Breakfast and a Movie

Daddy has been patiently waiting and waiting to take Claire to her first movie. We finally decided to take her on Tuesday because during the summer they do FREE movies for kids! Daddy had already planned to take a half day at work to go to a Nationals game so instead he took the whole day off to hang out with us! We had a pancake breakfast together and then got ready for the movie. It was hard to get Claire excited because she didn't know what a movie theatre was. I told her we were going to watch a movie about animals on a big giant TV....that got her motivated!

She was a little intimidated by the whole thing, but I know she enjoyed it. She's been telling everyone that she went to the movie theatre and saw a movie about a pig, a goose, and a spider.
By this picture, you might not think she had fun but this is typical Claire covering her ears! She did that for almost the whole movie. And she held onto a green plastic bug - that one I really can't explain. We even had to take the bug with us on our "potty breaks" and into the crib for naptime.

What a fun date with Daddy! Not our typical Tuesday morning!

Christmas in July

Claire's Christmas gift from Mimi and Papa was a week of summer session at preschool and I can hardly believe half a year has gone by and summer session is here! It was a BIG morning for her, but I think I was the one that was more nervous! Here she is in the car waiting to go in.
I got a couple "reports" from my mom during the morning (it helps to have the inside scoop!) and overall she did really well. There were a few crying moments (crying for Mimi, not Mommy!) but they closed the door to the room and she got over it. When I picked her up she told me about playing on the playground, painting, playing with playdough, eating cookies, and her teacher singing a song about fish. She seemed really happy about it and said she wanted to go back the next day!

Here's her very first artwork from school!! She was SO proud of it!

My baby is growing up!

Cute-as-could-be Katie

We popped over to see Uncle Matt, Aunt Alison, and Cousin Katie today for a quick visit since it had been way too long. Here's the most adorable little girl, rocking her pink cast (she took a little spill and broke her arm about a week ago).

Before we arrived, I tried a new tactic for teaching Claire about sharing. I asked her to pick out a toy that we could bring to show Katie - she picked out the saddest stuffed bunny who is missing both ears, thanks to Charlie. I think that says a little something about how Claire feels about sharing. Anyway, she had a hard time at first and refused to bring in the bunny, but alas...here she is actually sharing some toys with Katie! (Yes, that's our potty in the background which travels everywhere with us right now!)

They were pretty cute and actually played together for a short time. Katie kept doing "headstands" and Claire was trying to copy her. She loves to copy how Katie talks and walks.

Thanks guys for the visit today! Hugs and Kisses to one of my favorite nieces in the world!

It's All Good

Vicki, we have had so much fun with you and it was a really nice visit! Hope to see you again soon....maybe in Atlanta next time?!

Memory Lane.....this is a picture of Vicki's last visit in the summer of 2008 right before Claire turned 1. Only Vicki could make beautiful music come out of a kids' toy piano.

This time around we upgraded to a real piano, although as out-of-tune as it is, the toy piano probably sounded better.

Mimi joined in the fun and the 3 ladies played some music together!

I'm ashamed of myself for taking so few pictures. We really had lots of fun hanging out with Vicki! She brought Claire a new book which she loves and already has memorized. Thanks so much!!

As Pete says, It's all good!

River x 2

Happy 4th of July! Nothing says the 4th to me like going to the river.......so we went to 2! We started out at the Barnes' river on Saturday. Claire had fun playing, going for boat rides, and following Uncle Jake and Lindsay around.

Abu brought Claire a special doll from Spain :-)
She tried on Daddy's new boat shoes. Nice look right? (She's been pant-less most of the weekend due to potty training!)

We spent the night which was the FIRST time Claire slept in anything other than a crib or pack-n-play. We played so hard that day that she was exhausted and had no problem getting to sleep. In fact, once we ran down the list of all the people that would still be there in the morning, she kicked us out of the room! She slept great, but I woke up many times throughout the night because of her talking in her sleep. Every once in a while she would yell out something like "Wonder Pets!" It was fun though to wake up to her excited and happy face ready to play and go for a boat ride.

Breakfast was "Cimmanimanim rolls" looking out over the water.

After a quick jet ski ride, we packed it up and head to River #2 to be with the Hulchers and Masons.

Samara looking festive...

As soon as we got there, Claire started working on her badminton skills. If we ever get a day at the river without too much wind, she's gonna smoke the competition.

It's been 2 years since I've been to the Hulcher's river house and it was so fun to all be together again for the 4th!

Here we are at the annual Sandy Point parade. (Claire is holding her ears because it was "too loud." She didn't seem to be enjoying it all that much, but now tells me it was her favorite thing of the weekend.)

Here comes the Hulcher float! (Sam is on his bike following behind)

Mommy, Daddy, and Claire watching the parade from Kathy's front yard.

more of the group...

Claire's checking in on Samara, making sure she's ok :-)

Back at the house, we had some lunch,

some swinging,

some kite-flying (on a fishing pole),

and lots of running around! I enjoyed having some Samara-time!! Here she is with her Daddy...

And here's the whole group, minus Dad since he had to go home early.

It was a VERY fun and exhausting weekend!! We were so tired by the time we got home, but it was definitely worth it. So much fun to spend time with our families!

Meeting Samara

Last Friday was the day Claire got to meet her newest cousin, baby Samara! She wanted to get all dressed up for the occasion...but we ditched the skirt and hat at the last minute for more sensible shorts and pigtails.


We all wondered what Claire would think of a new little baby in the family and how she would handle "sharing" her Mimi. Turns out, the most important order of business was playing with the cat toys at Uncle Andy and Aunt Tara's house!

After a while, we got some good photo opportunities...

We love our baby Samara!

Happy "Fahver's" Day!

We had a very happy Father's day around here, starting off with a pancake breakfast. We practiced and Claire told Daddy "Happy Fahver's Day" and gave him a card with a little present inside.

We headed over to visit with Cousin Helen and Allison from Tennessee and to celebrate the day with MY DAD!

After dinner we had popsicles outside and I got a few cute pictures of Claire with her Daddy....of course we could barely convince her to take a break from the popsicle long enough to smile for a picture!

What made this weekend EXTRA great was the birth of our niece Samara Jane Mason on Saturday June 19 at 8:36am!!! I spent a few hours at the hospital so I could meet her and she is perfect! I was so happy that my brother could have his very first Father's Day with his daughter, only 1 day old :-)

Happy Father's Day to ALL the dads, but especially to mine!

Love you Dad!