too! Here are some pictures of our day.

When we got to the end, I told Sam I’d take her picture next to her proof that she biked the whole trail.

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There was a sign at the end indicating a bakery was up the road, so Mark went off to investigate. There was! He rewarded us for our hard work with some glazed donuts. Yum! We at them over by the creek. I love this photo of Sam and her dad, just relaxing.

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Me and my girl. 🙂 I can’t wait to go riding with her again!

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