The Birthday Celebrations

We spent the last few days having little celebrations for Cora's birthday.  The weekend brought brunch with some good friends, and a dinner of pizza and kid's music and a trip to get ice cream with a couple of families that we love to spend time with.  Sunday we took her swimming, where she dragged us on the water slide as many times as we could handle and threw a fit when it was time to leave.

Yesterday was Cora's actual birthday, and although Nick went to work, she and I spent the morning listening to Tallulah's Daddy play some music, and then having a mellow afternoon at home, just the two of us.  We watched the birthday episode of Signing Time, we danced, we played with her Big Sister dolly Lulu and we made dinner, with Cora helping, of course.

After Nick got home we had a nice little birthday dinner with just the three of us.

Cora ate spaghetti and roasted rosemary bread.  I'm pretty sure she actually ate a good amount of it, even though it looks like a lot on her face and bib.

Then came dessert with her special birthday Curious George cupcakes.

Everything started out pretty well.  She was excited and she had already gotten a taste of the frosting after lunch.

But then her mood shifted and she started to rub frosting into her hair and eye. 

Daddy thought it was pretty funny and wanted to join in on the silliness.  So he masked himself and leaned in for a silly kiss. 

It was no longer fun and games.  Poor Cora.

Luckily, she cheered right up after Daddy wiped the scary frosting off his face. 

And the combination of tears and silliness ended up turning into one of the messiest faces I've seen in a while.

We almost forgot about gifts, since a bath immediately followed.  But Cora got to open a couple little presents before heading off to bed.

And now the whole birthday business is over.  She is officially a three year old, ready to take on whatever adventures the next year will hold.  I can't wait to see how much she will grow.