Clara Turns Four

My sweet Clara Lynn turned 4! It breaks my heart that she's so grown up.

On her real birthday, we had a party with cousins. I was planning to make some cool candy ice for her cake but I left the kitchen for two minutes and burnt it so the cake wasn't as fancy as I envisioned it. However, I'm starting to realize that Clara doesn't really like cake. She went with a few helpings of ice cream instead.

On the Saturday after her birthday, we had a party with friends. Clara was a bit of a diva and cried several times when things didn't go her way. I guess she's a firm believer in the "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to" mentality.

The girls played pin the kiss on the frog.

They decorated their own crowns.

They went on a princess treasure hunt.

The popped balloons with prizes inside.

The decorated their own cupcakes.

And, they made candy/cereal/pretzel necklaces.

It was a fun party! Hopefully next year Clara will be a slightly more gracious birthday girl.

Monsoon Storms

The kids have been enjoying monsoon season and have had several chances to play in the rain. We haven't had a drop of rain in months so it's been pretty exciting.

Usually, monsoon storms are fast and furious--a lot of rain comes down in a very short period of time. They also seem to occur in the evening.

On this day, it rained off and on for most of the late morning and into the afternoon. The kids had a blast playing outside, making mud pies and getting filthy.

It's funny how your perspective changes. When we lived in Philly, I used to dread rainy days. They always made me feel melancholy--especially when there were several rainy days in a row. Now, three rainy days in a row is cause for celebration!

Clara's Stiches

Clara was dancing around the living room in a tutu when she suddenly fell down and smacked her head into the coffee table. I immediately scooped her up and ran into the bathroom to get a towel to stop the bleeding. When I got her settled down on the couch, I removed to towel to check things out. The cut was gaping open but there was hardly any blood. I thought she probably needed stitches but the lack of blood was throwing me off. I couldn't get ahold of Sam so I called my BIL to get his opinion. When I sent him a pic, he said she should probably go in. As I was trying to figure out where to take her, Sam called back and said he could come home and take her in. 

After three hours in the ER, lots of screaming and a trip to the dollar store, she came home with 3 stitches on her beautiful face.

She has been healing well and I think scarring should be minimal thanks to the wonderful skin of a kid.

Clara is THREE!

The day before Clara's birthday, she was rocking a fever and I was feeling so sad that she'd be sick on her special day. Fortunately, she took a really long nap and woke up feeling pretty good and then in the morning, she was still doing well. (Unfortunately, all of our kiddos are battling this little bug right now. There is a lot of nighttime coughing.)

We had some balloons blown up in the living room and had her gifts sitting on the kitchen table. She came into our room and said, "Why are there balloons and presents?" We said, "Why do you think?" She said, "For my birthday?!? " 

She slowly opened her presents throughout the day, which is becoming a great tradition. The kids can enjoy each gift and make the fun last all day.

Clara choose to go to Chick-Fil-A (aka the one with the play place) for lunch. Sam was able to take a long lunch and join up which was a lot of fun.

She took another long nap and was ready to open the rest of her presents when she woke up. We call Clara the puzzle queen so these Frozen puzzles were the perfect gift. Abby has been happy to help Clara try out all of her gifts.

She got this Elsa doll from grammy and grandpa and she loves it. She has been sleeping with her and wants to bring her everywhere.

Clara choose to have hot dogs for dinner. What can I say, she's a cheap date.

We surprised Clara with an Olaf cake. I wish we had a picture of her reaction. She thought it was pretty awesome. We used this tutorial. Sam shaped the cake and I baked and decorated him.

We invited two of Clara's little friends over for cake and ice cream. All three little girls have birthday within a month so Clara got to show them how it's done. 

It was such a fun day celebrating our sweet, funny, spunky, beautiful girl. We love her so much and are so blessed to have her in our family.

Happy Halloween 2013

We decided we'd better carve pumpkins again, since daddy missed out on carving while we were in California. Clara's  Jack-o-Lantern face was a bit abstract.

 

I am kind of in love with the girl's costumes this year. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Honestly, I couldn't find very good tutorials for either of the costumes so I was mostly winging it.

Abby chose to be Merida this year. She picked it for the bow and arrow, which I was able to find at the Dollar Tree--score!  I used this blog post, mostly just for ideas. I thought her instructions were kind of confusing. My magnum opus was that wig. It took quite a bit of time but it definitely made the look. I used this method, though I didn't used quite as much yarn and I didn't crochet my own hat.

Clara's Rapunzel costume came almost completely out of my brain because I couldn't find any I liked very much. However, this guided how I made her wig. Again, less yarn. She only weighs 25 pounds after all.

I'm not sure what she was doing in the picture but she looks so angelic.

It's hard to get a good smile out of her these days. Her cheese looks like she's in pain.

Sam made her this Pascal, which was super cute. She didn't want to wear it though.

Here they are with their spoils. They actually got more at the church party in about 20 minutes then they did in an hour plus on Halloween.

They had a blast trick-or-treating with their cousins!

A Weekend in CA

My parents were heading to California for my nephew's first birthday, so the kids and I decided to tag along for the adventure. We had a blast! It would have been the perfect trip if only daddy could have joined us (and if my kids would have slept later!)

 

We went to a "pumpkin patch" one day. It was really just a carnival which also sold over-priced pumpkins, but it did provide some good photo ops.

 

 

We bought a few tickets for the kids and they decided to ride the tractors and the train.

The tractors were hilarious. They were like the ride-on Barbie jeeps. They all kept crashing into things/each other. We were laughing so hard watching them.

 

We ended up going to buy pumpkins at Home Depot instead. They each picked the perfect pumpkin.

After scooping out the guts (which Abby and grammy did for all of them), we let them draw faces on their pumpkins. Merrick carved what they drew and they turned out so cute!

 

The next day, we went to Knott's Berry Farm. It was the perfect day. The weather was gorgeous and there was hardly anyone there. We never had to wait more than like two minutes to go on a ride.

 

These little pump cars were so cute. They had to pump back and forth to make them go. Poor Clara was pretty slow. She finished, though, and didn't seem to notice she was running behind.

This little boy was good as gold.

 

That night, we had a birthday party for my nephew.

 

 

Abby loved wearing the party hat and eating a cupcake. The countdown is on for her birthday. (Excuse me while I go cry in a corner.)

 

We went to the park the next morning and the kids had a lot of fun. It was a cool park and another gorgeous day. Abby liked climbing the rock wall--like father, like daughter.

These two are the best of friends. They are always hugging each other and playing together. They helped Merrick bake some cookies and got to sample the dough, as all good helpers get to do.

Then, we went to the Halloween party at the church. Right before we left, Clara fell and split her lip. However, she was more upset that she broke her pumpkin bucket in the fall. Luckily, Merrick had an extra so a crisis was averted.

They had so much fun trunk-or-treating. They came home with quite the haul. Atfirst Clara kept scowling at everyone who gave her candy. She seemed a little overwhelmed with it all.

 

I was very proud of how the girls costumes turned out. I'll write more about them another day.

 

Grant was the cutest little shark. However, I think he looked more like he was eaten by a shark.

 

 

 

Inside, the kids played games and won prizes and sugared up good.

 

 

It was a wonderful weekend which ended with Grant puking his guts out in my parent's driveway. Hey, at least he didn't do it in the car.