The story of the swallows

Chris was fascinated by the baby birds that hatched on our security light over the garage. He would go out and talk with them and took many pictures as they grew. I thought he would like to keep forever his birds and the story of their growth...

Week one after they are born:

Week 2, a little bigger...

Week 3...

Week 5, they have gotten much bigger!

Right before they flew away for the winter...

Iowa State Fair

How could we live so close to the "famous Iowa State Fair" and not go? So off we went for a fun filled day. It was just about 2 hours away so we didn't get a hotel room, much to Tori's dismay she kept asking in the afternoon if we could go to the hotel room for a nap, poor thing.
Here they are first thing, bright and bushy tailed...
Of course you can't go without feeding some deer...

Then we stopped for a pony ride. You gotta love the hat!

Abby, she is very good with balance on horses and doesn't need help these days. I could see her ridding as she got older.

After riding we were so hot we looked for the nearest indoor exhibit to cool down. So off we went into the hall with all the cakes. Here are some of my favorites:

The Farm

I loved the box cake and the wedding cake behind Tori.

How can you not love a purse that is also a cake?

The dinner plate and the ferret on the blanket...

Next we rode the sky ride. If you look really close you can see the terror in Chris' eyes, this was not his favorite and I don't know if I will ever get him on one of these again, just look at the grip on the handle bar!

We stopped and let the girls do this really cool jumping on trampolines. You have the trampoline, but them also have a harness that has a bunch of bungee cords attached that help you go really, really high! Abby went first.

She loved this thing...

Here is some video of her jumping, she got really high!



Next it was Tori's turn, she was much smaller so it was harder for her to jump as high.

Someday I will learn you can't turn the camera...maybe...

We saw lots of the animals we sat and watched sheep shearing for a while, it was very interesting, needless to say, these have all seen the sheers, just look at how many of them there are!

Tori was very fascinated by all the sheep.

I wish I had counted how many sheep they got in this truck. It was so full they couldn't even move, and it had a top and a bottom layer, wow!

This is for my Dad, since he goes hunting each year and no catches I thought he might like to see what an elk actually looks like (LOL).

This huge pig was so big he didn't even move while we were there and what do you think his name was....

You guessed it.

We had to take a picture of the Pamomino, Abby kept talking about how she decorates the Pamomino in her Disney game.

We were trying to occupy Abby until we got into the restroom because there was a huge line, not sure what she is doing, but she is happy and occupied, goal accomplished!

When Tori came out, she also got into the act. Lastly, we stopped to see Lamb Chop. That brings me back a few years. She was very good and the girls both liked it. Abby was all about the stage, Tori wouldn't even get close.

After this we were on the opposite side of the grounds, unfortunately, we did not bring the stroller, so we got to carry them both all the way back to the entrance and to the car. That was awful, and a long long walk, especially once Tori fell asleep on me! We stopped on the way out of town for some dinner and headed back home.

Over all it was a long, but very fun day for all of us. I think my favorite part was watching all the animals, and we saw hundreds of them and seeing how the girls enjoyed it. We will have to do this again, but maybe wait until 2012!

Picnic day

Tori had a picnic lunch today that the parents were invited to, so of course I had to come. I was very impressed at how well they all did. Three year old children really can get their own food, and feed themselves, who would have thought!
This is Tori's friend Eliza, they have lots of fun in class together and like to play together too!

First Day of School and back to school night

Today was Abby's much anticipated first day of school. For the last several weeks she has been talking about it non-stop. However when the first day came, she was very quiet today and reserved. When we were taking pictures she was fine with that. Tori wasn't so sure about leaving her sister at a school she couldn't see her either.

She is sporting her iCarly lunch box and backpack. She was adamant that she wanted to take her lunch on the first day so we packed her a yummy lunch.

Last week, we had back to school night. This is her teacher, Ms. Stein, who is super cute and I think Abby will really like. The room was super cute with all the work she had done before the kids arrived on the first day.

Her spot in the class room, where she had all her supplies and it even had her name on it!

When she got home after school, I asked her how her day was, and she said "it was fine, but I don't want to talk about it". She was WORN out and ready for bed at 8:00 tonight.

Look how smart I am

We went to get Chris some classes for Chris today, and Tori thought she would make herself at home while wearing some of these fine glasses! This was a big day as he moved to contacts too, I am not used to see him in glasses yet!

The last days...before school

We took today in the 100 degree weather and off to the parks we went. We tried to feed the ducks, but the fish were more into the whole idea of feeding. They would leap over each other to get at the food, it was very fascinating!

Then onto the second park, there we took a walk to this really cool and big tepee. Abby was the first one to make it there. Once Tori got there, she took off her shoes and sat down in the sand. Oh how she loved the sand.

Next we talked to the top of the tower that they use to look for fires. It took a really long time to climb, but both kids did great. It was fun how the weather changed as we got higher. The more we climbed the cooler it got! You could see for a long ways too once we were at the top.

Next we went to paint ceramics. Tori chose a mushroom to paint and she also choose to use lots of colors to make her rainbow.

Abby decorated a dog. They both really liked making these and the price was right too for this "keepsake".

Below is a little video that the made about their painting experience.

It was a fun, long day and we all enjoyed it, even though it was really, really hot! Tomorrow it is just Abby and I for her last day before school starts!

Fun at the Zoo!

With only a couple days left till Abby starts kindergarten, I took a few days off of work and we played our little hearts out.

Day one was spent at the zoo, sorry not to many great pictures with this entry, here we are enjoying a fine set of penguins, an ostrich and giraffe's, kind of an odd combination if you ask me?
Here is some video that Abby took, riveting, I know!

The bronze giraffes...

Tori sporting her cute Tori tongue.

We ended the night was Abby piling all her stuffed animals on her bed and then doing a pose with them...kinda reminds me of the time I piled all my animals in the corner and then put my younger sibling (as a baby) on the top!

How to build your own slide

How to build your own slide:
1st get all the blankets out of the closet
2nd place them on the stairs
3rd just slide on down
Here let me show you how it is done, sorry my mom keeps forgetting you CAN NOT turn the camera when using video...