Slime!

| October 22, 2017

I don’t know how this became a “thing” but making slime is the most exciting thing for kids Sam’s age to do these days. It’s really not hard, it’s just a bunch of Elmer’s glue, some baking soda, and some contact lens solution, mostly. I always told Sam there was no way in heck we were doing it. I figured it would be a nightmare using all the glue. Well, over the summer, Sam’s friend Lina’s mom told me they made it and it was super easy and not messy at all. I gave in and bought the slime ingredients and Sam and I finally got around to making some. Sam loved it! And really, it wasn’t a big deal at all. The easiest thing to make, and kind of fun to play with. Here’s Sam mixing her first batch of slime.

After we made regular slime, I told her I had a recipe for fluffy slime (that one contains lots of shaving cream). It got huge!

It was so funny. Sam spread it all out on this plastic mat and it totally stuck!

I had bought her some jars to store it in, but…well…maybe the fluffy slime won’t fit. 🙂

We really had a great time doing it and Sam thought I was just the best for letting her. I guess it goes to show, that if I get over my neatnik tendencies and just let her have some good old messy fun, it can really be worth it.

Finally! Sam’s Party!

| October 21, 2017

Sam finally had her kid birthday party today! It took a while this year to get it situated. It’s always hard because her birthday falls so early in the school year and we never know who she is going to want to invite. I had the same problem with the September birthday, but I had it a bit easier because I went to a very small Catholic school and I went from year to year with the same 20 or so kids. Sam has over 300 kids in her year and she is making new friends every year. I wanted to wait until school was in session for a little while to see who she befriended, and then, I have to try to get their addresses. Sam didn’t want to invite all the girls in her class this year (which shocked the heck out of me) so I couldn’t send the invites into school. I had to wait to get the school directory which didn’t come out right away. Then, when I finally had an idea of who she was inviting, I had to find a date to have the party. She wanted a Busy Bees party again and they didn’t have a Saturday free until October 21! Who knew? I remember when that place opened thinking it was a great place but how is it going to last? Well, thankfully, it’s been years and years and they seem to be going strong. Sam invited a few kids in her class this year, a few kids from first grade, and a handful of other girls she has known for a while like Julia and Lina. It turned out to be a very manageable 11 girls. Sam was thrilled.

She wanted a canvas painting party again this year, and she chose this snowman snow globe as her painting. I like it, and I figured that the other parents would be happy to have a Christmas/winter decoration instead of some random painting. Sam’s friend Giselle sat right next to her, as did Julia!

I think all the kids did such a great job! Sam mixed it up a bit and gave her snowman a pink scarf and hat instead of red since it is a girl snowman (she says). She also made red and green buttons instead of black. She always adds her own touch.

I think all the paintings look amazing! Her friends are Delaney, Ella, Alaina, Lydia, Lina, Erin, Julia and MacKenzie. Her friends Giselle and Adrianna had to leave before we took the picture, but they had a great time.

Cake time! Sam had a cat theme again.

One of Sam’s favorite parts of having a Busy Bees party is that she gets to put her handprint on the wall. She chose a spot not far from her first one. You can see her first one on the far right, the red one three from the top.

In this picture you can see both prints!

One of her party favors was a cat headband. Of course, Sam loves hers! Happy Birthday, my beautiful girl! I hope you had an amazing party and will remember having a blast with your friends forever. You deserve it!

Bird Gourd Day

| October 18, 2017

At school this year, like last year, they held an after school Halloween event for the second graders who signed up. This year it was called Bird Gourd Day. Last year it was pumpkins, but it was a decorating event and I knew Sam would want to go. What the heck “bird gourd” meant, I had no idea, until she brought it home. Ah. Now I see!

Her principal takes photos all the time and posts them on Twitter. Here is one of the photos of the Bird Gourd makers! Sam is in the third row from the bottom, three kids in. She loved it!

Walkathon!

| October 17, 2017

Sam had her fundraiser walkathon at school and it was a huge success! The goal was to raise $20,000 and they raised…drum roll please….$30,369.80!!!! It’s insane! I am really happy though that the school managed to raise so much money. All the money benefits the Home & School Association which pays for a ton of activities and other stuff for the kids. All the kids are always really into the walkathon and try really hard to get everyone to donate. This year, the school added a “Penny Power Challenge” as a new thing. They asked all the kids to ask their parents (or anyone else) to give them their pocket change. The kids all put the change into buckets in their classroom. The classroom with the most change won some sort of award. It really wasn’t supposed to be a big fundraiser, just something for the kids to do. It raised an incredible $4,220.32! That’s a lot of pocket change!

I volunteered this year to work the walk because the only parents allowed on the field were those volunteering. It was so fun watching the kids!

The school had everything decorated to motivate the kids to get walking!

Here she comes!

Sam walked pretty much the whole time with her new besties, Giselle and Alaina.

The kids walked laps around the field while music played over huge speakers. There were hundreds of kids on the field and it was crazy mayhem, but they all had a blast. I think they wound up walking about 3 miles.

Sam and her buddies, Delaney, Lydia and Giselle. Congrats, girls! Go Cougars!!

Super Sam

| October 15, 2017

Super Samantha!

Look how high!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Do you recognize me?

I’m a superhero.

Word up!

Awesome!

It’s me again.

Hi!

Look! No hands!

Administrator Mommy’s note: Samantha chose all these captions by herself. She wanted to do her own blog post. I took the swing photos, but Samantha took the selfies!