Happy Birthday, Claire!

I'm sure all parents have this feeling of wondering how in the world your child is at this age. It's so hard to quantify how Claire has changed this year, but here is a snapshot of who she is at age FOUR!

Favorites:

• Activities: drawing and coloring (loves to draw stick people, color in coloring books, and paint on her art easel), packing up purses/backpacks for trips (mostly make-believe!), riding bikes (again, she's always telling me where we're going and what we're doing as we ride/walk from place to place), dancing to music on her CD player, work or fish with Daddy
  
• Books: Magic Treehouse series! She got the first one from Mamaw a while back and the next three for her birthday, and we've read two and a half in about a week.
• Foods: fried potatoes, waffles, strawberries, fried squash, mac and cheese...this sounds like she just mostly loves junk food, but she eats almost everything we put in front of her, at home, other people's houses, or at restaurants.
  

ABCs/123s: Can write her own name and probably half of the alphabet, can count to 12
Big Sis: Very affectionate and helpful with Anna (little sis is usually not a fan of this)

Claire is a good girl most of the time, with a tendency to be bossy and ask LOTS of questions. She's becoming more assertive with what she wants to wear--usually dresses or skirts whenever possible! (Mom says this is exactly how I was in my early elementary years!) She plays really well with other kids and is always up for going and doing. At least once a day, she asks, "Where are we going to-morning?" (This can mean this afternoon or or tomorrow--just "next.") She's very excited to start pre-K in the fall--when I was telling her I might come get her after lunch until she's ready to stay the whole day, she said, "Or I think you could just let me stay for recess and snacks." What happened to my baby? Oh yeah, her name is Anna now. Thank you, Lord!

We had Claire's party yesterday, and I think it was a lot of fun, although it was kind of a blur! It was a Candyland party, so we had a giant game of Candyland, with the kids drawing cards and moving around the board we taped to the floor with colored cardstock. I traced and painted cardboard standups of all NINE Candyland characters, with a corresponding candy/treat to go with each one. The kids each got a personalized candy bag they decorated as they arrived, and then we lined up to play Candyland. They drew cards, went around the board, and gathered candy as they passed each character.

Katelyn, Claire, and Dawson on the board. You can see Lolly in the background.

Going along the board...

Izzy walks by Princess Frostine.

Claire made it to King Kandy first!

It was very disorganized, with eight kids playing at once, ranging in age from 2 1/2 (Isabel knew most of the colors, but had trouble staying on her square until her turn!) to nine (Rylee wanted us to know that she was only playing for the candy). But I think they must have liked it, because a bunch of them went back to the beginning to play again, or just ran around the board for fun when they were done. Claire had an appropriate birthday girl game, drawing her favorite character of Princess Frostine and finishing first. (And NO Jay, I did NOT rig it!)

Then we made candy necklaces, ate pizza, and cut into the Candyland cake that Claire and I made together.

Candy necklaces

Birthday Girl! (Self-selected outfit!)

Claire and my joint masterpiece!

I was so thankful for my sister and her boyfriend James' help with setup, and with all the moms and guests who helped pick up afterward.

Claire at 3

What can I say? This girl lights up my life! Here's a snapshot of my first daughter at age three (minus the negatives, because, hey, it's her birthday!):

• She loves to "help" mommy. If I'm not in the same room, she has to come see what I'm doing and usually says, "I wanna help you."
• She still loves to read. Favorites right now are Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Hiccup the Hero (I Can Read adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon), Pinkalicious and Purplelicious, and her toddler Bibles. She's off Fancy Nancy and Berenstein Bears for now, but she's had some intense phases of both.
• She loves baby sister. She uses this funny baby talk that's this really silly, exaggerated voice, where she basically repeats, "Hi Anna boo-boo! Hi Anna jee-jee!" and other variations of that. Anytime I bring Anna in from a nap, she has to talk to her and "pet" her. She likes to hold her hand while we're driving, but also has a great talent for tuning Anna out when she's screaming in her carseat.
• She loves Disney princess anything. It's becoming very predictable. Anything Disney princess we see, we have to stop and look at it.
  
• She loves for me to tell her stories. Often when we're driving, at bedtime, and at naptime, I tell her a made-up story. She supplies the names of the people involved (always herself, and usually her cousins Katelyn and Kerrigan, but sometimes other friends and relatives she's lately played with), and a little about the premise, and I launch into something. I have a couple standbys that are combinations of fairy tales and movies she likes.
  
• She plays really well with all kids that I've seen. The toughest thing is usually trying to get her to leave.
  
• She only takes naps two or three times a week now. We've moved her bedtime up by 30 minutes or so (I try for earlier, but she rarely goes to sleep before 9 p.m.).
  
• She can be bossy to people she's very comfortable with (often me, Mamaw, and my sister Amanda). But if older kids boss her around, she is totally fine with it.
  
