Life With Ida : 4 Years

 

Since Ida's birthday last year, she has grown so much. It is so fun to watch her personality grow. She is always surprising me with how silly or fun or sweet or fierce she is.

Ida is always up for an adventure with Mom and/or Dad. Wherever we are, she is there too. She loves to go on walks, to the park, go swimming, or just go on a ride in the car with us.  When big sister isn't at school, Ida loves to play Barbies, be read to, or just follow her sister around and be with her. Ida is so sweet and randomly throughout the day she'll say "I just love you!" and give big hugs.  

Ida is my little nature girl. She is always by my side when I'm working in the garden... and sometimes she even asks to just go out and sit near the garden. It is fun to watch her interest in plants. She likes to dig and find worms, collect rocks, help spot new vegetables, and water the plants. 

Ida has been missing school a lot. She cannot wait to get back to school and play with her friends.  She has asked 2-5 times a week (every week since March) when she will get to go back to school again. While she is missing school, she still enjoys each day. I love her enthusiasm for all things.

Happy Birthday Sweet Ida!  We are so lucky to have you.  xxoo

Check out previous Life with Ida posts: 3 year, 2 year, 1 year, and her birth story

Life With Cora : 7 Years

Cora is 7 years old! So much has happened since her last birthday. Cora wrapped up her Kindergarten year, we spent a lot of time at the pool over the summer, Cora learned to swim, we traveled to our favorite place, Cora started first grade at a new school, she started playing soccer, she lost 3 more teeth, and we enjoyed so many play dates with friends and family. I was looking back at last year's post and was just reminded how consistently awesome Cora is. She is always loving, creative, driven, silly, helpful, strong, intelligent, beautiful, and so much more. She has grown so much over the years, but she is also always so much herself and I love that about her. 

I love that Cora is always so fashionable. She has an opinion on everything she wears and is pretty particular about her hair, outfits, and accessories. Cora picks some wild outfits and rocks them! She draws lots of pictures and her characters always have the most creative and awesome outfits.

I love that Cora is so thoughtful. She is always helping her sister out, taking great care of the dog, and is always the first to offer to help me with whatever I'm working on. I love watching her with her little sister. They have such a great bond and they are always off playing games, coloring, watching tv, and playing dress up and having fashion shows. 

Happy Birthday sweet Cora - you bring so much light to our lives. This birthday is hard because we do not get to do our regular birthday things like going to the zoo or throwing a birthday party, but you roll with the punches and enjoy each and every little thing to celebrate. We are so grateful that you joined our family 7 years ago. I am the luckiest mommy in the world. May this birthday be the best one yet. xxoo!

Cora's 6th Birthday Celebrations

Cora Jean is someone that loves a good party... which is fitting because she was named after my grandma that loved parties. Cora talked about having a birthday for months, so she was extremely excited when the day finally came.

We did a joint birthday party with my aunt and uncle. We stuck with the birthday brunch because it is fairly easy to do and Saturday mornings are a perfect time to have a party and celebrate without eating up the entire weekend. We had bagels, smoked salmon, fruit, veggie tray, and a variety of drinks.

On her actual birthday, Ben took Ida on some jobs with him so I got lots of one-on-one time with Cora. After school, we stopped by the elementary school plant sale and headed over to my sister's for dinner with the family.

For Cora's friend party, we just did a simplified lunch version of the family party. I made a veggie tray, ordered some pizza, and made a big jug of lemonade. Cora loved getting to run around and play with her friends. She was excited to see each friend and ran around the entire time. Later that day, she told me she wanted to start the whole day over again because it was so much fun.

See Cora's previous birthday posts here: birth, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

Life With Cora : 6 Years

Cora turns 6 years old today!!! A lot has happened since she turned 5. Cora finished preschool, started Kindergarten, lost 5 teeth , went on vacations to the cottage (Cora is obsessed) and Tybee Island, and has made a friend everywhere we go. 

I could not gush enough about this girl! There has been some sass, like most kids, but Cora is so sweet. She is thoughtful, and smart, and sooooo funny. She makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis. Lately, she has been working on knock-knock jokes and practicing her delivery. Not only is she practicing knock-knock jokes, she is practicing reading and writing and drawing. She pulls out her sketchbook any chance she gets to sketch her sister or clothing ideas or some form of cat teenagers on skateboards. Each drawing is better than the last and it is so fun to see what her little imagination comes up with.

We spend a lot of time outside. Going on walks and playing in the backyard. Cora is always up for outdoor time. She isn't afraid to dig in the dirt, pick up bugs, and lend a helping hand. I'm looking forward to this year's gardening season as we expand our space and she is able to help out more and take some ownership of some space.

Cora is such a great big sister to Ida! They are not without their squabbles, but most of the time they get along really well. Cora is quick to help Ida when she needs it. She is always looking out for her little sister. I love their sweet little relationship. 

Happy birthday sweet Cora! I am the luckiest mommy in the whole world to have you as a daughter. I can't wait so see what 6 has to offer. I love you so much! xxoo!

