Birthday Fun

Watching the Jazz band at Animals and All that Jazz at the Zoo on Thursday

Walking around the zoo we found the giraffes

Walking around the zoo, which was very uncrowded because everyone was watching the jazz group, so we enjoyed walking right up to everything, Grandma and Grandpa F are following along. Despite the heat somebody preferred to walk instead of ride in the stroller

A quick change of clothes before hitting the splash park to cool off

back at home for birthday presents and cake, here she opened the porcelain Mickey Mouse birthday figuring from Grandma and Grandpa A. They had it shipped to our house for her to open on her birthday since they are out of the country still.

Here she is opening her new baby doll. She picked the doll out when we were in Chicago but we put it up for her to unwrap on her birthday.

Proudly showing off her new baby doll which she is calling Baby Cara. Note the matching dresses, of course we had to get her a dress at American Girl to match. Aren't they cute?

Time to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles, which she did with ease this year

Then we headed outside so she could give Baby Cara a ride in her car

What a fun birthday or as Cara says a "happy Day"! Our birthday started out with a skype visit with Cyndi, Danilo, Grandma and Grandpa A so they could wish her a happy birthday from across the other side of the world. We played and enjoyed the day and then headed to the zoo for some fun with Animals and All that Jazz. We enjoyed dinner and some jazz music and then headed off to see the animals. Cara would not let us be at the zoo and not see animals. A stop at the carousel for a quick ride, and then off to see giraffes, rhinos, elephants, and lions. It was quite warm so we changed Cara's outfit and let her run around in the splash park to cool off. Then we headed home to enjoy cake and presents.

Cara received this new kitchen for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa F. Grandpa F came over this afternoon to put it together for us.

Sitting in front of her new kitchen

Playing in the kitchen on Friday afternoon

Hope you had a wonderful birthday Cara!

Happy 2nd Birthday Cara

Here are Cara's 2 year pictures!

She was not being the most cooperative for this picture session. Unfortunately I think it was a little too close to nap time, but the photographer sure gave all she had to try to get Cara to smile! But we did have some cute ones and probably if she was being her normal self we would have never been able to choose which ones to buy!

So 2 years ago our lives changed in a way you can never prepare yourself for or imagine. We fell head over heels in love with this little bundle of joy who has now grown into such an adorable toddler. She can count to 10, says the ABC's (all the time) knows about 5 US presidents by their picture, has an ever expanding vocabulary, she loves dolls, anything Mickey Mouse, Doodlebops or ice cream related. She amazes us every day with something new she says or does! She has lightened our lives in a way we can not describe, we often say that our lives must have been so boring before her. Even strangers that meet her are in awe of her personality and her good behavior. She is so polite already, says please and thank you. So on this her birthday we wanted to express our feelings for her and thank God for giving us this beautiful girl!! It was so hard but she was SO worth the wait!!

Happy Birthday Princess Cara!

In addition to birthday celebration on her birthday, we will also being having a party this weekend, so stay tuned for lots more birthday fun!!

Birthday Week

Oh WOW, this is all Cara kept saying when she walked out to the garage to find her very own car

Yeah, so happy

This driving thing is a bit harder than it looks

Cara's birthday week started on Sunday when we gave her this Jeep. She kept saying, oh wow over and over. It was so cute. We let her try them out in the store but having it in her own garage all charged and ready to go was another story. We bought it on Saturday, Daddy put it together while we were gone, and then it charged all night so it was good to go for our first drive.

The gas pedal will take some getting used to, as will driving it and steering at the same time, but we foresee hours of fun in this jeep. Everyday when we are getting in the car to go somewhere Cara says "Cara drive?" and we say no, but now Cara can drive!!

Happy Birthday Week to Princess Cara!!

New Guitar

Aren't I cute Mommy?

See my new guitar

it is as tall as me

The other day Scott and Cara were out and about and stopped by the home of one of his former students to visit. In the course of their visit Cara found this guitar and was so excited! One thing led to another and he gave her this guitar, which is a Taylor, which I guess is a pretty big name in the world of guitars. So now she has her very own guitar and can sit and play with Daddy while he plays his guitar!

Chicago Fun part 2

Cara woke up bright and early on day 2 in Chicago. We headed down for an early breakfast at the hotel, then for a swim. After we all swam and got showers and dressed for the day Cara was ready for a nap already! So she and I took a nice long nap. Then after our nap it was time to check out and go meet our friends at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Of course Zaina and Cara had to sit together.

