Just a reminder that the photos are now all on Flickr and you’ll need to log in in order to see all of the pictures with people in them. Please see the previous update for information on how to sign up.

In case you haven’t already heard, Shannon and I are happy to announce that we’ll be adding one more member to our family. Shannon is due at the end of March and we are planning on keeping the gender a surprise.

I hope everyone had a good summer and I’ll try to be better about keeping up on the pictures

I will continue to occasionally post blog updates here, but have decided to move all of our photos to a family account on Flickr. The pictures that are currently on shannonmartin.com will remain for the foreseeable future. There are a few main reasons why I have decided to use Flickr for our photos:

• The ability to comment on our photos
• The ability to easily order prints online of our photos
• Security: only Friends and Family will be able to see pictures containing people
• Storage: Flickr offers unlimited storage (and we have about 30GB of photos to upload)
• Usability: Flickr offers a user friendly interface that is easy to use and navigate
• My Time: I can upload everything to one site and won’t have to worry about emailing pictures to people

Just to reiterate – you will not be able to see pictures with people until you have signed up for Flickr and have been added as a Friend or Family.

By the time you read this, I will already have sent out invites to many of you, but if you have not received one, below is the information on how to sign up:

If you already have a Flickr account, just add us as a contact and we’ll set the appropriate status. If you do not have a Flickr account, go to the Flickr homepage (http://flickr.com) and click on “Create Your Account” on the upper right-hand side.

If you already have a Yahoo account, just enter your Yahoo! ID and password. If not, click on the “Sign Up” link under the “Don’t have a Yahoo! ID?” section.

If you have any problems or questions, let us know!

My (Eric) Flickr account
Our new family Flickr account

If you would like to help support their school, there are a couple of different options:

1) Buy a raffle ticket for the chance to win a 2008 Smart Car, valued at $14,500. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.rosevillecommunitypreschool.org and prices are as follows:

1 ticket = $10
3 tickets = $25
7 tickets = $50
15 tickets = $100
35 tickets = $200

2) Attend the auction. The auction is at the Holiday Inn in Sacramento on Saturday, February 21, 2009 from 5:30 – 10:00 pm and tickets are $50 each. Download an event registration form

3) Become a sponsor (pdf form). Details included in the form.

This is Cooper’s second (and last) year at the school and Caden’s first. We love the school and everything is stands for and hope that our friends and family would consider helping out. The money helps keep the tuition reasonable, purchases art supplies, helps out families with tuition scholarships, helps with continuing education for teachers, plus much more.

Roseville Community Preschool Background and History
Roseville Community Preschool was founded in 1962 in a single story building as a parent/child playgroup. The building had a few windows, a cement floor, and no yard and was located in the far corner of the Placer County Fairgrounds.

In 1966, one of the parents, Bev Bos, took over as director of the playgroup and turned it into a parent cooperative preschool. Over the next 40 years, the school continued to evolve as Bev obtained a degree in early childhood education. Bev is now an internationally-renowned child educator and lecturer specializing in early childhood development.

Roseville Community Preschool continues to be a parent-participation preschool. Its philosophy encourages open play in a free flowing environment and allows children to explore their limits at their own pace. The environment, inside and outside, is rich in the materials young children require to grow physically, intellectually and emotionally. Every day children have the opportunity to explore, discover and “wallow” in all of the education disciplines through their play. Parents take an active part in their child’s education by fulfilling required one-day-per-week classroom participation as well as other commitments including: school maintenance, monthly parent meetings, and fundraising activities.

The Roseville Community Preschool staff, directed by Bev Bos, has established a truly child-centered learning space based on the philosophy that:

“Experience is not the best teacher, it is the only teacher!”

They are particularly fluent in the following areas: art, science, language, music, play environments, gardening, brain development and child development.

Roseville Community Preschool consists of four half-day classes of 24 students each, with two teachers and eight parents working during each session. The ages of the students range from two-years-nine-months to six years old. Due to high demand, there is always a waiting list. The fundraising activities help to ensure that a quality preschool experience is accessible for all families.

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Cooper’s Corner

You can also find a link in the “Links” section below.

I’ve also added more pictures in our gallery for June, July and August.

Enjoy!

ren·ais·sance [ren-uh-sahns]
- a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth;

After two + years of neglect, shannonmartin.com has received a renewal of life!

The site has a new design and is now being powered by WordPress. The design is a highly modified version of the Alley Garden WordPress Theme.

Some changes are in store for the gallery as well. The album that was previous just for the boys, has been renamed to Our Family and will start to include all of our pictures (not just ones of the boys).

As part of this renaissance, I plan on posting more often and am hoping to be able to do some “catch-up” posts, that explain what we’ve been up to for the last couple of years

UPDATE [6/16/08]: Thanks to everyone who signed the guestbook…however, due to uncontrollable spam, I’ve had to remove it

As for the other pictures that were on the site…those are gone for now. We may add them on another site or put them back up later, but right now it’s all about Cooper =)

We purchased most of our cloth diaper supplies from EarthBaby.com.