Cora's second birthday!

Cora's birthday was on Sunday this year, but we celebrated it all day on Saturday.  Instead of a having a formal birthday party, we invited a bunch of friends to join us at Bailey Park Splash Pad at 10am.  We brought popcorn, grapes, string cheese, and frozen yogurt snacks, but we didn't do any official birthday cake or activities.  It was the EASIEST not-a-party party ever.  The weather was awesome and it was probably the most pleasant morning we had all summer with dry air and a high temperature only in the mid 90s.  A beautiful summer morning.  We were thrilled that so many of our friends could come to our casual celebration and Cora loved the water play.

We had a family birthday dinner and cake celebration Saturday evening with Opa and Nana at our house.

And after dinner it was time for presents!  For Cora's birthday, I decided to make her a cardboard dollhouse.  I didn't know how much she'd play with a dollhouse and some of the ones you can buy are huge and expensive so I thought I'd try a more temporary solution first and I think it turned out pretty great!  Here is the dollhouse "wrapped" for Cora.

And an enticing pile of other presents.

Owen picked out a water wheel bath toy for Cora and he helped me wrap it and decorate the bag. He was also a big help to Cora as she opened it.

Opa and Nana gave Cora dolls and doll furniture for her dollhouse.  She and Owen had fun putting the furniture in the house.  They have played with it at least a little every day since.

One more present from us - a small Duplo Lego set.

Too much excitement for one day!

On Cora's actual birthday on Sunday, Owen had an end of the year party for his class and Cora and I went to a birthday party for one of her friends.  Even if it wasn't her party there was still cake!  We had a relaxing afternoon at home and a fun Skype call with Grandma and Grandpa who gave Cora a sweet tea set that she and Owen both love and a book called "Tea Rex," which is very cute.  I can't count how many cups of tea I've had lately, including an unusual variety called "salt tea."  We ended the day by all going to Owen's ice skating lesson. 

Happy happy birthday to our sweet not-a-baby-anymore Cora!