See Cora's previous birthday posts here: birth, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

Life With Ida : 2 Years

I'm looking back at all my Life With Ida updates and loving all the pictures of baby Ida. I'm enjoying seeing how much has changed in the last year and seeing all the progress our sweet Ida has made.

Ida is always making her grumpy face and it's one of my favorite things. She is super grumpy when she meets new people... and it's always a fun surprise when she doesn't have a grumpy face when she meets somebody. Some days she is grumpy and mean mugging at everyone we pass and other days she is smiley and waving to every single person we see.

Ida is getting more and more independent and it is so fun to watch all the things she is learning. This week, she can finally open the fridge and she's constantly disappearing and reappearing with a yogurt in her hand.  One day, I heard her go in the fridge and I told her from the next room "you better not come back in here with a yogurt in your hand" and she peeks around the corner with a yogurt and her sweet little voice was just like "peeeasse!" followed by all of us cracking up. I also love her little voice saying 'thank you' whenever you help her with something.

Ida is really into chanting (just like the rest of our family) and she'll always find something to chant. She was really into her birthday with all the chants of "fashion show" and her name. Sometimes when there is a game behind our house, we'll walk over to grab a little treat from the concession stand. As soon as she hears we're going over, she'll start chanting "treat! treat! treat!" and it is the cutest thing hearing her little voice chanting.

Ida is quite the fashionista. She loves to pick out her own clothes which often includes a pair of sunglasses. Our neighbors gave us a little tinkerbell nightgown hand-me-down and that has been Ida's favorite article of clothing lately. I love seeing the random things she picks to wear.

Ida loves to color... but also loves to be a stinker and color all over her body. When I work from home, she usually colors next to me for a bit. When she's really concentrating on coloring, she puts her hand up to her face and it's the cutest thing.

As always, Ida loves going out on walks. This month, we found a new-to-us discovery garden and our favorite backyard filled with black-eyed susans. Ida is always the first to request to go 'ouside' and runs off to get her shoes whenever we talk about going on a walk.

Happy 2nd birthday sweet Ida! We love watching you grow and can't wait to see everything the next year has in store for you. We love you so much and we're lucky to have you in our family.

When Cora Met Ida

When I shared Ida's birth story, I mentioned I was having a hard time getting these specific pictures off of my camera. Welp, it has been a year and it finally happened. These are some of my favorite pictures in the entire world and they give me all the heart eyes when I look at them.

One of the sweetest things about having a second child is watching my children fall in love with each other. Little Cora was obsessed with babies and was constantly asking for a sibling before we got pregnant with Ida. Cora loved cuddling up with my belly and couldn't wait to meet her baby sister.  When it finally came time for them to meet, Cora held Ida for about 20 seconds while we took these sweet photos. She said "done!" and was ready to run around the room and hang out with all the visitors. 

In the two years since these pictures, it has been so fun to watch their bond grow. Cora has been mostly sweet and helpful with her little sister and Ida is obsessed with her big sister. I love watching these two together... even if they're fighting. These two babes make me the luckiest mommy in the whole world.

Cora's 5th Birthday Celebrations

We're really stretching out Cora's birthday celebration this year. Not quite as long as last year, but we had multiple parties spread over a week. Cora loves parties and hanging out with people, so she has been having the time of her life with all of the family and friends and get togethers.

The weekend before her birthday, we had a joint birthday brunch with my aunt and uncle. We reserved the pavilion at a park near us so we could enjoy the outdoors and the kids could play at the nearby playground. It turned out to be really cold, so we were all celebrating their spring birthdays bundled up in our winter gear. We didn't let the weather get us down and we all ended up having lots of fun. We had a similar menu that we had at the birthday brunch last year (bagels, hard-boiled eggs, fruit salad, etc), but added in smoked salmon, parfaits, and coffee. I was able to make the day-of prep a lot easier by scheduling a grocery delivery and panera pick up early in the week.

Cora's actual birthday was during the week, so I took some time off work so we could take a little trip to the zoo and have lots of together time without feeling rushed or stressed. We brought some of our favorite cookie cake to share with her class and she asked me to make her a birthday shirt for her about an hour before school. She loved getting to share a treat with all her friends and getting to wear a crown for the day. 

We spent the afternoon just the two of us while Ida and Ben napped. As independent as she is, she always enjoys a good momma snuggle and uninterrupted chat with me, so it was perfect. That evening, my parent's had our family over for dinner. Cora picked the menu of spaghetti and angel food cake with strawberries. The girls loved running around with their cousin and enjoying the nice weather.

Saturday, we had a tiny party with a couple school friends and our next door neighbor. Cora loved running around with her friends and was so excited to have them over to our house. It started to drizzle towards the end of the party and Cora jumped at the chance to show her friends her room... until she realized that having that many people play with all her stuff made it a little messy. My mom said she saw her pulling toys out of her friends hands and putting them away because she wanted to keep her room tidy. We had a fun time and after everybody left, she told me "I wish my birthday could last forever!"


See some of Cora's past birthday celebrations here: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th