Cora was blessed with a three-day celebration in honor of her birthday this year (meaning in 2011). That Friday night we went to the tree lighting in Downtown Greensboro. Because of traffic and a nearly full-to-capacity parking garage (I'm impressed with Chris' car-maneuvering skills), we walked into the park just as the big fake tree was lit. We spent an hour or two wandering Elm Street-- listening to musicians, watching the people, sipping hot chocolate, meeting a Victorian Santa, and reading random tourist markers. Did you know that Greensboro was the site of the "sit-in" at Woolworth's on Feb 1, 1960 and that the store is now an International Civil Rights Museum? Did you know that William Sydney Porter (O'Henry) the short story guy worked at a pharmacy across the street and a few blocks down? Did you know that the Vicks Vapo-Rub formula was also first concocted on Elm Street? We need to go back --in the daylight and when the streets are less crowded-- and do some more exploring.
The next morning Jess met us at the Coliseum for the real highlight of Cora's big weekend-- Disney On Ice. As we found our seats, the skaters were performing the story of The Frog Princess. Ally immediately hid when the music turned dark and the skeleton/ghosts started to skate. (She loves VooDoo doughnuts, but not VooDoo.) In the end, Tiana got here prince, they turned back into humans, and we moved on to the classic and non-terrifying fairytale of Cinderella. And after Cinderella came Rapunzel-- complete with a skating horse, floating lanterns, and a princess flying Cirque-du-Soleil-style over the ice on aerial silks. It was very beautiful, but it also made me quite nervous. We got to see all the Disney princesses (and Minnie Mouse and Daisy) dance with their princes in the grand finale. As with everything else with the Disney name on it, the show was very well done. My one criticism is that a a snack or souvenir should not cost as much as your ticket to see the performance. Since we're cheap and rational, Ally and Cora walked away with only smiles and some great memories. Poor deprived children!
After the show, we stopped at Cook Out for some lunch and then headed home to rest up for the next adventure of the day. We drove out to Winston-Salem to see their Christmas parade. We listened to a ton of marching bands. We saw church floats, boy scouts, cub scouts, girl scouts, dance teams, hula-hoopers, politicians, civic leaders, and unicyclists. We saw school buses, fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars. We also saw a Chick-Fil-A float with dancing cows, a Krispy Kreme car, and a gigantic fiberglass bull that advertised a local restaurant. After Santa's float appeared to mark the end of the parade, we drove to a Mexican restaurant for Cora's Birthday dinner, and then topped ourselves off with some hot Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnuts. Yummy!
Sunday was Cora's actual birthday. We celebrated by going to church and then eating this fabulous cake. Chris made it from an idea Jess saw somewhere. I thought it'd be too hard to do and not worth the effort, but Chris thought otherwise and tackled the challenge 'cause he loves Cora and wanted to try something new. (Secret is, it really wasn't that hard.) The colors were so vivid, and the butter cream icing was delicious. Good job, Daddy!
After Cora blew out the "fireworks" and we finished eating cake, we finally let Cora open her presents.
I still can't believe she's two, although she constantly reminds me. "Mommy, I not a baby anymore. I'm a todd-el-er 'cause I'm two." That's right, my sweet, you are getting so big. Now, could you please stop putting your doll's pacifier in your mouth and pretending you're a baby? You never took one when you were tiny, you really shouldn't start doing it now.
