Birthdays Galore!

Happy 38th Rob! On Friday night we had a Barnes dinner at Popa and Abu's house to celebrate Rob's birthday (early) and Claire's too (late)! Delicious food, cake, presents, playtime with Katie....what more could you ask for? Well, we wished Jake could be there, but otherwise it was a lot of fun!

Claire is wearing a new outfit from Aunt Mary Lynn! She's showing off her goofy grin and opening presents from Popa and Abu!

Even though it looks like wrestle mania, Claire really is hugging Katie. They had some cute moments, but it sure is hard to capture them in pictures!

One candle for each birthday person!

Claire's birthday celebrations were officially over, but we were just beginning for Rob! On Saturday morning while I was running, Claire took her Daddy out for breakfast at their favorite spot, "Old McDonald's." Then Sunday we had dinner with my parents to celebrate one last time.

On Sunday afternoon Claire was invited to her friend Natalie's 4th birthday party at Chick-fil-a. Yes, you heard me right - Chick-fil-a on a SUNDAY! Natalie's dad owns a store here and they opened it up just for us. The kids had a blast and it was so much fun for the moms to catch up.

We even had a visit from the princess version of the chick-fil-a cow! Claire was a little unsure. She only got close when she offered candy :-)

After lunch, cake, and presents the kids got to run loose in the play area while the mommies (and Rob) sat around talking. Claire had so much fun with all her friends! Mallory and Claire had fun chasing each other and hugging....it was just too cute!

I was such a nerd....it was just so cool to be in a chick-fil-a when it was closed to the public. We even got a kitchen tour! I couldn't resist....had to take a picture:

Happy Birthday everyone!

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

We're still really adjusting to preschool and getting into the routine....that means a few tears every morning in the carpool line. On Tuesday, I proudly announced it was going to be a birthday party for her at preschool and she would get a special birthday snack....and she burst into tears. She cried for a while at home, whimpered a bit in the car, but by the time Mimi opened the car door to get her out she was pretty happy. As far as I know there weren't any tears at school this time!!

I had decided already that it was too risky to make an appearance for her birthday celebration so I just sent the snack in and had Mimi take a few pictures for me. They are great pictures and so cute, but I'm only going to post the ones that I've cropped the other kids out of (just since I don't have their parents permission to post on the internet).

Her teacher put the special birthday cape on her and she got to wear a birthday crown.

They were all standing in a circle around her singing and it looks to me like some of the kids are the candles and she's blowing them out ("fffffff")! Correct me if I'm wrong Mimi!! So adorable.


Then they had snack time. I sent in ice cream and sprinkles. She was very excited to tell me about that when I picked her up!


When we got home she posed by her birthday flag (thanks Maggie!!) and I just love these 2!


P.S. So glad I had a reason to let her wear the Birthday Girl shirt a 2nd time. Thank you Skylar!!

Three!

My Birthday Girl is 3! We invited "the locals" over for a small party to help celebrate. Of course, we had Claire's favorites...pizza and cake!

It was great to have both of my nieces there - the first time for all 3 girls to be together. Of course, we didn't get a picture!


Claire got so many nice presents and she loved everything. I really think she would have been happy playing with each present for hours - it was actually hard to get her to open anything else. As you can see, after Mary Lynn's present she had to stop and have a coloring break and play with the animals. Uncle Jake and Lindsey gave her a barn that makes animals out of "moon dough." Can you see the animal theme??


Uncle Andy, Aunt Tara, and Samara (and Ace and Deuce) gave her a Backyardigans lunchbox full of choking hazards. cough, cough, ahem...I mean candy and gum! The funny thing is that she had no idea it was candy! She's showing her "treasure" to Uncle Matt. You can bet if she knew it was chocolate, she'd never share. Katie has to be sneaky and get something to play with when no one else is looking :-)

Aunt Mere gave her this sea turtle towel, Sam gave her a "Biscuit" Halloween book, and Uncle Chuck and Aunt Bradford gave her a cat piano. It does all kinds of stuff including playing songs in "meows." Katie enjoyed dancing to Claire's music!

As exciting as all this was, Samara got a little bored I think. (She's thinking, oh what a yawner this party is. The whole room isn't paying attention to me?!)

Uncle Jake came home for the first time since being at UVA!! It was so great to see him and Lindsey again! (Claire LOVES Lindsey. She likes to "show" her things!) I'm sure they were bored out of their minds too. :-)

We took a break from presents for pizza. For a girl that barely eats anything, she can pack away some pizza. I think she ate 4 pieces!

I had a very cute creative idea for her cake, but all she talked about was a chocolate cake. I gave up my idea because I thought she might just cry when she saw it and it wasn't chocolate! I went for the always reliable Ukrops cake.

YUM! No time to smile, this is serious business.

And back to presents! Mimi and Papa gave her a baby doll and cradle. Sally gave all kinds of goodies....why didn't I get a single picture of you Sally?! Sorry about that. Claire got new flags for our mailbox from Maggie next door. She loves the flags with animals on them, of course. I also can't forget a card and $5 for the piggy bank from Ganny! Uncle Matt, Aunt Alison, and Katie gave her a gorgeous monogrammed dress....didn't get a picture but you know you'll be seeing that in pictures SOON! And last, Mommy and Daddy found a Wonder Pets "flyboat" which has been a big hit! All of these toys have equaled hours and hours of entertainment!

Here she is playing with the horses from Uncle Andy and Aunt Tara.

And putting her baby to bed. She was having so much fun playing that I didn't have the heart to make her go take a nap. We skipped it and played with new toys for the rest of the day!

