Happy Birthday Ella

( I do not know how she sleeps like this, with all of her hair in her face!)

My little girl is 7 years old. She's really growing up fast now. The years have flown by!

Ella had been looking forward to her birthday in Wisconsin for weeks! We were so happy that so many family members were able to spend the day with us to celebrate!

Uncle Jacob and Jack Jack!

All of my siblings are so good with my kids. They love each other so much!

To start the day we drove down to Madison zoo! I love how Wisconsin has such things as a free zoo! It's so beautiful too! Jack and Ella both love the zoo!

Grandma let each of the children pick out a toy from the gift shop. Ella got two since it was her birthday!

Jack really loves Rhinos!!! He spots there everywhere! I think it's so funny how at such a young age he has developed such a fascination to something. Especially something so big and scary to me

He was pretty fascinated by the lions as well though.

Picture is bad quality, but it was so cool! This tiger kept pacing back and forth right in front of the glass! He had such a HUGE head!!

Kind of freaky!

Jack watching his favorite- the rhino!

My favorite!

GO WISCONSIN!

Some of Ella's most favorite things to see! Grandma wouldn't even go inside the building, she doesn't like creepy crawly things!

Ella's other favorite!!

My cute little kiddies!

Ella loves all things scaly!

These were actually really fun to watch! They didn't care about people standing around and talking, but as soon as something flew over, a bird or a plane they all ran into their holes. The babies were so cute, Ella wanted to take one home

Ella loved this guy! She thought he was so cute. YUCK. It's the largest rodent. Meaning it's the worlds biggest rat. SO GROSS!

This is my life

Ella also loves penguins!

Little bear cubs!

We love going to the zoo every year when we come!

I had forgotten about this place until my mom suggested we have Ella's birthday party here!

Ella's Deli!!!! Ella was SO excited to see the restaurant that was named after her!

It's such a fun old place! Lots of things to look at!

(I actually used to go on dates there when I was in high school!)

Ella and my Mom

Ella got an ice cream sundae! I snuck a bite, so yummy!

Jack ate all of my cake, little stinker!

Thanks everyone who came and made Ella's birthday so special!

Outside they have a carousel! We all went for a ride!

On the way home Jack was tired and being weird

So were my sisters-in-law! You guys are too funny!

Wisconsin Trip 2010

The kids and I made our annual trip to visit my family in Wisconsin.

The kids love going to the farm! There is always someone to play with, something to do or somewhere to explore.

That and they are adored and spoiled by everyone!

First day

Jack and Jet became best buds!

They played so well together!

I love these pictures, so sweet!


Silly Ellie- does she look excited and happy to be with Grandma and Papa or what!?

Jet- also known as FATTY!

He's grown so much in the last year! At first he did not want to even look at me. If I picked him up he would turn away and try to get down. By the end of the trip he was my little buddy and loved snuggling up with me.

Little Kylie!

I had never met Kylie before. She was born soon after I left Wisconsin last year. She is such a doll! Always happy and smiling. She liked me right away.

With her Mama out of town and her Daddy working everyday she became my little adopted baby for the first couple of days!

My brother thought that bows on babies looked stupid, so he always told his wife NO bows! Well, I don't think that a little girl should ever be without a bow! Good thing I had so many with me for her to borrow! That night when Adam got home from work, he thought that Kylie looked so cute he told Bethany that she could buy as many bows as she wanted!

Jack had a little bit of a hard time getting to know everyone again this year. But everyone thought ahead and had plenty of M&M's in their pockets to win him over! Mary also won his over with ice cream!

Jack loved being outside! Every morning he wanted to get dressed right away so that he could go outside to the "park".

We have been waiting and waiting for Toy Story 3 to come out! Jack LOVES Woody!

Quite excitement...

Drink, Check. Popcorn, Check!

Samuel was so nice to pull the kids! They loved going for rides!

The early summer is the best time to visit Wisconsin! The weather was wonderful! Just hot enough to be outside all day and not very humid at all.

What Silly girls!

The first Sunday there was Fathers day!

We called Ryan. He was doing exactly what he wanted to do for Fathers day.. nap!
My Dad got exactly what he wanted too- tree trimmers!

Every morning after that, if you couldn't find Dad, it was because he was somewhere on the property trimming a tree.

What's any Orr holiday or get together without scotcharoos!?

Jack liked walking around and checking out the old barns and out buildings.

He's so cute! I could just gobble him up!

Ella and Dad playing in the yard...

To be continued

Ella's 7th Birthday Party

Yippee! The day was finally here- Ella's 7th Birthday party!

She picked a circus theme. It turned out so cute!

I can't believe she's going to be 7!
Although her birthday wasn't really for over a week, we had her party before the kids and I flew to Wisconsin!

All decked out and ready to P A R- T A Y!

But first.... We had a little fathers day!

Since we were going to be in Wisconsin for Fathers day too, we celebrated a little early!

I know what you're thinking.. a garden gnome!?

I think that's what Ryan's parents thought when they saw him pull it out of the bag too.

But he has ALWAYS wanted one! He thinks that they are funny, so he was quite happy with it.

So a BIG happy Fathers day to Ryan, Rick and my Dad!

Then- before the chaos of the party we had our own little family party

More and more littlest pet shop! So into zhu zhu pets!

But the best gift of all....

Ever since Valentines day when Ryan gave me a peal necklace Ella always asks "mom, are my ear rings real diamonds? Are these real pears on my bracelet?"

so... Ryan and I get her some (very very very inexpensive) diamond ear rings.

She was very excited!

On to the party!

The boys fired up the grill!

Ella was having so much fun, I hardly ever saw her. There were so many kids in the pool!

It took Ella forever to blow out her candles! Heheheheh!

Almost forgot to get out the water balloons!

Time flies when you're having fun! I wish so much that I had taken more pictures!

There were so many cute decorations and fun things for the kids! Dang it all!

But the most important things was that the kids had fun, which they did!

I knew that Jack would be sad if he didn't get any presents, so I got him one little thing.

He was sure happy about that!

MORE presents!

Later that night as we were cleaning up.. this is what we found, little stinker!

Thank you so much to everyone who was able to make it! Ella had such a wonderful day! We have such wonderful family and friends who love our little lady!

A special thank you to Ryan's parents and the Riggs family who helped out so much! We couldn't have done it without you!