Birthday Party

Here are some pictures of Tori's birthday party with some friends. Above is her cake (she picked out the cake pan at our local library and helped me frost some of the skirt. She was so excited about the cake a begged me to make it for the whole week before her party. Unfortunately, after I frosted part of it and left some for Tori to do the cake started to fall apart in some places as you can see above. John helped me doctor it up with A LOT more icing and below is how it looked afterwards. It all turned out fine and no one cared, but it was quite a frustrating experience for me nonetheless.

Above, Tori getting ready to blow out the candle while her friends sang to her.

Below she is playing pin the tail on the donkey.

This was the first birthday that she had a pinata and she was so excited and did a pretty good job destroying it. :)

It was a very crazy day for mom and dad, but I think Tori and the kids had a blast. Luckily, James slept through most of the party which made it a little easier to handle all the chaos. What made the day even more exhausting, but also exciting, was that we ended up (unplanned) buying a new car that same day.

Apple picking

There is a fun apple orchard that we like to go to each fall pretty close to us. It's a beautiful place and has wonderful apple turnovers. Unfortunately our trip this time was very brief. We picked a few apples and then Tori reaches in to try and pick an apple all by herself and pulls her hand back just screaming bloody-murder. We asked her what had happened, but she couldn't tell us and we couldn't see any bee or spider. There was a nice red mark on her wrist that swelled up quickly. We're pretty sure she was stung by a wasp or hornet. So, that ended our trip rather abruptly. We were pretty far out in the orchard, so we trekked back up to the orchard shop where they had a first-aid kit. We got Tori all fixed up and ate apple turnovers, which helped her feel a little better. Tori usually doesn't take naps, but once we got home she went straight to her bed and slept for quite a while. Luckily, we snapped a few pictures right before Tori got stung, so we do have a couple cute, happy pictures, but just not that many apples.

Summer Fun

Here are a few pictures from some of the fun things we did this summer. Above, Tori, Megan, Anne and Claire are at Luke's birthday party. Below are some pictures of us at Kent Park Beach.

As you can tell from the pictures - Tori loves the beach. She had a ton of fun swimming and playing in the sand and never wanted to leave. It was a beautiful day - sunny, but not too hot.

James, however, was not a huge fan. He was having a rough day and was very tired. At the time we were working on transitioning to only one nap a day and it was pretty rough. I do think the crying pictures are actually really cute, though.

Above - Tori, Claire and Megan at a new splash pad.

Below- Tori and James on the slide at the pool.

Tori was trying her hardest to make sure she didn't go down too fast on the slide. :)

Tori and dad doing some work together. Lately, Tori really likes to type. I just open a blank Word document and she likes to copy pages from her books on the computer or type little notes to her friends.

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Tori's very first day of kindergarten! I have been very nervous, but she has been super excited. She got really excited after the school had an ice cream social two days before school started where she was able to meet her teacher. Her teacher seems really nice and I think she will be a good fit for Tori. Tori thought it was really cool that she got to pack her own lunch in her new lunch bag and her Dad even told her she could put in a few treats for the first day of school. James and I drove her to school today and she was all smiles as she waved goodbye to us and went inside with her class. I am very happy for her, but I am sitting here thinking how much I'm going to miss her sweet company during the day. She has always been such a cheerful little girl and can make anything fun. I am a very lucky mom.

Tori and James at home right before leaving for the 1st day of kindergarten (Tori's hand is in the air because she was saying, "Gooo Gators" - she's a Garner Gator now.)

Above Tori is standing in front of her school and you can see the door that she goes in each day behind her. Below all the kindergartners line up outside the school each day until it is time to go into their classrooms.

So, did Tori like her first day of school? She absolutely loved it! During an assembly at school they talked to the kids about the after-school program and when I picked Tori up after her first day she was mad at me since she didn't get to go to the after-school program like some of the kids who had both parents work. :) She got over that quickly, but still loves every minute of school and I love to hear all about it the moment I pick her up.

Gymnest

Another thing we end up doing about once or twice a year is go to the local gymnest and let the kids play during lunch time (we wanted to get one last time in before Tori started school).

Tori loved jumping off the platform into the foam pit (she was much more daring this time than she as ever been and even jumped off some really high things).

James loved running around, though it was a bit of a challenge for me to keep him both happy and safe.

James did like bouncing with me on the trampoline - even though it doesn't really look like it from the picture.

The kids were having so much fun it was impossible to get a cute picture of them together.

I was proud of Tori doing the high balance beam all by herself without me even next to her.

I think James had had enough playing for one day.

Zoo Trip

Each year we usually end up going to the Niabi zoo (a small zoo in IL that's really quite fun, especially for the kids). We always tend to take the same pictures, so it's fun to look back and see how the kids have grown. We're missing some friends that moved away in the pictures this time. I believe this is James' first time at this zoo.

Starting on the hippo from left to right - Ricky, Andrew, Tori, Andrew, Luke, Emily holding Kate, Makayla and James.

Tori and Andrew feeding the goats.

Andrew and Tori standing close to an emu that stepped out on the path.

Tori getting close to some birds in the bird house.

Luke, Tori, Andrew, Ricky, Andrew and Mayayla with the giraffes.

James and Kate enjoying their strollers.

I was trying really hard to capture how much James loved riding on the train. He was so excited once it started moving he kept clapping and pointing at all the animals. When it stopped and it was time to get off he started to cry. Since most of the stuff we do tends to be geared towards Tori, it's just so fun to watch him enjoy things, too.

13/14 Months Old

James keeps growing bigger and cuter every day. He had his one year check up when he was 13 months since that's how our schedule worked out, so here's how big he was at that appointment:

Weight: 25 lbs 13 oz

Height: 33.3 inches

He's always been in the 80s-90s for most everything, but this time he went off the chart for height (not too surprising since he seems to be as big as most the 2 year olds we meet). He can now walk and run - didn't take him long to run after he got walking down. As one of John's co-workers put it - he still has a lot more energy than sense - so we have lots of bumps and bruises, but it doesn't seem to bother him much. He is super sweet and smiley. He loves to smile at strangers and then get really shy. He still says mama and dada a lot, but now he also loves to walk around babbling all sorts of sounds in what we assume are full, coherent sentences to him, but Greek to everyone else (it sure sounds cute, though). My favorite thing is that he still loves to give hugs. You sit down anywhere on the floor and he is on top of you giving you a hug or sitting and cuddling in your lap.

Below is just a cute video of when James was just over a year old and liked pushing Tori around on this little toy car. This is before he could even walk by himself. Excuse the crazy colors/lines in the middle of the video - my camera is acting funny lately. They sure have a lot of fun playing with each other. James loves it when Tori chases him and he will follow her anywhere.