• She says she enjoys the scary parts in movies (like Harry Potter, the witch parts in princess movies), and she likes to play pretend, but there's a certain deep voice I use for giants, monsters, etc., that genuinely scares her, and she immediately changes my role, or asks "Are you a giant?" like she suspects I've changed.
• She loves her outside-time in the evenings with Daddy: working in the shop, mowing the yard, and hitting golf balls are their favorites.
  
• She enjoys playing Wal-Mart. She says, "You be the lady," and then she asks me questions about where things are in the store, or how much something costs. Then she brings me stuff, and I have to "peep it" and then tell her how much she owes.
  
• She plays in her kitchen almost every night while I cook dinner.
• She enjoys Bible class on Wednesday nights and Thursday School very much, although often when I ask her what she learned in Bible class, she tells me "About Jesus crossing on the river." Recently, though, she has actually remembered the Bible story a couple times, and told me a little about it.
  

Well, I could go on, but I guess I'll stop! I love watching her grow and learn, and I pray Jay and I can help her become the woman God wants her to be.

Fun Edmond weekend!

I love weekend getaways! We should plan them more often, as we usually just wait until we have some specific event to go somewhere for, and then sometimes make a weekend of it.

This weekend, it was Kerrigan's second birthday party! But we managed to squeeze in a bunch of other activities around it! On the way to Edmond, we ate in Norman with my sister, and then went over to Jay's fishing buddy Eric's house, as they have a new baby boy, in addition to their 3-year-old and 6-year-old boys. We finally made it to Kyle and Audrey's around 9:30, and Claire was still wide awake! Eric's boys had her revved up with plenty of swinging, sliding, golf, and soccer.

The next morning, Jay and Kyle went golfing with some friends, while Claire and I went to the zoo with Amanda. Sadly, I didn't have my camera all weekend, so I don't have any pics of that. Luckily, Audrey got plenty of good ones at the party later, though, and some of those are below. Anyway, we had fun at the zoo, despite the heat, which kept many of the animals hidden and/or motionless. Claire could have watched those stationary alligators for a lot longer than Amanda and I wanted to! Actually, the bears were fairly active, since they have a pool to swim in. We saw a baby black bear taking a dip, and one grizzly kept pacing back and forth, coming within inches of us, on the other side of his glass wall! And the new dinosaur exhibit was really cool. Life-size, animatronic dinosaurs, where the kids can actually push buttons to make them roar and move different body parts! Claire was a little scared at first, but she got into it pretty quick.

The party was fun, and Claire loved playing outside with her cousins! With a swing set, a trampoline, a slip 'n' slide, and a kiddie pool, Claire, Kerrigan, Carson, Zack, and Abby went from one thing to the next!



We even got to go fishing in Kyle and Audrey's pond, where the fish are practically tame! They're fed and fished almost daily, so they appear totally comfortable with getting caught for a short time--literally, we would drop a line in the water and just watch 10-15 perch swimming around the worm, trying to grab it without getting hooked, and then within five to ten seconds, we'd have one on! It's the perfect fishing experience for kids! Jay even caught Big Boy, one of the big catfish Paul put out there a while back.

After we left Kyle and Audrey's we had to fuel up, and we love stopping in at Pops, the new Route 66 attraction just down the road from their house. Even though it's always crazy-busy on Saturdays with motorcyclists and families, we can't resist that huge drink selection! I got a vanilla cream soda, Claire got a banana milk, and Jay got a Dr. Pepper icee. We could have gone crazier, but we have learned in the past that sometimes it's best to play it safe!

Claire's birthday party

Sunday was Claire's "main event" birthday party, with a smaller one at Dad's house the previous Tuesday, and one with just Jay, Claire and I, and a test ladybug cake on her actual birthday. But Sunday was the big blowout I had been planning for! Of course, I got NO pictures of my ladybug cake, handmade buggy Happy Birthday poster, or "stick the dot on the ladybug" game. NOPE! Once we started cutting cake, I was in full-on hostess mode and forgot all about posterity! Thank goodness for Audrey, my shutterbug sister-in-law! These are all courtesy her fancy camera!

It was so neat having both sides of the family and our friends, many of which we only ever see separately, in different towns, come together to celebrate Claire turning two! We had guests from Kingston, Calera, Coleman, Edmond, and Durant, of course, all at Paul and Diane's house in Calera! There were seven kids under the age of five, so they had lots of fun playing together. I did a ladybug theme, and even made the cake myself, thank you very much! All the kids got ladybug antenna, most of which were worn for about five seconds. I also attempted to lead the kids through some ladybug-themed games and activities, like the aforementioned stick the dot on the ladybug, ladybug musical leaves, and bug stickers.

However, this was definitely a learning experience in toddler party planning! For example, two-year-olds don't know how to stand in line and wait their turn! Or follow directions longer than two words! Basically, the kids had more fun playing with Paul and Diane's dogs and jumping on their new cellar than enacting my fantasies of a two-year-old ladybug birthday party!