Here is Zaina posing with the frog, Cara was too scared to see him

After lunch we headed down Michigan Ave to Millenium Park. Here we are at the Bean! Cara is reaching out for herself.

Mommy and Cara in front of the bean

Walking the grounds of the park on the way to the water fountain

Just like when we were there almost one year ago, Cara finds the splash part so fun

Here she is watching the kids on the side of the wall get hammered with a huge spray of water, she wasn't too sure what to think about that

So, she lays down on the water instead

And here, she is laying down watching the water run back into the ground, she found that fascinating

Now we are on the walk back to the hotel to get our car and head back home

We wish we had more time to spend in Chicago because we didn't get everything done. We had planned to go to the aquarium but we didn't have time. But we had lots of fun anyway. It was fun to spend time at Millenium Park. And of course no trip to Chicago is complete without shopping on the Magnificent Mile, and we accomplished that on Saturday. Cara was her usual go-with-the-flow self, she makes it so easy to bring her wherever we want to go.

When walking down Michigan I was reminded of that same walk about one year ago with Cyndi, Danilo, and Grandma A when we visited Chicago. I am sure they are thinking the same thing when they see these pictures!!

Chicago Fun Part 1

Cara is cheering for shopping at American Girl

Cara and Mommy outside the store, we got Cara a small doll for her birthday

After an afternoon of shopping, we got dressed up and headed to the Navy Pier to board the Odyssey boat for a dinner reception to celebrate the recent wedding of our friends Dendra and Larry

It is hard to see in this picture but Cara and I both have black polka dots on our shoes, several people even noticed our cute "matching" shoes

Dendra's daughter Zaina and Cara hugging, Cara LOVES her and they spent most of the night side by side

Mommy and Cara on the observation deck of the boat, the skyline of the city is behind us but you can't see it very well

Dancing the night away with the bride and Zaina

Holding on tight to Daddy while we watch the fireworks shoot off from the Navy Pier

We hit the streets of Chicago with a purpose that afternoon for some shopping. I had forgotten to pack frilly socks for Cara to wear with her dress shoes to the reception that evening. So we hit every department store and kids store that we could find. Out very first stop was Nordstrom's and we found a pair of socks that would work, but not exactly what I had in mind, but since they were on sale for $2.40 I bought them as a back up. Then after countless stores that did not have any socks, and one trendy children's boutique that had a pair of frilly socks for $24.o0, we decided the first pair we bought would be sufficient.

We decided we better head back to the hotel to get ready for the evening's festivites. Cara fell asleep in her stroller and proceeded to sleep for over an hour more when we got back to the hotel. Worked out great for us because we knew we had a long night ahead of us. The dinner cruise was from 8-11pm Chicago time. Cara did great on the boat. She was so polite and well behaved. She loved spending the evening with Zaina. She also loved riding in a limo to and from the hotel because she was not in a car seat, so she thought that was pretty cool. We enjoyed a yummy dinner, Scott had salmon while I enjoyed a pork chop. For dessert they had a fabulous chocolate fountain with all the yummy dippables that you can imagine. We enjoyed the evening air on the observation deck viewing the skyline of Chicago and then watching the fireworks.

It was well after midnight Chicago time when we finally all collapsed in bed, but you sure couldnt' tell by Cara. She did great! Too bad for us that she got up just 7 hours later!! More of Day 2 fun tomorrow!

Mickey Mouse Ears

We got her these Mickey ears in Florida, and she refused to wear them. But everyone needs their first pair of Mickey ears! So we were thrilled when she wanted to wear them the other day. So cute!

Happy Anniversary!

On Saturday we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary! What a great 11 years together with my best friend! We enjoyed a nice leisurely dinner at the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant, and even splurged on getting a bottle of wine. Cara spent the evening with Grandma and Grandpa. We were supposed to go to a movie after dinner, but dinner took too long and we missed it, and the next show would have been much to late to go get Cara.

And of course, I didn't think I could get away with a blog post without pictures of Cara, so here are some self portraits! She loves using the camera and taking a picture of herself!!

The Princess in her Nightgown

Here I am.......

Twirling around....

Look at my curls today, this humidity is making them crazy

A few months ago Grandma F bought this Princess nightgown set for Cara but she wasn't really into princesses yet or wearing nightgowns. So after her bath I got it out and asked if she wanted to be a Princess, and the above pictures were the result. I asked daddy to hurry upstairs with a camera to catch the twirling girl. So we will see how she does sleeping in it, but so far so good tonight :)