Cora's Birthday #4

Cora Eve Skifton

born pi day

3.14

4 YEARS OLD!

41 pounds, 41 inches tall

Birthday breakfast with MOM!

Scrambled eggs and pears!

And chocolate milk!

It had to be special!

We went to Britta's class today to help with the class art project!

They were so sweet to sing to her before she left!

Then we headed across town to have a special lunch with DAD!

She requested Jack-In-The-Box

which surprised both of us,

but OK!

I'll never say no to curly fries,

or lunch with Richard!

Since her birthday was on a Monday,

we had a special pie day celebration with Michelle, Thad, 

Christian, Grandma and Doug and Evi's family

on Sunday!

Michelle and Thad brought the pies!

They wanted us to sample some pies 

they hope to serve at their WEDDING this summer!

The twins showing her how to each sour patch kids and pop rocks.

"Oh! I can hear it!"

Cora's first pinwheel!

I think she's got it!

She'll huff and she'll puff...

 

She was really spoiled by her sweet cousins, aunts, uncles, and GRANDMA!

So many new things to discover!

Thank you to JAKE for using his new phone

to get this birthday video footage!

The next day

on her actual birthday,

Randy, Sonia, Jeff, Karlee, Quinn and Holland 

came to celebrate with us!

Dad's perspective.

My perspective of Dad's perspective.

 

What did she get?!?!

Will we ever know!

Her main request this year was a...

TRICYCLE!

She kept starting her sentences,

"When I get my tricycle..."

She had a lot of faith in us.

SO HAPPY!

She has been riding it all around the house!

Now we only need to find a helmet to match!

MORE PIE!

MORE CORA!

What is a FOUR YEAR OLD Cora like?

Let me tell you...

Grandma is her absolute best friend.

I worried so much about my ability to handle 5 children,

but Grandma has been a God send.

Cora adores her,

talks like her,

and learns so much from her!

Here they are hand quilting Lisa and Heath's new quilt.

She's good at handing out tacks.

Grandma is so patient and clever.

She teaches me so much about how to handle children.

They just want to help,

and be apart of what you are doing!

So grandma gave Cora her own place to stitch,

so she wouldn't mess up the quilt.

Genius!

 

Cora is completely cuckoo.

She says the funniest, silliest, most random things!

AND she knows that it's funny.

That's the best part.

Examples?

They were watching one of Parker's anime cartoons

(Yu-gi-oh)

in the van while we were driving.

He took the remote and changed it to Japanese.

The kids were just sitting quietly listening to it,

and after several excruciating minutes of not understanding anything,

Cora finally says,

"PARKER! PLEASE NO JAPANESE!"

in the most exhausted voice she could muster.

We all died laughing.

Cora and Britta have a bad habit of tattling on each other.

Little sisters? How surprising!

But Cora was on a particular rant about how mean Britta was,

meanwhile Britta was standing behind her with a scowl on her face,

waiting for the chance to give her side of the story.

Then Cora looks behind to see Britta and said,

"SEE! LOOK at her eyebrows! 

See how they go DOWN like this?!?!

That's why she is mean!"

Even Britta had a crack up about that one,

and immediately turned her eyebrows upside down

and smiled that scowl away!

I went out the door of church carrying all my stuff for Songtime in Primary.

I thought Cora was following me,

but apparently she got distracted

and didn't see me go out the door.

The ward clerk said he watched her,

as she kept walking back and forth around the hallway looking for me,

she finally stopped,

clenched her hands into fists and said,

"This can NOT be happening!"

He happily picked her up and 

brought her out to the car to help her find me!

He said that is his new mantra in life.

Whenever things aren't going right,

he just pictures Cora saying,

"This can NOT be happening!"

Cora is so sweet to us all and we all fight for her attention.
She is a little spoiled because she knows

how much everyone wants to be around her.

If she gets upset at Mom or Dad,

she knows she can go to Grandma.

If she doesn't get what she wants from Grandma,

she can go to Colette,

or Parker, or Mitchell...

There's a whole flow chart.

So eventually she gets what she wants, is what I'm saying.

When it's time for chore wheel jobs at the end of the night,

to keep our home from falling apart,

everyone has a job on the wheel for the day.

I'll inform Cora that it's her turn to take out the trash,

or something like that,

and she'll say,

"Oh mom, that's ok, I'll let you do it for me!"

Like it's my pleasure.

Then we have a polite exchange back and forth

until she stomps away finally understanding 

that Mom will NOT be doing her job for her.

She says she can "read"

and even though that's not really true,

she has an uncanny ability to memorize!

She can "recite" most stories that we read regularly

because she remembers them.

I know this video is a bit long,

but it's just something I want to remember.

I know it's cliche,

but I have a really hard time remembering 

what our family was like without her.

She softens every heart,

puts a smile on every face,

and brings joy to all that know her.

I've learned so much from her example

about how to love unconditionally

and without judgement of others.

She really sees everyone as God does.

Everyone is her friend,

everyone makes her smile,

and everyone is worthy of her love.

All of this compacted into her little 

41 pound,

four-year-old body.

What a miracle she is.