Corinne

Corinne’s cousin Juniper had a story book themed second birthday party. Corinne dressed up as the very fairy princess.

In the beginning of March we went on vacation to Florida. Here is Corinne in Dr. Seuss land.

Most of our attempts to take a picture of Corinne with any costumed character have turned out to be pictures of Corinne running out of the frame crying. Corinne really wanted to take a picture with the Lorax so she smiled through gritted teeth and did it.

With the Lorax under her belt Corinne went in for a hug from Barney.

Family birthday party.

Happy birthday at home on Corinne’s actual birthday.

This year we got Corinne an acoustic guitar.

Friends party.

Corinne wanted a woodland fairy (princess) theme.

Dramatic squirrel.

Bird house party favors.

A couple of Corinne’s best buds couldn’t make it to the party due to snow and icy conditions (it wouldn’t be a special occasion for us without some snow!). We had them over the next day for some cake. When you include the cupcakes we sent to school with her Corinne got to blow out the candles five times this year.

While I was taking some holiday pictures Corinne informed me that she has a special Christmas smile (see above).

“Christmas morning” at our house (December 23rd).

Christmas eve at Aunt Laura’s house.

Christmas morning dance party in Aunt Sheri’s new kitchen.

Corinne taking Rody for a ride.

Christmas trees shooting out of the wood chipper mark the official end of the Christmas season.

We asked Corinne a few months back what she wanted to be for Halloween. Her response was “a princess fairy… riding a unicorn”. I pretty much laughed it off but mom made it happen.

Faylinn wanted to be a horse (which somehow turned out to be a Greek goddess riding a Pegasus).

Ready for trick-or-treating!

Fall festival at Liberty Lands.

Castle bounce!

The day before Halloween we went to a fall festival but we wanted to preserve the full blown costumes for Halloween so Corinne went as a princess fairy and Faylinn wore the owl costume that Corinne wore on her first Halloween.

This post is long overdue so I had to go big. Here we go…

Corinne on the carousel on a recent trip to the zoo.

Corinne and Faylinn sitting on a bear statue (bear not pictured).

In August we went to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

We had afternoon thunderstorms for a few minutes each afternoon. We could usually see the storm clouds rolling in and gauge how long we had until we needed to head for cover.

One of Corinne’s favorite things to do was look for shells and make sandcastles.

Dressed up for dinner.

Corinne got really comfortable using her swim  tube. She would go off on her own and do spins in the water.

Corinne on her balance bike.

Corinne took part in a week long soccer camp this summer. She got a little better each day and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Baby’s first Slurpee.

Corinne picked up kite flying right away on an afternoon at the Jersey shore.

Corinne got lots of use out of this little pool we set up on the deck.

Corinne hanging out at the Piazza.

Blowing bubbles on Nana and Pop Pop’s porch.

We made it to the sprayground in south Philly a couple of times this summer.

In early summer we went to a Fairy themed event at Tyler Arboretum.

Corinne has been taking dance classes since January. Back in June she had her first dance recital. She is sitting with her friend Mia in the picture above.

In this picture she is doing her chassé across the stage.

Sakura Sunday cherry blossom festival.

Treehouses at Tyler Arboretum.

Corinne riding a unicorn at the Art Star Craft Bazaar.

Shaking it at the kids concerts at Liberty Walk.

Corinne was in style with her (chocolate) mustache.

Memorial day BBQ at Cameron’s house.

Chilling (the water was freezing) in our new pool.

At the end of March we went down to Florida for a week. The weather was perfect every single day we were there. It was breezy with the temperature in the eighties and we got no rain at all. With the winter that we had this was pretty much just what we needed.

We kept the itinerary pretty light because we didn’t want to push the kids too hard. It seemed like Seaworld was one of the highlights of the trip for both of the kids.

We generally try not to have the kids watch television, we steer clear of toys that are gender specific, and even with two girls we try to avoid the frou frou princess stuff… but yes, of course we brought them to the Magic Kingdom. I really didn’t know what to expect but I thought it went pretty well. Corinne really liked most of the rides and she really didn’t pay the characters much attention (probably in part because she didn’t know who the heck they were).

If you every wondered “what does Corinne look like when she is totally busting up laughing?”, please see the picture above. This was taken on a boat ride that we took on the Dora canal. We saw a huge alligator, turtles, a snake, and all kinds of neat birds.

This was the first vacation we have had where the kids could really experience everything together. On previous trips Faylinn couldn’t walk yet so she couldn’t quite keep up with Corinne. They are still figuring each other out but they seem to get a little closer every day.