The Missing Year

Here is the missing year. Let's hope I am not making the same post next year!

January 2012 -- Aiden was the student of the week. He brought home a bag with "Whiskers", a journal to document his week with Whiskers, two books about frogs and a poster to fill in about him. The real Whiskers lives in his classroom.

Christmas Eve Day 2011 -- We went sledding behind my moms house. It was a wonderful treat to have snow on Christmas and time to enjoy it.

December 2011 -- We made a Gingerbread Man and suprisingly he ran away. Aiden thought it was great fun and remembered doing it when he was Cora's age. Unfortunately Cora thought it was terrifying to think of the Gingerbread Man running around our house and cried.

November 2011 -- Thanksgiving at my brother (Ian) and sister-in-law's (Lorri) house. We had a huge turkey and lots of yummy dishes that everyone helped bring.

Pictured (Dustin, Seth, Lara, Steve, Jeanne, Lorri, Ian, Tina)

October 2011 -- Halloween Party at Ping Identity. The kids love the idea of dressing with a theme. I was all for Gnomeo and Juliet, we even found an evil gnome for Aiden. Cora refused to go along because she wanted to be a Mermaid, so ... here we are Deep Sea Diver, Swamp Monster and 2 Mermaids. You don't even need to guess who is in charge at our house.

October 2011 -- Dustin took the kids over to Grand Junction. He and the kids meet, his parents his sister's family and his brother's family that lives in Arizona. It had been a few years since all the cousins had been together.

Pictured (Rodney, Abby, Maggi, Lilly, Quin, Tanner, Aiden, Cora, Sam)

August 2011-- The start of school. Aiden went to second grade this year and Cora started her second year of Preschool.

July 2011 -- Aiden ran track this summer. He ran the 50, 100 and 200 meters. He seems to do better with longer distances, but the 200 meter is the longest distance for his age group. Practice was three days a week for an hour and a half. Cora and I went on many long walks, it was actually fabulous, because it made us get up early!

Pictured (Jacob and Aiden in the front)

June 2011 -- We went to Seattle this summer to celebrate my Grandmother's 92nd birthday. We stayed with my cousin Patrick's family and had a blast. He unfortunately had to go on a business trip after a day or so, but we had so much fun with his wife and three girls. In fact, Dustin, the kids and I wanted to bring their youngest home with us!

Pictured (Dustin, Cora, Lane, Erin, Aiden, Hana)

May 2011 -- Aiden crossed over in cub scouts from a tiger to a wolf. I just think he looks so cute in his outfit!

April 2011 -- Cora's 4th birthday was a Tinkerbell theme. We had her party at the Ridge, the rec center pool, or otherwise known as Mermaid Lagoon. I had so much fun getting her outfit together for the party, Tinkerbell flip-flops, Tinkerbell swimsuit, Tinkerbell cover-up and a Tinkerbell bracelet for a present! She wants Tinkerbell again this year for her party, but I think I've convinced her a Rainbow Hello Kitty party would be better.

March 2011 -- We celebrated Aiden's 7th birthday with a Great American Rootbeer Fest! We made pretzel necklaces, colored our own rootbeer mugs, tasted a ton of rootbeer, decorated a rootbeer cupcake and played sports games outside (mainly because 3 hours with 9 boys is way tooooooooooooooooooooo much time for a party)! The best part was I didn't have to make a cake since we did rootbeer floats for dessert.

Feb 2011 -- Cora started taking ballet and tap classes. She loves it and her teacher adores her. She is quite the ham on stage. We keep asking her about playing soccer or running track, but she is a bit of a girly girl.

December 2010 -- The Hooper Cookie Exchange and Cookie Decorating Extrvaganza. I think the kids had a great time with this, but I know I was exhausted. Below is Christmas Day at the Torbet house. We always take pictures of the kids together and it is most fun to look at the pictures in progression. This is the first one and all the rest are down hill.