Tori's Dance Recital 2011

Another year - another dance recital. :) Tori sure loves everything about dancing - especially getting all dressed up for the recital. Below are pictures of her class in their tap and ballet costumes.

I've included probably more videos than anyone except for Grandma will watch. The first video of them doing their recital dance in the studio I like the best since you can really see Tori and her facial expressions. I was impressed with how she can move her hips - I thought it was very fun to watch. :)

Here is a picture of what Ellie was thankfully doing while I was video taping (James as you can see in the video was not sleeping).

Siri and Tori right after the dress rehearsal. Below James wanted to be in a picture, too.

Jaci, Tori, Claire, & Siri striking a pose right before the dance recital.

Proud, but sleepy family after Tori's recital (it didn't end until after 9pm).

Happy Valentine's Day

We started out Valentine's day by having some friends over (I swap babysitting with a friend so we can volunteer in our kids' classrooms.). I didn't pose them for this picture (above) they all just climbed up on the chair together and sat there looking cute, while I ran and got the camera. James is sitting with Luke and Kate. He loves it when they come over and when he gets to go to their house. He gets really excited and will say, "Kate, Kate" over and over again.

These are a few pictures of Tori's class Valentine's party. The kids that Tori sits with at her table starting with her and going clockwise: Tori, Parker, Payton, Abby, McKenzie and Jack. Below Tori is enjoying all the treats that were brought in for snack.

Above, James is watching all the kids at the party after having his treat. All the little girls in Tori's class love playing with him when we visit her class for parties.

We had a few friends over to exchange Valentines (at Tori's request) after school. Tori is a sucker for holidays and loves any excuse to have a party. Here are Tori and James filling bags with friends.

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.

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.

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.

Soccer Summer 2010

Tori did soccer this summer and had a great time. She still played in the 3-4 year old league since she's not quite 5 yet. It was fun that she got to play with some of our friends that just barely turned 3. This meant that she was actually one of the bigger and better players on the team which was a ton of fun for Tori. This year soccer was a lot different compared to last year where she mostly picked flowers and socialized. There was still plenty of socializing this year, but she got the ball a lot and in one game scored 4 goals! (Of course that was the game I forgot the video camera.)

Her team was yellow again, just like last year, and their name was "Crew". Below from left to right starting at the top Robert's dad, Luke D., Robert, Tori, Keifer's dad, Andrew, Luke, Keifer.

Below is a video of one of Tori's first games this season. I thought it was the cutest thing in the world - she almost scored a goal (at this point she had never scored one before) and she comes running up to me in the middle of the game to say, "Did you see that?" She was having so much fun it made my day.

You may ask why there are pictures of Tori with curlers in the soccer post. This is because the night before soccer she asked me to do her hair in curlers so she would look pretty for soccer. We may have gotten better at soccer, but she is still all girl! Below is a picture of her hair after we took the curlers out. She started to sleep and decided that they weren't comfortable, but still wanted me to take a picture of her "beautiful curls".

Saying Goodbye

With all the moving around that we've had to do for John's training, friends have become really important to us. It's hard always being far from family. Great friends have made this crazy journey through medical training actually a lot of fun. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to a few of them this year since they have moved on to the next step in their training. We are better people for having known them, and we look forward to keeping these friendships for the rest of our lives. Below are a few pictures of us saying goodbye.

Holly, Katie, Heather, Kristie, Alisha, Amy & Jessica

Tori, Megan, Naomi, Riggs and Anne enjoying some fun time together while their parents loaded the truck.