Sammie lost her FIRST tooth!

I can not believe Sammie is already old enough to loose her first tooth. I was able to capture the excitement. We had to go to the craft store today to make a tooth box so the tooth fairy could find her tooth tonight. She was soooooo excited to make the box. It was a special trip we took in getting the right box, paint and the decorations for the box. I am just glad we finished the box in time. Check out the pictures below to show here excitement. (Don't mind the dirty face and all. I wanted to capture it in true essence of Sammie.)

Smile show me the loose tooth.

Sammie pointing out what tooth is loose. (She would wiggle the tooth back and forth.)

The smile with the loose tooth.

Close up of the loose tooth.

The tooth box.

Sammie showing me the tooth box.

See the tooth missing?

Calling Robert and Drew to tell them the news.

We are so excited for Sammie loosing her first tooth. YEA SAMMIE!

No Training Wheels

Video of Sammie and Drew riding their bikes.

Field Day Video

Enjoy.

Sledding

Robert took the kids sledding. Here is proof of all the fun!

Sammie's Ballet Performance

Today was Sammie's first ballet performance with a live audience. She is one of the youngest in her class. (that is why she is so much smaller than the other kids.) Sammie was sick all week and I was scared that she wouldn't get better before today but she is a trooper. Great job Sammie!





Taking pictures with Sweet C. Drew was way too tired to take pictures.


Daddy was so proud of his little ballerina.


We are so proud of you, Sammie.

Sammie's Last Day of Ballet 12.6.08

Enjoy the video...Sorry for the poor quality. But you get the idea. She loves ballet.

First day of Pre-school (Sammie and Drew)

So today was Sammie and Drew's first day of pre-school with the Chicago Park District. It is such a great program, I am excited for the two of them and I know when they go to real school they will be ready socially and academically. I did take a couple of pictures of them before heading out to school. Sammie asked if I could take them to school in Daddy's car. So luckily Robert didn't have to be at work until later. So we got the kids off to school on time.

Today was parent orientation. I was really impressed with Ms. Shepard, the director of that particular Park District, and her staff with what they have to offer. They defiantly go above and beyond any other Park Districts here in Chicago. If some of you don't know the motto of Chicago Park District is "come out and play" so this is the city's way of having recreational activities at your local Park District. But over time Ms. Shepard has connected with her community and is really out there to help us as parent prepare the kids for real life and "big school". This year she was showing us the curriculum she has planned for the kids. They will be taught Math, Science, basic Spanish, African Drumming, phonics in preparation for reading and start with the writing. We will be getting progress reports on everything. (okay...remember this is for 2-4 year old and this is way above and beyond what any other park district in the city is doing) I am just really impressed with the attentiveness (Is that a word?) to the kids and the genuine concern about learning and starting off the kids with a solid foundation. I love it....it goes together with my teachings goals for the kids. So hand and hand we will be working together to build a solid foundation for our kids education. (phhhew...I just kept going there...okay you get it. I like it.)

Originally, the kids were going from 9-12 M-F with the option of extending it to 3. We decided to go with the extended time because, Sammie never takes a nap and Drew is down to one, he will take one there and Sweet C will be home with me taking her two naps while the other two are at school. It works out better for all of us. The kids are excited to be back to school. I will post the pictures when Robert gets back from work.

Today, our buddy Jay from Texas will be hanging out with us for a couple of hours. Just catching up...I am so excited. So Robert will pick Jay up at the hotel then they will be coming home. So..my point...Robert has the camera for work and the pictures I took for the kids first day of school is on the camera....which means I won't get the pictures until late tonight and with Jay visiting I won't be able to download them right away. IN addition ,I also post the Tuesday tips on scrapbooking for my work's blog here http://www.thebreezebloggers.blogspot.com/
so by the time I post my Tuesday Tip for work I will try and post the pictures for this post.
Sorry....our life is just so crazy.

Okay...quick rundown. This Thursday is Robert's birthday. But instead of celebrating Robert's birthday will be at the pre-school celebrating Sammie's birthday. since her birthday was the 11th and school did not start until today. So we decided to bring the party to her school. It makes it easier on us and makes Sammie feel like a princess for the day. This weekend at my work we are doing something called Scrap Pink it is a three day crop (where people get together to work on their scrapbooks and have the store at their disposal while they are working on their projects, great fun and very social) Friday, Saturday and Sunday together with the Susan B.Colman foundation we will be hosting this crop at our store. I will be working this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the store. There are other scrapbook stores across the nation that are doing the same thing in their local area...so if you are a scrapbooker go to your local scrapbook store and attend this crop. Partial of the crop fee will be given to the Susan B. Coleman foundation for breast cancer. So with that all out. I will do my best to post pictures and updates this week.

Mom and Dad.. Love you and hope you are having fun in the Philippines in preparations for retirement. Can not wait till you get back and show us pictures.

Okay..enough blabbing. Talk to yall soon. :)SESIL

Sammie's special day with Tia

Phyllis aka Tia took Sammie to get a manicure and pedicure for her birthday. They spent the whole day together just being girls. Sammie is a total girly girl. Unfortunately I am not so that is where Tia comes in. Tia is always dressed so nice and Sammie loves being with Tia.

