Diving in

Abby recently tried both the regular diving board and the high dive for the first time. She wasn't big on the high dive, but she loves the regular diving board.

Splash!

Just wanted to share some photos of Abby from today swimming. I am amazed how much stronger her swimming has gotten over the summer.





I love her pure joy after coming down the slide.

Summer Fun

After seeing her either in a cast or a brace for so long, it's been SO nice to see Abby doing normal kid stuff. She's finally able to play at the park and do most activities there. Just wanted to share some photos of her playing.

How we've been spending our time....

My little mermaid

Despite the cooler weather, we are continuing to spend a lot of time at the pool. I don't necessarily swim every time we go, but Abby does. It's really nice for me to have the quiet time watching her swim or reading a book. I am also working on teaching her to swim or at least dog paddle. She's catching on. At least enough that she can now go on the smaller water slide by herself because she is able to swim to the wall at the end.

When it's warm enough for me to swim, during adult swim I do laps while she sats at the edge of the pool. When it's chilly I read. Today Abby told me she was bringing a book with to read with me during adult swim. I didn't think much of it other than that it was a good idea. When we got to the pool she asked me to hold her little bag which contained her book and I saw her reading choice: "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. She told me she'd already read the first page. LOL, she is a good reader but not ready for that one yet. After the pool we went to Borders and she got to buy her first chapter book so she has something umm...appropriate to read. I'm so glad that both of my children share my love of reading.

Some pictures of Abby in the pool:

In case you are wondering why the photos are only of Abby it is for 2 reasons.

1. Evan is old enough to realize it's too chilly to swim. Whereas Abby is just happy to go to the pool still.

2. Evan is 14 and suddenly hates being photographed.

The sprinkler park

Today we had a play date at the cool sprinkler park in Geneva with Amy and her cutie pie kids: Brayden and Layna. The three of them had a lot of fun playing in the sprinklers.

Here are some photos:










We also saw a blimp!

Abby's 6th birthday

Friday our baby turned 6 years old. It is hard to accept that it's been that long since she was born. Here is our first photo together:






I remember the ultrasound where my pregnancy was far enough along to see the baby's sex. Josh and I had decided we wanted to know, although we felt pretty sure we'd be having a boy. In the Orr family, girls didn't come along all that often. Secretly though, I desperately wanted a girl and knew she'd be named Abigail. When the technician said we were expecting a girl, I was shocked. I made her double check. I remember that floating on air feeling leaving the hospital knowing that I was finally getting a daughter.



My pregnancy with Abby wasn't the easiest. I was sick and I did a few stints of bed rest. She was delivered early (and let me tell you being induced is no picnic) because it was feared she'd be too big to be a vaginal delivery. She wasn't. She wound up weighing 8lbs 4 oz instead of the over 10lbs my doctor predicted. When we heard those first cries, we were so overjoyed that we were laughing through our tears. That's what Abby brings into our lives--lots of laughter.



And here she is on her 6th birthday. After a breakfast birthday celebration, we spent the day at the pool just as she requested.






A birthday waffle:











At the pool, trying to swim:









With her Daddy in the "big kid pool" as she calls it:




Wearing her apron with her rosy sunburned cheeks, helping her Daddy make frosting for her cookie pizza:








Stay tuned for her birthday party pictures to be posted.

Water fun

If today had a theme, it would be water fun. And with the temperature in the 90's today was the perfect day to play in the water. First we went to a fun park in Geneva that had water sprinklers. We met Josh for lunch there and Abby played in the water. Evan sat with us "big kids" and we talked and enjoyed the sunshine.

Here's two pictures of Abby from the water park. I love the behind the bars look. Ha ha.







After Josh got home from work we went to the pool and had a really good time. Josh and Evan went off the high dive more times than I can count. Abby and I watched and cheered them on (but of course from inside the pool).

Today we visited our friends Amy, Brayden and Layna for a fun play date. It's so nice how well the kids get along. Abby had a lot of fun playing and I had a lot of fun visiting and watching the kids play. Nothing is better than the sound of them giggling and having a good time.

Ducks and Fish

We have had a fabulous weekend spending a lot of time outside. Saturday we spent the day hanging out with Matt and his brother Mike. First we went to the park and played frisbee. That was followed by a trip to the Sycamore pool. It was our first time at the local pool this summer and it was a lot of fun. Can't wait to go again!



Today we continued our outdoor fun. This morning Josh, Abby and I headed over to the Farmer's Market in Sycamore where we got to taste some local wine (not Abby of course!) and buy some local veggies and baked goods. They hold the market every Sunday and I'm sure we'll be visiting again.





After lunch we went over to the lagoon at NIU to feed the ducks. We were lucky and got to feed some babies.





Baby ducks in action







When the bread ran out, we decided to try our luck fishing in the lagoon. It was Abby's first time trying to fish and she was very excited. We found a good spot and were lucky to have 2 catches which we suspect may have been the same fish both times. The fish was a little stinker and pretty smart because it kept stealing the hot dog pieces we used as bait right off the hook.








The big catch:




And while all this fishing was going on, I was:




...reading of course!


There's nothing as relaxing to me as sitting outside on a warm sunny day with a good book and my family nearby.




Some more photos from today:

The creativity continues

This week has been really busy and kind of stressful actually. Suffice it to say that being a stay at home mom wears me out more sometimes than working full time did.

Today Abby wanted to make a bead necklace. When Josh's parents were visiting for his graduation, his mom gave Abby a necklace kit. Of course being Abby, she had to add her one flair to it and she found this large purple heart to add. We actually had a lot of fun making it and I'm hoping she's in a necklace making mood again soon because we still have more beads and string.

Pretty beads







Modeling the finished product:


What you can't see in the photo above is that she was doing a curtsy. Oh my goodness, that was cute!


So where are all the photos of Evan from this week you ask? Well he's 13 so he suddenly wants to spend all of his time in his room because hanging out with your mom and little sister is so uncool. Oh and top of that he's grounded for less-than-stellar grades from his last report card. So hopefully he'll emerge from grounding and teenage angst soon and have some fun with us!

Abby wanted to take some pictures too, so she took one of me playing SIMS 2.