Families are important to all of us in the delightful group at Family Friendly Schools. FFS is now my new home to be able to put all the ideas of families and schools working together for successful learning. It's a great place to be and as I said, families are pretty important to us.

So..as I did when I started my newspaper column years ago, here's a bit of sharing about my own family. Those children I told you about when they were in grade school are now grown and beginning to have children of their own. Those ideas we shared about playing, learning, and doing things together are paying off for the next generation of offspring in the Samples clan.

This is my daughter Jennifer's baby. Her name is London. She's enjoying her first birthday party. I didn't know my house could hold that many people, especially that many people enjoying themselves for a one-year-old's party, but enjoy we did. Especially London.