Happy Easter Day!

The Easter Bunny came to visit Claire!!

When she walked in the room and saw her basket, I said "What did the Bunny bring you?!" She said "a drink." Well, yes there is a sippy cup in the basket but as you can see from her expression, I don't think she was too impressed by the Bunny's practical choices in his gift-giving.
Doesn't everyone get underwear in their Easter baskets?? She also had a couple cards to open and this one from Mimi and Papa had some $$ for the piggy bank!

Mommy made a yummy breakfast for everyone - blueberry ricotta pancakes from scratch.
Later in the day we headed over to Uncle Andy and Aunt Tara's house for a delicious outdoor lunch,

and Easter bunny cake!

The Easter Bunny's cousin had stopped by and left another basket for Claire!! (Thanks cousin!)

"The Big Storm" book (Claire's favorite!) from Mimi and Papa

Then we were off for an egg hunt in the backyard!

a couple were pretty tough to find....

Uncle Andy had to help get them open. I'm pretty sure Claire would have been satisfied after finding just 1 egg and eating the treats inside! We had to convince her to keep searching.

All the loot in her new bumble bee basket (Thanks to Mrs. Dameron!!)

Next up on our schedule for the day was Easter on Parade! Here's Claire checking out the "mama llama" and all the animals in the petting farm...

It was pretty hot and Claire was tired so we didn't stay too long. Lots of fun though and a great Easter tradition!

Catching up...

I've been such a slacker lately - it's been well over a month since I've updated the blog! Not much blog-worthy has happened in between the multiple snow storms of winter and now (high 80s today!!), but I thought I'd add a few photos to catch up.



Here's Claire on St. Patrick's Day! Luckily we had a green hand-me-down shirt to wear. (Thanks Patty!) Can't wait til next year when the leprechaun can come visit us and play tricks!

(Check it out - we can FINALLY put her hair in pigtails! Love it!)Claire now loves to make "silly faces." Here's one in action...

And a not-as-silly face....she knows to "say cheese" now for pictures.

Last weekend we got together with the Barnes crew to CELEBRATE! Jake was accepted to UVA and will be going there in the fall!!!

We're gearing up for Easter tomorrow and Claire got her first Easter present from Aunt Mary Lynn. Thanks for all the great stuff! She LOVED the little animals in the eggs and as you can see, the book was a hit too!

I'll be back tomorrow with an Easter post! We're looking forward to the Easter bunny and hoping he is practical in his gift-giving this year (hint hint....Claire peed on the potty for the first time last night!!!)

My Valentine

We started our Valentine's Day off with some pink pancakes for breakfast! (Rob thought this was very weird, but I thought it was fun!! I will have to learn how to make them heart shaped because it didn't work this time)

After naptime, I put on Claire's special Valentine's dress, made by Mimi. When we came down the stairs Claire said "I look like a princess!" For our Valentine's dinner, we went out to Claire's favorite - pizza! She was so good in the restaurant and it was really fun to celebrate the day as a family.

When we got home, it was time for some of my "cookie hearts" as Claire calls them. Then we let her watch Clifford's Valentine show before bed. What a fun day!!

This is kind of random, but here's a picture of her in another Valentine's outift - courtesy of Skylar. Just wanted to show that we can finally get her hair in a tiny ponytail!! :-)

Trees are Good

We went to check out the "Kid's Day in the Garden" at the Great Big Greenhouse and had a lot of fun today! We saw Clifford, and Claire went right up to him and waved, hugged him, and gave him a high five. They had several cute activities set up for the kids, a little farmer's market, and a petting zoo. When we left, they gave us a tiny tree to plant so after naptime, we headed outside to plant our tree! Claire helped me dig...
Here's the proud gardener with her work... (doesn't everyone wear a dress, a coat, and rain boots to work in the yard?)

I can't promise that we planted it exactly 100% the way you're "supposed" to.....sorry Uncle Andy. I hope it survives - the info they gave us said to plant it in a sunny spot which doesn't exist in our yard. We'll see! Claire was very proud though and when Daddy got home, she wanted to show him her tree. She told him "you can pet it" and then she petted the tree!

Christmas (and New Years!) with the Southards

On Saturday we headed to Newport News for our Southard Christmas party (postponed due to snow) and we had a wonderful time seeing everyone!

Here's Uncle Jake helping Claire with her present...

and Uncle Jake playing with Katie. He is such a good uncle to these girls! (From what I hear Claire was loving her quality time with Jake watching football...wish I had a video of that!)

Brooke, Claire, Matt, Tim, and Joe opening presents...

Claire playing with her Rudolph and Katie's Rudolph. (we are slowly learning to share!) Mary Lynn...LOVE the hat! Thanks!

More of Claire playing with Katie's toys. Why do I bother to bring things when everyone else's stuff is so much more interesting?! Not only did she commandeer Katie's things, but we raided Caitlin's beanie babies and played with those too. (We even got to take home the baby skunk...THANKS!!!)

My family getting ready to head home. We loved spending time with everyone today and thanks for all the wonderful gifts!

Hopefully a few more pictures to come.....

Lewis Ginter in the Winter!

One of Claire's favorite summertime things to do was going to Lewis Ginter with Mimi. We thought it would be fun to take her at Christmas-time to see what she thought of all the lights. We bundled up and headed over Friday night to check it out. She ran around like she owned that place! She scurried around from one thing to the next....the lights maze, the treehouse, the kids' play area.....she loved it! I don't think I've ever seen her run so fast (Rob didn't realize he'd be spending the whole night chasing after her)! After being out in the cold for while, we headed indoors to see the beautiful Christmas tree and the trains! This picture is Claire intensely watching the trains. She didn't like the one that came a little too close to her!

It was too dark to get good pictures. This is a quick video of Claire looking at the rows of little (baby) candy canes.

(Subtitles: "That's be-a-u-tiful. It's beautiful. Baby candy canes!")

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year friends and family! We're looking forward to all that 2010 will bring!

Aunt Alison and Cousin Katie stopped by for some New Year's Eve playtime. Both Claire and Katie were little "hams" and put on a great show for us. Claire loves to kiss her cousin and talk to her. They also did a little dancing and Claire said "nice dancing baby Katie!"