Cora's birthday interview

Favorite foods: hot dogs
Favorite vegetable: carrots
Favorite toy: my little ponies
Favorite game: zingo and mario party 3
Favorite book: princess books
Favorite holiday: Christmas
Favorite animal: lion

Favorite dessert: vanilla icecream with sprinkles and a cherry

Favorite song: Silent Night
What do you want to be when you grow up? doctor
Who are your friends? Addy, Megan, Emma, Julia
What is something you like about Mom? I like when she kisses me
What is something you like about Dad? I like when he gives me tight squeezes
What is something you like about Violet? I like it when she shares zhu-zhu pets with me
What is something you like about Luke? I like to read him books
What is something that you would like to do this year? Play croquet

Favorite color: purple and pink

What do you like to wear? skirts, and my icecream shirt

Where are some of your favorite places to go? restaurants, stores where I can push a little grocery cart, the bounce place

What things make you happy? I like it when people share with me and be kind to me

What makes you sad? hitting and beetles

What are your favorite movies or TV shows? Tangled

What do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned in life so far? How to go down the fireman pole at the playground

How do you think you’re different from a year ago? I grew bigger.

What’s your favorite thing about yourself? I like singing songs

What do you like learning about? reading

If you had a whole day to do anything you wanted, what would you do? bake cookies, play with barbies, go to the park, and go swimming

And your favorite candy? suckers

Anything you’re scared of? the dark

Anything else you’d like to say? I like being 5.

Birthday party!

I ended up picking just about the worst day in June possible for an outdoor water birthday party. The forecast that said sunny one week before turned to windy and thunderstorms! We came so close to cancelling it, but everything turned out fine. It was windy, but warm, and during the one 7 minute shower we went inside to open presents. Pretty lucky.

I was determined to keep this party on the simple side. It did grow a little bit, but still was pretty inexpensive, low-key, and I left a lot of planning to the last minute. Here's our pre-party prep table-- I couldn't put much outside beforehand because of the wind.

... which we turned into this:

We had a slip n slide on the side of the house, the bounce house, water balloon toss, sponge toss into a sprinkler ring, a kiddie pool full of water guns and dive toys and small toys frozen into ice blocks, and another kiddie pool with a slide. Plus the birthday table. I taped name placemats on a dollar store tablecloth so the kids had a place to put their drinks, goldfish, and popsicles and know whose was whose. We had a cooler of water, a cooler of three kinds of popsicles, and a cooler of water balloons by the game area. It was all free-play time and the 11 girls kept pretty busy jumping from one activity to the other. All of the play toys were things I had, borrowed, or bought cheaply. No homemade treats, just all the popsicles you could eat. We had Disney music playing, a bubble machine going, and beach balls kicking around to help create the theme. Each guest took home one squirt gun, dive toy, water ball, and a bag of swedish fish. Luckily Kissie and Kevin were able to come help with Luke and setting up and everything. I spent most of the 90 minute party opening popsicle wrappers and sticking straws in capri suns.

I made this welcome sign for our fence (a breeze using my Silhouette)

Here's the birthday crew, minus one who didn't want to leave the bounce house :)

Inside to open presents during a quick sprinkle outside

The water balloon toss (into dollar store strainers)

Luke loved throwing the water balls at Kissie, and even loved being on the receiving end too!

So despite the weather, it was a successful party. And now we've got lots of leftover popsicles for the rest of the summer too!

Happy Birthday Cora!

Happy Birthday to our dear Cora! Cora is now 5 years old! Cora started her birthday celebrations the night before with a special daddy-daughter date to Cars 2. She loved it! (And consequently took a rare nap in church to catch up on sleep :)).

Sunday morning the kids woke up bright and early as usual. Cora opened presents throughout the day, spreading out all the birthday fun. Cora chose donuts, weekend cereal, and juice for breakfast. Her first present was her most requested one-- a doll that talks. Well, actually she really wanted a doll that pees, but she had to settle for a doll that you can feed and who cries. I had a hard time finding one that I didn't think looked creepy. This little girl (who has been named Flower Rose) is pretty cute.

That's one proud little mama! This doll is a favorite for sure. Luke also loves her, which has caused a few problems. I'm on the lookout for a cute little boy doll for him. He loves sticking the bottles in the dolly's mouth and kissing and hugging her. He'll be a good daddy!

Here's Pirate Cora! New dress-ups from Keyton and Liz and family! Cora especially loves her eyepatch :).

Cora chose tunafish sandwiches, cheetoh puffs, watermelon, and lima beans for lunch. We did end up skipping the lima beans :). Cora loved having the Primary kids sing her Happy Birthday at church!

