Halloween

We got to go to another Halloween party at the hospital put on by an organization for the spouses of residents and med students. This time Tori wanted to be Cinderella (a fun dress-up costume she got for Christmas.

She had fun eating pizza, playing games, coloring trick-or-treat bags (above) and dancing with Megan (below).

They also had a cute little place for pictures (Anne and Tori below).

On Halloween night, Tori again decided that she wanted to dress up as Cinderella. Below is a video of her right before we went out Trick-or Treating.

Below are a few pictures of Tori posing in her Cinderella costume. She loved doing curtsies and bowing.

Below, Daddy taught Tori how to dump out and sort all of her candy after Trick-or-Treating. She had such a blast this year and loved running from door to door saying "trick-or-treat" and ringing the doorbells. The weather was wonderful and it was in the 60s and 70s on Halloween, so we were enjoying being out in the nice night so much that we let Tori stay out really late, until she actually asked if she could be done and go home and have some candy.

Picking and Carving Pumpkins

So we went to a little apple orchard/pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins this year. Tori thought it was the neatest thing in the world to pick her own pumpkin. However, she was adamant that she find a pumpkin which she could carry all by herself. She found a little white one that was just her size and the sales clerk told her that it was called a "Long Island Cheese" pumpkin. From then on she called it her "Long Island Of Cheese". She loved that pumpkin and went on and on about how she found the perfect pumpkin just for her and that it was just the perfect size and she wanted to carry it everywhere. It is so fun to do things like this with her because she gets so excited and happy over the littlest things and then talks about them forever afterwards.

At the pumpkin patch they also had the cut out painted pumpkins above for pictures and I just loved her little hands in the hole.

Carving pumpkins was a lot of fun this year, too. Above Tori is taking seeds out of her pumpkin and below she is helping mom and dad with theirs. She drew the face on her pumpkin and dad helped her cut it out. I think her favorite part was picking out all the seeds so I could roast them the next day. Once I did make the seeds, she couldn't get enough of them.

Below she is carrying her pumpkin out to the front porch.

These pictures are of the final carved pumpkins (the two pumpkins that aren't carved are the ones I used to make "dinner-in-a-pumpkin" on Halloween).

Halloween parties - Tinkerbell

So for our church "Trunk or Treat" and John's ENT department Halloween party Tori dressed up in her Tinkerbell costume. She had so much fun this Halloween, especially since we had a couple of parties to go to; so she got to dress up lots and get a bunch of candy. She loved being in her costume and would just dance around and do curtsies all night. Since the "Trunk or Treat" was a week before Halloween - that whole next week everyday Tori would ask me if we could go Trick or Treating that day.

Above - Tori as Tinkerbell and Megan as Sleeping Beauty.

Above - Tori and Mikah as a cat.

Above - the two Tinkerbells: Anne and Tori

Above is a picture of a bunch of the kids at John's ENT department party.

Mini Golf

So, while we were in Mason City we took Tori mini-golfing for the first time. She had a ton of fun, though, after 18 holes she was definitely done.

It was really fun to watch her swing her club and get so excited when the ball went into the hole. At the beginning of each hole John would try and set her up so she would be hitting it the right way - though it was awkward since we're pretty sure she's left-handed.

The craziest thing was that she got TWO hole-in-ones!! They were done pretty much all by herself, too. John just helped her stand in the right place and hold her club the right way and then stepped back as she swung and twice it went right in the hole.

Below is a picture of Tori in the car wearing her Burger King crown that she got with Dad. She loved it and is still wearing it around the house weeks later.

Mason City

So all of us are back from Mason City (where John was doing a 10 week rotation). We are very happy to be back in our own home, but we really miss the wonderful schedule John had there and all the time we were able to spend with him. Below are a few pictures from our time there.

These are some pictures of us at Clear Lake (the town right next to Mason City). It's sort of an overcast day, but usually the lake was beautiful and we spent a lot of fun days there. A couple of the doctors that John worked with in Mason City owned boats and one of them (Andrew) took us out on his a couple times. What made it even more fun, was that Andrew had two little girls that were 3 and 4 that Tori had a lot of fun playing with. This was Tori's first time on a boat and she was thrilled! She loved going fast and she had a blast tubing! I was surprised that she was brave enough to ride in the tube - after riding in it with John and me she even got in it with just one of the other little girls. She didn't want to stop and kept asking for more. The funny thing, though, was that as soon as it was about nap time Tori fell right asleep on the boat wrapped up in a towel in my arms and we tried to wake her up multiple times, but she would not wake up until the boat stopped.

Below is a picture of Tori in the swing at one of the many parks we went to. There is not too much to do in Mason City, so luckily the weather was wonderful and Tori and I spent a ton of time playing at parks.

These two pictures are just of us hanging out in the little apartment they had for us, which we also did a lot of.

Cute Birthday Outfits

These are just a bunch of pictures I took of some of the really adorable outfits Tori got for her birthday. I try and take pictures of some of my favorite outifts since she grows out of things so fast it makes me sad. All of these clothes are at least size 4T or larger and they fit her perfectly!