Some photo updates:
This is what our backseat often looks like:

Mariel falls asleep easily in the car; Noella pretty much never does (even, say, on two day journeys to New York).  So Noella usually just laughs at Mariel while she flops and drools.
On our trip to CT, however, we seem to have rented a magic car:

We need to get one of these for ourselves. 

At my brother's house we celebrated Mariel's half birthday with-what else?- chocolate cake.  She got to do the sprinkles on top of Kate's delicious icing.

While the girls did not go to the reception for the wedding (Mariel went to the church, Noella napped) they did enjoy the rehearsal dinner, referred to as the "big party."  There were a few games, and Noella was very, very interested in playing the basketball game (which is meant for probably 10 and up).  Grampy helped her out:

The wedding was gorgeous, as were the newlyweds.  They danced the night away, including the most entertaining and well choreographed first dance that I have ever seen.  (This is not it, just a picture that I snapped later!)

Final update: Noella is moving up.  The crib disappeared today, and she is sleeping out in the open on her crib mattress, with the intention of moving up to her regular sized mattress shortly.   She fell asleep without much of a protest, even when a certain parent decided to barge into her room and take pictures with a flash.