pamelamyers | May 13, 2016
For Mark’s actual birthday, we needed to have some additional celebration. It’s bad enough that he had to work that day, so we needed to make it somewhat fun. We saved one gift for him to open and had yet more cake! SO MUCH CAKE! Happy birthday to the best husband and father anyone could ask for!
pamelamyers | May 10, 2016
One of the best things in the whole entire world is being loved by Samantha. Seeing her little grin, feeling her hugs, there is nothing like it. I just love seeing pictures of her little face. It has been a long time since she has sat still like she used to so that Mark could take a million pictures of her, but she decided she’d cooperate for once. Here’s my little peanut in one of Mark’s favorite places for pictures — in the doorway from our porch, where the light always seems to be pretty.
It didn’t take long for the cats to come join her. They are as in love with the porch as Zephyr was.
Poor kitties, always getting smooshed.
But who can complain when Samantha is doing the smooshing? She is one sweet little girl.
And one goofy one too…
Penny is always getting hugged by Sam, and she seems to like it, but Zach is not really a lap cat kind of guy. He shows that he loves her in other ways, though, for sure.
pamelamyers | May 9, 2016
On Mother’s Day night, Sam wanted to swing for a bit and it was cool, but sunny, so why not. Sam’s big thing is always that she wants to swing as high as the moon, or at least up into the trees. My mom was swinging her really high and for the first time she actually touched the tree with her foot!
That was one excited and proud little girl! She was screaming all over the place, “I did it! I touched the tree! I touched the tree!” She wanted to swing a million times after that to do it again and again.
It’s funny, it’s the little moments like this that I think she will always remember. We, as parents, tend to focus on the big stuff, but to a little girl, the day she swung so high she reached the tree is one of the biggest.
pamelamyers | May 9, 2016
Another Mother’s Day has gone by and for another year, I got to be the luckiest mom in the world. It is so hard to remember how lucky I am sometimes. The day to day craziness of motherhood, and life in general, overwhelms you and you forget. This year, I wanted to make a real effort to enjoy my day and to take the time to savor every second with my little one.
The day started out nicely (actually, it started the day before when Mark brought me flowers from Sam and the kittens!)
On Mother’s Day morning, that started early, of course (Sam’s is not one for sleeping in), we immediately had to open presents! I did manage to make Samantha wait until Mark woke up so that we could have some pictures. Sam’s first gift was one she made at school. I love it!
Me and all my babies. 🙂
Sam also made me a card at school. She was very proud of how it was decorated.
The “interview” that her teacher did cracks me up. She did ok in some respects (although I do NOT have blue eyes) and well, I would guess you can figure out some of the other issues with her answers. 🙂 My favorite answers are that I like to watch the weather (I am always shushing her on days I am home so I can hear the forecast) and that I am always saying, “You have to eat!” She does know me well.
My mom and Mark’s dad came over for dinner and we had more presents after. She and Mark had picked out some cool cake molds in the shape of kitty paws and Lego people. I also got a whole bunch of nice clothes. I made out ok, believe me.
The best part of the day according to Sam is the cake!
Time for family portraits! It was a bit chilly for Mother’s Day, hence the sweaters! It is ridiculous. Summer is never going to come.
Luckiest mom in the world. That’s me.
pamelamyers | May 8, 2016
We were celebrating Mark’s birthday before his actual birthday this year, which is ok with us! Sam likes that idea because it means that presents will be opened early. She knows what Mark’s presents are and there is one in particular she can’t wait to get her hands on!
As usual, I baked the cake (with Sam’s help). I did frost it by myself but then let Sam decorate any way she wanted to. She was very intent on doing a good job!
I wrote Happy Birthday but Sam did all the flowers and the “dad” herself. She made sure to tell us that the one on the right is a tulip.
Mark was very happy with the efforts of his little girl.
Did you happen to notice her lovely pink polish? Sam wanted us to give each other manicures, so we did! I did her nails and she did mine. I have to say, she surprised me and did a great job! I had no extraneous polish on my fingers and she only got a little bit on her own hands. That’s the first manicure I have had in years!
We had dinner with the whole family, of course. It was supposed to be a picnic type event at Ridley Creek State Park, but the weather did not cooperate. It was so rainy for days that we had to call it off. Instead, we made a favorite, pasta, at home and just enjoyed being together.
The first gift that Sam gave Mark was a picture she made. Grandmom helped her frame it. It is a small photo of Mark that Sam cut out and drew a picture around. She is quite talented!
Zach and Penny got him this car magnet. It runs in the family, I guess… 🙂
On to Sam’s favorite gift. I found all of Mark’s old Lego space sets on ebay and bought them for him. She cannot wait to build space stations with her Daddy! Mark was pretty excited. He apparently played with these non-stop as a kid. He still has a lot of the pieces and he and Sam play with them a lot, but to have the whole sets with instructions is pretty cool.
Mark picked out these Vans sneakers because he liked them, but also because he thought Sam would like them. She likes snazzy shoes!
Here are Sam and her Daddy wearing their Vans. Not matching, but still crazy enough that Sam loved it.
Cake time! All the kids wanted in on that action!
All in all, I hope Mark had a good day, even though the plans changed a bit from what he wanted. He is a great dad, and a wonderful husband and he deserves the best. Happy Birthday, Daddy!