Side note: I was getting dressed ready to attend George Sr.'s wake with the kids and Sammie tells me "Mommy why do you have Tia's shoes on?" I was wearing high heel shoes like Tia would wear. So I got finished getting dressed, doing my hair and got everyone in the car....I went back up to the house to set the alarm and lock the door Andrew says "Look Sammie there is Tia." It was me dressed up and I think it was his way of telling me that I looked nice.

Okay...so you see this is why we need Tia in our lives so she can show Sammie and Caroline to be a true lady. I just wear t-shirts and jeans because the kids get me dirty in 20 seconds. One day I will be able to wear nice clothes again...but until then Tia will have to be their role model.

Here are some pictures of Sammie on her special day with Tia.
Enjoy. :)sesil

Thank you Tia - I had a great time - Sammie.

Digital Layout.

Here is a digital layout I did for sammie's first day of ballet.

Circus

Last night Robert and I took Sammie and Drew to the circus. Sammie was excited and kept talking about the elephants, tigers and seeing JoJo(If some of you don't know Jo Jo is a clown on her TV show with Playhouse Disney and is her favorite cartoon) the ENTIRE way to the circus. We get there and get the tickets. We got general admition tickets so we found some seats and Robert was off to get the snacks and goodies. While waiting for the show to start they have elephant rides and pony rides for the kids to participate. We decided that was not something for us but the kids did like watching all the other kids riding the animals. Andrew kept waving a the elephants. Robert gets back with the goodies and the show finally starts.

The show started off with the Lion and Tigers. What amazing animals! Then there was this Romanian couple that did acrobatic maneuvers, while suspended high about the circus. Then there was an elephant that could balance and walk on this large cylendar thing. It was amazing. Then there were these ladies that would go up on the ropes and do their dancing and hanging from the ropes while the guys on the ground would swing the rope to make them spin. (do you know what i am talking about here?)

By that time Sammie was exausted and was ready to go home. so we packed up the kids and headed back to the house. I think we missed the majority of the show but the kids were just way tooo tired and I did not want to get to the point of them loosing thier minds because they were tired stage. We made it home by 9:30 and the kids just crashed. I think they had a good time, too bad we didn't get a chance to see the whole show. Maybe next year.

What does your day look like?

This is what my day looks like. Watching Sammie and Drew...Sammie's messy hair and Drew half dressed. Sorry I have not been able to update the blog. I have been tired and busy with the kids. I will block out more time and update everything...so it will be a long post.

Have to share a funny story.... Sammie is really starting to talk more and more. One night Robert put Sammie down for the night and she brought "Caterpillar" to bed with her. As some of you know it can get a little loud when a car/truck or something with a large engine passes by the house. So she is in her bed and a loud car drives by and this is what she said....

"What was that, Caterpillar?"

"That was a truck."

"Can you say truck, Caterpillar?"

Okay....can you see how we talk to Sammie? It was so funny for her to have a conversation with Caterpillar.

Okay folks. Sorry for my lame slacking pregnant self. I will post more later. :)SESIL

Sammie and her coffee...

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Originally uploaded by cr8n00.

So every morning Sammie likes to have her own special coffee "hot chocolate". While mommy has her coffee so does sammie.

Coffee and a little music...

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Originally uploaded by cr8n00.

Sammie likes her music....coffee or music what will it be?

Just wanted to share some pictures today.... I will post some of Drew too.
by the way that is a harmonica she has in her mouth.

“Who is Gray?”

Sammie and I were playing on the computer. Okay…Sammie watches the screen and tells me what to click, she can not work the mouse yet….but we are working on that. So the game we were playing we had to figure out what color went with the correct animal. So there was an elephant, pig and a dog. So this is how the conversation went……

Computer pops up the color Brown.

Me: “ Sammie, what color is that?”
Sammie: “Brown!”
Me: “Who is Brown?”
Sammie: “Woof…the dog!”
Me: “ Good Job…okay.. next one.”

Computer pop up the color Pink…

Me: “Sammie what color is that?”
Sammie: “PINK!”
(Did I tell you her favorite color is pink?)
Me: “ Who is Pink?”
Sammie: “Oink…pig”
Me: “ Good job…okay… last one.”

Computer pops up the color Gray…

Me: “Okay Sammie last one…this one is a little hard. What color is this?”
Sammie: Not knowing the color because we never told her says “Black”
Me: “ Close…it is Gray. Who is Gray?”
Sammie: Smiles and says “Sammie”
Me: with a questioned look on my face “What? Try again…Who is Gray?”
Sammie : A little louder voice “SAMMIE!!”

I just laugh….I got it… Samantha GRAY!

Me:”Sammie you are correct… your name is Gray. You are so smart.”
Sammie laughs and says… “ Last one…Elephant!!!”

She is just like her dad…Smart and always trying to pull one over me. She got me.

Wow…not even 2 ½ year old.

So….WHO IS GRAY? SAMANTHA GRAY!!!!

Gardening

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Originally uploaded by cr8n00.

check out the sidebar for more pictures from this day.

June

sprinkler time with Sammie...

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Originally uploaded by cr8n00.

So it is hot here in Chicago...here Sammie is playing in the sprinkler in the back yard. Will post more pictures

Hot day in Chicago...
Today was supper hot. So Sammie, Drew and I played in the sprinkler in the back yard.

I will post some pictures of the family soon. :)SESIL