Luke got Cora some books for her birthday

Violet picked out some headbands and clippies for Cora's birthday present.

5 candles!

Kevin's been playing around with his panorama feature on his camera. It was great to have our monthly family dinner at our house on Cora's birthday so Kissie, Pata, Shad, Jen, and Bailee could come!

Cora got a cute dress from Kissie and Pata and a much coveted bathrub Ariel from Shad, Jen, and Bailee.

Pre-dinner bubble blowing...

A few weeks ago we had yummy flank steak for dinner that Cora loved, so she requested it for her birthday-- lucky us! She also asked for cheesey broccoli, cresents, and watermelon, with pink lemonade and chocolate milk. And brownies with mint icecream and sprinkles for dessert. Double yum!

And... ta-da! One post-candle surprise, a new bike! Cora has been looking huge on her old bike, it was definitely time for a change! Violet loved getting her 'new' bike from Cora too (but she's tall, it might not fit her much longer!).

Of course we had to go outside and try it out. Luke let Bailee catch a ride on his trike.

Happy Happy Birthday to my darling Cora!

At 5 years old, Cora weighs 43.21 pounds and is 43.01 inches tall.

Zoo Time!

We were lucky enough to have Kissie and Pata join us at the zoo on Saturday. With the improved adult to kid ratio, I got tons of pictures! It also happened to be baby Dari's birthday (the baby elephant) so we were treated to free pie by Village Inn too. We arrived right at opening and missed most of the hot weather and the crowds-- perfect timing!

The kids were so excited to jump on these horses for a photo op. Fun, but I still can't figure out why they were at the zoo!

With more helping hands, Luke was able to walk around a lot of the zoo. He loved not being cooped up in the stroller the whole time. Violet's walking legs abandoned her and she took over the stroller for most of the time, so she didn't make it into as many pictures.

Doesn't it look like he's saying -- Yum lunch! --??

Or how about these guys?

The nice thing about getting to the zoo early is being able to see the animals up and about-- like these three brothers here.

Luke loved looking at the animals and squawking at them. It's fun to see him really be aware of what's going on around him--he's certainly not a baby anymore!

The girls are always up for a carousel ride. Luke-- not so much. He was pretty much terrified and clinging to Kevin the whole time.

Luke had a hard time sitting still during the bird show, but he still held his dollar from Pata out for the bird to put in the donation box afterward.

The rest of us thought the bird show was pretty impressive though!

We finished off the visit with a train ride.

Jump N Bounce

For part of Cora's birthday celebration, we took a family trip to Jump N Bounce. It's a pretty fun place, they often have citydeals coupons to make it more reasonably priced, and we were lucky enough to have Kevin join us on his lunch break. Last time I went with the kids Violet was nervous about going down slides by herself, and it was tricky for me to go down slides with both Violet and Luke. This time, Violet needed to be accompanied on the first few slides, but after that she did really well by herself! Luke didn't sleep well the night before, so he was pretty clingy, but I think he enjoyed a few of the slides, despite his facial expressions.

Workin' Hard

Here's Luke at the end of our yard work day! What a hard worker... or hard at play that is. Friday night we went to a fun concert at the Brigham Young Park. Cora and Violet spent the night at Kissie and Pata's afterward to celebrate Violet's potty training success (delayed due to a very busy April). The girls had a great time at the Gateway and Farmer's Market downtown while Kevin, Luke, and I cleaned, spread mulch over the growbeds, and planted some trees and bushes. Luke really does love playing in the dirt. He especially likes sticking his fingers in the newly watered herb box... what a mess! Usually he can be redirected to the sandbox and be perfectly happy there too.

Kissie caught this great picture of Cora and Pata while they were out and about too. We're so lucky to have them closeby!

Just a picture of my cuties!

More preschool pics

Cora's end of the year class picture

Cora and I at Mom and Me day at preschool

Cora's Preschool Graduation

Cora loved going to preschool this year! She loved her teachers Miss Amanda, Miss Nan, and Miss Brooke. Cora made some good friends and had a very nice year. Preschool graduation was full of songs and stories. The kids all did a great job performing and showing us what they learned. Cora had a very serious look on her face most of the time, I think she was a tad bit nervous, but she did so well, especially reciting a little book the kids worked on for the year. So cute!

Cora with Miss Nan

Cora with Miss Brooke

It was a little crazy there, so unfortunately we didn't get a picture with Miss Amanda too.

Of course we had to get some family pictures with our little graduate!

And we were so lucky that Kissie and Pata could come too!

Cora is so excited to go to kindergarten next year! Violet will do her first year of preschool at Miss Amanda's and she is pretty thrilled about that too.