Jakey

Most of my recent posts have focused on Tabs but I haven't forgotten Jakey. Here are some pictures of Jake's summer!  He sure had a fun time playing outside, learning new words and just having fun being an active one year old!

Birthday Parties!

This past year has been filled with birthday parties galore.  For awhile it was about once a month, but over the summer it seemed more often. Tabitha always had a great time.  Her favorite though was one with a good friend.  We were invited out to their cabin about an hour away.  It's a beautiful location on a lake and we got to celebrate with his family.  

Tabs certainly enjoyed every part of the party including the jet skiing, tubing and fishing. She caught her first fish and even gave it a kiss.  

All in all it was a fantastic day!

Up North

With so much going on during the summer we didn't have much of an opportunity to take a vacation; however we found some time to get away.  In early August I had my Bemidji State Alumni Board meeting, so the rest of the family tagged along.  Since the meeting was a total of about 4 hours we had a whole lot of time to have fun.  We were able to visit a couple of state parks, ride bikes, play in Lake Bemidji, visit Paul Bunyan and just hang out.  It was a nice relaxing weekend and we can't wait to do it again soon!

A five year old!

As July began wearing down, it was time to start thinking about Tabitha's birthday. Because we had gone to see the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast in the spring, she decided she wanted a Belle themed birthday party.

Once again we hosted the party at our house.  While I had a few activities planned for the kids, it was more about them running around the backyard, eating, and opening gifts.  We asked the kids to dress up as a prince or a princess and they did not fail....everyone came dressed as something!  

In the end it was a fun (and tiring) day.  The birthday girl had a great time and we were all left wondering what happened to another year!

Gymnastics fun!

This summer Tabitha took some gymnastics lessons. She really loved them and can't wait to sign up for some more!

4th of July fun

Back to catching up....the end of June was relatively quiet. We enjoyed some family time and in our free time James and I were preparing for our next races.  

When July arrived we decided to stay in town for the 4th.  Mainly because I had race #3 of a 4 race series.  But...in addition to the race we found some time to go to a parade, have some ice cream and just have fun!  It was a great weekend!

Back on the wagon...

In September I said I was going to get caught up with my blog posts.  Obviously that didn't happen as life threw more busyness our way.  My hope is now that things have slowed down somewhat I can start getting caught up.  I blog as a way for family and friends to keep up on what we are doing but also to have memories for the kids.

So, I left off in June with a visit by Aunt Mary.  A few weeks later, James' mom came to visit us.  We had a great time together and the kids loved having "Indiana Grandma" stay at our house.  We can't wait to have her back again.

While she was here Tabitha had her dance recital. It was fun to watch her confidence on the stage.  Apparently dancing in front of a theater full of adults has no impact on her.  Like last year she was front and center and did a fantastic job!  It capped off another successful year of dance class.