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl. I can't believe I'm the mommy to a 3 year old preschooler now! Thanks to all that made her birthday such a special day. Still more celebrating to come with preschool and Popa and Abu!

First Day

I read this book to Claire last night and have to admit that I got a little emotional! It's such a sweet little book and I just loved what it said!

Oh my baby, little one,

the hardest thing I do

is hold you tight, then let you go,

and walk away from you.

But even when I'm far away,

this love I have will stay

and wrap itself around you

every minute of the day.

So blow a kiss and wave good-bye
my baby, don't you cry.

This love is always with you,

like the sun is with the sky.

...But oh my baby, little one,

the sweetest thing I do

is sweep you up and hold you tight

and come back home to you.

Day 1 was a success! She was SO excited about going to preschool this morning. She had a few minutes of crying when I dropped her off, but I hear she did great the rest of the day. Mimi was in and out of her room and she never got upset about her leaving or anything (phew!). Mimi also said Claire was participating during the story/song time and she was doing the hand motions to the song they were singing. I just wish I could hide out in the bushes and peek into the window to see what she's up to!! When I picked her up she was very proud of her artwork which we promptly hung on the refrigerator. Then Aunt Meredith came over and we took her out for ice cream to celebrate her first day of school!

Growing up

My little girl is about to turn 3 and I think I'm finally realizing she's not a baby anymore! One morning recently I went in to check on her since it was 8am and I had not heard a peep yet (very unusual) and I found her crib empty. She had climbed out at some point and I think she slept on the floor a good part of the night. This was proof that we had waited TOO long to move her into a big girl bed. We decided that it was time.....except we had procrastinated and had no actual bed for her. Luckily Popa and Abu came through for us with an extra twin bed they had in storage so she would have a big girl bed instead of a big girl mattress-on-the-floor! She was very excited to sleep in it and so far (knock on wood) it's been a very smooth transition.


Another project that I've had for a while is to find a chair with a back so that she could sit at the dinner table with us instead of the highchair. We finally found something and she is enjoying sitting at the table like a big girl!


The biggest step we have coming up is preschool! She did 1 week over the summer, but the real school year starts this Tuesday. We had an open house on Friday and she got to see her classroom, meet the teachers and friends, and I had a nice opportunity to talk with the other parents. Here are a couple pictures of her in the classroom and on the playground. I know she will love preschool......we just have to get over the hurdle of the separation anxiety!

Part V: I promise, last one

Memories from the Sea Hawk...

Just a few final thoughts - things that make me smile or laugh that I want to remember about our vacation!

• Claire being SO excited to get to the beach that when we pulled in the driveway and I said "Here we are, we're at the house" she started crying. She said "No I want to go to the BEACH!"
• seeing Claire in her big girl bed all tucked in and so tired that she barely moved all night!
• chatting with Samara in the mornings when she'd first get up and was so happy!
• driving past Blue Too (looks totally different now) and Sundance, remembering our past vacations and how much Claire has changed!
• how much we enjoyed all of the lovely decor in our home like this shell, sticks, and ginger root sculpture on the wall (or maybe the metal piece that you need a tetanus shot just to walk past)

• watching the dolphins in the morning - one day there were more than 30 swimming right out in front of our house. Andy even got to kayak with them
• all the talk about gas, dirty diapers, poop......you really can tell we are a family with small children now!
• on the same note, we were not exactly the "party house" - lights out by 10pm I think? so pathetic
• the disaster that a 3 year old can cause to a room.....little tiny plastic animals littered the floor all week. favorites were the elephant and fawn which she usually brought to bed with her
  
• driving past the house we were supposed to stay in, but couldn't because the day before we were told it was "uninhabitable" due to roof damage AND THEN seeing 2 cars in the driveway and beach stuff on the front porch and nothing wrong with the roof whatsoever.....oh sorry, I guess that's not a happy memory but it sure makes a good story. (let it go Katherine, let it go.)
• thank you to Jake for letting us borrow his portable DVD player - Claire watched 8 episodes of wonder pets back to back in the car on the way there. That would be over 90 minutes of pure bliss. (Surprisingly she never once asked for or watched a single TV show the rest of the week!)
• Who says our house only has 2 bathrooms? Our potty station on the deck worked wonders for not having to track in sand every time she needed a potty break (which is pretty often)
• Speaking of potty breaks...let's think of all the places we stopped for potty breaks during our traveling: mcdonald's parking lot, random parking lot (false alarm), church parking lot (another false alarm), in front of an old antique store, chick-fil-a, and last but not least, on the side of 95 in a 1 hour traffic jam! the joys of potty training.
• Ice cream on the way home! She loved it! And check out the mermaid t-shirt from Papa
• claire's first hose-down experience......ok, another not so happy moment but I couldn't help but laugh. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't call the police. I toned it down the rest of the time and didn't hose her in the face. She got used to it eventually!

• cocktail hour, a different one each day....mojitos, margaritas, pina coladas, peach reach, coconut mojitos......
• pizza pizza pizza....I think I made somewhere around 12-15 pizzas....not sure I want pizza again anytime soon
• I'm getting hungry just thinking of all the good food.....Italian night, Fajitas, BBQ, shrimp & scallops, YUM!
• the look on Mom and Dad's faces when they got busted for keeping Claire up past 9:00! They gave us all a date night and when we walked in the door we were very surprised to see her still awake :-)
• my favorite memory of all will be of Claire on Friday evening (my favorite time of day on the beach) laughing, running, playing and having the best time. love to see that smile!