She knows how to celebrate!

While I was enjoying my first giddy 15 minutes of realizing that we actually did it! Ella decided to take a naked celebratory boat ride in our laundry basket. I somehow (head spinning) missed that this was happening until I found her climbing in, completely disrobed.

It made me laugh extra hard and I spent the next 10 minutes chasing her in circles around the house with Nora giggling in my arms, before I could get her dressed again. It was a great way to celebrate!

Stay & Play Snack Cafe

Hi! Sorry its been so long again.

I've hinted at this project I've been working on, and really it is almost done in one sense, but here let me show you . . .

I'm trying to start a play cafe! What is that, you ask? And where, and when, and why, etc? There are a lot of details if you just follow this link. I haven't posted about it here yet because this is pretty much a family blog, but I finally decided, you know, this is going on with our family, and our whole family will certainly be involved going forward if we can get it up and running. So anyway, there it is! What do you think?

Carousel

We have an old carousel at our old mall in Durham. And I found out that if you give the operators your address, they send you a ticket for a free ride for you (your kiddo) and up to 9 people on your birthday. We took Nora for her birthday ride last weekend, and we should have gotten some more people to go with us, because it was reallly fun! 

There was a moment when the girls were not sure about it.

Really it could have gone either way . . .

But once they got the hang of it . . . weeeeeeee!

What a fun birthday thing to do! I can't wait 'til it's my child's birthday again.Or, hey Durham friends, why don't you sign up and bring us along as part of your 9 sometime even sooner!

A bowl of water

Today we put a bowl of water on the porch with some cups and bowls. Boy was it a good time!

Moves

Didn't take long to progress from walking to grooving.

The big ONE

Nora's birthday was a big day! Unfortunately, she woke up with a cold. But it was still a good introduction to the birthday concept for her. She figured out how to open her presents (with Ella's help).

She loved the little Mr. and Mrs. Farmer that came with her farm set.

Ella really liked the farm set too of course. : ) They both had a great time playing with it.

And then, THEN, there was the birthday cake part! After one false start (Ella was just a little too excited and blew the candle out the first time),

Nora was ready to enjoy her cake!

And enjoy it, she did! With gusto!

Until it just got out of control and we had to stop and clean up.

But it was a great day for our beautiful and sweet little Nora! We love you, darling girl!