Cora's First Birthday!

August 1st is finally here! Cora is 1 today! We started the festivities in Myrtle Beach with an early birthday. Cora loved the cupcake. This past Sunday we had a little birthday party for Cora at my mom's house. Cora's first present was this staple.

The Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair. A tradition started with Connor by Caitlin and my mom and continued with all the babies in between. Cora has had Connor's chair in her room for awhile. She really has had no interest in the chair so far. As soon as she saw the Cora chair - she climbed right in. Love.

As a side note, the giant, beautiful bow was created by Kathy one of Nina's sitters. She is so talented and wonderful. She placed the bow on my mom's mailbox - leading to phone calls inquiring if there was a new granddaughter! Ha!

After everyone arrived, Cora got to try her cake. Catherine gave her the perfect bib to go with her smocked outfit from her Aunt Ethlyn and NJ. Guess who didn't eat one bite of the cake. I know - the girl who eats anything and everything. Not one bite. She wanted grapes and cheese. She had fun though.

This is a long video but I promised I would post it. Happy Birthday to Cora! At the doctor today Cora shot up the charts. Literally. She is 20 pounds, 9 ounces and 30 inches long. That is 50% for weight and 75% for height. For comparison (because you have to) Connor at 1 year. He was a little bigger - but not by much. Cora is drinking out of a sippy cup all the time. It is a soft sippy but all the bottles are gone (and have been since before Myrtle Beach). I switched her from formula to milk yesterday. So far so good! Cora can say: Uh Oh!, Dada, Mama, YeaYea, Biper (aka Diaper) BaBa and likes to click her tongue on the roof of her mouth. She is not walking alone. She is pushing her new princess push toy like a MAD WOMAN (VIDEO)and is standing alone. Only a few more days - she did take a half step (but I tricked her into it). She is happy pretty much unless she is tired or hungry. Then watch out!

Standard Monthly Photo . . .

How much difference a year makes. Guess Connor got his wish he made 1 year ago today: "Maybe we will change her hair to blonde!" Happy Birthday!

Babies and Burgers

Nothing says Olympics like babies and burgers. Haha. Well, I have always said that having a baby just before or during the Olympics is pure genius. Connor was born the same week as the opening ceremonies in China and when he was up all night, the Olympics were on. Perfect. No infomercials necessary. Cora was a year early for these Olympics but now she will get to enjoy them too! Honestly, the Winter Olympics just aren't the same as the Summer Games. I'm biased since I like it 100 degrees all.the.time. My cousin Matt and his wife welcomed a new baby Julianna this week. So lucky to have an Olympics baby! Congrats

Isn't she so gorgeous! So to celebrate the Olympics and Opening Ceremonies. The kids got this deliciousness. Not sure that this says "health, wellness, athletics" but it is so good!

I'm waiting on Colin to get home from a late meeting with Cocina. Mexican food is the perfect way to celebrate my favorite few weeks!

MB 2012

We departed for MB 2012 at 8:30 pm on Friday night. It is an 8 hour drive without traffic and traffic is horrendous in MB. I feel like I am qualified to describe traffic after living in the Baltimore/DC area. This is the type of dead-stopped traffic that greets you with 60 miles left on your journey. Not my idea of a good time. So, we left at bedtime in hopes that even if we didn't sleep, the kids would and we could avoid traffic. The kids slept, we did not sleep much but we hit NO TRAFFIC and we arrived at 5:30 am local time. We were greeted by a crescent moon - the symbol of South Carolina. you can't tell from this photo since I was driving and Colin was sleeping - it was the best picture I could get.

We hit the pool at the condo to start off the vacation.

Bryan, Cora, Connor, Colin, Madelyn and Mike

Madelyn and Connor sharing snacks by the pool

Cora and Madelyn playing on Connor's bed. If either one of the girls went missing - this is where I would find them.

Cora continues to LOVE the water. She was a crazy girl. VIDEO!!! CHECK OUT CORA IN ACTION HERE

Connor spent nearly all his time "jumping" over the waves.

Madelyn Chillin'

Connor

Cora

Some downtime at the Condo - iPad of course After dinner, we headed to Ocean Annie's for drinks and dancing

Connor

Neal

Mary and Madelyn

Cora and Colin

I bought this dinosaur for Connor since he was always wanting to get in Cora's baby float. It was more fun on land. Cathy and Bryan treated us to The Pirate Show one night. It was a hit.

We also went to Burro Loco (a family favorite because of the Donkey)

Cora LOVED it! ha! Then we hopped over to the MB Pelicans game. Cora's first game.

Another night we had an Early Birthday Party for the kids at California Pizza Kitchen Game Zone. Connor's loved it. Cora loved the cake. Surprise.

Last Day at the beach was overcast - which was a nice change from the super sunny week!

Mike, Madelyn and Mary

Last night of dancing

On our very last morning, after packing up all or stuff, we headed out to House of Blues (Connor's request - he thought there would be more dancing - sadly at 10am he was a little early).

Then off to the Carousel

Cora's first ride. . .

Then an 8 hour car ride home. Watching the traffic headed to the beach we confirmed that our night ride was a necessity.

Lake Life

After the rain finally let up





Red white and blue breakfast. Yum!



Starting to look even more alike!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Happy 4th! A Little Late