The big 30

On June 3rd, Brandon turned
30! WOW time has flown. It seems like yesterday we were newly married, and were celebrating his 21st birthday. We started out the day with breakfast in bed. Nothing fancy, but definitely his favorite, Captain Crunch! lol Brandon could live on cereal if he had to.The kids also presented him with this trophy that they spotted at the store and insisted on getting.

Brandon didn't waste time heading downstairs to see his birthday table. He was greeted by this giant balloon. =)

Brandon always thinks all of the presents should be opened first thing in the morning. I usually try to stretch it out throughout the day, but since it was his birthday we let him open them all.

You can never go wrong with new clothes!

Here he is with a spider knife that Tori picked out for him. It's the perfect addition to his knife collection, lol.

For years Brandon has told me that he wanted bagpipes. He just really loves how they sound and wanted to learn to play. I got on Ebay and bought him some, and boy was he surprised. His face says it all!

After Brandon's parents got off work they stopped by with his present and a yummy cake from Cold Stone. It was so tasty!

My parents offered to watch the kids so that Brandon and I could go out to dinner. We went to this new place called, The White Chocolate Grill. It was delicious, and the service was fantastic! We have been recommending it to people ever since. It was so nice to go out just the two of us.

A week later we went out again with a few good friends of ours to celebrate again. We were going to do this thing called "Extreme Challenge" which is this place you can go for parties and do all sorts of gladiator type activities. We ended up having to postpone it though, because a few of the people going had injuries and wouldn't have been able to participate. We are very excited to do that soon though.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Tori's Field Day

Tori's field day was the week after Alexis's. The kindergartners always have separate field day activities then the older grades. They started out with opening ceremonies, which consisted of them marching out to some patriotic music and having a flag ceremony. The sixth graders then did a dance to the song, "Tonight's Going to be a Good Night" and then taught the kindergartners the dance as well. It was very cute, and fun to watch. The kids were all divided into different color groups. Tori was in the red group. Kindergarten field day is much different then 1st grade and up. The kids all sit with their teams, and then when their color is called they go up and do the race. They had about ten different ones. Here is Tori's group sitting on their blanket waiting to start. It was kind of nice not having to walk from event to event.

They had all kinds of races. Some of them were, skipping, hopping, three legged, bean bag, crab walk, and some more that I can't remember right now. It was very non competitive, which was perfect for this age group.

Brandon was helping his parents move all day, but me and Levi had a great time cheering from the sidelines.

After all of the races were done the kids each got a Popsicle and a medal. All of the medals said first place =)

Here is Tori with her teacher Mrs. Zarlengo. Tori really liked her, and was sad to say goodbye on the last day of school.

Afterwards everyone got to have a picnic lunch on the front lawn of the school. It was a very fun laid back day, and a great introduction to field days for Tori.

Kindergarten Graduation

On June 1st, Tori had her kindergarten graduation ceremony. It was quite the production! They had it at a church near the school. I really wanted to get good seats so we got there 45 minutes early. We were the first ones there and were able to get front row seats! We were able to get a few cute pictures of Tori before graduation began. I thought she looked so cute and grown up that night. Alexis and Levi were anxious to be a part of the fun too =)

By looking at Tori's big smiling face, you would never guess that she had been so nervous all day long. So nervous in fact, that I could hardly get her to go to school that morning. I had to walk her in. It was almost like it was the first day of school, not the last day! They had a big practice at the church for their program. I was afraid I was going to have to spend the whole day with her, but after a few tears, some hugs and a lot of reassurance I was able to slip away. She was still really nervous and on edge when I picked her up from school, but then halfway through the day she totally snapped out of it and was so excited! Whew!

At the beginning of the ceremony they had everyone stand and the kindergartners walked in to the graduation march music. It was so cute. They started out with a slide show presentation. First they showed a picture that each of the kids had drawn of what they want to be when they grow up. Tori's said she wanted to be an artist =) Then they played the song "Let Them Be Little" and showed a baby picture of each kindergartner. It was so sweet and very touching. The kids then presented a very cute program which consisted of several darling songs. I was so surprised at how well they all knew the songs. It was so fun to watch Tori. We were so glad that we had a front row seat!

After the cute program they read all of the students names and they got to walk across the stage to get their diplomas

Here she is looking at her diploma once she sat back down.

Here is our cute graduate after the ceremony, with her diploma and flowers from mommy and daddy.

Nana, Grandma and Grandpa, and Michael came to see her graduate. It meant a lot to Tori to have them there, and we got some cute pictures afterwards.

Afterwards we celebrated by going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, and then to Baskin Robbins for dessert!

As I watched Tori on the stage I was so proud of her. She is growing up so fast. She has had a rough end of the school year, and I know it was hard for her to get up there on that stage in front of everyone, but she did so great and we were so proud. What a great end to the year. I can't believe she is a first grader now!