Happy Birthday John and cute Ellie pics

 These are just a few pictures I took of John blowing out his candles on his birthday.  Tori and James loved helping to make and decorate the cake.  Tori was really excited to make him a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting - one of his favorites.

 These are just a few pictures of our almost one year old girl.  She is our smiley, sweet girl.  She loves shoes of all kinds - especially putting them on her hands.  She is great at saying dada and loves laughing at Tori and James.  We love our little Ellie.

SNOW!!!

 It doesn't really snow much at all where we live in OR.  Tori has been saying all winter long how she has missed how much fun she had in the snow Iowa (I have to remind her that most of the time it was too cold to play outside in the snow in Iowa). :)  Tori was thrilled when we actually got about 2 inches of snow in Oregon!  School was delayed for two hours, which she thought was very cool and we all got dressed up in the snow gear and went outside to play.  James and Tori loved it, Ellie wasn't a fan, but she sure looked cute in her snowsuit. By the afternoon, it had all melted away - I'm sure glad we played in it before school and I brought out the camera.

Museum & OMSI

 Two of the kids favorite places to go in Portland were the Children's Museum and OMSI.  These two pictures are from the museum.  Tori loved building with dad at the Lego exhibit.  James' and Ellie's favorite place was a cool water section they had there.

Below all the rest of the photos are from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry - a really fun place that Tori loved!  It was geared a little bit towards older kids, but it had a special toddler section that was perfect for James and Ellie. 

 Here Tori and John are sitting in a space shuttle - John could barely fit, it's a good thing he didn't want to be an astronaut. :)

Here's John looking into the giant model of an ear. :) 

Bikes

Tori can ride a 2 wheeler without any trainning wheels!!!  She is so thrilled.  It just took a several days of practicing and she got it.  She can even get herself started.  James and Ellie love to sit on the driveway and watch her ride.  James counts off for Tori to start and then he sits and cheers her on.

After walking Tori home from school they all love to play outside and ride their bikes.  I love living someplace where they can still do that in the winter.  Even Ellie loves to ride her little bike.  She swings her little legs and tries to get herself going pretty fast.  She is desperate to keep up with the big kids.  Ellie is turning out to be our little dare-devil.

Fun Stuff and Outfits

 Tori woke up this Saturday morning and really wanted to make a volcano.  Not a bad idea for a rainy Oregon day, so we tried it out.  Tori and James had a lot of fun making the dough and building it and were pretty impressed when we made it erupt.   I think our bottle was a little large so the eruption wasn't super impressive, but they still got a kick out of it.

 Below the kids really wanted to show dad the new Easter outfits they picked out.

 

Lately, James insists on being like Dad and wearing a white shirt and tie to church.  I thought it was really cute so I wanted to get a picture.  I think he looks like a mini missionary. :) 

Super Tori & Super James

When Grandma was visiting she saw how much Tori and James loved playing super-heros, so she sent them some capes and masks.  They loved them!  It's so fun seeing them pretend together.

Ellie didn't get to be a super-hero, but she's super cute. ;)

Fun School Stuff with Tori

Tori's first grade class gave everyone a turn to be student of the week.  They got to make these 3 fun posters about themselves and pick pictures they wanted to share with te class.  Tori loved it and I thought it was a really cute way for the kids to get to know each other.  I love the things she wrote and the pictures she chose to share. 

They also had a daddy-daughter barnyard boogie at her school.  Tori and John had a blast dancing.  They handed out raffle tickets at the beginning of the evening and kept calling out numbers for kids to come and get a small prize.  Tori listened anxiously everytime they called a number and John kept telling her that he never wins raffles and that they weren't going to call her number.  Well, the very last number they called that night was the number on Tori's ticket - she was thrilled!!  She won a cute little bead kit that made a neckless - it was a very fun evening.